New York Environmental Law and Justice Project

06/22/2026

Peace activists rallied in Baltimore on Wednesday to celebrate a decision by the Maryland State Retirement and Pension System to divest most of its holdings in Israel’s sovereign bonds.

"Currently, we're down to $11 million in Israel bonds. That's an 85% reduction in their holdings,” says Evie Frankl, a member of Jewish Voice for Peace and the Break the Bonds Campaign. “We're declaring that a victory, but we want them to divest the other $11 million, and we want a policy to make clear that they can't reinvest."

06/22/2026

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1CaxDcYYot/

But a $345 million U.S. verdict against the environmental group hangs over the case.

06/22/2026

But a $345 million U.S. verdict against the environmental group hangs over the case. By Dana Drugmand June 21, 2026

French Greenpeace activists rally to support the environmental group in Energy Transfer’s lawsuit next to the Statue of Liberty at Pont de Grenelle in Paris on Feb. 20, 2025. Credit: Thibaud Moritz/AFP via Getty Images

A lawsuit filed by Greenpeace International against the U.S.-based fossil fuel company Energy Transfer in the Netherlands is moving forward after a Dutch court recently ruled in favor of the environmental organization in rejecting the company’s bid to toss out the case.

The suit is connected to the ongoing litigation in the U.S. between Energy Transfer and Greenpeace entities over the 2016-2017 indigenous-led protests of the Dakota Access Pipeline, which resulted in a staggering jury verdict delivered against Greenpeace in North Dakota last year.

Now, as Greenpeace fights to contest the verdict while it simultaneously pursues claims against Energy Transfer in the Netherlands, the two parties remain locked in an unusual and bitter legal dispute that is proceeding on parallel tracks on both sides of the Atlantic.

A little over a year ago, on March 19, 2025, a North Dakota jury unanimously handed down a crushing damage award amounting to nearly $667 million against three Greenpeace entities—the U.S.-based Greenpeace Inc. and Greenpeace Fund, and the Netherlands-based Greenpeace International—over their alleged role in the Standing Rock protests against the controversial crude oil pipeline.

But a $345 million U.S. verdict against the environmental group hangs over the case.

06/21/2026

This report, Environmental Cost of Artificial Intelligence: Carbon, Water and Land Footprints, by the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH) on its 30th anniversary, examines one of the most underexplored consequences of AI’s rapid expansion: the environmental footprints of the energy required to power it. As artificial intelligence becomes embedded in economies, public services, research, communication, and everyday life, it depends on a growing physical infrastructure of data centers, advanced chips, cooling systems, electricity grids, water resources, land, and critical mineral supply chains. The report shows that AI is not only a digital technology, but also a material system with measurable environmental costs.

The report moves beyond a carbon-only lens by quantifying the carbon, water, and land footprints associated with the electricity used to train, deploy, and operate AI systems at scale. Its central finding is that AI’s environmental costs depend not only on how much electricity is used, but also on where that electricity is generated and which energy sources power it. Every kilowatt-hour used by AI carries carbon, water, and land implications, and these footprints do not always move in the same direction: low-carbon electricity is not automatically low-water or low-land. The report also shows that AI’s footprint is shaped by both major infrastructure trends, including the rapid growth of data centers, and everyday use patterns, including model choice, output length, modality, and the growing use of text, image, and video generation.

Importantly, the report frames AI’s environmental footprint as a governance and justice challenge, not only a technical problem. The benefits of AI often flow across borders and sectors, while the environmental burdens of data center siting, electricity demand, water withdrawals, land use, mineral extraction, and e-waste can be concentrated in specific communities and regions. To address these risks, the report calls for a responsible AI ecosystem grounded in transparency, efficiency by design, equity and environmental justice, lifecycle responsibility, global cooperation, and sustainable use. By making AI’s carbon, water, and land footprints visible and comparable, the report provides a practical basis for integrating AI into energy, climate, water, and land-use planning, ensuring that innovation advances without shifting environmental costs onto vulnerable communities.

AI’s rapid growth drives huge energy, water, and land use, raising environmental and equity challenges across its global infrastructure.

06/21/2026

The environmental toll of the artificial intelligence boom continues to mount as tech companies use ever more power to run their data centers and enormous amounts of water for cooling. A new investigation by U.N. scientists warns that AI’s water use in 2030 will match the needs of 1.3 billion people, while its power use will be triple that of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nigeria combined — countries with a total population of 650 million.
“Most people understand AI as a digital technology, as a virtual thing, as something that is in the clouds,” says Iranian environmental scientist Kaveh Madani, director of the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health. “What we tried to do in this report was to remind people that there’s some physics to all of this.”

The environmental toll of the artificial intelligence boom continues to mount as tech companies use ever more power to run their data centers and enormous amounts of water for cooling. A new investigation by U.N. scientists warns that AI’s water use in 2030 will match the needs of 1.3 billion peop...

12/03/2025

Learn about New York Clean Air Collective's efforts to promote air quality legislation, citizen enforcement, and oppose harmful bills like Intro. 941.

11/08/2025

Oregon officials have been embroiled in a legal battle with the administration since late September, when the Trump administration mobilized hundreds of troops.

04/25/2025

By Jacob Magid Illustrative: Footage posted to social media shows Israeli settlers raiding the northern West Bank Palestinian village of Hajja, in apparent retaliation for a deadly terror shooting attack nearby earlier in the day, January 6, 2025. (Screenshot, used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

A Democratic lawmaker announces that he will be introducing Congressional legislation next week that would codify former US president Joe Biden’s sanctions regime against violent Israeli settlers in the West Bank.

The sanctions were reversed by US President Donald Trump on his first day in office.

Settler attacks on Palestinians have continued unabated since, including in the past day when groups of Israelis hurled stones and set fire to property in several Palestinian villages throughout the West Bank. As is often the case in such incidents, no suspects have been arrested.

The lack of accountability is what spurred Biden’s decision to sign an executive order last year that instituted the sanctions regime on the ground that such attacks were destabilizing the West Bank and a threat to US national security interests in the region.

US Representative Jerry Nadler announces the planned legislation during a rally in New York organized by left-leaning Israeli and Jewish activists against the visit of far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir.

Nadler cites figures from the settlement watchdog Peace Now that settlers have seized 14% of West Bank territory through “violent tactics such as harassing, intimidating and targeting Palestinian communities.”

“These settlers seized large areas of land from over 60 displaced Palestinian communities and have set up new Israeli outlooks current Israeli government,” Nadler says.
FILE – House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., meets with reporters at the Capitol in Washington, Dec. 9, 2021. Nadler is Democrat candidate for New York’s 12th Congressional District. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

He laments the backing that such violent settlers have been receiving from the current Israeli government. The top police commander in charge of the West Bank is currently under investigation for ignoring settler attacks in order to curry favor in the eyes of Ben Gvir, whose ministry oversees the police.

“When I return to Washington on Monday, I will be introducing the West Bank Violence Prevention Act, which would codify and enshrine President Biden’s executive order into law,” Nadler declares to cheers from the crowd.

The legislation is almost certain to fail, given the Republican majority in Congress.

More from today’s Liveblog:

US feds ‘encouraged’ by Yale’s handling of anti-Israel protest encampment
China, Russia and Iran hold joint talks on Iranian nuclear program with with IAEA head — Xinhua
Trump poised to offer Saudis over $100 billion weapons package, sources tell Reuters

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04/25/2025

By Jacob Magid A Democratic lawmaker announces that he will be introducing Congressional legislation next week that would codify former US president Joe Biden’s sanctions regime against violent Israeli settlers in the West Bank.

The sanctions were reversed by US President Donald Trump on his first day in office.

Settler attacks on Palestinians have continued unabated since, including in the past day when groups of Israelis hurled stones and set fire to property in several Palestinian villages throughout the West Bank. As is often the case in such incidents, no suspects have been arrested.

The lack of accountability is what spurred Biden’s decision to sign an executive order last year that instituted the sanctions regime on the ground that such attacks were destabilizing the West Bank and a threat to US national security interests in the region.

US Representative Jerry Nadler announces the planned legislation during a rally in New York organized by left-leaning Israeli and Jewish activists against the visit of far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir.

Nadler cites figures from the settlement watchdog Peace Now that settlers have seized 14% of West Bank territory through “violent tactics such as harassing, intimidating and targeting Palestinian communities.”

“These settlers seized large areas of land from over 60 displaced Palestinian communities and have set up new Israeli outlooks current Israeli government,” Nadler says.
He laments the backing that such violent settlers have been receiving from the current Israeli government. The top police commander in charge of the West Bank is currently under investigation for ignoring settler attacks in order to curry favor in the eyes of Ben Gvir, whose ministry oversees the police.

“When I return to Washington on Monday, I will be introducing the West Bank Violence Prevention Act, which would codify and enshrine President Biden’s executive order into law,” Nadler declares to cheers from the crowd.

The legislation is almost certain to fail, given the Republican majority in Congress.
FILE – House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., meets with reporters at the Capitol in Washington, Dec. 9, 2021. Nadler is Democrat candidate for New York’s 12th Congressional District. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

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