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Environmental Justice Program | CalEPA
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Environmental Justice Program

What is Environmental Justice?
The principles of environmental justice call for fairness, regardless of race, color, national origin or income, and the meaningful involvement of community in the development of laws and regulations that affect every community’s natural surroundings, and the places people live, work, play and learn.
California was one of the first states in the nation to codify environmental justice in statute. Community leaders in the environmental justice movement work to meaningfully include communities disproportionately impacted by pollution in decision-making processes. The aim is to lift the unfair burden of pollution from those most vulnerable to its effects (for more information, please visit CalEnviroScreen, the first mapping tool to document cumulative impacts).
EJ in Action:  CalEPA works with the California Air Resources Board (CARB), the Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR), the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle), the Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC), the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA), and the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) to achieve environmental justice through various efforts, such as: 

Working with our six boards, departments and offices to implement EJ principles in our internal and public missions (to learn more, please click on our summary report here and our story map here).
Uplifting and investing in community science – this includes prioritizing data collected by the community, for the community (see below for examples).
Collaborating with the Racial Equity Team to ensure public health, improve and maintain environmental quality, and vitalize the green economy for all Californians.
Partnering with the EJ Liaisons, who listen to community concerns and advocate for advancing equity within government for all Californians. The Liaisons work to ensure meaningful involvement of community in decision-making, implement programs supportive of EJ, and support policy development to advance EJ.
Distributing EJ Grants to community organizations and federally-recognized Tribes impacted by environmental pollution. 
Updating the Disadvantaged Communities Designation to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and safeguard our communities from the mounting risks related to that pollution.

Community Science
Mercury - NYSDEC
Mercury - NYSDEC

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Department of Environmental Conservation

Things To Do

Things To Do

There are many ways to experience New York’s great outdoors. Maybe you’ll get hooked on fishing or discover sleeping under the stars is the perfect way to spend a weekend. We have information for beginners up to the more advanced outdoor enthusiast. 

View All Outdoor Activities

Camping

Hiking

Hunting

Trapping

Freshwater Fishing

Saltwater Fishing

Shellfishing

Boating

Paddling

Watchable Wildlife

Summer Camps

Love Our New York Lands

Adventure NY

Places to Go

Places to Go

Looking for your next adventure? New York has more than 5 million acres, 7,000 lakes and streams, and 52,000 miles of rivers and streams for you to explore. Use our Places to Go search tool to find locations nearby for your favorite outdoor activity. 

Find Your Spot

Find Places to Go

Accessible Recreation

Maps

Wildlife Management Areas

Tidal Wetland Areas

Agencies That Manage Public Land

Discounts For Outdoor Recreation

Nature

Nature

New York is home to many animals and plant species – both native and invasive. Learn how we protect open space and reclaim land after mining is complete. Discover the water around you in lakes and rivers, wetlands, oceans, and underground.

Learn About Nature

Animals, Fish & Plants

Invasive Species

Forests & Trees

Wildlife Health

Nuisance Wildlife

Report Dead Wildlife

Waterbodies

Open Space

Environmental Protection

Environmental Protection

DEC protects the land, water, and air resources in New York. Whether it is addressing climate change effects, promoting responsible waste management, monitoring air quality, overseeing contaminated site clean-ups, or oil and gas mining monitoring, DEC is there to safeguard the environment; you can too by reporting environmental violations and problems. 

Ways to Protect

Report a Problem

Public Safety

Wildfires

Air

Water

Bulk Storage

Recycling and Composting

Waste Management

Mining & Reclamation

Site Cleanup

Oil and Gas

Pesticides

Mercury
Aerosols: Tiny Particles, Big Impact
This influence of aerosols on clouds is called the “indirect effect,” and is a large source of uncertainty in projections of climate change. (NASA image by Robert Simmon.)

Brighter clouds, in turn, block sunlight from reaching Earth’s surface, shading the planet and producing net cooling. This cloud brightening effect—called the “cloud albedo effect”—may have a big impact on the climate, though only in recent years has it been possible to start quantifying the effect.
This impact of aerosols is clearly visible in ship tracks, bright streaks in marine clouds that look like airplane contrails. In the absence of ships, sea salt particles and the natural sulfates produced by phytoplankton seed most marine clouds. However, the exhaust from ship smokestacks make trails of sulfates and other aerosols that form long, bright clouds.
Overall, clouds are thought to cool Earth’s surface by shading about 60 percent of the planet at any one time and by increasing the reflectivity of the atmosphere. Given that, just a 5 percent increase in cloud reflectivity could compensate for the entire increase in greenhouse gases from the modern industrial era in the global average. Likewise, long-term decreases in cloudiness could have major impacts.
However, aerosols are distributed around the planet differently than greenhouse gases, so the effects do not simply cancel each other. Parsing out how clouds—as well as feedback cycles involving clouds—affect regional climate systems remains a high priority for climatologists.

The effect of aerosols on clouds is clearly visible in ship tracks—the dense, bright marine clouds formed by the exhaust of passing ships. This natural-color image shows the bright white clouds (top) and a map of cloud droplet radius (bottom). Where ship exhaust mixed with the cloud layer, droplets became much smaller. (NASA image by Jesse Allen and Robert Simmon, based on data from MODIS.)

Aerosols also have complex effects on clouds and precipitation. Broadly speaking, aerosols are thought to suppress precipitation because the particles decrease the size of water droplets in clouds. However, under some environmental conditions, aerosols can lead to taller clouds that are more likely to produce lightning and strong downpours.
Environmental Notice Bulletin - NYSDEC
Region 2 - New York City

Bronx - Bally's Bronx Project

May 22, 2024

Region 2 - New York City

Town of Huntington - The Laundry Basket

May 22, 2024

Region 1 - Long Island

Town of Smithtown - Beechwood Smithtown, LLC Zone Change # 2023-02

May 22, 2024

Region 1 - Long Island

TOWN OF SOUTHAMPTON - FIMP CONTRACT 4

May 22, 2024

Region 1 - Long Island

Statewide - Distribution of Allowances under the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule

May 22, 2024

New York State

Statewide - Guidelines for Eligibility and Accounting for Disadvantaged Communities in Clean Water, Clean Air and Green Jobs Environmental Bond Act of 2022 Spending

May 22, 2024

New York State

Statewide - Notice of Emergency Adoption and Proposed Rule Making to amend 6 NYCRR Part 10, Sportfishing Regulations, and Part 40, Marine Fish. (Atlantic Striped Bass)

May 22, 2024

New York State

Statewide - NYS DEC's Annual Monitoring Network Plan

May 22, 2024

New York State

Town of Babylon - Bristol Suffolk, LLC

May 22, 2024

New York State

Town of Clifton - Draft Cranberry Lake Campground and Day-Use Area Unit Management Plan Amendment

May 15, 2024

Region 6 - Western Adirondacks/Eastern Lake Ontario

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Earth Matters
You can use a few words or several paragraphs. You might simply tell us the location, or you can dig deeper and offer details about what satellite and instrument produced the image, what spectral bands were used to create it, or what is compelling about some obscure feature. If you think something is interesting or noteworthy, tell us about it.
The prize. We cannot offer prize money or a trip on the International Space Station, but we can promise you credit and glory. Well, maybe just credit. Within a week after a puzzler image appears on this blog, we will post an annotated and captioned version as our Image of the Day. After we post the answer, we will acknowledge the first person to correctly identify the image at the bottom of this blog post. We also may recognize readers who offer the most interesting tidbits of information. Please include your preferred name or alias with your comment. If you work for or attend an institution that you would like to recognize, please mention that as well.
Recent winners. If you have won the puzzler in the past few months, or if you work in geospatial imaging, please hold your answer for at least a day to give less experienced readers a chance.
Releasing comments. Savvy readers have solved some puzzlers after a few minutes. To give more people a chance, we may wait 24 to 48 hours before posting comments. Good luck!

January Puzzler
January 9th, 2024 by Kathryn Hansen

Update on January 23, 2023: This image shows Tukpahlearik Creek in northwest Alaska. Congratulations to Luis Martinez for being the first to correctly identify the feature and its location. Special mention to Steve, who provided a reason for the creek’s unusual color. Read more about the image in our Image of the Day story, which describes several hypotheses for the creek’s orange hue. 
Every month on Earth Matters, we offer a puzzling satellite image. The January 2024 puzzler is shown above. Your challenge is to use the comments section to tell us where it is, what we are looking at, and why it is interesting. 
How to answer. You can use a few words or several paragraphs.
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Dust and Haze

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Dusty Spring in the Tarim Basin
Strong winds kicked up sand and dust from China’s vast Taklimakan Desert.
Published May 20, 2024

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A Wall of Dust Over the Korean Peninsula   
Every spring, satellites observe thick plumes of dust streaming from the Gobi Desert over East Asia. 
 
Published Apr 25, 2024

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Blowing in the Patagonian Wind
Strong winds that race across Lago Colhué Huapi have exposed ancient artifacts amid the dusty surface.  
Published Apr 4, 2024

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Desert Dust Envelops Portugal and Spain
Skies turned orange and snowy slopes were stained brown as Saharan dust reached Europe.
Published Mar 27, 2024

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Saharan Dust Blows Toward Europe
Sustained winds carried desert dust over the ocean, where it engulfed island groups and then streamed toward the United Kingdom.
Published Jan 29, 2024

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The Greenhouse Effect | NASA Space Place – NASA Science for Kids
If the atmosphere works too well as a greenhouse, each day gets a little warmer and a little warmer. We may not be able to measure this effect from day to day or even year to year. But over tens of years, a few degrees of warming starts causing changes. For example, ice melts in the North and South Pole regions. All this new liquid water raises the sea level. Cities built on coastlines could someday be under water! 
When the oceans get warmer, weather is affected everywhere. Some places have more severe storms and other places have hardly any rain at all. And many other changes could occur that would be bad for humans and other living things.
Our burning desires
Some of the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are caused by humans. Whenever we burn anything, such as—
gasoline in our cars and trucks, 
jet fuel in our planes, 
coal in our factories or powerplants, 
trees to clear the land for farming
—we pollute our atmosphere with carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide. Although carbon monoxide does not act as a greenhouse gas, it is poisonous to breathe.

Gumdrop model of a carbon dioxide molecule, CO2 .
It has one carbon atom and two oxygen atoms all bonded together.

Gumdrop model of a carbon monoxide molecule, CO. It has one carbon atom and one oxygen atom bonded together.

Our livestock (cows, pigs, and chickens, for example) also pollute the atmosphere with methane from their digestion process. 

Gumdrop model of a methane molecule, CH4. It has one carbon atom and four hydrogen atoms all bonded together.
Ozone is made when the Sun cooks carbon monoxide, such as from our car and truck exhaust, with other chemicals in the atmosphere.

Gumdrop model of ozone molecule, O3 . It has three oxygen atoms bonded together.

Good ozone, bad ozone
In the case of ozone, it's all about location, location, location. 

 Drawing shows four different levels of ozone in the atmosphere.
Skywatching FAQ
If you have access to binoculars or a telescope, they will extend your vision and enhance the experience – but they are by no means necessary to get started. How do I find a good location for skywatching or stargazing?The number one priority when seeking an excellent location for skywatching is to get away from bright city lights. Scattered light from urban areas creates light pollution that washes out the fainter stars and the Milky Way. Wide open areas without lots of tall trees or mountains nearby make for good viewing spots, since you can see more of the sky. Examples include places like a large field, a wide valley, and the shore of a lake or the ocean. Any location you select should be a place where you can feel safe at night.> More about finding a good skywatching locationWhat can I see in the night sky?The whole universe is accessible to skywatchers. Your own eyes will show you stars, a handful of bright planets, the Moon, comets and meteors (shooting stars), to name a few sights. Binoculars or a small telescope enable you to see finer details than your eyes can detect, making visible things like the large moons of Jupiter and the rings of Saturn, as well as star clusters and double stars. A larger telescope enables you to see fainter objects, like nebulas and other galaxies.How does light pollution affect skywatching?Light pollution is stray light from parking lots, sport complexes, street lights, and other human activity, scattered into the night sky. It's a combined effect of scattered light from these things that manifests as a glow in the night sky that makes it difficult to observe fainter stars and the Milky Way. The larger and more developed a city is, the more light pollution it tends to produce. The effect decreases the farther away you travel from a city. Heading out to less developed areas, away from town, will enable you to see more stars.> More about how light pollution impacts locations for stargazingCan I see ____ from my location on Earth? How do I know if objects and events described here are visible where I live?
Air - NYSDEC
Air - NYSDEC

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Department of Environmental Conservation

Things To Do

Things To Do

There are many ways to experience New York’s great outdoors. Maybe you’ll get hooked on fishing or discover sleeping under the stars is the perfect way to spend a weekend. We have information for beginners up to the more advanced outdoor enthusiast. 

View All Outdoor Activities

Camping

Hiking

Hunting

Trapping

Freshwater Fishing

Saltwater Fishing

Shellfishing

Boating

Paddling

Watchable Wildlife

Summer Camps

Love Our New York Lands

Adventure NY

Places to Go

Places to Go

Looking for your next adventure? New York has more than 5 million acres, 7,000 lakes and streams, and 52,000 miles of rivers and streams for you to explore. Use our Places to Go search tool to find locations nearby for your favorite outdoor activity. 

Find Your Spot

Find Places to Go

Accessible Recreation

Maps

Wildlife Management Areas

Tidal Wetland Areas

Agencies That Manage Public Land

Discounts For Outdoor Recreation

Nature

Nature

New York is home to many animals and plant species – both native and invasive. Learn how we protect open space and reclaim land after mining is complete. Discover the water around you in lakes and rivers, wetlands, oceans, and underground.

Learn About Nature

Animals, Fish & Plants

Invasive Species

Forests & Trees

Wildlife Health

Nuisance Wildlife

Report Dead Wildlife

Waterbodies

Open Space

Environmental Protection

Environmental Protection

DEC protects the land, water, and air resources in New York. Whether it is addressing climate change effects, promoting responsible waste management, monitoring air quality, overseeing contaminated site clean-ups, or oil and gas mining monitoring, DEC is there to safeguard the environment; you can too by reporting environmental violations and problems. 

Ways to Protect

Report a Problem

Public Safety

Wildfires

Air

Water

Bulk Storage

Recycling and Composting

Waste Management

Mining & Reclamation

Site Cleanup

Oil and Gas

Pesticides

Mercury
Aerosols: Tiny Particles, Big Impact
By contrast, aerosols have declined in North America and Europe as factories have moved to developing countries and Western nations have adopted more stringent clean air regulations.

Aerosols and Incoming Sunlight (Direct Effects)
The Sun provides the energy that drives Earth’s climate, but not all of the energy that reaches the top of the atmosphere finds its way to the surface. That’s because aerosols—and clouds seeded by them—reflect about a quarter of the Sun’s energy back to space.

Aerosols play an important role in Earth’s climate. Most aerosols are brighter than land or ocean, and cool the Earth by reflecting sunlight back to space. 
	 (NASA astronaut photograph ISS024-E-15122.)

Different aerosols scatter or absorb sunlight to varying degrees, depending on their physical properties. Climatologists describe these scattering and absorbing properties as the “direct effect” of aerosols on Earth’s radiation field. However, since aerosols comprise such a broad collection of particles with different properties, the overall effect is anything but simple.
Although most aerosols reflect sunlight, some also absorb it. An aerosol’s effect on light depends primarily on the composition and color of the particles. Broadly speaking, bright-colored or translucent particles tend to reflect radiation in all directions and back towards space. Darker aerosols can absorb significant amounts of light.

Pure sulfates and nitrates reflect nearly all radiation they encounter, cooling the atmosphere. Black carbon, in contrast, absorbs radiation readily, warming the atmosphere but also shading the surface. Organic carbon, sometimes called brown carbon or organic matter, has a warming influence on the atmosphere depending on the brightness of the underlying ground. Dust impacts radiation to varying degrees, depending on the composition of the minerals that comprise the dust grains, and whether they are coated with black or brown carbon. Salt particles tend to reflect all the sunlight they encounter.

Black carbon aerosols, similar to the soot in a chimney, absorb sunlight rather than reflecting it. This warms the layer of the atmosphere carrying the black carbon, but also shades and cools the surface below. (Maps adapted from Chung, 2005.)
California’s regulation to reduce pollution from ocean-going vessels granted U.S. EPA authorization | California Air Resources Board
Under the new regulation, vessels are required to control pollution when they run auxiliary engines or auxiliary boilers (for most tanker vessels) while docked. The two vessel categories added to the new regulation produce 56% of all fine particulate pollution (PM 2.5) from ocean-going vessels at berth in California ports, which when inhaled can embed in people’s lungs and bloodstreams, causing health impacts such as premature mortality, increased hospitalizations for heart and lung illness and asthma attacks. Reducing pollution is especially important since communities near ports tend to be home to low-income residents and people of color. “California’s At-Berth regulation is an important step in continuing to modernize the state’s ports with the technology that will advance a clean air future,” said Dr. Steven Cliff, CARB’s Executive Officer. “The emissions reductions and public health benefits that will come from cleaner operations are also a relief for communities alongside the state’s ports that deal with the burden of pollution from multiple sources, including vessels.”The new regulation builds on progress achieved by the groundbreaking At-Berth Regulation adopted in 2007. As of 2020, the 2007 rule had achieved an 80% reduction in harmful emissions from more than 13,000 vessel visits since 2014. Vessels covered under the original regulation include container ships, “reefers” (carrying refrigerated cargo), and cruise ships. Once the new regulation is fully implemented, it will deliver a 90% reduction in pollution from vessels at berth. This includes an expected additional 2,300 vessel visits per year and will result in a 55% reduction in potential cancer risk for communities near the Ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach, and Richmond.The regulation requires that vessels coming into a regulated California port either use shore power (e.g., plug in to the local electrical grid) or a CARB-approved control technology to reduce harmful emissions like a capture-and-control technology (e.g., a duct that connects to a vessel’s exhaust and “captures” emissions). More Information

 CARB's mission is to promote and protect public health, welfare, and ecological resources through effective reduction of air pollutants while recognizing and considering effects on the economy.