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For Immediate Release
February, 25 2020, 11:00pm EDT
Contact:
Mark Morgenstein, Director of Media Relations, markm@publicinterestnetwork.org, (w) 303-573-5556, (c) 678-427-1671
Environment America, Dozens More Groups Sign Climate Strong Islands Declaration
Declaration calls for more sustainable, resilient island communities.
SAN JUAN, P.R.
Representing Americans from Guam to St. Croix, more than 60 U.S. island communities, foundations, environmental organizations, companies, and academic institutions came together Wednesday to sign the Climate Strong Islands Declaration. This first-of-its kind effort is designed to encourage philanthropy, government, business, and academia to recognize how the deepening climate crisis is affecting island communities and how current policies, programs and approaches fall short in meeting their needs.
The Climate Strong Islands Declaration sets forth a set of principles, challenges, and opportunities faced by islands in the United States and its territories and serves as a call to help these communities respond to the climate crisis in an effective way.
With the right support, island communities are well positioned to create, pilot, and perfect innovative solutions that address climate mitigation, resilience, and sustainability. They can pioneer nature-based solutions to prevent coastal erosion in the face of rising sea levels and intensifying storms. With sustained and focused investments, they are poised to transform their energy, transportation, food, and water systems and model the low-carbon, resilient economy we need to build in the 21st century.
Wendy Wendlandt, acting president of Environment America, participated in the announcement of the Declaration and released the following statement:
Environment America has affiliates in more than two dozen states, including many with vibrant island communities. Our people on the ground see firsthand how island residents bravely face down climate impacts, from hurricanes to sea-level rise, and the devastating flooding and storm surges that they can bring. The destruction wrought by Hurricane Maria here in Puerto Rico and throughout the Caribbean made it clear to those who don't live it each day: To avoid the worst impacts of climate change, we need to act--and act NOW. For everyone's sake, it's imperative that we stop burning fossil fuels and switch to increasingly abundant renewable energy to electrify everything in our society, from buildings to transportation and more.
Transportation has become climate enemy number one in the United States. The U.S. transportation sector is responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions than the entire economies of France and the United Kingdom combined. We just released a report yesterday providing a roadmap to a destination of zero-carbon transportation to ensure that our children live in safer, healthier communities. We know how to do it -- with clean, electric cars and buses, and pedestrian-friendly and bicycle-friendly streets. We just need to convince our elected officials that we have the will to make these changes to our outdated, car-centric culture. And as we power our society more and more with clean, renewable energy, we can also power our transportation system with energy we harness from the sun and the wind.
We owe it to our friends here in Puerto Rico and on all endangered islands to step up to the climate challenge and take bold action.
The full list of signatories includes:
350.org
Abruna & Musgrave Architects
America's WETLAND Foundation
Atlantic Marine Conservation Society
Boricuas Unidos en la Diaspora
Brigadas Salubristas
Cambio, Puerto Rico
Citizen's Campaign for the Environment
Clean Energy Group
Comite Dialogo Ambiental
Coral Vita
Defend H2O
El Puente
El Puente: Enlace Latino de Accion Climatica
Emerge Puerto Rico
Enterprise
Environment America
Environmental Defense Fund
Estuario
Friends of the Bay
Friends of the Earth United States
Fundacion Amigos de El Yunque
Fundacion Comunitaria de Puerto Rico
Futures Forum
Galveston Bay Foundation
Global Island Partnership
Governor of Guam
Green Cross
Guam Legislature
Hawai'i Youth Climate Coalition
Hawai'i Green Growth
Hispanic Federation
Institute of Caribbean Studies
Island Impact
Island Institute
Kua'aina Ulu 'Auamo
Long Island Community Foundation
The Miami Foundation
Micronesia Climate Change Alliance
Mujeres de Islas
Natural Area Reserves System
The Nature Conservancy
The New York Community Trust
North Shore Land Alliance
The Ocean Foundation
Open Space Council
Pacific RISA
Para la Naturaleza
Puerto Rico Bar Association
Queremos Sol
Rocky Mountain Institute
Sea Grant Puerto Rico
Sierra Club
Sisters of St. Joseph, Brentwood NY
Solar Responders
SWEEP Standard
Sylvester Manor Educational Farm
Trust for Public Land's Hawaiian Islands Program
United Nations Association of the United States of America - Puerto Rico Chapter
University of Guam
University of Guam Center for Island Sustainability
University of Guam Green Army
University of Puerto Rico Center for Public Health Preparedness
University of Puerto Rico Department of Environmental Health
Vieques Conservation and Historical Trust
ViequesLove
Wise Laboratory of Environmental and Genetic Toxicology
With Environment America, you protect the places that all of us love and promote core environmental values, such as clean air to breathe, clean water to drink, and clean energy to power our lives. We're a national network of 29 state environmental groups with members and supporters in every state. Together, we focus on timely, targeted action that wins tangible improvements in the quality of our environment and our lives.
(303) 801-0581LATEST NEWS
'War Crimes': Analysis Suggests US Bombed Water Facilities Used by 20,000 Iranians in Precision Strike
"Destroying a drinking water facility is not an attack on a target of war, but a mafia-style operation designed to harm the Iranian people," said one academic.
Jun 11, 2026
As temperatures in the village of Bemani, Iran, near the Strait of Hormuz, reached above 100°F this week, two water facilities were struck by bombs, cutting off the drinking water supply for 20,000 people in the area.
An analysis by The New York Times late Wednesday indicated that the attack on the drinking-water storage facilities appeared to be a precision strike by the US, raising questions about whether the Trump administration intentionally attacked civilian infrastructure, which would constitute a war crime under international law.
As the provincial water authority in the area reported that two storage tanks had been destroyed in an attack early Wednesday, US Central Command said on social media that the US Air Force and Navy had used "precision munitions" to strike "Iranian air defense, ground control stations, and surveillance radar sites near the Strait of Hormuz."
Esmaeil Baqaei, a spokesperson for the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, posted a video of damage to one of the facilities, whose light blue pipes were consistent with water infrastructure.
"As part of its aggression against Iran, the US military has deliberately struck vital civilian water infrastructure in Sirik, Hormozgan, destroying two reservoirs with a combined capacity of 2,500 cubic meters," said Baqaei. "These facilities supplied drinking water to more than 20,000 residents across ten villages. This is not collateral damage—it is a calculated war crime and a flagrant violation of human rights and international humanitarian law. The US must be held accountable for committing such systematic brutal attacks on civilian life-sustaining infrastructure."
The analysis of the strikes came as the US waged more attacks Wednesday night and early Thursday, including on an oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman and against Iranian radars and air defenses.
In its analysis, the Times said commercial satellite imagery showed two water facilities in Bemani whose descriptions matched those given by Abdolhamid Hamzehpour, the chief executive of the province’s water authority, on Wednesday, when he reported the structures had been damaged by missiles.
Hamzehpour said in a statement that the high temperatures in the area were “unbearable” for residents without drinking water, and said that mobile water tanks had been deployed to nearby villages.
The roof of one of the facilities collapsed, according to videos released by Iranian state media, and the center of the roof of the other structure appeared to have been struck by a bomb.
The Times noted that both buildings were remotely located, with no other infrastructure located in the immediate vicinity, suggesting a likely precision strike.
Tasnim, a semiofficial news agency in Iran, released photos of bomb fragments that it said were recovered from the site. Researchers with the Open Source Munitions Portal identified the fragments as parts of a GBU-39 bomb, which is used by the US Air Force.
The precision-guided bomb was "consistent with the damage shown in the footage of the damaged building: a clean hole punched through the building’s roof and limited blast damage around it," reported the Times.
Alleged U.S. airstrikes overnight hit two water storage reservoirs in Iran's Sirik County, Hormozgan Province, reportedly leaving many without water.Images of remnants posted by Iranian media show the remains of a U.S.-made GBU-39 air-delivered bomb.osmp.ngo/osmp2336/
[image or embed]
— Open Source Munitions Portal (@munitionsportal.bsky.social) June 10, 2026 at 3:30 PM
The bombing came as President Donald Trump complained that Tehran was taking too long to finalize a peace deal. The US and Iran have each carried out attacks this week, raising doubts about a ceasefire deal that was reached in April following Trump's threats to wipe out Iran's civilization.
"Trump is so angry that Iran will not give him a deal that he is telling the US military to commit war crimes," said Phillips P. O'Brien, a professor of strategic studies at the University of St. Andrews. "Destroying a drinking water facility is not an attack on a target of war, but a mafia-style operation designed to harm the Iranian people."
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“The new Gilded Age won’t end itself," said Oxfam America. "This is a trillion-dollar alarm bell that should wake governments up to the need to take action."
Jun 11, 2026
With Elon Musk's SpaceX set to go public on Friday, the world's richest man could soon become the first-ever trillionaire—an achievement that one leading humanitarian group called "a new pinnacle of oligarchy and a dark day for democracy."
Whether Musk reaches trillionaire status in the coming days will depend on the success of SpaceX's initial public offering (IPO), which critics warn is a potentially massive threat to market stability and Americans' retirement savings. The company plans to sell 555,555,555 shares at a price of $135 each, aiming for a staggering $1.75 trillion valuation. Musk, who is the company's board chair and owns 42% of its common stock along with options, will see his net worth skyrocket if SpaceX achieves its IPO targets.
Oxfam America noted in an analysis released Thursday that a $1 trillion net worth would mean that it would take Musk 2,740 years to spend $1 trillion if he spent $1 million per day. The group estimated that a 10% tax on $1 trillion "could end global extreme poverty for a year, lifting over 800 million people above the extreme poverty line."
Nabil Ahmed, senior director of economic justice at Oxfam America, said in a statement that "this moment of dramatically concentrated wealth was not inevitable."
"Musk will be a government-backed trillionaire whose fortune was fueled by an era of regressive public policy choices—decisions rigged by a tiny few to fuel their fortunes, and overwhelmingly supported by political leaders," said Ahmed. "A trillion dollars in the hands of one man is incompatible not only with an affordable economy, but also with a healthy democracy. Economic inequality begets political inequality, and ordinary people bear the brunt while billionaires continue to write the rules for their own benefit."
“The new Gilded Age won’t end itself," he added. "This is a trillion-dollar alarm bell that should wake governments up to the need to take action. Never has it been more urgent to curb the accumulation of extreme wealth—overhauling the economic policies that have created not just trillionaires, but billionaires and the obscene inequality we see today."
Oxfam highlighted Musk's brief but immensely destructive tenure in the US federal government at the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, which took a sledgehammer to foreign aid programs and assailed the Social Security Administration, among other actions whose consequences are expected to reverberate for years to come. Oxfam has warned that the Musk-led decimation of the US Agency for International Development means that "a child under 5 could die every 40 seconds by 2030."
Musk was given the role at DOGE after using a tiny fraction of his wealth to boost President Donald Trump and Republican candidates in the 2024 election. Musk is spending big again to boost the GOP in the 2026 midterms.
"Musk’s ability to pour money into elections allowed him to use his wealth and power in ways that embody the corrosive effects of billionaire control," Oxfam said Thursday.
The group's statement came amid mounting anxiety about the impact of SpaceX's IPO, beyond potentially pushing Musk's wealth past the trillion-dollar mark.
In a letter to the US Securities and Exchange Commission earlier this week, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) raised "extreme concern" about the possibility that the IPO could flop. Major stock index providers, she observed, are "rewriting their rules to fast-track SpaceX’s entry into their indexes—and into the investment funds that power millions of Americans’ retirement savings."
"The net result could be disastrous," Warren wrote, "a scenario where retirees’ and families’ investment accounts take a hit if SpaceX’s valuation falters, with little recourse for any corporate misconduct, while the wealthiest man on earth becomes even wealthier due to a lack of oversight."
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Trump Bombs Iran for Second Night After Complaining Talks Have 'Taken Too Long'
One human rights expert noted that the president's complaint about the drawn-out talks came "even though he is the one who ripped up an entirely effective deal... and in February ended negotiations to start bombing."
Jun 10, 2026
US President Donald Trump bombed Iran for the second consecutive night on Wednesday after complaining on social media that Tehran has taken too long on peace negotiations and vowing to respond to the downing of an American military helicopter.
US Central Command said Tuesday that CENTCOM "forces began launching self-defense strikes against Iran at 5:00 pm ET today at the commander in chief's direction, in response to yesterday's downing of a US Army Apache helicopter. The mission is a proportional response to unjustified Iranian aggression."
Trump took to his Truth Social platform just after 7:00 am ET Wednesday, writing that "Iran's Military is a complete and total mess. Much of it, like their Navy and Air Force, doesn't even exist anymore—They have been completely defeated. Iran is all talk and no action. The Bully of the Middle East is DEAD!!! They've taken too long to negotiate a deal that would have been great for them, now they will have to pay the price!!!"
Ken Roth, a visiting professor at Princeton University and the former longtime executive director of Human Rights Watch, noted that Trump's complaint about the drawn-out talks with Iran came "even though he is the one who ripped up an entirely effective deal... and in February ended negotiations to start bombing."
Trump unilaterally ended the Iran nuclear deal negotiated by the Obama administration, formally called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, during his first term. There has been no agreement in place since.
After Trump's strikes on Tuesday night, Iran fired at Bahrain, Kuwait, and Jordan, which all host US troops. The recent exchanges cast further doubt on the ceasefire deal negotiated in April, after the American president's genocidal threat against Iran.
Later Wednesday, CENTCOM announced that US "forces began launching additional self-defense strikes today at 5:15 pm ET against multiple targets in Iran at the commander in chief's direction. The strikes are in response to Iran’s unwarranted and continued aggression."
Drop Site News reported that "as the strikes were announced, Iranian media reported a series of explosions across Hormozgan province, the southern Iranian province that borders the Strait of Hormuz," a key trade route through which Iran has largely restricted ship traffic since Iran and Israel began bombing the country in late February.
As Drop Site detailed:
- Sirik: At least four explosions were heard in the coastal town on the eastern side of the strait, according to Tasnim News, with a local source saying the blasts were coming from the sea.
- Minab: An explosion was reported near the city, about 60 miles east of Bandar Abbas, according to Mehr News.
- Korgan Port: Several explosions were also heard near the port area on the Gulf of Oman coast, according to Mehr News.
- Bandar Abbas: An explosion was also reported in Iran’s main commercial port and naval hub overlooking the Strait of Hormuz, according to the Fars Gulf Broadcasting Center.
Trita Parsi, co-founder and executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and an expert on US-Iranian relations, said, "It appears the US/Israel-Iran war has started again... or perhaps more accurately, it never really ended."
Fox News' Trey Yingst reported on air late Wednesday that "President Trump told me that Iran called him tonight. Top Iranian officials and President Trump spoke directly, according to the commander in chief tonight, as the president was sitting in the Situation Room, and he told me that the Iranians asked them to stop bombing, and the president said to me, 'The bombing will stop shortly.'"
According to Reuters, Iran's media contradicted that reporting, with an unnamed senior Iranian official saying, "Trump's false claim that Iranian officials contacted him is a cover to evade war with Iran."
Asked by Yingst what will happen if the Iranians don't sign a new deal soon, Trump reportedly responded, "We'll bomb the shit out of them tomorrow night."
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