A look back at The Intercept’s must-read environment stories from 2019.
Forged in Fire: California’s Lessons for a Green New Deal
By Naomi Klein
How the Plastics Industry Is Fighting to Keep Polluting the World
By Sharon Lerner
Emboldened by Bolsonaro, Land-Hungry Ranchers Are Destroying a Pioneering Project to Help the Poor and Save the Amazon
Leaked Audio Reveals How Coca-Cola Undermines Plastic Recycling Efforts
By Sharon Lerner
Greta Thunberg on the Climate Fight: “If We Can Save the Banks, Then We Can Save the World”
By Naomi Klein
Two Years After Maria, Relief Funds Promise Displacement for the Hardest-Hit Puerto Ricans
By Alleen Brown
A Message From the Future With Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
By Naomi Klein, Video by Molly Crabapple
The EPA’s Bungled Response to an Air Pollution Crisis Exposes a Toxic Racial Divide
By Sharon Lerner
Climate Change, Migration, and Militarization in Arizona’s Borderlands
By Ryan Devereaux
IT’S EVEN WORSE THAN WE THOUGHT.
What we’re seeing right now from Donald Trump is a full-on authoritarian takeover of the U.S. government.
This is not hyperbole.
Court orders are being ignored. MAGA loyalists have been put in charge of the military and federal law enforcement agencies. The Department of Government Efficiency has stripped Congress of its power of the purse. News outlets that challenge Trump have been banished or put under investigation.
Yet far too many are still covering Trump’s assault on democracy like politics as usual, with flattering headlines describing Trump as “unconventional,” “testing the boundaries,” and “aggressively flexing power.”
The Intercept has long covered authoritarian governments, billionaire oligarchs, and backsliding democracies around the world. We understand the challenge we face in Trump and the vital importance of press freedom in defending democracy.
We’re independent of corporate interests. Will you help us?
IT’S BEEN A DEVASTATING year for journalism — the worst in modern U.S. history.
We have a president with utter contempt for truth aggressively using the government’s full powers to dismantle the free press. Corporate news outlets have cowered, becoming accessories in Trump’s project to create a post-truth America. Right-wing billionaires have pounced, buying up media organizations and rebuilding the information environment to their liking.
In this most perilous moment for democracy, The Intercept is fighting back. But to do so effectively, we need to grow.
That’s where you come in. Will you help us expand our reporting capacity in time to hit the ground running in 2026?
We’re independent of corporate interests. Will you help us?
I’M BEN MUESSIG, The Intercept’s editor-in-chief. It’s been a devastating year for journalism — the worst in modern U.S. history.
We have a president with utter contempt for truth aggressively using the government’s full powers to dismantle the free press. Corporate news outlets have cowered, becoming accessories in Trump’s project to create a post-truth America. Right-wing billionaires have pounced, buying up media organizations and rebuilding the information environment to their liking.
In this most perilous moment for democracy, The Intercept is fighting back. But to do so effectively, we need to grow.
That’s where you come in. Will you help us expand our reporting capacity in time to hit the ground running in 2026?
We’re independent of corporate interests. Will you help us?
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Related
Everybody’s Watching You: The Intercept’s 2019 Technology Coverage
Uncovering the Secrets of Iran and Brazil: The Intercept’s 2019 World Coverage
Revealing the Real Threats and the Manufactured Ones: The Intercept’s 2019 National Security Coverage
The State of the Death Penalty, Bad Policing, and Backsliding on Roe: The Intercept’s 2019 Justice Coverage
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