By Townhall Chicago News Staff
The Chicago-based John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation on Monday highlighted a new reporting series from one of its grantees that documents the human and environmental toll of climate change across five U.S. states.
“The Damage Done,” produced by Capital & Main, chronicles climate impacts in Texas, Pennsylvania, New Mexico, Colorado and California, all states that produce fossil fuel and possess rich natural resources but face threats to vital ecosystems, according to a post on the foundation’s website.
The series examines a range of climate-driven challenges. Rising seas and crude oil threaten California ports. New Mexico rivers are drying and being polluted from oilfields. Coal mining contaminated a Pennsylvania river, and residents are working to restore it. Pine trees in Colorado are dying from pests and lack of water, increasing the risk of wildfires. And in Texas, ranches and cattle are threatened by decades of drought, according to the foundation’s summary.
Capital & Main, a nonprofit news organization and MacArthur grantee, “shows the causes how it affects the people living through these slow disasters,” the foundation said in its spotlight post.
One of the stories in the series focuses on a small border town in West Texas where ranchers and residents have struggled with a sustained megadrought since 2000.
The MacArthur Foundation has invested more than $610 million in climate solutions since 2014, funding 427 grants to 196 organizations, according to the foundation’s program information. The foundation’s Climate Solutions grantmaking focuses on four approaches: altering political discourse, advancing climate-friendly energy policies, expanding financing for climate solutions and supporting community power building.
Founded in 1978, the MacArthur Foundation is headquartered at 140 S. Dearborn St. in Chicago. It is one of the nation’s largest private philanthropies, and its grant-making priorities influence research, policy and community resilience efforts across the country.
The foundation’s spotlight on “The Damage Done” series is part of its broader effort to highlight the work of grantee organizations addressing climate change. Earlier this year, the foundation published a video series featuring Climate Solutions grantee partners working on clean energy, conservation and inclusive development.
The full “The Damage Done” series is available through Capital & Main, which produces journalism focused on economic, racial and environmental justice.
