Amal Ahmed

1 week ago | themargin.us | Amal Ahmed

When Hurricane Beryl swept through Houston last summer, Dolores Mendoza felt relieved. The worst thing that happened to her and her family was that the power went out for a few days in the muggy heat. It was the first major storm they had experienced since Harris County purchased their old home, requiring Mendoza and her family to move to higher ground.

3 weeks ago | yesmagazine.org | Breanna Draxler |Amal Ahmed

Why you can trust us Every summer in Portland, Oregon, thousands of people participate in the city’s famous World Naked Bike Ride. In the two decades since its launch, the event has become something of a tourist attraction, and one of the city’s many quirks that locals brag about.

3 weeks ago | dallasfreepress.com | Amal Ahmed |West Dallas

||Categories: Environmental Justice, West Dallas|Story by Amal AhmedIn November 2023, the Environmental Protection Agency packed a room at the West Dallas Multipurpose Center with neighbors and members of the press to announce a major project in West Dallas:For the first time, the EPA would conduct a “cumulative impact study” in the region, sampling air, water and soil pollution in neighborhoods that have long said they suffer decades of compounding environmental injustices.

1 month ago | sierraclub.org | Amal Ahmed

On a crisp, sunny morning in early March, Tonya Enger scampered through a clearing near Washington’s Yacolt Burn State Forest. The soil was so soft that it sank as she walked through the lush understory. Enger, the founder of a local civic engagement group called Vancouver Forestkeeper, frequently leads tours here. “It’s beautiful in the fall,” she said. “And in the summer, the huckleberry bushes are full and bright red.” She pointed out thriving mushrooms, moss, and lichen as she made her way.

1 month ago | hcn.org | Amal Ahmed

In the rainy months, when Tracy Prescott-MacGregor stomps on the ground in her produce garden, you can hear the water, just inches below the soil, slosh and ripple. “The water table is so high that if you dig about six inches, you’ll hit water,” she said. That’s what makes the soils here, on the Columbia River’s floodplain, so rich and productive. Prescott-MacGregor and her husband retired to their farm in Clatskanie, Oregon, about an hour northwest of Portland, almost two decades ago.