H. Patricia Hynes

H. Patricia Hynes is an ardent feminist who has worked for environmental justice for communities of color and women's rights for years. An environmental engineer, she was Professor of Environmental Health at Boston University's School of Public Health and author of 6 books, among them The Recurring Silent Spring, which was nominated for the 1990 Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Human Rights Award and A Patch of Eden: Community Gardens in Inner Cities which won the 1997 National Arbor Day Foundation Award. She is a member of the Traprock Center for Peace and Justice, which she directed for 11 years.

Feminism

On Int’l Women’s Day, the US needs an Equal Rights Amendment

H. Patricia Hynes

A strong majority of Americans support reproductive rights and equal pay, and the ERA would establish in law 21^st century equality

Featured

UN Rapporteur on Palestine Francesca Albanese: A Noble Woman

H. Patricia Hynes

Francesca Albanese stands head and shoulders with the great Nobel-Prize women. Women won for her dedication to international peace

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HerStory: Feminism is the Route to Peace

H. Patricia Hynes

Young people in more than 60 countries were taught about preserving nature and how to work for environmental good in their communities

Brazil

Accelerating Climate Change and Global Inequality: Indigenous People were the Heroes of COP30

H. Patricia Hynes

Greenfield, Mass. (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – Contradictions pervaded the latest UN climate conference (COP30) held in Belem, Brazil. Progressive President Lula da Silva of Brazil proclaimed it would a positive turning point in progress, while he authorized his state-owned oil producer to do exploratory drilling for oil near the Great Amazon Reef System. […]

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What I saw in Vietnam, 50 Years after the War and Ecocide

H. Patricia Hynes

Greenfield, Mass. (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – This year 2025 is the 50th anniversary of the liberation of Vietnam from the “American War.” The war officially ended in 1973 but the remaining Americans fled South Vietnam in chaotic air and sea lifts two years later as North Vietnam forces invaded to unite their country. […]

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The Mortal Sins of Patriarchy

H. Patricia Hynes

Greenfield, Mass. (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – How much are women and girls–half of humanity–valued? When men violate us for sex in prostitution. When nearly 1 in 3 of us worldwide are violated physically or sexually in our lifetime. When, despite having equal intellectual abilities and more developed social and emotional intelligence, we lack […]

Featured

There’s no Such thing as Someone Else’s Children*

H. Patricia Hynes

Greenfield, Mass. (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – Medford, a city of 60,000 people in Massachusetts, voted to pass an historic ordinance to divest from weapons companies that contribute to human rights violations. Their vote included Israel’s ongoing genocide, starvation and destruction of everything that makes life in Gaza possible. The Medford City Council passed […]

Climate Crisis

We are What we Eat: A Step We all Can take to Fight Climate Breakdown

H. Patricia Hynes

Greenfield, Mass. (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – Nuclear physicist Edward Teller predicted in 1959 that the risks of burning fossil fuels, by increasing carbon dioxide (C02) in the atmosphere, may be sufficient in time to melt polar icecaps and submerge all coastal cities. These predictions, which are proving accurate, were buried by the fossil […]