Photo gallery: Aerial images of deforestation in the Amazon rainforest – ‘I live this torment, because I’m not sure if my work was good or strong enough to make an effective change in people’s lives’

By Chelsea Matiash8 July 2014 (Wall Street Journal) – Rodrigo Baleia first embarked on a Greenpeace trip to make photographs of the Amazon rainforest in 2000 – and after twelve years and about 218,000 miles of flight documentation, he is still not satisfied with his mission in chronicling the deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon. “I […]

Pope Francis says, ‘This is our sin: we exploit the earth’

By Jeremy Hance8 July 2014 (mongabay.com) – In Southern Italy over the weekend, Pope Francis reiterated his view that environmental destruction constituted a sin. Visiting the largely agricultural region of Molise, the pope responded to an address by a local farmer attending university. “I fully agree what has been said about ‘safeguarding’ the earth, to […]

A letter to the Prime Minister of Japan from Captain Paul Watson – ‘If the Japanese whaling fleet returns to the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary in 2015, the ships and the volunteers from Sea Shepherd will also return’

July 2014 (Sea Shepherd) – Sea Shepherd founder, Captain Paul Watson, writes a personal letter to the Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe on his visit to Australia. In the copy below, Captain Watson asks on behalf of Sea Shepherd volunteers worldwide, “that Japan abide by the ICJ ruling and that Japan respects both the moratorium […]

Failure of spring rains forces Kenya national parks to feed wildlife

By Antony Gitonga 8 July 2014 NAIVASHA, KENYA (The Standard) – The government has announced plans to supply fodder and water to  wildlife in various national parks following adverse weather conditions that has hit parts of the country. The exercise that will be carried out by KWS is meant to save hundreds of wild animals […]

Uncontacted forest tribe emerges from Amazon after fleeing loggers in Peru

By Ludovica Iaccino  3 July 2014 (IBT) – The Brazilian government has made contact with an Indian tribe in the Amazon forest near the border with Peru, for the first time in 20 years. The tribe is believed to have taken refuge in Brazil after escaping Peru, due to illegal logging and drug trafficking, occurring […]

Peru now has a ‘licence to kill’ environmental protesters

By David Hill  29 June 2014 (theguardian.com) – Some of the recent media coverage about the fact that more than 50 people in Peru – the vast majority of them indigenous – are on trial following protests and fatal conflict in the Amazon over five years ago missed a crucial point. Yes, the hearings are […]

Price of ivory triples in China – ‘Although half a world away, China holds the key to the future of the African elephant’

By Jeremy Hance7 July 2014 (mongabay.com) – In the last four years the price of ivory in China has tripled, according to new research from Save the Elephants. The news has worrying implications for governments and conservationists struggling to save elephants in Africa amidst a poaching epidemic, which has seen tens-of-thousands of elephants butchered for […]

Graph of the Day: People living in poverty areas by U.S. state, 2010

By Alemayehu Bishaw27 June 2014 (census.gov) – The Changes in Areas With Concentrated Poverty: 2000 to 2010 report [pdf] largely compares Census 2000 poverty estimates with those based on the 2008–2012 5-year American Community Survey (ACS). As 2010 represents the midpoint of this period, for convenience the remainder of this report refers to these 2008–2012 […]

New 1,000-pound tar mat washes up in Pensacola

By Dan Haefner, First Mate, RV Odyssey6 July 2014 (Sea Shepherd) – On the 20th of June, Pensacola was the recipient of yet another “present” from the oil-filled Gulf of Mexico – a 1000-pound tar mat washed up in Ft. Pickens Park. Tar balls wash up almost every day along the coast between Pensacola Beach […]

The last drop: America’s breadbasket faces dire water crisis – ‘We’re headed for a brick wall at 100 miles per hour’

By Brian Brown6 July 2014 VEGA, Texas (NBC News) – While a high-pitched wind rattles the windows, and assaults a flapping, fraying American flag in the front yard, Lucas Spinhirne knows he’s staring into an abyss that many in Texas—and across the world—may be forced to contemplate. The once bounteous quantities of water that flowed […]

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