Countries where the most people are killed defending the environment

Colombian natives and activists during a protest in Bogotá, Colombia, on 23 August 2019. Photo: RAUL ARBOLEDA / AFP / Getty Images

October 21, 2022

Countries where the most people are killed defending the environment

By Angelo Young 15 October 2022 (24/7 Wall St.) – As the world comes to the realization of the profound damages human beings are causing to natural environments worldwide, groups across the globe have long been trying to protect the local land and environment. In some places, these struggles are not always peaceful, and last […]

Indigenous leader Sonia Guajajara from the Guajajara ethnic group shows her hands painted in red symbolizing blood, during a protest against Violence, illegal logging, mining and ranching, and to demand government protection for their reserves, one day before the celebration of "Amazon Day," in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Sunday, 4 September 2022. Photo: Andre Penner / AP Photo

September 7, 2022

Indigenous forest guardians reported slain in Brazil – “We are here to say: enough with this violence, enough with genocide against our people and our territory”

RIO DE JANEIRO, 4 September 2022 (AP) – Two members of the Brazilian Indigenous group known for its forest guardians who combat illegal deforestation have been killed according to the Indigenist Missionary Council, a nonprofit that monitors violence against native peoples. Forest guard Janildo Oliveira Guajajara was killed with multiple gunshots from behind, while another […]

Poster demanding justice for Dom Phillips, a British journalist, and Bruno Pereira, a Brazilian expert on indigenous people, who were murdered while doing investigative work in a remote region of the Amazon rainforest in early June 2022. Graphic: Cris Vector

June 27, 2022

Assassinated British journalist Dom Phillips and Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira laid to rest in Brazil – Indigenous group Univaja demands probe into murders – “They tried to tell the world what was happening to the rainforest and its inhabitants”

By Tom Phillips and Andrew Downie 26 June 2022 Niterói (The Guardian) – The British journalist Dom Phillips has been laid to rest in Brazil, exactly three weeks after he was gunned down while journeying through the Amazon with the Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira. Pereira and Phillips, a longtime Guardian contributor, disappeared while travelling on […]

Aerial view of an illegal mining operation on Yanomami land in Roraima, in the Amazon rainforest. By April 2021, a Greenpeace flyover had already shown the expansion of the mine in the Yanomami land, which a year later was the second most deforested indigenous territory in the entire Amazon. Photo: Christian Braga / Greenpeace

June 4, 2022

Amazon deforestation in April 2022 increased by 54 percent, making it the worst April in the last 15 years

11 May 2022 (Imazon) – The Amazon is getting closer and closer to suffering from a new annual record for deforestation. However, there is still time to reduce forest loss before the so-called “deforestation calendar” closes at the end of July. And the time to act must be now, because in May begins the dry […]

A houseboat rests in a cove at Lake Powell near Page, Arizona on 30 July 2021. In the summer of 2021, the water levels hit a historic low amid a climate change-fueled megadrought engulfing the U.S. West. Severe drought across the West drained reservoirs in 2021, slashing hydropower production and further stressing the region’s power grids. And as extreme weather becomes more common with climate change, grid operators are adapting to swings in hydropower generation. Photo: Rick Bowmer / AP Photo

April 6, 2022

Lake Powell hits historic low, raising hydropower concerns – “We clearly weren’t sufficiently prepared for the need to move this quickly”

By Sam Metz and Felicia Fonseca 16 March 2022 SALT LAKE CITY (AP) – A massive reservoir known as a boating mecca dipped below a critical threshold on Tuesday raising new concerns about a source of power that millions of people in the U.S. West rely on for electricity. Lake Powell’s fall to below 3,525 […]

Aerial view of an area in the Amazon deforested for the expansion of livestock, in Lábrea, Amazonas state. The Amazon is still covered in smoke and torn by criminal and unrestrained destruction, according to overflights produced by the Amazon in Flames Alliance, organized by Amazon Watch, Greenpeace Brazil and the Brazilian Climate Observatory. The expedition took place between September 13th and 17th 2021, in the cities of Porto Velho (Rondônia state) and Lábrea (southern Amazonas state). Photo: Victor Moriyama / Amazônia em Chamas / Greenpeace

March 15, 2022

Brazil detects record Amazon deforestation in January and February 2022 – Forest destruction rate in 2021 was highest in ten years

By David Biller 11 March 2022 RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) – Detected deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon reached a record high for the month of February following a similar record the prior month. Satellite alerts of deforestation in February corresponded to 199 square kilometers (77 square miles), the highest indicator for that month in seven […]

Deaths from overdoses, alcohol use, or suicide in Washington state, 2015-2020. Nearly 3,900 Washingtonians died from “deaths of despair” in 2020, an increase of almost 600 since 2019. Graphic: Mark Nowlin / The Seattle Times

January 11, 2022

“Deaths of despair” spiked in Washington state in 2020, exceeding deaths from COVID-19

By Gene Balk 10 January 2022 (Seattle Times) – They’ve come to be known as “deaths of despair” — fatalities from drug overdoses, alcohol use, and suicide. Research has shown they’ve been on the rise for decades in the United States and have contributed to the decline in life expectancy over the last few years. Since the […]

(a) Linear sea surface temperature (SST) trend (°C yr-1) for August of each year from 1982 to 2021. The trend is only shown for values that are statistically significant at the 95 percent confidence interval; the region is shaded gray otherwise. White shading is the August 2021 mean sea ice extent, and the yellow line indicates the median ice edge for Aug 1982-2010, (b, c) Area-averaged SST anomalies (°C) for August of each year (1982-2021) relative to the 1982-2010 August mean for (b) Baffin Bay and (c) Chukchi Sea regions shown by blue boxes in (a). The dotted lines show the linear SST anomaly trends over the period shown and trends in °C yr-1 (with 95 percent confidence intervals) are shown on the plots. Mean August SST warming trends from 1982 to 2021 persist over much of the Arctic Ocean, with statistically significant (at the 95 percent confidence interval) linear warming trends of up to +0.1°C yr-1 (a). Overall, Baffin Bay SSTs are becoming warmer in August with a linear warming trend over 1982-2021 of 0.05 ± 0.01°C yr-1 (b). Similarly, Chukchi Sea August mean SSTs are warming, with a linear trend of 0.06 ± 0.03°C yr-1 (c). Mean August SSTs for the entire Arctic (the Arctic Ocean and marginal seas north of 67° N) exhibit a linear warming trend of 0.03 ± 0.01°C yr-1. Graphic: Timmermans and Labe / NOAA

December 24, 2021

NOAA’s 2021 Arctic Report Card: Rapid and pronounced warming continues to drive the evolution of the Arctic environment

By T. A. Moon, M. L. Druckenmiller, and R. L. Thoman 6 December 2021 (NOAA) – As the influences of human-caused global warming continue to intensify, with the Arctic warming significantly faster than the globe overall, the 2021 Arctic Report Card (ARC2021) brings a broad view of the state of the Arctic climate and environment. […]

Aerial view of deforestation in Labrea in the Brazilian Amazon rainforest in September 2021. Photo: Victor Moriyama / Amazônia em Chama / Greenpace Disclosure

November 20, 2021

Amazon deforestation soars to 15-year high – “This is not surprising. The result of pulling apart Brazil’s environmental policy is deforestation.”

By Manuela Andreoni 19 November 2021 RIO DE JANEIRO (The New York Times) – Brazil’s pledge this month to end illegal deforestation in eight years drew much praise from global leaders, but an official report this week cast doubt on that commitment after it showed that the rate of deforestation in the Amazon rainforest was at its […]

South African environmental activist Fikile Ntshangase was assassinated by four gunmen in her own home on 22 October 2020. “Mama” Ntshangase was a leading member of the Mfolozi Community Environmental Justice Organisation, which is taking legal action against the proposed expansion of an open-cast coal mine operated by Tendele Coal near Somkhele, situated near Hluhluwe–Imfolozi park, the oldest nature reserve in Africa. Photo: Rob Symons / All Rise

September 13, 2021

Record number of environmental activists murdered in 2020 – “Fighting the climate crisis carries an unbearably heavy burden for some, who risk their lives to save the forests, rivers, and biospheres”

By Claire Marshall 13 September 2021 (BBC) – A record number of activists working to protect the environment and land rights were murdered last year, according to a report by a campaign group. 227 people were killed around the world in 2020, the highest number recorded for a second consecutive year, the report from Global […]

Desdemona Despair

Category: indigenous rights