Zezico Guajajara, an indigenous teacher and a supporter of the Guardians of the Forest, was murdered on 31 March 2020. He is the fifth Amazon forest protector to be killed in six months. Brazil’s populist President Jair Bolsonaro has drawn intense domestic and international criticism for failing to protect the Guardians’ territory in the eastern Amazon region. Photo: Zezico Guajajara

Amazon land defender Zezico Guajajara murdered – “The loggers are desperate to get rid of the Guardians, targeting them one by one”

2 April 2020 (BBC News) – A member of a protected tribe in the Amazon has been killed by gunmen, authorities in the Brazilian state of Maranhao say. The body of Zezico Guajajara, of the Guajajara tribe, was found near his village on Tuesday. He had been shot. The former teacher was a supporter of […]

A woman and a man stand in a cemetery in Colombia. Three people have died and there are 277 cases in Colombia on 23 March 2020, as the local authorities impose restrictions. Death squads in Colombia are taking advantage of coronavirus lockdowns to murder rural activists, local NGOs have warned. Photo: Luis Robayo / AFP / Getty Images

Colombian death squads exploiting coronavirus lockdown to kill activists – “We are being killed, like always”

By Joe Parkin Daniels 23 March 2020 BOGOTÁ (The Guardian) – Death squads in Colombia are taking advantage of coronavirus lockdowns to murder rural activists, local NGOs have warned. When cities across the country introduced local quarantine measures last week, three social leaders were killed, and as the country prepares to impose a national lockdown […]

Nations ranked by happiness, 2017-2019. Graphic: World Happiness Report 2020

World Happiness Report 2020: Rapid increase in negative affect over last decade continues, driven by sadness, worry, and anger

20 March 2020 (Sustainable Development Solutions Network) – […] We next examine the global pattern of positive and negative affect in the third and fourth panels of Figure 2.2. Each figure has the same structure for life evaluations as in the first panel. There is no striking trend in the evolution of positive affect, except […]

Number of women murdered in Mexico, 2016-2019. In 2019, 1,006 women were victims of femicide – 580 more than in 2015. Data: Executive Secretariat of the National System of Public Safety (SESNSP). Graphic: The Guardian

Thousands of Mexican women strike to protest femicide – “Every day we have more evidence that they are killing us specifically for being women”

By Maya Averbuch 9 March 2020 MEXICO CITY (The Guardian) – As rush-hour began on Monday morning, there were no ticket-sellers in Mexico City subway stations. Nor were there female tellers at many of the banks. Nail salons, massage parlors, and hairdressers closed. And in cities across the country, far fewer women were on the […]

Spatial distribution of global surface ocean pHT (total hydrogen scale, annually averaged) in past (1770), present (2000) and future (2100) under the IPCC RCP8.5 scenario. Graphic: Jiang, et al., 2020 / Nature Scientific Reports

Graph of the Day: The Future of Ocean Acidification

18 December 2019 (NOAA) – New research by NOAA, the University of Maryland, and international partners published in Nature Scientific Reports shows that the changing chemistry of seawater has implications for continued greenhouse gas absorption. The ocean has been playing an important role in helping slow down global climate change by removing the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide […]

Laurence Cowie on his property looking at the spreading bushfire in Canberra on 1 February 2020. Photo: Brook Mitchell / Getty Images

Plants safely store toxic mercury. Bushfires and climate change bring it back into our environment.

By Larissa Schneider, Colin Cooke, Nathan D Stansell, and Simon Haberle 29 January 2020 (The Conversation) – Climate change and bushfire may exacerbate recent mercury pollution and increase exposure to the poisonous neurotoxin, according to our study published in the Journal of Paleolimnology. Mercury stored in plants is released during bushfires, suggesting Australia is particularly at […]

Fireflies in Smoky Mountains National Park. Photo: Radim Schreiber

Fireflies face extinction threats of habitat loss, light pollution, pesticides

By Mike Silver 3 February 2020 MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, Massachusetts (Tufts Now) – Habitat loss, pesticide use and, surprisingly, artificial light are the three most serious threats endangering fireflies across the globe, raising the spectre of extinction for certain species and related impacts on biodiversity and ecotourism, according to a Tufts University-led team of biologists associated with […]

Indigenous leader of the Celia Xakriaba tribe walks next to the Xingu River during a four-day pow wow in Piaracu village, in Xingu Indigenous Park, near Sao Jose do Xingu, Mato Grosso state, Brazil, 15 January 2020. Photo: Ricardo Moraes / REUTERS

Brazil tribes back manifesto to save Amazon rainforest and its indigenous people from the “genocide, ethnocide, and ecocide” planned by far-right President Jair Bolsonaro

By Ricardo Moraes 18 January 2020 XINGU INDIGENOUS PARK, Brazil (Reuters) – Leaders of native tribes in Brazil issued a rallying call to protect the Amazon rainforest and its indigenous people from what they called the “genocide, ethnocide and ecocide” planned by the country’s far-right President Jair Bolsonaro. A manifesto signed on Friday at the […]

WFP Global Hotspots 2020: Countries most at risk of sliding further into crisis. The UN World Food Programme (WFP) has identified 15 critical and complex emergencies at risk of descending further into crisis without a rapid response and greater investment. While WFP continues to provide extensive assistance to high-profile emergencies such as Yemen and Syria, Global Hotspots 2020 highlights the fastest deteriorating emergencies requiring the world’s urgent attention. Graphic: WFP

World Food Programme forecasts global hunger hotspots as a new decade dawns

ROME, 1 January 2020 (WFP) – Escalating hunger needs in sub-Saharan Africa dominate a World Food Programme (WFP) analysis of global hunger hotspots in the first half of 2020 with millions of people requiring life-saving food assistance in Zimbabwe, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central Sahel region in the coming months. […]

Extreme weather events across the world caused more than $100 billion worth of damage in 2019. The most financially costly disasters were wildfires in California, which caused $25 billion in damage, followed by Typhoon Hagibis in Japan ($15 billion) and floods in the American mid-west ($12.5 billion) and China ($12 billion). The events with the greatest loss of life were floods in Northern India which killed 1,900 and Cyclone Idai which killed 1,300. Data: Christian Aid. Graphic: The Guardian

15 climate disasters of 2019 that cost more than $1 billion – “It is no wonder youth around the world are taking to the streets to demand that we write a different story towards a better future”

27 December 2019 (Christian Aid) – Extreme weather, driven by climate change, hit every populated continent in 2019, killing, injuring and displacing millions and causing billions of dollars of economic damage, according to a new report by Christian Aid. […] Counting the Cost 2019: a year of climate breakdown identifies 15 of the most destructive droughts, […]

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