Brazil president Jair Bolsonaro gestures during the Brazilian Sugarcane Industry Association's Unica Forum 2018 in São Paulo, 18 June 2018. Photo: Miguel Schincariol / Getty Images

Humans bicker while the rainforest burns: Brazil rejects G-7 aid pledged to fight Amazon fires, but Bolsonaro might accept offer if Macron apologizes

By Guy Davies 27 August 2019 LONDON (ABC News) – A senior government official said Brazil would reject the $22 million G-7 countries promised to help fight the wildfires raging in the Amazon. Brazilian President Bolsonaro’s chief of staff Onyx Lorenzoni told Globo News, a Brazilian publication, that Brazil would reject the $22 million aid package, suggesting that the money […]

Aerial view of a wildfire burning in the Amazon rainforest near Porto Velho, Brazil, 26 August 2019. The Brazilian state of Rondonia has 6,436 fires burning so far this year in it, according to Brazil's National Institute for Space Research (INPE). Photo: Natalie Gallón / CNN

Flying above the Amazon fires, “all you can see is death”

By Nick Paton Walsh and Natalie Gallón 26 August 2019 Porto Velho, Brazil (CNN) – The smoke is so thick, at times the Cessna airplane had to climb to stay out of it. At times your eyes burn and you close the air vents to keep the cabin habitable. Sometimes it is so bad, it […]

Donald Trump’s empty chair at the G7 talks on the climate emergency on Monday, 26 August 2019. Photo: POOL / Reuters

Trump skips G7 talks on climate crisis and Amazon wildfires – Trump team calls global warming a “niche issue”

By Angelique Chrisafis 26 August 2019 BIARRITZ, France (The Guardian) – Donald Trump did not attend Monday’s crucial discussion on climate and biodiversity at the G7 meeting of international leaders in Biarritz, missing talks on how to deal with the Amazon rainforest fires as well as new ways to cut carbon emissions. Reporters noticed at […]

A Rio Branco fireman fights a wildfire in Rio Branco, Amazonian State of Acre, Brazil, on 17 August 2019. Photo: Rio Branco Firemen handout / EPA-EFE / Shutterstock

Hundreds of new fires in Brazil as world outrage grows over Amazon destruction – Bolsonaro reverses course and mobilizes armed forces – Brazil agricultural industry fears global boycott – “Today, because of Bolsonaro, all our work is turning into ashes”

24 August 2019 (AFP) – Hundreds of new fires are raging in the Amazon rainforest in northern Brazil, official data showed Saturday, amid growing international pressure on President Jair Bolsonaro to control the worst blazes in years. Multiple fires were seen across a vast area of the northwestern state of Rondonia on Friday when AFP […]

Aerial view of brine pools at the SQM lithium mine on the Atacama salt flat in the Atacama desert of northern Chile, 10 January 2013. Photo: Ivan Alvarado / Reuters

Farmers in Chile losing freshwater battle with lithium mines – “We’ll be left here with no water, no animals, no agriculture – with nothing”

By Grace Livingstone 15 August 2019 SANTIAGO, Chile (BBC News) – Out of habit, Sara Plaza smiles when her photo is taken, but when she talks about what has happened to the land around her home, tears start to run down her face. “There used to be beautiful lagoons down there, with hundreds of flamingos,” […]

Projected share of production from new oil and gas fields, 2020-2029. The majority of the world’s new oil and gas set to come from the U.S. Graphic: Global Witness

U.S. set to drown the world in oil – “The sheer scale of this new production dwarfs that of every other country in the world”

20 August 2019 (Global Witness) – A staggering 61 percent of the world’s new oil and gas production over the next decade is set to come from one country alone: the United States. The sheer scale of this new production dwarfs that of every other country in the world and would spell disaster for the […]

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured these images of several fires burning in the states of Rondônia, Amazonas, Pará, and Mato Grosso on 13 August 2019. Data: MODIS data from NASA EOSDIS/LANCE and GIBS/Worldview and VIIRS data from NASA EOSDIS/LANCE and GIBS/Worldview, and the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership Photo: Lauren Dauphin / NASA Earth Observatory

Image of the Day: Satellite view of forest-clearing fires in the Amazon, August 2019

By Adam Voiland 16 August 2019 (NASA) – In the Amazon rainforest, fire season has arrived. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured these images of several fires burning in the states of Rondônia, Amazonas, Pará, and Mato Grosso on August 11 and August 13, 2019. In the Amazon region, fires are rare for much […]

Pope Francis arrives for his weekly general audience in Paolo VI hall at the Vatican on 7 Aug 2019. Photo: Maurizio Brambatti / EPA-EFE / REX / Shutterstock

Pope Francis again warns against nationalism, says recent speeches sound like “Hitler in 1934”, fears “devastation of nature that can lead to the death of humanity”

By Siobhán O’Grady 9 August 2019 (The Washington Post) – Pope Francis called for a united Europe in an interview published by Italian daily La Stampa on Friday, saying recent political rhetoric has echoed that of Nazi Germany. “I am concerned because we hear speeches that resemble those of Hitler in 1934,” he said. “ ‘Us […]

Map of world water stress projected to 2020, 2030, and 2040. Data: World Resources Institute; United Nations. Graphic: The New York Times

A quarter of humanity faces looming water crises – “The picture is alarming in many places around the world”

By Somini Sengupta and Weiyi Cai 6 August 2019 BENGALURU, India (The New York Times) – Countries that are home to one-fourth of Earth’s population face an increasingly urgent risk: The prospect of running out of water. From India to Iran to Botswana, 17 countries around the world are currently under extremely high water stress, […]

Species richness of freshwater megafauna in the year 1500 and in the 21st Century in Europe. Graphic: Fengzhi He, 2019

88 percent decline of big freshwater animals over 40-year period – “The results are alarming and confirm the fears of scientists involved in studying and protecting freshwater biodiversity”

By Nadja Neumann 8 August 2019 (IGB) – Rivers and lakes cover just about one percent of Earth’s surface, but are home to one third of all vertebrate species worldwide. At the same time, freshwater life is highly threatened. Scientists from the Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB) and international colleagues have now […]

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