Fires burn in Pará state, Brazil, in September 2019. Jair Bolsonaro accused Leonardo DiCaprio of ‘giving money for the Amazon to be torched’. Photo: Nelson Almeida/ AFP / Getty Images

Brazil’s president Bolsonaro claims Leonardo DiCaprio paid for Amazon fires – “Our negligent and incompetent president, responsible for an environmental dismantling unprecedented in our country, wants to blame DiCaprio”

By Tom Phillips 29 November 2019 (The Guardian) – Brazil’s president has falsely accused the actor and environmentalist Leonardo DiCaprio of bankrolling the deliberate incineration of the Amazon rainforest. Jair Bolsonaro – a populist nationalist who has vowed to drive environmental NGOs from Brazil – made the claim on Friday, reportedly telling supporters: “This Leonardo DiCaprio’s […]

The Rieckmann’s mantle in their home in Fremont, Wisconsin, on 20 November 2019. Photo: Jason Vaughn / TIME

Small American farmers are nearing extinction – “They’re trying to wipe us off the map”

By Alana Semuels 27 November 2019 FREMONT, Wisconsin (TIME) – For nearly two centuries, the Rieckmann family has raised cows for milk in this muddy patch of land in the middle of Wisconsin. Mary and John Rieckmann, who now run the farm and its 45 cows, have seen all manners of ups and downs — […]

Animation showing deforestation in Brazil’s Mato Grasso state, 1984-2018. Graphic: William Neff / The Washington Post

Brazil’s Bolsonaro calls Amazon deforestation “cultural”, says it “will never end”

By Marina Lopes 20 November 2019 SAO PAULO, Brazil (The Washington Post) – Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro shrugged off a government report that deforestation in the Amazon reached an 11-year high on his watch, saying Wednesday he expects the destruction of the world’s largest tropical rainforest to continue. “Deforestation and fires will never end,” the […]

Likelihood of observing various butterfly species in California, 1980-2015. Graphic: Shaffer Grubb / Los Angeles Times

Scientist has been counting California butterflies for 47 years and now sees them disappearing

By Deborah Netburn 12 November 2019 DONNER PASS, California (Los Angeles Times) – Art Shapiro stands on the edge of a Chevron gas station in the north-central Sierra, sipping a large Pepsi and scanning the landscape for butterflies. So far he’s spotted six species — a loping Western tiger swallowtail, two fluttering California tortoiseshells, a […]

Aerial view of severely flooded areas of Fond du Lac, Minnesota, shown on 24 June 2012. Photo: Matthew Schofield / U.S. Coast Guard / Reuters

What the climate’s “new normal” is doing to Lake Superior

By Ron Meador 1 November 2019 Minnesota has shoreline on only one Great Lake, but it happens to be the greatest: largest, clearest, coldest and, until recently, seemingly least vulnerable to various environmental afflictions elsewhere in the five-lake basin. The world’s biggest lake by surface area, Superior happens to hold one-tenth of the fresh water […]

Smog blankets India’s capital Delhi, 14 November 2019. Photo: Arshad R. Zargar / CBS

Dangerous air pollution in India forces Delhi schools to close for 2nd time in 2 weeks – “I cannot play outside because the air is too toxic to breathe”

DELHI, 15 November 2019 (CBS News) – The air pollution in India’s capital got so bad again this week that the government was forced to close schools. It was the second time in two weeks. The air has been choked with a concentration of noxious pollutants about 10-times higher than what’s considered safe by the […]

A view of the Red Hills reservoir, the main source of drinking water to Chennai city, 6 November 2019. Lakes and reservoirs are slowly filling up due to north east monsoon rains. Photo: B Jothi Ramalingam / The Hindu

Chennai water reservoirs to reach full capacity for the first time since 2015

By K. Lakshmi 6 November 2019 (The Hindu) – With the storage in city’s major lakes steadily increasing, Chennai Metrowater on Tuesday announced that the city is no longer reeling under water crisis. Chennai is officially out of water shortage, the water agency tweeted from its official handle. Senior officials of Metrowater said the five […]

Map of air pollution in India showing Air Quality Index meters maxed at 999 on 3 November 2019. Graphic: AQICN

India air pollution deteriorates to “hazardous” rating – “Pollution has reached unbearable levels across North India”

3 November 2019 (BBC News) – Air pollution in the north of India has “reached unbearable levels,” the capital Delhi’s Chief Minister Arvid Kejriwal says. In many areas of Delhi air quality deteriorated into the “hazardous” category on Sunday with the potential to cause respiratory illnesses. Authorities have urged people to stay inside to protect […]

Indigenous leader Paulo Paulino Guajajara photographed in September 2019. He was hunting on 1 November 2019 inside the Arariboia reservation in Maranhao state when he was attacked and killed by illegal loggers. Photo: Ueslei Marcelino / REUTERS

Illegal loggers assassinate Amazon indigenous warrior who guarded forest, wound another – “The Bolsonaro government has indigenous blood on its hands”

By Anthony Boadle and Leo Benassatto 2 November 2019 BRASILIA (Reuters) – Illegal loggers in the Amazon ambushed an indigenous group that was formed to protect the forest and shot dead a young warrior and wounded another, leaders of the Guajajara tribe in northern Brazil said on Saturday. Paulo Paulino Guajajara, or Lobo (which means […]

People wear masks to protect against “Hazardous” air pollution in Dehli, India, 28 October 2019. Photo: Biplov Bhuyan / Hindustan Times / REX

5 million masks distributed as toxic smog descends on Delhi during Diwali – “Delhi has turned into a gas chamber”

By Guy Davies 1 November 2019 (ABC News) – Five million masks are being distributed throughout schools in Delhi, India, as the chief minister described the city as a “gas chamber” because of the “toxic” air quality. Arvind Kejriwal, the chief minister of Delhi, also announced that all schools would be closed in the city […]

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