By Juliette Kayyem 30 September 2017 (CNN) – It is a difficult task to turn the memory of Hurricane Katrina into a quaint story of well-meaning government actors unable to save a city from destruction.President Donald Trump managed to do that on Saturday morning when he essentially blamed Puerto Rico and its mayor, in a […]
By Toly Rinberg and Andrew Bergman 22 September 2017 (EDGI) – As has been true for decades, the ways public data are stored and presented on federal government websites can sometimes be tricky for the public to understand, access, use, and re-use.As federal websites have been changing under the Trump administration, there has been ongoing […]
By Matthew Nussbaum And Marc Caputo 30 September 2017 (Politico) – President Donald Trump attacked the mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico, on Saturday, writing on Twitter that she and other leaders on the storm-ravaged territory “want everything to be done for them.” Trump’s early morning broadsides came after San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz […]
By Abby Hamblin 29 September 2017 (San Diego Tribune) – Puerto Rico Mayor Yulín Cruz is begging for help with Hurricane Maria relief for the island of more than 3.4 million people suffering without power and other basic necessities. “I am begging, begging anyone that can hear us to save us from dying,” she said […]
By Philip Fearnside 15 September 2017 (Mongabay) – On 23 August 2017, Brazil’s president Michel Temer issued a decree revoking the RENCA (National Reserve of Copper and Associated Minerals), an area the size of Switzerland on the northern side of the Amazon River straddling the states of Pará and Amapá. The Ministry of Environment had […]
By Dino Grandoni 22 September 2017 (The Washington Post) – Numerous mentions of “climate change,” “greenhouse gasses” and other phrases related to global warming have been found to be altered or deleted from another portion of the Environmental Protection Agency’s website, according to a new environmental watchdog report.At the beginning of President Trump’s term, the […]
13 September 2017 (Survival International) – Brazilian Indians have appealed for global assistance to prevent further killings after the reported massacre of uncontacted tribespeople, and have denounced the government cuts that left their territories unprotected.Paulo Marubo, a Marubo indigenous leader from western Brazil, said: “More attacks and killings are likely to happen. The cuts to […]
Yaoundé, Cameroon, 7 September 2017 (TRAFFIC) – Weak governance, corruption, and shifting trade dynamics are significant factors seriously undermining the control of ivory trafficking throughout five countries in Central Africa, according to a new TRAFFIC study launched today.In the first comprehensive assessment of ivory trade in the region in nearly two decades, investigators from TRAFFIC […]
By Emily Atkin 7 September 2017 (New Republic) – The days leading up to Hurricane Harvey’s landfall in Texas last week were some of the most nerve-wracking in meteorological history. Forecasters watched helplessly as a true monster storm—one that would eventually become the most extreme rain event in recorded American history—moved toward Houston, the country’s […]
By Tara Copp 13 September 2017 WASHINGTON (Military Times) – The Pentagon has continued to take steps to defend its military bases against extreme weather despite direction from President Donald Trump to stop preparing for climate change. In March, President Donald Trump rescinded all climate-related federal agency actions directed by President Barack Obama. The Obama-era […]
