By Sophie Quinton, staff reporter (politics) for National Journal15 June 2012 DILLON, Colorado – Dan Gibbs keeps dead beetles in the back of his beat-up Chevy Silverado. He has a wooden block with beetles impaled on it, each insect about the size of a grain of rice. He’s got vials of embalmed beetles and their […]
29 May 2012 (CatMap) – This was once a useless old mountain, now reclaimed for positive economic impact by coal companies and their friends in the legislature. In order for coal mining companies to earn the right blow the tops of mountains, pollute the streams below and fuck up the natural landscape beyond imagination, they […]
25 May 2012 (BBC) – Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has vetoed parts of a controversial bill which regulates how much land farmers must preserve as forest. Among the 12 articles which President Rousseff rejected is an amnesty for illegal loggers. Brazil’s farmers’ lobby had argued that an easing of environmental restrictions would promote food production. […]
By Robert Johnson18 May 2012 When reaching out to Alberta oil sands companies before a trip to Canada last month, I thought all of them mined oil the same way — they don’t. The open mining most people think of when they picture the oil sands is just one way of extracting crude from the […]
By AARON NELSEN15 May 2012 BOCA SANIBENI, Peru – Along the murky waters of the Ene River, in a remote jungle valley on the verdant eastern slopes of the Andes, the rhythmic humming of an outboard motor draws the stares of curious Ashaninka children. With encroachment from settlers and speculators, and after a devastating war […]
By Arno Kopecky 19 May 2012 One grey Thursday at the end of April, a plane touched down in Fort McMurray, Alta., carrying four Achuar Indians from the Peruvian Amazon. They had flown 8,000 kilometres from the rain forest to beseech Talisman Energy Inc., the Calgary-based oil and gas conglomerate, to stop drilling in their […]
By Judith Lavoie, Times Colonist 17 May 2012 Tree poachers have stolen one of the largest red cedars in Carmanah Walbran Provincial Park in what is believed to have been a two-part operation over the past year. “If poachers can run around roughshod in the parks, it’s a terrible thing for B.C.,” said Torrance Coste, […]
[Petition: Veto Dilma!] By SIMON ROMERO16 May 2012 RIO DE JANEIRO – President Dilma Rousseff is facing one of the defining moments of her presidency as pressure builds on her to veto a bill that would open vast protected areas of forests to ranching and farming, potentially reversing Brazil’s major gains in slowing Amazon deforestation. […]
[Not a surprise to Desdemona readers.] By Erin Hale, www.guardian.co.uk15 May 2012 Twenty years on from the Rio Earth summit, the environment of the planet is getting worse not better, according to a report from WWF. Swelling population, mass migration to cities, increasing energy use and soaring carbon dioxide emissions mean humanity is putting a […]
11 May 2012 (Survival International) – The Pataxó Hã-Hã-Hãe Indians of Brazil are celebrating a Supreme Court decision to allow them to live undisturbed on their land. The Pataxó, of Bahia state, have been subjected to violent conflict for decades as ranchers have been occupying their indigenous territory. They have been pushing to be able […]
