Environmental activist Homero Gomez Gonzalez stands in front of a monarch butterfly mural, 28 December 2019. He was murdered by an illegal logging criminal syndicate, and his body was found in a well on 29 January 2020. Photo: Homero Gomez Gonzalez / Facebook

Second Mexico monarch butterfly activist murdered

3 February 2020 (BBC News) – A second activist campaigning for the conservation of monarch butterflies and the woods in which they hibernate has been found dead in Mexico. Raúl Hernández worked as a tour guide at a butterfly sanctuary in Michoacán state. His body, which bore signs of beatings and a head injury, was […]

The tail of a male grey whale that stranded near Victoria, B.C. in April 2019, with skin eaten by an infestation of cyamids, or whale lice. Photo: Fisheries and Oceans Canada

In 2019, 214 grey whales washed up dead on the West Coast of North America – “They get eaten alive”

By Lisa Johnson 28 December 2019 (CBC News) – The first grey whale found dead in B.C. last year was in such rough shape that someone called to report it was tangled up in a big pink buoy. The pink wasn’t plastic, officials learned when they arrived to tow the skinny male to shore near […]

A montage of photos that were submitted to the Environmental Photographer of the Year 2019 award. “Journey by Launch” by Azim Khan Ronnie; “Polluted New Year” by Eliud Gil Samaniego, “Remains of the Forest” by J Henry Fair, “Tuvalu Beneath the Rising Tide” by Sean Gallagher, “My Climate Future” by Souray Karmakar, “Looking Beyond What is There” by Graham Earnshaw, “Where the City Ends and the Ships Begin” by Azim Khan Ronnie, and “Tuvalu Beneath the Rising Tide” by Sean Gallagher (second entry). Photo: CIWEM

Photo gallery: Striking images from the 2019 Environmental Photographer of the Year competition – “Climate change is the defining issue of our time and now is the time to act”

23 September 2019 (CIWEM) – The CIWEM Environmental Photographer of the Year exposes the terrible impacts being wrought on our planet by humans, but also celebrates humanity’s innate ability to survive and innovate, lending hope to us all that we can overcome challenges to live sustainably. [See all of the submissions: Environmental Photographer of the […]

August 2019 Blended Land and Sea Surface Temperature Anomalies in degrees Celsius. Graphic: NOAA

Summer 2019 in the Northern Hemisphere tied for warmest summer on record – Five hottest NH summers have occurred in the past five years

By Andrew Freedman 16 September 2019 (The Washington Post) – The Northern Hemisphere just had its hottest summer on record since 1880, according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data released Monday. NOAA found the average global surface temperature taken by thousands of thermometers, buoys and other sensors on land and sea tied with that of 2016 […]

The Organ Pipe Cactus national monument, in southern Arizona, is a federally protected wilderness area and Unesco-recognized international biosphere reserve. Trump’s border wall will traverse the entirety of the southern edge of Organ Pipe Cactus national monument. Photo: Marek Zuk / Alamy

Trump administration begins border wall construction in Organ Pipe Cactus national monument – “Walling off these precious places would be a colossal mistake and a national tragedy”

By Samuel Gilbert 13 September 2019 TUCSON, Arizona (The Guardian) – Construction of a 30ft-high section of Donald Trump’s border barrier has begun in the Organ Pipe Cactus national monument in southern Arizona, a federally protected wilderness area and Unesco-recognized international biosphere reserve. In the face of protests by environmental groups, the wall will traverse the entirety of […]

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, […]

Central American migrants stand on a raft to cross the Suchiate River from Guatemala to Mexico, with the Tacana volcano in the background, near Ciudad Hidalgo, Mexicoin, early morning on 10 June 2019. A record 71 million people were forcibly displaced around the world in 2018, according to a report last month by the United Nations refugee agency, in places as diverse as Turkey, Uganda, Bangladesh, and Peru. Photo: Marco Ugarte / AP Photo

From Libya to Texas, tragedies illustrate plight of migrants

By Lori Hinnant and Jamey Keaten 6 July 2019 GENEVA (AP) – They are trapped in squalid detention centers on Libya’s front lines. They wash up on the banks of the Rio Grande. They sink without a trace — in the Mediterranean, in the Pacific or in waterways they can’t even name. A handful fall […]

A policeman stands next to vehicles buried in hail in the eastern area of Guadalajara, Mexico, on 30 June 2019. Photo: Ulises Ruiz / AFP / Getty Images

Guadalajara, Mexico, covered in ice after a freakish summer hailstorm – “Hail more than a meter high, and then we wonder if climate change exists”

By Christina Maxouris 1 July 2019 (CNN) – Guadalajara had been enjoying a sweaty summer for the past few weeks until the weekend brought a shocking surprise. The Mexican city woke up Sunday morning to more than 3 feet of ice in some areas after a heavy hailstorm swept through the region. As government officials […]

Environmentalist José Luis Álvarez Flores, an activist who fought to conserve wildlife, was found murdered between the borders of Tabasco and Chiapas on 11 June 2019. Photo: Reforma

Environmental activist who fought illegal mining murdered in Chiapas – “This is abominable, he was a nice person, his fault was to fight against the illegal extraction of sand”

11 June 2019 (Mexico News Daily) — An environmental activist from Tabasco who worked to preserve the habitat of howler monkeys was found dead yesterday in Chiapas. The body of José Luis Álvarez Flores was found in Calatraba, a community in the municipality of Palenque. The 64-year-old was reportedly shot at least five times. Álvarez […]

Projected change in population density in Ethiopia by 2050 under a pessimistic climate change scenario. As climate change worsens even moderately, it could cause water shortages in Ethiopia severe enough to prompt 1.5 million Ethiopians to migrate by 2050. They’ll most likely move out of the northern highlands and Addis Ababa into the southern highlands and Ahmar Mountains. Addis Ababa lies at the center of Ethiopia’s agricultural region, and lower crop yields will result in movement out of the urban center, which is currently the hub of the country’s economic development. Graphic: The World Bank Groundswell Report

Get ready for tens of millions of climate refugees

By Susan Cosier 24 April 2019 (Technology Review) – In 2006, the British economist Nicholas Stern warned that one of the biggest dangers of climate change would be mass migration. “Climate-related shocks have sparked violent conflict in the past,” he wrote, “and conflict is a serious risk in areas such as West Africa, the Nile […]

Social media & sharing icons powered by UltimatelySocial