Aerial view of Bristol Bay, Alaska. A controversial mining project that was all but killed by the Obama administration is now moving forward under President Trump's EPA. Photo: Jason Ching / CNN

EPA dropped salmon protection after Trump met with Alaska governor – Scientists dumbfounded at gold mine approval that will cause “complete loss of fish habitat” – “We were told to get out of the way and just make it happen”

By Scott Bronstein, Curt Devine, Drew Griffin, and Ashley Hackett 9 August 2019 (CNN) – The Environmental Protection Agency told staff scientists that it was no longer opposing a controversial Alaska mining project that could devastate one of the world’s most valuable wild salmon fisheries just one day after President Trump met with Alaska’s governor, […]

IBAMA environmental agency agents investigate illegal deforestation in Jamanxim National Forest in Pará state, Brazil. Photo: Mongabay

Brazil’s Amazon deforestation surge is real, despite President Bolsonaro’s denial – Brazil environmental agencies and deforestation controls “effectively dismantled”

By Philip M. Fearnside 29 July 2019 (Mongabay) – Brazil’s Amazonian deforestation in June 2019 was 88 percent greater than for the same month in 2018, and deforestation in the first half of July was 68 percent above that for the entire month of July in 2018. There is no reason to question INPE’s current deforestation numbers from the DETER (Detection […]

Members of the Wajapi community in the state of Amapá, Brazil, in 2017. Land invasions in indigenous territories are on the rise across Brazil, where indigenous leaders say they regularly come under threat by miners, loggers and farmers. Photo: Apu Gomes / AFP / Getty Images

Miners kill indigenous leader during invasion of Amazon protected reserve – “President Bolsonaro has virtually declared war on Brazil’s indigenous peoples”

28 July 2019 (BBC News) – Heavily armed gold miners have invaded a remote indigenous reserve in northern Brazil and stabbed to death one of its leaders, officials say. Residents of the village in Amapá state fled in fear and there were concerns violent clashes could erupt if they tried to reclaim the gold-rich land. […]

President Jair Bolsonaro is framed by the national flag of Brazil. Recently, his “popularity is falling because people feel baffled by the things he is doing and saying”, according to one conservative columnist. Photo: Mauro Pimentel / AFP / Getty Images

Brazil president Jair Bolsonaro declares “the Amazon is ours” and accuses scientists of lying about deforestation data

By Dom Phillips 19 July 2019 BRASÍLIA (The Guardian) – The Amazon belongs to Brazil and European countries can mind their own business because they have already destroyed their own environment, said Brazil’s far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, who also described his own government’s satellite data showing an alarming rise in deforestation as “lies”. “You have to understand […]

Screenshot showing the Akademik Lomonosov, Russia’s floating nuclear power plant. Photo: CNN

Russia plans to tow a nuclear power station to the Arctic. Critics dub it a “floating Chernobyl”

By Mary Ilyushina 30 June 2019 Murmansk, Russia (CNN) – Next month, a floating nuclear power plant called the Akademik Lomonosov will be towed via the Northern Sea Route to its final destination in the Far East, after almost two decades in construction. It’s part of Russia’s ambition to bring electric power to a mineral-rich region. The 144-meter […]

Donald Trump, Scott Pruitt, James Hackett, Larry Kudlow. President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting on 11 May 2018 with automotive executives in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, a few months before the administration rolled back Obama-era fuel-efficiency standards, one of a number of giveaways to the fossil-fuel industry. From left, Environmental Protection Agency administrator Scott Pruitt, Ford CEO James Hackett, Trump, and White House chief economic adviser Larry Kudlow. Photo: Evan Vucci / AP / REX / Shutterstock (9668793i)

The shadow cabinet: How a group of powerful business leaders drove Trump’s agenda – “Just about any safeguard to protect the country’s air, water and climate is up for sale”

By Andy Krol 19 June 2019 (Rolling Stone) – It could have been an episode of The Apprentice. On a summer day in 2016, a group of businessmen and women descended on Trump Tower in Manhattan. They exited their black SUVs and rode the golden elevators to the 26th floor, where they assembled in a […]

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 […]

Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro talks to journalists. Photo: Brazil’s Presidency / Flickr Commons

Brazil guts environmental agencies, clears way for unchecked deforestation – “If before, staff were already being attacked by loggers, imagine what it is like with the president’s endorsement of the criminals”

By Sue Branford and Thais Borges 10 June 2019 (Mongabay) – The Brazilian government’s environmental agency, IBAMA, has so far this year imposed the lowest number of fines for illegal deforestation in at least 11 years, while the country’s other leading environmental agency and its federal parks’ protector, ICMBio (the Chico Mendes Institute), did not […]

Leading scientists set out resource challenge of meeting net zero emissions in the UK by 2050: Twice the total annual world cobalt production and at least half of the world’s copper production

5 June 2019 (NHM) – A letter authored by Natural History Museum Head of Earth Sciences Prof Richard Herrington and fellow expert members of SoS MinErals (an interdisciplinary programme of NERC-EPSRC-Newton-FAPESP funded research) has today been delivered to the Committee on Climate Change. The letter explains that to meet UK electric car targets for 2050 […]

China’s 60 years of environmental destruction in Tibet – “Now the rivers are polluted with poisonous waste from the mines”

By Zamlha Tempa Gyaltsen 4 April 2019 (Central Tibetan Administration) – China’s latest white paper on Tibet, once again highlights Beijing’s absolute lack of understanding of Tibet’s History and its unwillingness to read beyond government documents. The paper “Democratic Reform in Tibet – Sixty Years On,” was released on 27 March 2019 to mark the […]

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