22 March 2015 (Desdemona Despair) – You may have noticed the ongoing mass-starvation event among California sea lions. (“Why are California sea lion pups starving?”; “Sick sea lions flood shelters in California – Pups wash ashore all along the coast amid what scientists say are strains on the ocean”) The sea lions are starving because […]
9 March 2015 (The Economist) – February 2015 was the wettest month in the region around São Paulo since 1995, with rainfall 36% above the historical average [This isn’t evident from the graph. I think the author means “36% above the historical minimum.” –Des]. But the water emergency in South America’s biggest metropolis is not […]
By Tom Di Liberto6 March 2015 (NOAA) – It’s amazing to think, but in Brazil, a country that boasts both the Amazon Rain Forest and River, parts of the country are in danger of seeing their water supplies dry up after back-to-back rainy seasons failed to live up to their name. Southeastern Brazil—the country’s most […]
By Marussia Whately and Rebeca Lerer11 February 2015 São Paulo (The Guardian) – It should be the rainy season. Instead São Paulo state is experiencing a third consecutive year with soaring temperatures and rainfall patterns well below historic records. The main water reservoirs are operating at their lowest capacity. The Cantareira reservoir system, which serves […]
By Jenny Barchfield 12 March 2015 RIO DE JANEIRO (Associated Press) – During Rio de Janeiro’s long summers of sticky tropical heat, Viviane Vargas says she needs not one, not two, but three showers a day to feel clean. The saleswoman is not alone: Surveys say Brazilians are the world’s most frequent bathers, taking on […]
By Mídia NINJA and Laura Capriglione 27 February 2015 (NINJA) – The Iguatemi Mall, on Faria Lima Avenue, did not seem to welcome the crowd. Neither did the Rolls Royce store, on Cidade Jardim Avenue. These sacred luxury consumer temples (where the water tanks are always full), lowered their doors before the march that brought […]
[Translation by Microsoft Translator. –Des] 6 March 2015 (El Ciudadano) – Yesterday, Wednesday 4 March, in Salamanca, Choapa Valley (IV Region of Coquimbo) police violently cracked down on hundreds of people mobilized, demanding a solution to the environmental crisis, suffering for years product of the functioning of the Los Pelambres. With the arrival of three […]
By Dan Collyns5 March 2015 Lima (The Guardian) – Members of the indigenous Achuar tribe from the Peruvian Amazon have won an undisclosed sum from Occidental Petroleum in an out-of-court settlement after a long-running legal battle in the US courts. They sued the company in 2007, alleging it knowingly caused pollution which caused premature deaths, […]
26 February 2015 (Washington Post) – Aerial view of a depleted water reservoir in São Paulo state, Brazil. The water level of the reservoirs in the Cantareira System in Braganca Paulista, Brazil, is at a tenth of its total capacity, the result of Brazil’s driest summer in 84 years. Photo: Victor Moriyama / Getty Images […]
By Rogerio Jelmayer and Loretta Chao 3 March 2015 SÃO PAULO, Brazil (Wall Street Journal) – Inhabitants of this megacity, suffering through the worst drought in decades, have unwittingly contributed to an outbreak of dengue fever by storing scarce water in open containers. The tropical mosquito-borne virus, which often results in high fever, intense muscle […]
