brazil

To Stop Amazon Deforestation, Brazilian Groups Take Bolsonaro to Court

To Stop Amazon Deforestation, Brazilian Groups Take Bolsonaro to Court

By Ajit Niranjan Civil society groups and public prosecutors in Brazil are taking President Jair Bolsonaro’s government to court for failing to protect the Amazon rainforest, adding pressure to an administration already under fire for mismanaging the coronavirus pandemic. Lawsuits filed last week challenge the government on two fronts: reducing inspections of exported timber — […]

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    Indigenous People May Be the Amazon’s Last Hope

    Indigenous People May Be the Amazon’s Last Hope

    Brazil’s divisive President Jair Bolsonaro has taken another step in his bold plans to develop the Amazon rainforest. A bill he is sponsoring, now before Congress, would allow transportation infrastructure to be built on indigenous territory. Such lands cover 386,000 square miles of the Brazilian Amazon — one-fifth of the jungle. Here, Native people are […]

    5 Biggest Pesticide Companies Are Making Billions From ‘Highly Hazardous’ Chemicals, Investigation Finds

    5 Biggest Pesticide Companies Are Making Billions From ‘Highly Hazardous’ Chemicals, Investigation Finds

    Poor people in developing countries are far more likely to suffer from exposure to pesticides classified as having high hazard to human health or the environment, according to new data that Unearthed analyzed. The analysis shows that the world’s top five pesticide makers are making billions, accounting for more than 36 percent of their income, […]

    Brazil’s Bolsonaro Unveils Bill to Open Indigenous Lands to Mining, Oil and Gas Exploration

    Brazil’s Bolsonaro Unveils Bill to Open Indigenous Lands to Mining, Oil and Gas Exploration

    By Jan Rocha President Jair Bolsonaro pressed forward with a “dream” initiative sending a bill to the Brazilian Congress on Wednesday that would open indigenous reserves in the Amazon and elsewhere to development, including commercial mining, oil and gas exploration, cattle ranching and agribusiness, new hydroelectric dam projects, and tourism — projects that have been […]

    Brazil’s Indigenous Communities Resist Jair Bolsonaro

    Brazil’s Indigenous Communities Resist Jair Bolsonaro

    By Raphael Tsavkko Garcia Rarely has something so precious fallen into such unsafe hands. Since Jair Bolsonaro took the Brazilian presidency in 2019, the Amazon, which makes up 10 percent of our planet’s biodiversity and absorbs an estimated 5 percent of global carbon emissions, has been hit with a record number of fires and unprecedented […]

    Statistic of the Decade: The Massive Deforestation of the Amazon

    Statistic of the Decade: The Massive Deforestation of the Amazon

    By Liberty Vittert This year, I was on the judging panel for the Royal Statistical Society’s International Statistic of the Decade. Much like Oxford English Dictionary’s “Word of the Year” competition, the international statistic is meant to capture the zeitgeist of this decade. The judging panel accepted nominations from the statistical community and the public […]

    COP25 Ends With a Whimper: A Few Takeaways

    COP25 Ends With a Whimper: A Few Takeaways

    The longest UN climate meeting in history extended two extra days for a marathon bargaining session, but ended early Sunday morning with little accomplished. Policy makers mostly decided to punt strengthening their commitments to lower emissions and to a market for carbon emissions, until COP26 in Glasgow next December, the AP reported. Protestors denounced polluting […]