dams

Brazil has flooded large swaths of the Amazon for hydro dams, despite opposition from Indigenous Peoples, environmentalists and others. The country gets 70 percent of its electricity from hydropower. Brazil’s government had plans to expand development, opening half the Amazon basin to hydro. But a surprising announcement could halt that. In an interview with O […]

By James Blair Local residents and environmentalists in Chile are enjoying a prolonged New Year’s celebration, thanks to two major legal decisions that will protect the country’s free-flowing rivers. Chile’s justice system put a final stop to two controversial large hydroelectric dam developments in Chilean Patagonia: 1) Mediterráneo S.A.’s run-of-the-river project proposed on tributaries of […]

By Brennan PetersonWood and Adam C. Stein The Great Ruaha River in southern Tanzania is the lifeblood of Ruaha National Park, one of the last strongholds of major elephant and lion populations in Africa. Flowing through Ruaha National Park before emptying into the Rufuji River, the Great Ruaha and associated river systems also provide a […]

Not every newly-discovered species becomes a cartoon character. But the Vietnamese crocodile lizard (Shinisaurus crocodilurus vietnamensis) has achieved such fame as “Shini,” a lizard who teaches the importance of protecting his species to local schoolchildren. The lizard is just one of 115 species—including a snail-eating turtle and a horseshoe bat—discovered in the Greater Mekong region […]

You’d have thought the earth moved exactly two years ago with all the ballyhoo at the State Capitol when Gov. John Hickenlooper unveiled the final Colorado Water Plan. I stood in the west foyer of the Capitol as every TV camera in the city pointed at Hickenlooper and his then-Colorado Water Conservation Board director, James […]

Construction sites for hydroelectric dams are popping up all over southeast Europe and endangering mountain rivers and the region’s unique biodiversity, according to researchers. More than 2,700 hydropower plants are in the planning phase across the Balkans, with 37 percent of dams slated to be built on land with “high protection status,” according to Save […]

By Heather Smith To get to the largest surviving population of wild Spring Chinook salmon on the Klamath River, I drive farther north than I’ve ever been in California, then turn right. Gradually, the highways disappear, and the roads narrow. Commerce becomes more improvisational. Grocery stores and restaurants disappear and in their place there is […]

We look at shocking revelations released Tuesday that link the assassination of renowned Honduran indigenous environmental leader Berta Cáceres to the highest levels of the company whose hydroelectric dam project she and her indigenous Lenca community were protesting. We speak with New York Times reporter Elisabeth Malkin, who has read the new report by a […]