mining

Trump Admin Finalizes ‘Atrocious’ Plans to Allow Drilling and Mining on Gutted National Monuments

Trump Admin Finalizes ‘Atrocious’ Plans to Allow Drilling and Mining on Gutted National Monuments

The Trump administration finalized plans Thursday to open public lands in Utah to the fossil fuel industry. The move completes a process begun in 2017 when the administration announced the largest rollback of land protection in U,S. history: It shrank Utah’s Bears Ears National Monument by 85 percent and its Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument by […]

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    Illegal Gold Mining Is Laying Waste to the Amazon

    Illegal Gold Mining Is Laying Waste to the Amazon

    By Marlene Cimons Last summer, scientist Maria Rodriguez traveled to the Peruvian region of Madre de Dios, once the home of lush rainforests, meandering rivers and thriving wildlife. But her destination was anything but picturesque. She’d come to study several sites ravaged by illegal gold mining that had left a legacy of destruction and mercury […]

    Major Victory for Indigenous Movement in Ecuador

    Major Victory for Indigenous Movement in Ecuador

    The night before Indigenous Peoples’ Day, an Indigenous-led movement in Ecuador won a major victory. On Sunday, Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno agreed to repeal an austerity package that ignited 11 days of protests led by an indigenous movement that also wants to end mining and oil extraction, Amazon Watch explained. “I’m so happy I don’t […]

    Brazil Experts: A ‘Genocide Is Underway’ Against Uncontacted Tribes

    Brazil Experts: A ‘Genocide Is Underway’ Against Uncontacted Tribes

    By Jessica Corbett In an open letter to Brazilian society and right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro, a group of experts warned that a “genocide is underway” against uncontacted tribes because of Bolsonaro’s efforts to strip away Indigenous peoples’ rights and lands and open up more of the Amazon rainforest to agribusiness and mining. The letter, released […]

    Are the Amazon Fires a Crime Against Humanity?

    Are the Amazon Fires a Crime Against Humanity?

    By Tara Smith Fires in the Brazilian Amazon have jumped 84 percent during President Jair Bolsonaro’s first year in office and in July 2019 alone, an area of rainforest the size of Manhattan was lost every day. The Amazon fires may seem beyond human control, but they’re not beyond human culpability. Bolsonaro ran for president […]

    First Major U.S. Insurer Begins Divestment from Fossil Fuels

    First Major U.S. Insurer Begins Divestment from Fossil Fuels

    By Elana Sulakshana It seems like every day there is a new story of a pipeline spilling crude oil or an oil refinery exploding. How do fossil fuel companies continue to operate such hazardous infrastructure in communities despite the immediate and long-term harm they cause? One piece of the answer is the coverage and financial […]

    7 Amazon Rainforest Countries Sign Pact to Come Together in Response to Wildfires

    7 Amazon Rainforest Countries Sign Pact to Come Together in Response to Wildfires

    Seven Amazon countries signed a pact Friday to protect the world’s largest tropical rainforest in response to the record-breaking number of wildfires that have blazed through the Amazon rainforest this summer, Reuters reported. Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru and Suriname agreed to create a network to coordinate their responses to disasters like this summer’s […]

    Trump Moves to Open 16.7 Million Acre Alaskan Rainforest to Corporate Exploitation

    Trump Moves to Open 16.7 Million Acre Alaskan Rainforest to Corporate Exploitation

    By Jake Johnson President Donald Trump has reportedly ordered the U.S. Department of Agriculture to open Alaska’s 16.7 million-acre Tongass National Forest — the planet’s largest intact temperate rainforest — to logging and other corporate development projects, a move that comes as thousands of fires are ripping through the Amazon rainforest and putting the “lungs […]