9 h. ago As UN climate talks loom, Brazil's Amazon forest loses in May an area larger than NYC

Brazil’s environmental goals suffered a major setback in May as deforestation in the Amazon surged 92% compared to the same month last year, according to official monitoring data

Politics

3 d. ago New Mexico appeals court rejects lawsuit against oil and gas regulators

A New Mexico appeals court has rejected a lawsuit alleging that the nation’s No. 2 oil state failed to meet constitutional provisions for protecting against oil and gas industry pollution

Society

3 d. ago Oil industry could see job cuts like Grangemouth every fortnight, report warns

Striking The Balance by Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen looked at the prospects for the North Sea sector in different scenarios.

Events

6 d. ago Brazil’s environmental movement is under threat – and Lula is siding with oil industry

Politicians reviled environmental minister Marina Silva in the senate this week, but new legislation is fuelling the firePolitical bullying is rarely as brutal as it was in Brazil this week when the environment minister Marina Silva was ambushed in a senate meeting. Her thuggish tormentors – all white male politicians on the infrastructure committee – took turns to publicly belittle the 67-year-old black woman, who has done more than anyone to protect the natural wealth of the country – the Amazon rainforest, Pantanal wetlands, Cerrado savannah and other biomes – from rapacious abuse.One by one, they lined up to attack her for these globally important efforts. Decorum gave way to name-calling and sneering: “Know your place,” roared the committee head, Marcos Rogério, a Bolsonarist who cut Silva’s microphone as she tried to respond. The leader of the centre-rightPSDB, Plínio Valério, told her she did not deserve respect as a minister. The Amazonas senator Omar Aziz – from the Centrão...

Events

6 d. ago Brazil’s environmental governance is under threat – and Lula is siding with oil industry

Politicians reviled environmental minister Marina Silva in the senate this week, but new legislation is fuelling the firePolitical bullying is rarely as brutal as it was in Brazil this week when the environment minister Marina Silva was ambushed in a senate meeting. Her thuggish tormentors – all white male politicians on the infrastructure committee – took turns to publicly belittle the 67-year-old black woman, who has done more than anyone to protect the natural wealth of the country – the Amazon rainforest, Pantanal wetlands, Cerrado savannah and other biomes – from rapacious abuse.One by one, they lined up to attack her for these globally important efforts. Decorum gave way to name-calling and sneering: “Know your place,” roared the committee head, Marcos Rogério, a Bolsonarist who cut Silva’s microphone as she tried to respond. The leader of the centre-rightPSDB, Plínio Valério, told her she did not deserve respect as a minister. The Amazonas senator Omar Aziz – from the Centrão...

Events

2 w. ago Sebastião Salgado, photographer known for Amazon rainforest images, dies aged 81

Death confirmed by Instituto Terra, the environmental restoration non-profit he and his wife foundedThe Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado, whose dramatic black-and-white photographs of the Amazon introduced the rainforest to the world, has died. He was 81.His death was confirmed by the Instituto Terra, the environmental restoration non-profit he founded with his wife of six decades, Lélia Wanick Salgado. In a post on Instagram, the institute described Salgado as “much more than one of the greatest photographers of our time”. Continue reading...

Events

2 w. ago Oil industry funded Girl Scouts and British Museum to boost image, evidence suggests

BP has funded Washington’s National Gallery of Art, UK’s Royal Shakespeare Company and National Portrait GalleryOil interests have funded cultural institutions such as museums, youth organizations and athletic groups in recent years, new research shows, in what appears to be a public relations effort to boost their image amid growing public awareness of the climate crisis.Top US fossil fuel lobby group the American Petroleum Institute (API) sponsored a 2017 workshop for the Pennsylvania Girl Scouts, featuring “activities that mimicked work in the energy industry”. Energy giant BP in 2016 sponsored Washington DC’s National Gallery of Art and continues to fund the British Museum in London. And in 2019, Shell sponsored the golf event the Houston Open for the 26th time. Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago How memories of clean water, frogs and fresh air could help save Rio’s favelas from future climate disaster

A new exhibition in the Brazilian city looks at how water, the environment and extreme weather is interwoven with personal stories from 10 marginalised communitiesLeticia Pinheiro grew up hearing stories about the Acari River. Her grandmother bathed in its clean waters; her father caught frogs on its margins; and many in the community made a living from fishing there.Now, Pinheiro, 28, and her peers do not even call it a river; it’s become known as a valão – an open canal for sewage and rubbish. It borders the Acari favela, which spread over swampy terrain in northern Rio de Janeiro from the 1920s. Continue reading...

Society