Spurred by a deadly Brazilian dam disaster in early 2019, a partnership between the U.N. and industry leaders has released new guidance on managing mining waste. Released Aug. 5, the…
The Brazilian riverine communities of Boa Nova and Saracá say they’ve endured decades of environmental harm brought by MRN, the world’s fourth largest bauxite mining company.
In a corner of Brazil’s Mato Grosso state, a handful of clandestine roads neatly slice the dense jungle canopy into rectangles. From the sky, an entourage of bulldozers can be…
Pixaim is one of the remaining quilombos on the Atlantic coast, an Afro-Brazilian settlement already gravely impacted by upstream dams. Now climate change could doom it.
Activists have accused mining giant Rio Tinto of dragging its feet in addressing the fallout from a breach that occurred at its mine in Madagascar five years ago and that…
The world is in a slow-moving, persistent water crisis. Rapidly rising water usage, increasingly uncertain rainfall, and widespread water pollution push more of our world into water stress and intensify…
KUALA KOH, Malaysia — On a daytime flight into Kuala Lumpur airport, it’s hard not to feel a certain sense of despair. The land, at times adorned by jungle-clad mountains,…
Deforestation can reduce communities’ access to clean drinking water, according to a recent study conducted in Malawi. A lot of prior research on how deforestation impacts water dynamics has shown…
With India just a few weeks away from the general elections, a new survey has shed light on what the country's voters want. The survey, released by the NGO Association…
There’s another world beneath the soil of Central Texas, one that is dark, wet, and mysterious. It’s an isolated kingdom ruled by a unique group of underground salamanders. Now, new…
LA GUAJIRA, Colombia — “It was beautiful here,” said Mariella. “There were crops, flowers, animals. There was life.” Mariella is an indigenous Wayuu from the community of Wasimo in the dusty desert…
Millions of people living in the lower reaches of the Ganges basin in India may face food shortages in the next three decades if the iconic river continues to lose…
A spate of mass toxic poisonings in the Cambodian provinces of Kratie and Mondulkiri have hospitalized hundreds and killed at least 16 people since May. Although the causes of the…
KUCHING, Malaysia — As governments in Southeast Asia target economic growth through infrastructure development, China, the world’s second-largest economy, has emerged as a ready funder for some of the most…
Australia’s Murray Darling basin covers more than a million square kilometers, 14 percent of the country’s landmass. It’s the site of tens of thousands of wetlands, but increasing demand for…
A photographer and I have been walking for an hour through Zuid-Kennemerland National Park, which is sandwiched between the North Sea and the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands. You’re…
The $1 trillion Belt and Road Initiative promises new ports, roads, railways, dams and an energy grid reaching from China across Asia to Africa, but at what environmental cost?
In early March, an Anglo American Brasil pipeline rupture spilled 318 tons of iron ore into a local river. Now a second spill of 647 tons has occurred polluting the Santo Antônio do Grama River .
As secret negotiations progress and Donald Trump threatens to walk away from NAFTA, trade experts ask how to make the agreement better for people and planet.
MEXICO CITY – Strolling through the forest under a canopy of pine trees along a path lined with shaggy native grass, Agustín Martínez Villarreal pauses to point out signs that…
In an uncertain world, UNESCO’s environmental, sustainability and peace programs benefit all nations; Trump’s U.S. pullout most deeply hurts Americans, say experts.
340+ people have died since 2008, communities have been ravaged, rivers contaminated, drinking water polluted, and fisheries ruined by mining tailings dam failures. Future accidents could be prevented says UN report.
AZUAY PROVINCE, Ecuador — What happened on October 8 and 9 in Ecuador’s Río Blanco area was not entirely unexpected. On August 12, a group of inhabitants decided to take…
As Trump firms build golf courses in Southeast Asia, imitating the Scottish landscape where the game was born, tropical habitat and aquifers are put at risk, according to environmentalists.
Donald Trump has proposed reducing U.S. foreign aid and U.N. support for climate change programs to zero, with possible repercussions in Africa.
DAVAO CITY, Philippines – If the street Pedro Arnado was looking down was on the Philippine government’s roadmap for future palm oil development, critics say it would be one highly…
USAID has improved rural climate change resilience since 2013; now the U.S. may cut that lifeline, with dire results for Zimbabwe’s poorest.
Scientists have uncovered a new species of bat in the mountains of Venezuela and Colombia. But its forest habitat is under big threat from slash-and-burn agriculture, and its discoverers are…
BOGOTÁ – A four year-old complaint against global mining company Eco Oro Minerals Corp. has resulted in an investigation and divestment from major investors in a regional project in Colombia.…
When a dam burst and released mining waste into the countryside of Minas Gerais, Brazil, in November 2015, the toxic tailings also polluted the main channel of the 800-kilometer river.…