America's Atlantic coast will remain off limits for oil and gas drilling for now. Following uproar from coastal communities and environmental groups, the Obama administration announced Tuesday that it was reversing its…
In January of 2007, the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights received a formal complaint filed as Case 12,639, about the Kaliña and Lokono indigenous peoples of Suriname. The case presented the dilemma faced…
More than one month has passed since approximately 3,000 barrels of crude oil ended up in various tributaries of Peru's Amazon River --two oil spills that were the responsibility of state…
Two back-to-back oil spills have left indigenous communities in Peru's northern Amazon, along the Chirico and Marañón rivers, in a really bad shape. The crude oil has traveled thousands of miles since…
The images being shared on social media and by the international press these days show to the average eye what the impacts of a broken oil pipeline can be: water dyed deep black,…
On January 30, 2015, Bolivian president Evo Morales gave the green light to oil exploration in Lliquimuni, north of the capital, La Paz. The Lliquimuni Block is located on a mountain…
n 2000, Naomi Oreskes, a geologist by training, was working at the Scripps Institute for Oceanography in San Diego, an organization with a long history of climate change research. “All…
In countries with weak governance, mismanagement of natural resources -- such as oil, forests, minerals and water -- can often fuel violent conflict. In fact, according to the United Nations…
Indigenous leaders from across Ecuador have been coming together in recent years, as oil exploration has ramped up in the Amazon region where many of them live. Last week, they united once…
Since early 2014, prices for most commodities produced in the tropics have plunged. Palm oil is down by 40 percent, logs from Malaysia and Cameroon are off by roughly a…
Last weekend, while the official COP21 negotiations were going on north of Paris at a site called Le Bourget, leaders of indigenous nations in North and South America were in…
Obama administration rejects Keystone XL pipeline [USA Today] After more than six years of review, President Obama announced on Friday that his administration has rejected the Keystone XL pipeline. He…
Hundreds of dead bottlenose dolphins continue to wash ashore, five years after the catastrophic Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. Of the dolphins that have managed to…
il company Shell announced today that it will seal and abandon its exploration well in the Chukchi Sea, and will end its controversial quest for oil in Alaskan waters. The…
hen the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform burst into flame more than five years ago, it set off a chain of events that resulted in over two hundred million gallons of…
A new study casts doubt on the long-term ability of the Athabasca River to supply the water Alberta’s oil sands industry relies on. Water is allocated to oil sands operations…
A Chinese company is planning a 24-year drilling project in a major national park in Argentina, attracting condemnation from conservation groups and local communities.
Researchers describe a new species of titi monkey in a study released last week.
On July 7, 2015. Wilson Enqueri, the president of the Waorani indigenous Indian community of Bataboro, adjusted the tie he had learned to wear in order to appear as a…
Yunguillo Indigenous Reserve stretches out into the Colombian forest. Photo courtesy of the Amazon Conservation Team. A landmark achievement was celebrated in southwest Colombia in May when the Colombian Institute…
Bolivia has opened millions of hectares of protected areas to oil and gas extraction, reports The Guardian. The law, passed last month, grants exploration rights in at least 11 of…
Bill Hinchberger with Veronica Goyzueta Welcome to Coca: "The unavoidable starting point for many of Ecuador's most fascinating jungle tours," proclaims Lonely Planet. And also the jumping off point for…
A sage grouse struts his stuff. Photo credit: Tom Koerner/USFWS. We try to walk quietly on a path that's barely lit by a waning moon and the night's last stars,…
Belize's Great Blue Hole, part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site that would be included in areas opened to oil and gas drilling under a new proposal from the Belizean…
Chukchi, where the proposed exporatory drilling is to take place, is home to about 2,000 polar bears. The species is currently declining as global warming melts the sea ice on…
Sloth on all fours seeking salt. Photo courtesy of camera trap video compilation from Tiputini Biodiversity Station. A compilation of new camera trap videos from Yasuni National Park shows off…
Energy has become a contentious and politicized topic, spurring activism, whether it be the fossil fuel divestment campaign, Keystone pipeline protests, or concern over wind turbine harm to birds. But…
CUNINICO, Peru--Villager examine oil slick near this Kukama Indian village in the northeastern Peruvian Amazon. Photo by Barbara Fraser. CUNINICO, Peru—When Peru's state-run oil company pulled out of this small…
The white sands of the Tapiche-Blanco region in Peru. Photo by: Nigel Pitman. Most people think of the Amazon rainforest as one massive, homogenous ecosystem—a giant castle of green. However,…
Mountain gorillas in Virunga National Park. Photo by: Cai Tjeenk Willink/Creative Commons 3.0. Last Friday, the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) announced it was considering changing the…
