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In February, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva praised planned investments by Vale during a public event in Pará state, urging the company to ensure dam safety. Image courtesy of Ricardo Stuckert/Presidência da República.

Copper rush pushes Vale to ramp up mining near Amazonian protected areas

André Schröder 14 Oct 2025
Kolkata was waterlogged after a sudden intense downpour on Sept. 23. Image by Dipanwita Saha.

Climate change and aging drains wreak havoc on Kolkata, India

Mongabay.com 13 Oct 2025
Banner image of motorists riding through a flooded road caused by heavy monsoon rain in Lahore, Pakistan, on July 10, 2025. Image by AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary.

Deadly monsoon rains in Pakistan made worse by climate change: Study

Kristine Sabillo 7 Aug 2025
Supertree grove is part of the Gardens by the Bay (GBTB) urban park in Singapore, covering 105 hectares (260 acres). Image by Tien Tran (tientran0019) via Pixabay (Pixabay Content License).

Singapore’s regreening is a model for cities everywhere

Mike DiGirolamo 22 Jul 2025
Heavy rainfall in Colombia and Venezuela caused deadly landslides and widespread flooding in June. A new analysis now points to rapid urbanization, deforestation, mining and overgrazing as having reduced the region’s climate resilience. 
 “The rapid growth of population and informal settlements in areas prone to landslides, particularly in Colombia, puts people and infrastructure at risk,” the World Weather Attribution (WWA), a network of scientists evaluating extreme weather events, said in its latest rapid analysis. It said the informal communities are growing as people seek livelihoods in cities or are displaced due to conflict. Roop Singh, report co-author from the Netherlands-based Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, said at a media briefing that pasture- and agriculture-driven deforestation rose over the past two decades, increasing “the risk of landslides because tree roots are no longer binding and anchoring the soils.”
 The heavy rains during the last week of June triggered widespread flooding and damage in Colombia; a landslide in Antioquia department killed 27 people. In Venezuela, rivers overflowed, and smaller landslides cut off rural communities. WWA said in its report that rains in these regions had persisted since April, and that the June rain fell on already saturated ground where the deadly landslide occurred, and in rivers with already high levels of water. The scientists examined the total rainfall from April-June this year over the Magdalena River catchment in Colombia and the Falcón and Maracaibo basins in Venezuela. They also studied data on the accumulated rainfall from June 20-24 in the affected states in the Venezuelan Llanos, a grassland plain. “Neither events were particularly extreme,” Mariam Zachariah, co-author and research associate at Imperial College London, said at the briefing. The WWA analysis showed the heavy rain that fell in June is common, expected every 10 years in Colombia and every three years in Venezuela. The scientists also used climate models to understand the influence of human-induced climate change on the rains, but the findings were inconclusive. Instead, the models projected a drying trend for Colombia and mixed results for Venezuela. Friederike Otto, co-author and climate science professor at Imperial College London, said not being able to show clear linkages to climate change doesn’t mean there’s no influence. The researchers attributed some of the uncertainty to a lack of long-term observational weather data and weather stations in the region. “Unfortunately, extreme weather is not well understood in northern South America,” Paola A. Arias, a professor at the University of Antioquia, said in a statement. “We urgently need more investment in climate science to understand shifting risks and prepare for what’s ahead. More science will save lives." Zachariah said Colombia and Venezuela must prepare for both rainfall and drought, and build resilience to extreme weather. Banner image: People look at their destroyed home after a deadly landslide was triggered by heavy rain in Colombia’s Antioquia department on June 25, 2025. Image by AP Photo/Fredy Amariles.

Deadly landslide and flooding in Colombia and Venezuela linked to rapid urbanization

Kristine Sabillo 18 Jul 2025
Urban greenspace in Bangkok

As tree planting gathers pace in Bangkok, urban green spaces still under threat

Carolyn Cowan 10 Jun 2025
Rescuers evacuate people from a flooded hospital following landslides and flash flooding in India's northeast state of Manipur, Sunday, June 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Donald Sairem)

Heavy rains inundate northeast India

Kristine Sabillo 6 Jun 2025
Banner image of Mokwa after the flooding, by the Nigerian National Emergency Management Agency via X.

Hundreds die after flash floods tear through Nigerian market town

Kristine Sabillo 5 Jun 2025
A sarus crane photographed in Lumbini. Image by Mukesh Pokhrel.

Concrete sprawl in Buddha’s birthplace in Nepal threatens sarus cranes

Mukesh Pokhrel 19 May 2025
Banner image of a striped albatross butterfly (Appias libythea) on a red leea plant (Leea rubra), courtesy of NTU Singapore.

Singapore study says roadside flowers can improve urban butterfly biodiversity

Kristine Sabillo 12 May 2025
Red-throated bee-eaters (Merops bulocki), Pehonko, Benin. Image by Yves Bas via iNaturalist (CC BY 4.0).

Africa’s growing cities are endangering birdlife (commentary)

Bello Adamu Danmallam 16 Apr 2025
Cameroon and Burkina Faso compete at the Olembé stadium during the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations (which took place in January 2022).

A Cameroon stadium spurs one community’s fight over ancestral lands

Fanta Mabo 14 Mar 2025
Five-day accumulated rainfall from Feb. 16-20, 2025, over Botswana. Image courtesy of World Weather Attribution.

Deadly Botswana rains made more likely by climate change, rapid urbanization

Shreya Dasgupta 14 Mar 2025
Trees fallen due to winds and fooding.

Indonesia families evicted for Jakarta PIK2 project flooded at relocation site

Irfan Maulana 7 Mar 2025
Malir River near Damloti check dam, Karachi suburbs.

Ecology vs. development in Karachi: Interview with photographer Salman Baloch

Waqas Alam Angaria 14 Feb 2025
Banner image of a roof rat (Rattus rattus) by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay.

Surge in rat numbers linked to climate warming, urbanization: Study

Kristine Sabillo 7 Feb 2025
Cityscape of Seattle, U.S., with trees in the foreground.

Cities are climate solution leaders: Interview with Vancouver’s Gregor Robertson

Justin Catanoso 22 Nov 2024
Banner image: Tourists interact with birds at the Bouddhanath shrine in Kathmandu. Image by Abhaya Raj Joshi

As Kathmandu’s birds get used to humans, biodiversity suffers, studies show

Abhaya Raj Joshi 28 Oct 2024
River Bagmati flowing through a religious site.

Supreme Court decision on saving Kathmandu rivers stirs up heated reactions

Abhaya Raj Joshi 23 Sep 2024
Boys swim in the Buriganga River near Dhaka during a heat wave in May 2024.

Conserving & restoring waterways can mitigate extreme urban heat in Bangladesh

Riley Comstock 20 Aug 2024
Seema Devi and other women from her village line up at the aquifer beneath the newly constructed field that doubles as a helipad.

Uttarakhand villagers thirst for water as tourism, temps & development rise

Swati Thapa 9 Aug 2024
Water scarcity has been a problem for Xochimilco residents for a long time, even before the recent drought, due to the overexploitation of its aquifers that supply neighboring urban areas and megaprojects.

Photos: Exploring Mexico City’s Aztec-era farms, the chinampas

Aimee Gabay 19 Jun 2024
Exhausted black kites

Black days for black kites in Bangladesh’s growing capital city

Sadiqur Rahman 10 Jun 2024
Elephants

Exploring the science of Asian elephants: Interview with Sanjeeta Sharma Pokharel

Abhaya Raj Joshi 27 May 2024
Farming in Uttarakhand.

Uttarakhand limits agricultural land sales amid protests & tourism development

Swati Thapa 22 Apr 2024
Workers loading cement.

Circular solutions vital to curb enviro harm from cement and concrete

Sean Mowbray 18 Apr 2024
A bee with a sunflower in Tokyo.

In highly urbanized Japan, city farmers are key to achieving organic goal

Annelise Giseburt 10 Apr 2024
While India has the highest population of any country in the world, its per capita carbon emissions rank 110th globally.

Ecological overshoot is a ‘behavioral crisis’ & marketing is a solution: Study

Mike DiGirolamo 20 Mar 2024
A laborer at a brickfield in Amin Bazar, Dhaka, Bangladesh.

To save topsoil & reduce pollution, Bangladesh moves toward alternative bricks

Abu Siddique 4 Mar 2024
Bagmati River flowing through Pashupatinath Temple in Kathmandu.

Controversy brews over proposed dam on Kathmandu’s Bagmati River

Abhaya Raj Joshi 22 Feb 2024
A front view of the Kedarnath Temple in the aftermath of the 2013 floods.

Risky development in Uttarakhand: Interview with environmentalist Ravi Chopra

Swati Thapa 13 Feb 2024
Sarah Oginga harvesting papyrus reeds.

Livelihoods at stake as Lake Victoria’s papyrus swamps come under pressure: Photos

Patrick Newcombe 5 Feb 2024

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