By Danilo Valladares, Inter-Press Service “No one will pay for the damages when work at the mine has finished,” says María del Rosario Velásquez, who lives in a town near the Oasis mine 100 km southeast of the Guatemalan capital. The Canada-based Tahoe Resources company plans to extract gold, silver, zinc and lead from the … Continue reading Residents say new Canadian mine in Guatemala will benefit mayor, devastate community→
By Dawn Paley / Vancouver Media Co-op It’s been almost three years since hundreds of Zapotec community members took direct action to temporarily shut down Vancouver-based Fortuna Silver’s gold and silver mine just south of Oaxaca City, Mexico. The blockade ended with a massive police raid, during which demonstrators were beaten and 23 people were … Continue reading Canadian mining company using police to attack Zapotec community→
By Jeremy Hance / Mongabay Last October indigenous groups, local people, and domestic NGOs formed the Save Sarawak’s Rivers Network to fight the planned construction of a dozen dams in the Malaysian state on the island of Borneo. The coalition opposes the dam-building plans, known as the Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (SCORE) initiative, due … Continue reading Activists form alliance to stop dam-building on Borneo→
By iLoveMountains.org More than 1,200 people are gathering in Frankfort, Ky. on Feb. 14 to celebrate I Love Mountains Day and call for an end to mountaintop removal coal mining—a destructive practice that has shortened lifespans and caused illnesses in Central Appalachia for decades. The iLoveMountains.org team has just launched an innovative new web tool … Continue reading 1,200 protestors march against mountaintop removal mining in Kentucky→
By Maura Stephens Pennsylvania’s state legislature has effectively signed a death warrant for some number of residents, who knows how many. Corbett’s about to make it official. Pennsylvanians: Fight back — or suffer the consequences. The fracking industry has written a bill that gives itself legal permission to poison Pennsylvanians-and keeps doctors who treat them … Continue reading Pennsylvania legislature and fracking industry work together to pass new law→
By Bernice Yeung / Huffington Post Southern Californians are among those at highest risk of death due to air pollution, according to recent U.S. Environmental Protection Agency research published in the journal Risk Analysis. The study, published last month, was conducted to “provide insight to the size and location of public health risks associated with … Continue reading Air pollution in Southern California likely to kill up to 360,000 people→
By Jennifer Chu / MIT News Office Last August, Hurricane Irene spun through the Caribbean and parts of the eastern United States, leaving widespread wreckage in its wake. The Category 3 storm whipped up water levels, generating storm surges that swept over seawalls and flooded seaside and inland communities. Many hurricane analysts suggested, based on … Continue reading Climate change likely to increase incidence of major floods by five times or more→
By Jeremy Hance / mongabay.com Last year the Arctic, which is warming faster than anywhere else on Earth due to global climate change, experienced its warmest twelve months yet. According to recent data by NASA, average Arctic temperatures in 2011 were 2.28 degrees Celsius (4.1 degrees Fahrenheit) above those recorded from 1951-1980. As the Arctic … Continue reading 2011 warmest year on record in the Arctic; scientists warn of tipping points→
By Reuters A French court on Monday declared U.S. biotech giant Monsanto guilty of chemical poisoning of a French farmer, a judgment that could lend weight to other health claims against pesticides. In the first such case heard in court in France, grain grower Paul Francois, 47, says he suffered neurological problems including memory loss, … Continue reading Monsanto guilty of chemical poisoning, rules French court→
By Tom Phillips / The Guardian A single shot to the temple was Mouth Organ John’s reward for spilling the beans. His friend, Junior José Guerra, fared only marginally better. Guerra’s prize for speaking out against the illegal loggers laying waste to the greatest tropical rainforest on Earth? A broken home, two petrified children and … Continue reading Organized crime killing activists reporting illegal Amazon loggers→