Brazil

Critical List: New York could approve fracking; animals get stoned

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo wants to open up private land in the state to hydrofracking.

Children living near Fukushima tested positively for radiation exposure.

Want to get all riled up before the weekend? Get your fix of climate skepticism here.

Bill McKibben: Blame Canada!

Bill McKibben has it in for Canada. In a new article in The New Republic, he calls it "one of the earth's most irresponsible nations," admonishes liberals that they need to find a new country to dream of emigrating to, and stops just short of calling Canadians (and Americans, but what else is new) giant hypocrites.

What's pissing McKibben off? Tar sands, of course.

Dying to save the rainforest

At the end of May, José Cláudio Ribeiro da Silva and his wife, Mario do Espírito Santo, were killed. Both lived in Brazil's Amazon rainforest and had fought back against loggers illegally harvesting wood. Da Silva had expected death for a long time, but said he wouldn’t let that stop him: “[M]y fear does not silence me. As long as I have the strength to walk I will denounce all of those who damage the forest."

That same week, another activist, Adelino Ramos, was shot and killed. The week after that, an activist identified only as Marcos was shot. When witnesses tried to take him to the hospital, gunmen stopped them on the way and killed the wounded man.

Critical List: Al Gore praises Romney; a fifth Brazilian anti-logging activist dies

Al Gore is doing his best to ensure Barack Obama gets reelected. Yesterday, he endorsed Mitt Romney's climate stance.

The Arizona wildfire is the largest in the state's history.

A fifth anti-logging activist in Brazil was killed.

Your HD cable box uses more electricity than your refrigerator.

Why do cities get so little respect from state and national governments?

Sao Paulo, Brazil.Photo: Henrique GodoyLast week, I attended the C40 summit in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The C40 is a network of cities across the globe that are working to address climate change. It recently absorbed the (Bill) Clinton Climate Initiative, a story you can read about in The New York Times, and now represents enormous […]

New NASA map shows how much carbon is stored in global forests

NASA has just released a new map which shows the carbon stored in the forests around the world.  While it doesn’t show us exactly which forests are at risk of deforestation – thus turning the current stored carbon into carbon pollution that causes global warming – it does provide us with a visual of what […]

Megacity mayors leading the fight for sustainable survival at the C40 summit

The megacity of Sao Paulo, Brazil.Photo: Luiz Henrique Varga AssuncaoCross-posted from ThinkProgress. Leaders of the world’s megacities are meeting in Sao Paulo this week for a major climate summit, the fourth meeting of the C40 Climate Leadership Group. From Michael Bloomberg of New York City to Kuma Demeksa of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the mayors and […]

Critical List: Bike to work today; Amazon deforestation rate rose this year

It's Bike to Work day. Now all you bike commuters know how secretaries feel on Administrative Professionals Day: “One DAY? I’ve been doing this day in and day out all year!” The rate of Amazon deforestation has been declining in recent years; this year, it climbed again. The Brazilian government is — rightly — freaking […]

U.S. infrastructure needs a $2 trillion make-over

Like those bridges and roads and trains tracks you've got there? Want to keep them? That'll be $2 trillion. That's how much the Urban Land Institute estimates the U.S. needs to invest in infrastructure just to keep what's already in place from falling apart. Everybody else in the world gets this. In Europe, countries realize […]