In a major test of Mexican environmental policing, the federal government says one of the country’s largest companies could face tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars in cleanup costs following a huge acid spill at one of its copper mines. Environment Minister Juan José Guerra Abud told reporters Aug. 26 that the spill of 40,000 cubic meters (10.6 million gallons) of copper sulfate acid solution at the giant Buenavista del Cobre mine was the worst environmental disaster in the modern history of Mexican mining. “[Our] priority is to impose the maximum fines that we can,” Guerra Abud said of the Aug. 6 spill at the mine, which is owned by Grupo México. Although many of Mexico’s environmental laws are very lax, he said...
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A study published this month indicates that a large, commercially important fish in the Amazon Basin has become extinct or severely depleted in the vast majority of communities evaluated. The study, published in the scientific journal Aquatic Conservation: Freshwater and Marine Ecosystems, is the first ever to quantify overfishing of arapaima, which can reach lengths of over 10 feet (three meters) and weigh more than 400 pounds (180 kilos). The study also explains why the giant fish are quickly disappearing from some regions of the Amazon. The research drew on observations and counts from 182 fishermen in 81 communities stretching over 401.5 square miles (1,040 sq kms) in the eastern Amazon state of Pará. Arapaima are obligate air-breathers which on account of their primitive...
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Three environmental groups and a leading expert on the monarch butterfly have asked the United States Fish and Wildlife Service to protect the insect under the Endangered Species Act. Their petition, submitted Aug. 26, points to the decline in the population of the North American monarch butterfly by 90% over the past two decades as evidence of the need for a new strategy. The Center for Biological Diversity, the Center for Food Safety, the Xerces Society and monarch specialist Lincoln Brower warn that even though the orange and black butterfly seems to be ubiquitous across the United States, it faces mounting risks across much of its habitat. “Monarchs are in a deadly free fall,” says Brower, a professor at Sweet Briar College who has been...
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Facing one of its worst droughts in 60 years, Venezuela has turned to rationing water, distributing animal feed to farmers and seeding clouds in hopes of producing rain. But with critical shortages of milk, meat, rice, corn and other staples and regular protests in poor areas of Caracas over sharply curtailed water service, the government of President Nicolás Maduro is increasingly on the defensive over its failure to guarantee a better water supply. Authorities blame climate change for the drought, which has devastated the northern part of the country and left nine of 23 states in crisis. Environmentalists say there’s more to the story, charging the government has failed to build reservoirs and wells that might prepare the country for worsening climate conditions. In the...
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