Fires in the Brazilian Amazon, which are burning in unusually great number this year, are threatening to wipe out a group of 150 Awá indigenous people living in voluntary isolation. Some of the fires are burning simultaneously on indigenous reservations of the Awá and Guajajara peoples in a peripheral swath of Amazon forest in the northeastern state of Maranhão. Most are believed to have been set by farmers and ranchers clearing land for pasture and crops, and in some cases by loggers hoping to distract indigenous communities from illegal cutting they are doing. The fires have spread with help from a severe drought currently gripping the Amazon region, according to the government’s National Space Research Institute (INPE) which uses satellites to detect and monitor Amazon...
[ Log in to read more | Subscribe ]
Environmental remediation is expected to wrap up this year at the El Paso, Texas site of the old Asarco smelter. For over a century the smelter of copper and other metals was a regional economic powerhouse, providing thousands of jobs to workers from El Paso and neighboring Ciudad Juárez. Yet pollution from the facility stoked numerous controversies and environmental battles on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. Toppled in 2013 as part of the remediation, Asarco’s two looming smokestacks, 828 and 612 feet respectively, became the biggest landmark of the Paso del Norte borderland. In addition to demolition of the complex, the five-year project has included the removal of PCBs, lead and other toxics; installation of a stormwater-retention system; construction of a...
[ Log in to read more | Subscribe ]
Since news reports emerged in April that the mining company Grupo México is seeking to reopen an abandoned mine in the wintering grounds of the monarch butterfly, Mexican environmental agencies have been silent over whether they would allow the project to go ahead. Now, a leading environmental official has stated publicly that he opposes the project. Alejandro del Mazo Maza, head of Mexico’s National Commission of Protected Natural Areas (Conanp), said on Aug. 23 that his agency would recommend against giving Grupo México a permit. The company obtained one authorization to reopen the mine nine years ago, but Del Mazo said it needs additional approval, although the mining firm has yet to ask for this formally. “If the request came to Conanp, we would say...
[ Log in to read more | Subscribe ]
Peru’s Congress has passed a measure that saves the highly polluting La Oroya smelter and refinery complex from immediate liquidation. Despite the reprieve, though, the complex’s future remains unclear. The measure—a change to the bankruptcy law that appears tailor-made for the La Oroya complex, though it could be applied to other companies—gives the complex’s administrators until August 2017 to find a buyer. The bankruptcy-law change allows for a possible extension of the deadline to 2018. It came just one day before the deadline for the administrators to find a buyer or begin liquidation. Just before taking office on July 28, Peru’s new president, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, visited La Oroya and said his government would seek legislative support to stave off liquidation...
[ Log in to read more | Subscribe ]
