When we think of climate change, we often envision
it in terms of forest clearance, shrinking ice caps, melting glaciers and
rising oceans. But just as important is the question of land and the way
humanity makes use of it. Rachel Simon has examined it for LAB.
August this year saw the publication of the IPCC’s Climate Change and Land Report which presented...
Dear LAB Supporter and Friend,
11 September 2019
Amazon fires caused by land-grabbing on an industrial scale
In addition to our website, LAB’s Facebook page provides a daily stream of summaries and links to articles published
elsewhere. In this and future newsletters we will mention some of these, with the
rubric ‘Read FB’ to distinguish them from posts on LAB’s website.
Today is the 46th...
This open
letter, from a distinguished group of Brazilian mental health academics and
professionals, was first published in El Pais Brazil on 2 September 2019. You
can read the original here.
It was translated for LAB from the Portuguese by Diane Grosklaus Whitty.
Greta Thunberg gives life to the climate cause, just
as the climate cause gives her life. Anyone who knows what it is...
2 July 2019
Dear LAB Supporter and Friend
Threats multiply - to women, diversity and the environment
Somos Guerreras is a collective of seasoned artists comprised of rappers Rebeca Lane (Guatemala), Nakury (Costa Rica) and Audry Funk (Mexico). They are visiting London for the first time in early July, and will appear at the Festival of Latin American Women in the Arts...
In May, I gave a talk at Harvard University on the Amazon and creating futures and I closed it by saying that hope, like despair, is a luxury we can no longer afford. Given our overheating planet, there’s no time for lamentations or melancholy. We need to act, even without hope. After my talk, a well-known Brazilian businessman made...
The Bolsonaro administration has launched policies that undermine IBAMA, Brazil’s environmental agency, and ICMBio (The Chico Mendes Institute) which protects the nation’s federal conservation units, by effectively dismantling environmental law enforcement and allowing deforestation to proceed unchecked.
Fines imposed for illegal deforestation between Jan. 1 and May 15 this year were down 34 percent from the same period in 2018,...
A new manifesto by eight of Brazil’s past environment ministers has accused the rightist Bolsonaro administration of “a series of unprecedented actions that are destroying the capacity of the environment ministry to formulate and carry out public policies.”The ministers warn that Bolsonaro’s draconian environmental policies, including the weakening of environmental licensing, plus sweeping...
Norway gives billions to Brazil to save the rainforest. At the same time, Norsk Hydro’s operations lead to large emissions of greenhouse gases and the destruction of rainforests.
NRK-2, TV Channel NRK-2 of the (government-owned) Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation published this article on 6 January 2019 about Norway’s double standards with respect to rainforests. You can read the...
Interview with Rene Orellana, Minister of Development Planning of Bolivia, HispanTV Face to Face programme, 15 November 2015.
Interview with René Orellana on the impact of Climate Change on Bolivia. The Democracy Center, March 2012.