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America's Butterflies Are Disappearing At 'Catastrophic' Rate, Study Says

The number of the winged beauties down 22% since 2000, according to new research.

WASHINGTON (AP) — America’s butterflies are disappearing because of insecticides, climate change and habitat loss, with the number of the winged beauties down 22% since 2000, a new study finds.The first countrywide systematic analysis of butterfly abundance found that the number of butterflies in the Lower 48 states has been falling on average 1.3% a year since the turn of the century, with 114 species showing significant declines and only nine increasing, according to a study in Thursday’s journal Science.“Butterflies have been declining the last 20 years,” said study co-author Nick Haddad, an entomologist at Michigan State University. “And we don’t see any sign that that’s going to end.”A team of scientists combined 76,957 surveys from 35 monitoring programs and blended them for an apples-to-apples comparison and ended up counting 12.6 million butterflies over the decades. Last month an annual survey that looked just at monarch butterflies, which federal officials plan to put on the threatened species list, counted a nearly all-time low of fewer than 10,000, down from 1.2 million in 1997.Many of the species in decline fell by 40% or more.David Wagner, a University of Connecticut entomologist who wasn’t part of the study, praised its scope. And he said while the annual rate of decline may not sound significant, it is “catastrophic and saddening” when compounded over time.“In just 30 or 40 years we are talking about losing half the butterflies (and other insect life) over a continent!” Wagner said in an email. “The tree of life is being denuded at unprecedented rates.”The United States has 650 butterfly species, but 96 species were so sparse they didn’t show up in the data and another 212 species weren’t found in sufficient number to calculate trends, said study lead author Collin Edwards, an ecologist and data scientist at the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.“I’m probably most worried about the species that couldn’t even be included in the analyses” because they were so rare, said University of Wisconsin-Madison entomologist Karen Oberhauser, who wasn’t part of the research. Haddad, who specializes in rare butterflies, said in recent years he has seen just two endangered St. Francis Satyr butterflies — which only live on a bomb range at Fort Bragg in North Carolina — “so it could be extinct.” Some well-known species had large drops. The red admiral, which is so calm it lands on people, is down 44% and the American lady butterfly, with two large eyespots on its back wings, decreased by 58%, Edwards said. Even the invasive white cabbage butterfly, “a species that is well adapted to invade the world,” according to Haddad, fell by 50%. “How can that be?” Haddad wondered.Cornell University butterfly expert Anurag Agrawal said he worries most about the future of a different species: Humans.“The loss of butterflies, parrots and porpoises is undoubtedly a bad sign for us, the ecosystems we need and the nature we enjoy,” Agrawal, who wasn’t part of the study, said in an email. “They are telling us that our continent’s health is not doing so well ... Butterflies are an ambassador for nature’s beauty, fragility and the interdependence of species. They have something to teach us.”Oberhauser said butterflies connect people with nature and that “calms us down, makes us healthier and happier and promotes learning.”What’s happening to butterflies in the United States is probably happening to other, less-studied insects across the continent and world, Wagner said. He said not only is this the most comprehensive butterfly study, but the most data-rich for any insect.Butterflies are also pollinators, though not as prominent as bees, and are a major source of pollination of the Texas cotton crop, Haddad said.The biggest decrease in butterflies was in the Southwest — Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and Oklahoma — where the number of butterflies dropped by more than half in the 20 years.“It looks like the butterflies that are in dry and warm areas are doing particularly poorly,” Edwards said. “And that kind of captures a lot of the Southwest.”Edwards said when they looked at butterfly species that lived both in the hotter South and cooler North, the ones that did better were in the cooler areas.Climate change, habitat loss and insecticides tend to work together to weaken butterfly populations, Edwards and Haddad said. Of the three, it seems that insecticides are the biggest cause, based on previous research from the U.S. Midwest, Haddad said.“It makes sense because insecticide use has changed in dramatic ways in the time since our study started,” Haddad said.Habitats can be restored and so can butterflies, so there’s hope, Haddad said.“You can make changes in your backyard and in your neighborhood and in your state,” Haddad said. “That could really improve the situation for a lot of species.”Follow Seth Borenstein on X at @borenbearsThe Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

Trump administration drops suit that sought to cut toxic emissions in ‘Cancer Alley’

The Trump administration has dropped a lawsuit that sought to cut toxic emissions from a facility in a highly polluted area of Louisiana known as “Cancer Alley.” In 2023, the Biden administration filed a lawsuit against Denka Performance Elastomer in an effort to get it to cut down its emissions of chloroprene. Chloroprene is a...

The Trump administration has dropped a lawsuit that sought to cut toxic emissions from a facility in a highly polluted area of Louisiana known as “Cancer Alley.” In 2023, the Biden administration filed a lawsuit against Denka Performance Elastomer in an effort to get it to cut down its emissions of chloroprene. Chloroprene is a chemical that’s used in the production of neoprene, a material that is used to make wetsuits, hoses and adhesives. The EPA considers chloroprene to be a likely carcinogen.   When it filed the lawsuit, the EPA said that Denka’s emissions of chloroprene posed “an imminent and substantial endangerment” to public health. “The endangerment is imminent because Denka emits chloroprene at levels that are producing unacceptably high risks of cancer to the people, including children, that are regularly exposed to the Facility’s emissions,” the lawsuit said. “Hundreds of children attend school near the Facility and currently breathe the air there.” However, the Trump administration voluntarily dropped the lawsuit this week. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) declined to explain why, referring The Hill to the Justice Department, which did not immediately respond to The Hill’s request for comment. Denka, the company that was being sued, thanked the Trump administration for dropping the case in a written statement, saying it was “lacking scientific and legal merit." The company said that it is “committed to implementing the emissions reductions achieved as we turn the page from this relentless and draining attack on our business.” It also said it was “committed to working with the EPA” to change tighter pollution standards that were set last year under Biden. Environmental advocates criticized the Trump administration’s move.  “The Trump Administration's plan to dismiss this case should raise alarm bells for communities across the country and is a clear signal that the administration is not serious about enforcing the laws on the books that ensure we have access to clean and safe air and water,"  said Jen Duggan, executive director of the Environmental Integrity Project, in a written statement. "Cancer Alley" has among the highest rates of toxic air pollution in the country. People living in an area close to the facility are exposed to chloroprene at more than 14 times the level the EPA says can increase cancer risk, according to the agency's lawsuit.

Out of the Lab and Into the Streets, Researchers and Doctors Rally for Science Against Trump Cuts

Researchers, doctors, their patients and supporters are venturing out of labs, hospitals and offices across the country to stand up to what they call an attack on life-saving science by the Trump administration

WASHINGTON (AP) — Researchers, doctors, their patients and supporters ventured out of labs, hospitals and offices Friday to stand up to what they call a blitz on life-saving science by the Trump administration.In the nation's capital, several hundred people gathered at the Stand Up for Science rally. Organizers said similar rallies were planned in more than 30 U.S. cities. Politicians, scientists, musicians, doctors and their patients were expected to make the case that firings, budget and grant cuts in health, climate, science and other research government agencies in the Trump administration's first 47 days in office are endangering not just the future but the present.“Science is under attack in the United States,” said rally co-organizer Colette Delawalla, a doctoral student in clinical psychology. “We're not just going to stand here and take it.”“American scientific progress and forward movement is a public good and public good is coming to a screeching halt right now,” Delawalla said. “It's a very bad time with all the promise and momentum," said Collins. Friday's rally in Washington was at the Lincoln Memorial, in the shadow of a statue of the president who created the National Academy of Sciences in 1863. Some of the expected speakers study giant colliding galaxies, the tiny genetic blueprint of life inside humans and the warming atmosphere.Nobel Prize winning biologist Victor Ambros, Bill Nye The Science Guy, former NASA chief Bill Nelson and a host of other politicians, and patients — some with rare diseases — were expected to take the stage to talk about their work and the importance of scientific research. The rallies were organized mostly by graduate students and early career scientists. Dozens of other protests were also planned around the world, including more than 30 in France, Delawalla said.“The cuts in science funding affects the world,” she said.She said the administration’s campaign to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion have delayed and threatened her grant because the National Institutes of Health is scrubbing proposals with words such as “female” or “woman.” Her research focuses on compulsive alcohol use in people, which is different for men and women.The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Photos You Should See - Feb. 2025

IACHR Warned of Rising Femicides and Judicial Stagnation in Costa Rica

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) assessed human rights conditions in Costa Rica through a public hearing, where several organizations shared their perspectives and concerns. The event, conducted in a regional context marked by the weakening of the rule of law and democratic institutions, highlighted the challenges facing the country. During the session, civil […] The post IACHR Warned of Rising Femicides and Judicial Stagnation in Costa Rica appeared first on The Tico Times | Costa Rica News | Travel | Real Estate.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) assessed human rights conditions in Costa Rica through a public hearing, where several organizations shared their perspectives and concerns. The event, conducted in a regional context marked by the weakening of the rule of law and democratic institutions, highlighted the challenges facing the country. During the session, civil society organizations presented the main challenges confronting the nation, emphasizing the differential impact on vulnerable populations such as indigenous peoples, LGBTIQ+ individuals, women, children, adolescents, and people in situations of human mobility. The issues addressed included budget cuts in key sectors, setbacks in the protection of rights, and the lack of a state response to problems such as gender violence, discrimination, and the environmental crisis. The organizations denounced that the budget of the Ministry of Public Education had been reduced from 5.25% to 4.98%, directly affecting children and adolescents. This cut limits access to quality education and perpetuates socioeconomic inequalities, especially in marginalized communities. Additionally, the reduction of resources allocated to the National Child Welfare Agency (PANI) was reported, in a context where incidents of violence against minors have increased. This situation leaves thousands of children unprotected, violating their fundamental rights and exposing them to greater risks. Regarding the judiciary, the organizations pointed out the stagnation of the judiciary’s budget, despite the expansion of its competencies. The hearing also underscored setbacks in protecting women’s rights in Costa Rica. The organizations denounced the rise in femicides and the barriers women face in accessing justice, reflecting a lack of an effective state response to gender-based violence. Furthermore, it was noted that the rights of the LGBTIQ+ population are at risk due to the elimination of key protections, the threat of repealing anti-discrimination policies, and the dismantling of educational programs that promote inclusion and respect for diversity. On the issue of human mobility, the organizations denounced Costa Rica’s role in the detention and reception of individuals expelled by the United States and the historical debts in accessing the rights of migrants and refugees, highlighting the excessive time required to obtain recognition of refugee status. In environmental matters, the organizations warned of a water crisis exacerbated by agrochemical contamination and the lack of continuous access to drinking water, particularly in areas experiencing socioeconomic inequalities. They also raised concerns about the pressure on protected areas due to illegal logging and the expansion of real estate developments in coastal regions, which adversely affect fragile ecosystems and intensify conflicts in indigenous territories. The post IACHR Warned of Rising Femicides and Judicial Stagnation in Costa Rica appeared first on The Tico Times | Costa Rica News | Travel | Real Estate.

Could Your Cup of Tea Help Remove Lead From Drinking Water?

By I. Edwards HealthDay ReporterFRIDAY, March 7, 2025 (HealthDay News) -- Your daily cup of tea might do more than help you relax -- it could also...

FRIDAY, March 7, 2025 (HealthDay News) -- Your daily cup of tea might do more than help you relax -- it could also help remove harmful heavy metals from your drinking water, new research suggests.A Northwestern University study found that tea leaves can naturally pull lead and other dangerous metals out of water as tea steeps.About 5 billion cups of tea are consumed each day worldwide, according to one estimate.“You can see the implications,” said Vinayak Dravid, a materials scientist at Northwestern and an author of the study. “How often do we touch billions of people?”Heavy metal contamination -- especially lead -- is a growing concern, especially in areas with aging pipes.The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that about 9 million U.S. homes get their water through pipes that contain lead, The New York Times reported. Those pipes can allow the toxic metal to leach into drinking water.Even small amounts of lead exposure can be dangerous, especially for children, potentially leading to developmental delays and behavioral problems.In the study, David and his team tested a variety of teas -- including black, white, oolong, green, rooibos, herbal, loose leaf and plain Lipton -- to see how well they absorbed lead from water during various steeping times.The researchers found that black tea was the most effective at pulling lead from water.“Green tea and black tea had fairly equivalent amounts of metal absorbed,” co-author Benjamin Shindel told The Times. He worked on the study as a doctoral candidate at Northwestern.This is because compounds called catechins act like “little Velcro” hooks to which lead molecules latch, Michelle Francl, a chemist at Bryn Mawr College, explained.Francl added that tea leaves also have a rough surface with "ridges and valleys," which provides more space for metals to attach to them.White tea, which is more gently processed and has smoother leaves, absorbed far less lead.Herbal teas like chamomile, which aren’t made from actual tea leaves, were also less effective.Steeping black tea for five minutes removed about 15% of the lead from the water. And while any reduction is helpful, the EPA warns that no amount of lead exposure is safe.“With lead and other contaminants, any decrease is meaningful to some extent, especially if you have a lack of resources or infrastructure that would already remediate some of these problem materials,” said Caroline Harms, who worked on the study as an undergraduate student of Dravid's at Northwestern.While longer steeping times did pull out more lead, they also made the tea more bitter.“It’s not really drinkable after 10 minutes of steeping tea, and no amount of salt is going to help that,” Francl told The Times.Some samples steeped for 24 hours removed the most metals, but they would be impossible to drink.Researchers estimated that in countries where tea drinking is common, people could be ingesting about 3% less lead from their water compared to their counterparts in countries that don’t drink tea.“Given that clean water is such a global issue,” Francl concluded, “if there was a way to take this proof of concept and tweak it to produce potable water at the end, that would be pretty good.”SOURCE: The New York Times, Feb. 28, 2025Copyright © 2025 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

More Americans Are Going to Fall Into Toxic Traps

Environmental justice was patching over gaps in federal law that allowed for zones of concentrated harms.

Tracking the Trump administration’s rollback of climate and environmental policies can seem like being forced through a wormhole back in time. The administration tried to freeze funding that Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act directed to clean energy, turning that particular clock back to 2022. The Environmental Protection Agency could scrap the finding that greenhouse-gas emissions pose threats to human health and the environment, which has underpinned federal climate efforts since 2009. The Trump administration has also barred scientists from working on the UN’s benchmark international climate report, a continuous collaboration since 1990. And it has demolished federal work on environmental justice, which dates back to the George H. W. Bush administration. As part of its purge of so-called DEI initiatives, the administration put 160 EPA employees who work on environmental justice on leave, rescinded Biden’s executive orders prioritizing this work, and pushed to terminate, “to the maximum extent allowed by law,” all environmental-justice offices and positions by March 21.The concept of environmental justice is grounded in activists’ attempt in the early ’80s to block a dump for polychlorinated biphenyls, once widely used toxic chemicals, from being installed in Warren Country, North Carolina, a predominantly Black community. Evidence quickly mounted that Americans who were nonwhite or poor, and particularly those who were both, were more likely to live near hazardous-waste sites and other sources of pollution. Advocates for addressing these ills called unequal toxic exposures “environmental racism,” and the efforts to address them “environmental justice.” In the early ’90s, the first President Bush established the Office of Environmental Equity, eventually known as the EPA’s Office of Environmental Justice, and President Bill Clinton mandated that federal agencies incorporate environmental justice into their work.Biden, though, was the first president to direct real money toward communities disproportionately affected by pollution—places where, say, multiple factories, refineries, truck yards, and garbage incinerators all operated in a condensed area. As with so many targets of Trump’s crusade against DEI, the damage will be felt by poor people across the country. This choice will certainly harm communities of color, but it will also touch everyone, including many of Trump’s supporters, living in a place burdened by multiple forms of environmental stress. Under Trump’s deregulatory policies, that category will only keep expanding.“There are still these places where life expectancy is 10 to 15 years less than other parts of the country,” Adam Ortiz, the former administrator for EPA Region 3, which covers the mid-Atlantic, told me. Cancer rates are sky high in many of these areas too. Some of these communities are predominantly Black, such as Ivy City, in Washington, D.C., a historically redlined, segregated, working-class community where the air is fouled by a rail switchyard, a highway, and dozens of industrial sites located in a small area. But plenty of the small rural areas that have benefited from environmental-justice money look like Richwood, West Virginia, where catastrophic flooding—a growing climate hazard in the region—knocked out the local water-treatment plant. Residents there are poor, white, and generally politically conservative. In many cases, these communities had gotten little federal attention for generations, Ortiz said.Untangling the knot of pollution in these places is slow work, in part because federal laws don’t adequately address overlapping environmental ills: The Clean Water Act and Clean Air Act regulate only one form and one source of pollution at a time. A population exposed to many pollution sources simultaneously, or to a cocktail of toxins, has little redress. Each business regulated by these laws may follow them and still end up creating places that, like Ivy City, have dangerously bad air quality. Cumulative impact is a gaping regulatory chasm into which millions of Americans fall each year. Federal environmental-justice efforts aimed to fill it.The Trump administration has now halted projects such as the ones Ortiz worked on. People who had spent years gaining trust with local communities, and who had worked with local companies to help them alter things such as how they vented pollution, were dismissed or reassigned. By then, in Ivy City, the EPA had managed to address a “handful” of the 40 or 50 pollution sources plaguing the area, Ortiz said.But some work did get done, and its benefit will likely persist despite the Trump administration’s attempt to make environmental justice disappear. Paul Mohai, a professor at the University of Michigan who served as a senior adviser to the EPA’s environmental-justice office, told me. In his view, one president can’t erase the progress made over the past decades, particularly outside the federal government.Because he was there at the beginning, Mohai knows what these knotty pollution problems looked like when few in government were paying attention. When he co-wrote a review of the literature on environmental justice in the early 1990s, he struggled to find more than a dozen papers on the topic. Now, he said, more publications are coming out and more nonprofit groups have formed to tackle these issues than he can keep track of.Surely some of them will be affected by the president’s restrictions on grant making for scientific research. But the facts accrued through existing research cannot be erased: People of color in the U.S. are exposed to a 38 percent higher level of the respiratory irritant nitrogen dioxide, on average, than white people. Low-income communities are disproportionately targeted for hazardous-waste sites. Poor people and people of color suffer the most from climate impacts such as flooding and extreme heat. Several states have also put environmental-justice considerations into their laws; one in New Jersey restricts certain new industrial permits in places that are already overburdened, for instance. The decisions of a single administration can’t undo all that.But millions of disadvantaged Americans live in states that are not interested in passing these kinds of laws. And layoffs at the EPA will dilute what protections federal clean-air and water legislation do afford, by making enforcement less possible. As the climate crisis deepens—growing the threats of extreme heat, sea-level rise, and catastrophic rainfall, each a hazard that can rob people of safety—more places could succumb to the gaps in these laws as well. Many climate dangers are akin to those of pollution because they create zones of harm where residents bear the costs of the country’s environmental compromises and have little to help them through it. Nothing in any federal law specifically compels the government to protect people from extreme heat, or from unprecedented flooding, though both are set to descend on Americans more often and disproportionately harm poor people and people of color.As these stresses multiply, they’ll be layered onto a landscape already dotted with sites where heavy industry and major traffic create concentrations of emissions. Without laws to address the cumulative impact of these, more Americans will be left sicker and will die sooner. It’s taken decades for the country to start reckoning with that fact to begin to move toward a more useful vision of safety. For now, it seems, all progress is on pause.

Switzerland told it must do better on climate after older women’s ECHR win

Council of Europe says Swiss government failing to respect human rights court’s ruling on emissionsEurope live – latest updatesThe Swiss government has been told it must do more to show that its national climate plans are ambitious enough to comply with a landmark legal ruling.The Council of Europe’s committee of ministers, in a meeting this week, decided that Switzerland was not doing enough to respect a decision by the European court of human rights last year that it must do more to cut its greenhouse gas emissions and rejected the government’s plea to close the case. Continue reading...

The Swiss government has been told it must do more to show that its national climate plans are ambitious enough to comply with a landmark legal ruling.The Council of Europe’s committee of ministers, in a meeting this week, decided that Switzerland was not doing enough to respect a decision by the European court of human rights last year that it must do more to cut its greenhouse gas emissions and rejected the government’s plea to close the case.The KlimaSeniorinnen organisation of more than 2,000 older Swiss women successfully argued that its members’ rights to privacy and family life were being breached because they were particularly vulnerable to the health impacts of heatwaves.It was seen as a historic decision in Europe, where it was the court’s first ruling on climate, with direct ramifications for all 46 Council of Europe member states. It has also influenced climate litigation around the world.However, there was resistance within Switzerland from the start, and by the summer the Swiss federal council had rebuffed the ruling.While it acknowledged the importance of the underlying European convention on human rights, the Swiss government said the court’s interpretation was too broad in extending it to the climate crisis and in accepting a complaint from an organisation.It claimed it was already doing enough to cut national emissions, and submitted an “action report” in October rather than the required action plan. This maintained that the judgment did not require it to set specific carbon budgets and that there was no internationally recognised method for doing so.The committee of ministers, which is responsible for upholding the judgment, noted this week that Switzerland had closed some legislative gaps, including revising its CO2 act and setting goals up to 2030.But it invited Switzerland to provide more information showing how its climate framework aligned with the court’s ruling, “through a carbon budget or otherwise, of national greenhouse gas emissions limitations”. The committee took note of methodologies put forward by a broad coalition of NGOs to calculate this.Georg Klingler, a project coordinator and climate campaigner at Greenpeace, which supported the Swiss women’s case, said this essentially meant setting budgets that reflect Switzerland’s “fair share” of emission reductions in line with the Paris agreement’s goal of limiting warming to under 1.5C. That could mean toughening up existing goals, he said.The Swiss government was also told to keep the committee of ministers informed about planned adaptation measures to protect vulnerable citizens during events such as heatwaves. And it must provide “concrete examples” of citizens’ involvement in developing climate policies. Switzerland has until September to provide this information.skip past newsletter promotionThe planet's most important stories. Get all the week's environment news - the good, the bad and the essentialPrivacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.after newsletter promotionThe KlimaSeniorinnen co-president Rosmarie Wydler-Wälti welcomed the decision. She called on the Swiss federal council and parliament “to take the dangers of global warming seriously and finally take decisive action against the climate crisis”.Sébastien Duyck, a senior attorney at the Center for International Environmental Law, said European governments had “reaffirmed the rule of law”. “The decision … makes clear that the Swiss federal council must fulfil its legal obligation to protect its citizens’ human rights by ramping up its climate ambition.”Başak Çalı, a professor of international law at the Oxford Bonavero Institute of Human Rights, said: “It is a good day for respect for European court judgments and international law. This decision also shows just how important international institutions – such as the European court – are for helping to improve the lives of people everywhere.”In a statement, the Swiss federal government said the “competent authorities” would analyse the decision and determine what further information they would submit, adding: “The aim is to demonstrate that Switzerland is complying with the climate policy requirements of the ruling.”

Nigerian king faces Shell in London high court over decades of oil spills

King Okpabi, ruler of Ogale, says Shell has caused chronic pollution, while oil firm argues it is not responsible His Royal Highness King Godwin Bebe Okpabi has carried bottles of water drawn from the wells of his homeland in the Niger delta to the high court in London.It stinks. “This is the water that Shell has left for my people,” said the ruler of the Ogale community in Ogoniland, Nigeria. “This is poison, and they are spending millions of dollars to pay the best lawyers in the world so that they will not clean my land.” Continue reading...

His Royal Highness King Godwin Bebe Okpabi has carried bottles of water drawn from the wells of his homeland in the Niger delta to the high court in London.It stinks. “This is the water that Shell has left for my people,” said the ruler of the Ogale community in Ogoniland, Nigeria. “This is poison, and they are spending millions of dollars to pay the best lawyers in the world so that they will not clean my land.”For the past three and a half weeks, lawyers for Shell have argued at the high court that their client cannot be held responsible for an environmental catastrophe in Ogale, which has suffered from decades of spills and pollution from oil extraction.King Okpabi said ‘people’s way of life has been destroyed’. Photograph: Christian Sinibaldi/The GuardianFor most of that time, Okpabi was there too, watching proceedings in court 63, a nondescript room lined with empty bookcases. Between hearings, he met journalists and activists to spread word of the health crisis his people face.“A people have been completely destroyed: people’s way of life destroyed; people’s only drinking water, which is the underground water aquifer, has been poisoned; people’s farmland has been completely poisoned; people’s streams that they use [for] their normal livelihood have been completely destroyed,” he said.When oil first flowed from the wells in Ogoniland in 1956, before Okpabi was born, it was a lush landscape of mangrove forests. Its sparkling watercourses were populated by fishes, crabs, oysters and other creatures. The land’s people were primarily fishers and farmers.Five and a half decades later, scientists from the UN Environment Programme visited the region to investigate the industry’s effects. They found extensive soil and groundwater contamination, mangrove roots choked with bitumen-like substances, surface water in creeks and streams covered in thick layers of oil. The fish had fled or died and farmers struggled to grow crops in fields soaked with oil.A sign at a creek in Ogale, in Ogoniland in the Niger delta, warns people not to use the water. Photograph: Leigh DayOf all the areas tested, Nisisioken Ogale, Okpabi’s domain, was “of most immediate concern”. People there were drinking from wells contaminated with benzene, a known carcinogen, at levels more than 900 times the World Health Organization (WHO) guideline. Follow-up testing carried out in the same area last year found levels that were even higher – 2,600 times the WHO guideline.The effects of this contamination have been tragic, says Okpabi. “There is a lot of cancer: young girls of 20 to 30 years old, 40 years old, developing breast cancer and other forms of cancer; a lot of strange skin diseases that we don’t know the cause of; low life expectancy, people just drying up and dying. Even eye diseases. In some cases birth defects … Strange diseases everywhere in our lives.”The trial centres on claims by Oganiland’s Ogale and Bille communities that the enduring effects of hundreds of leaks and spills from Shell’s pipelines and infrastructure have breached their right to a clean and healthy environment.The three and a half weeks of hearings, which ended on Friday, were a “preliminary issues trial”, heard by Mrs Justice Juliet May, to determine the scope of the legal issues to be decided at the case’s full trial, set for late 2026. Although the case is being heard by a British judge in a UK court, it will apply Nigerian law, and so May heard from a range of senior Nigerian lawyers about what the law is and how it should be applied.skip past newsletter promotionThe planet's most important stories. Get all the week's environment news - the good, the bad and the essentialPrivacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.after newsletter promotionKing Okpabi holds up a bottle of polluted water outside the high court in London. Photograph: Andy Rain/EPAThe claimants, represented by the London law firm Leigh Day, argue that oil pollution by a private company could be legally construed as a violation of a community’s fundamental rights under the Nigerian constitution and African charter. A second key issue was whether Shell could be held responsible for damage to its pipelines due to oil theft, or for the waste produced as a result of illegal refining of spilled or stolen oil – endemic in the Niger delta.Shell argues it cannot be held responsible. The company insists its Nigerian subsidiary, the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC), works closely with the Nigerian government to prevent spills and to respond to them and clean them up when they do occur.A man stands on fishing canoes surrounded by polluted water in the Niger Delta. Photograph: Sunday Alamba/AP“We strongly believe in the merits of our case. Oil is being stolen on an industrial scale in the Niger delta. This criminality is a major source of pollution and is the cause of the majority of spills in the Bille and Ogale claims,” a spokesperson for the company said.But for Okpabi, the legal technicalities wrangled over in the court have been frustrating, “because as we are sitting here for these three weeks, people are dying at home,” he said.“I’m not a lawyer, but as I sit down in the court and I see all the arguments going on, Shell trying to bring up arguments as if to try to see how they can wheedle their way out [of it], it’s very painful. But I trust the judicial system here.”

Potassium Mining Project in Brazil’s Amazon Rainforest Divides Indigenous Tribe

Beneath Brazil’s Amazon rainforest, one of the planet’s largest potassium reserves is fueling tensions between industrial ambitions and Indigenous rights

LAGO DO SOARES, Brazil (AP) — Indigenous leader Filipe Gabriel Mura stands before Soares Lake in Brazil’s Amazon, looking out at the amber waters that are surrounded by a jagged shoreline that has been home for centuries to Indigenous people known as Mura.“It’s the most beautiful sunset," said Mura. "I doubt there’s another like it in the world.”Mura and others from the tribe fear that the pristine beauty of the place may soon change. Hidden from view dozens of miles below ground, the region holds one of the largest reserves of potash, a mineral that includes potassium, on the planet. Now, Brazil Potash Corp., a Toronto-based mining company listed in the New York Stock Exchange, is set to start tapping the mineral, which is used to make fertilizer and is a key to Brazil's booming agribusiness. As can happen when mammoth projects are planned in Indigenous communities, Brazil Potash's plans are sparking fears of environmental impact and creating divisions. Opponents fear that mining will expose the tribe to harmful pollution and hurt tribal unity, while supoorters think it will raise their standard of living. The project, expected to soon break ground, has an estimated cost of $2.5 billion. It is planned near the mouth of the Madeira River, which flows into the Amazon River. The build-out will include two shafts reaching a depth of 920 meters (3,018 feet) below ground—the equivalent to a 300-story building. One shaft will be to transport workers and the ore they mine while the other will be for ventilation.Above ground, the project includes a processing plant, an area for solid waste storage, a 13-kilometer (8 miles) road and a port connecting to the Madeira River. The estimate production is 9.2 million tons of potash ore annually, which would meet 17% of Brazil's current demand, according to the company. The project received licensing by Amazonas Environmental Protection Institute, a state-level agency. However, it faces lawsuits from the Office of the Attorney General for a lack of proper consultation with the Mura and potential environmental risks, such as soil and water contamination, as the plant will be in a region prone to seasonal flooding.“We risk losing our culture if the state denies our existence and that of our ancestors to pave the way for mining. I am honored to represent a people determined not to be erased,” said Mura, the tribal leader. Key Mura villages don't have government recognition In colonial times, the Mura were nearly driven to extinction while resisting non-Indigenous settlers. Today, the population is about 13,000 spread across this stretch of the Madeira River, a maze of smaller rivers, lakes and headwaters. Soares, a small village, is the closest to the planned mining site while nearby Urucurituba, another small village, is where the port will be built. Neither village has been officially recognized as an Indigenous territory, despite a formal request by the tribe in 2003. Historical records show the tribe has inhabited the area for at least 200 years. Brazilian law prohibits mining on Indigenous land.In a statement to The Associated Press, Brazil's Indigenous bureau, known as FUNAI, said that the recognition process was underway but couldn't provide more details on when or if the territorial designation may be made. FUNAI added that there was strong evidence that Soares and Urucurituba are Indigenous lands and that the project could bring deforestation, noise and air pollution, changes in aquatic fauna and other environmental impacts.Brazil Potash says it has consulted the Mura people and that the majority support the project. In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the company said 90% of representatives from 34 out of 36 nearby villages voted. However, Brazil’s Attorney General’s Office, which is tasked with defending Indigenous rights, argues the consultation process was flawed. It secured a court order prohibiting company representatives from entering Mura territory. In a statement to the AP, Brazil Potash said it does not comment on ongoing lawsuits and declined to respond to emailed questions. Some Mura see a chance to raise their standard of living Aldinelson Moraes Pavão, 53, a leader of the Mura Indigenous Council who lives near the projected port, says the mining is a way out poverty and a way to preserve their culture.“We’re going to get schools and health grants. Professionals will be hired to work here. We are hopeful,” said Pavão.Another leader, Marcelo Lopes, a father of nine, says that the crops and fishing yields are no longer enough to sustain his Urucurituba village. Life has become more difficult thanks to drought, wildfires and the resulting smoke. “Many times, we’re left begging. It’s humiliating, especially now that we have this treasure," Lopes said. In the lawsuit, the Attorney General's Office says the internal division is one of the project’s first consequences. The suit alleges that the mining company acquired plots in the project area through deception, threats and coercion. It also highlights what it says are flaws in the licensing process. The project has potential risks and government support One environmental risk is the handling of rock salt, a byproduct of the mining called brine. The company says there will be two sites next to brine ponds to collect surface water, and thus contaminated water will be contained. According to the Attorney General, the site will be in a flood-prone area vulnerable to seasonal rising and falling river levels.Geologist Cisnea Basílio says that while the location is attractive because the mining can happen at relatively shallow depths, that comes with inherent risks. She warns that the underground mining carries the potential to crumble the surface, swallowing nearby villages. “Accidents happen even in developed countries," she said. The federal government supports the project as vital for the economy. Brazil is one of world's largest importers of potash. The leading suppliers include Russia, Belarus and Israel, raising concerns that armed conflicts may cut supply or lead prices to skyrocket, which happened after Russia began its invasion of Ukraine in 2022. In the agribusiness sector, Brazil Potash has secured a transportation agreement with giant Amaggi conglomerate, which holds 362,000 hectares (894,000 acres) of productive area, almost five times the size of New York City. The plan is to transport the mineral in large barges through major Amazon Rivers to reach Mato Grosso State, Brazil's largest soybean producer. Internal disagreements have led to alienation Divisions over the project have become so deep that the tribal members are no longer meeting together, or taking collective decisions.On Feb. 19, 34 villages in favor of mining gathered at the Mura Indigenous Council's headquarters in Autazes. Amid cultural celebrations, they delivered hopeful speeches, anticipating prosperity from the mining.The next day, opponents met a few kilometers (miles) away, in Moyray village, and decided to break with the council, which was created over 30 years ago to represent the tribe. Instead, they created the Indigenous Organization for Mura Resistance of Autazes. “I feel sad," Vavá Izague dos Santos, 48, a member of the new organization, said of the internal division. "We always walked together, stood together in the Indigenous struggle." Associated Press reporter Fabiano Maisonnave contributed from Brasilia.The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.orgCopyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Photos You Should See - Feb. 2025

Climate Change Made South Sudan Heat Wave More Likely, Study Finds

Years of war and food insecurity in the region made the extreme heat especially dangerous.

After a blistering February heat wave in South Sudan’s capital city caused dozens of students to collapse from heat stroke, officials closed schools for two weeks. It was the second time in less than a year that the country’s schools closed to protect young people from the deadly effects of extreme heat.Climate change, largely caused by the burning of fossil fuels in rich nations, made at least one week of that heat wave 10 times as likely, and 2 degrees Celsius hotter, according to a new study by World Weather Attribution. Temperatures in some parts of the region soared above 42 degrees Celsius, or 107 degrees Fahrenheit, in the last week of February.The analysis used weather data, observations and climate models to get the results, which have not been peer reviewed but are based on standardized methods.South Sudan, in the tropical band of East Africa, was torn apart by a civil war that led to independence from Sudan in 2011. It’s also one of the countries least responsible for the greenhouse gas emissions that are heating up the globe. “The continent has contributed a tiny fraction of global emissions, but is bearing the brunt of climate change,” said Joyce Kimutai, a researcher at the Center for Environmental Policy at Imperial College London.Heat waves are one of the deadliest extreme weather events and have become more frequent and more severe on a warming planet. But analysis methods connecting heat to mortality vary between and within countries, and death tolls can be underreported and are often unknown for months after an event.Prolonged heat is particularly dangerous for children, older adults and pregnant women. For the last three weeks, extreme heat has settled over a large region of continental Eastern Africa, including parts of Kenya and Uganda. Residents have been told to stay indoors and drink water, a difficult directive for countries where many people work outdoors, electricity is sporadic, access to clean water is difficult and modest housing means there are few cooling systems.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe.

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