Planet Watch

A ‘New Oil Order’?

Experts declare a "new oil order" in which hydrocarbons will lose market share to renewables. But is it market conditions or geopolitics that explain the current price slump?

The Andes

El Niño impacts deepen Ecuador quake disaster

Rescue efforts in Ecuador's quake-ravaged Manabí province are hindered by damaged roads—repeatedly hit by flooding linked to this year's severe El Niño phenomenon.

Africa

Horn of Africa water wars leave Somalia dry

Ethiopia has completely halted the flow of water into Somalia by closing the gates on irrigation dams along the Shabelle River—leaving dry a key agricultural region.

Oceania

Fiji: not a ‘natural’ disaster

There are few climate-change skeptics in Fiji, which has been left devastated by Cyclone Winston, the strongest tropical cyclone ever measured in the Southern Hemisphere.

The Andes

Colombia: peasants sue over mining contamination

Indigenous and Black communities in Colombia’s Chocó department filed a lawsuit, claiming 37 of their children died after drinking water contaminated by nearby mining operations.