climate destabilization

Central America

Protests prompt Panama mining moratorium

Panama’s President Laurentino Cortizo announced that he will hold a referendum to determine the fate of a contentious mega-mining contract, after several days of the country’s largest protests in decades. Cortizo also said he would instate a moratorium on any new mining projects in response to the protests, a move signed into law on Panama’s independence day. The protests, driven by environmental concerns, were sparked by the National Assembly’s earlier vote to award an extended concession to Canadian company First Quantum, allowing it to operate the largest open-pit copper mine on the Central American isthmus for another 20 years. The Cobre Panamá mine, in Colón province, has faced strong opposition from local residents since it opened in 2019, but extension of the contract brought thousands of angry demonstrators to the streets of Panama City. The protests reached the doors of the capital’s Marriott Hotel, where regional environment ministers were meeting for the Latin America & the Caribbean Climate Week summit. (Photo via Twitter)

Planet Watch

El Niño’s global food fallout

El Niño will drive global food aid needs even higher in the coming months, a new analysiswarns. The prediction comes as food aid agencies are already making ration cuts amid a budget squeeze. In July, meteorologists declared the onset of El Niño, a periodic climate phenomenon that usually brings drought to large stretches of the globe and wetter weather elsewhere. The analysis by the Famine Early Warning Systems Network says that humanitarian groups must prepare for “high food assistance needs.” Another climate phenomenon, the Indian Ocean Dipole, could amplify El Niño’s effects—with both compounded by the climate crisis. This September was the hottest ever recorded. “The temperature anomalies are enormous—far bigger than anything we have ever seen in the past,” Petteri Taalas, head of the UN’s meteorological agency, WMO, said in a press release. (Photo of displaced families in Somalia: UN Photo/Tobin Jones via Flickr)

South Asia

Deadly Sikkim GLOF: a disaster foretold

At least 14 people were killed and over 100 are missing after South Lhonak glacial lake in the Indian state of Sikkim burst due to incessant rains, inundating downstream areas. The sudden deluge on the Teesta River destroyed the Chungthang dam and flooded several districts. Many residents remain cut off. Scientists had long warned that South Lhonak lake would burst. A detailed study, Future Glacial Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF) hazard of the South Lhonak Lake, Sikkim Himalaya, was published in Geomorphology journal in September 2021. It noted that the lake had witnessed a significant increase in size over the past decades due to glacial retreat. India’s Central Water Commission had initiated an advisory to evaluate the condition of the Himalayan lake system in Sikkim. (Photo via DownToEarth)

Planet Watch

Sixth mass extinction lops branches off tree of life

The sixth mass extinction, primarily driven by human activities, is more dire than previously anticipated, with entire branches on the tree of life now disappearing, finds a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Researchers from Stanford University and the National Autonomous University of Mexico assessed 5,400 genera of terrestrial vertebrates, including 34,600 species. The staggering results: 73 genera have become extinct since 1500 AD. This rate of extinction surpasses the last million years by 35 times. In other words, in just five centuries, human actions have triggered a surge of genus extinctions that would have otherwise taken 18,000 years. The researchers refer to this as a “biological annihilation.” (Photo: CounterVortex)

The Amazon

Brazil: high court nixes ‘time limit’ on native land claims

Brazil’s Supreme Federal Tribunal struck down the spurious thesis behind a legislative proposal advancing in the country’s Congress, which would impose a marco temporal or “time limit” on indigenous land recovery claims. The marco temporal law would nullify any indigenous group’s claim to traditional lands that they weren’t physically occupying on Oct. 5, 1988, the day of the enactment of Brazil’s Constitution, which for the first time recognized native peoples’ territorial rights. Instead, these lands would be considered the property of those currently in occupancy, or of the state. The thesis ignores the forced displacements that occurred during Brazil’s dictatorship in the generation before 1988, as well as the nomadic lifeways of some indigenous groups. Environment Minister Marina Silva declared the high court’s annulment of the marco temporal thesis an “act of justice.” (Photo via Twitter)

The Andes

Colombia: most dangerous country for ecologists

Colombia recorded the world’s highest number of killings of environmental defenders in 2022, with 60 individuals murdered, according to a report by activist group Global Witness. The organization, which has been documenting environmental defender deaths since 2012, found that the number of environmental defenders slain in Colombia nearly doubled in 2022, compared to the previous year. These killings have pushed Colombia’s environmental defender death toll to 382 since 2012. (Map: PCL)

Southeast Asia

Malaysia rainforest at issue in fight over historic monastery

A Buddhist monastery carved out of a cave complex in the rainforest of Malaysia stands to be evicted after losing a legal appeal in its case against a cement manufacturer. The Court of Appeal ruled for Associated Pan Malaysia Cement in the case brought by the century-old Dhamma Sakyamuni Caves Monastery, finding that the company has the right to evict “squatters” from the tract at issue in a limestone massif known as Gunung Kanthan—despite the fact that it lies within the Kinta Valley National Geopark. The forested massif is home to several endangered species of both flora and fauna, and most of it has already been cleared for quarries. After the appeals court ruling, the Perak state government formed a special committee to mediate in the conflict. The Dhamma Sakyamuni monks pledge they will resist eviction. (Photo via Free Malaysia Today)

Greater Middle East

‘Repressive petro-state’ UAE to host climate summit

Amnesty International joined with over 200 civil society organizations to call upon participating governments of the 28th Conference of the Parties (COP28) to address the human rights record and climate policies of the United Arab Emirates. The COP, the annual conference of governments from around the world to discuss climate policy, is to be held in the UAE in December—convened by Sultan al-Jaber, CEO of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC). The open letter states: “We support the concerns expressed by climate justice movements that allowing COP28 to be held by the rulers of a repressive petrostate, and overseen by an oil executive, represents a blatant conflict of interest, and threatens the legitimacy of the whole process.” (WildPixar via Jurist)

North Africa

Shock, anger follow North Africa disasters

The death toll from catastrophic flooding in northeast Libya continues to climb, with reported numbers now ranging as high as 12,000—and thousands still unaccounted for. People across Libya have stepped up to help, sending convoys of aid across the politically divided country and opening their homes to strangers. Meanwhile, anger is spreading about why two dams in the port city of Derna—which collapsed under the weight of flooding, leading to the destruction of entire neighborhoods—were allowed to decay. There have also been accusations that authorities ignored warnings about the severity of the storm, contributing to the massive death toll. Similar charges are heard in Morocco after a deadly earthquake struck in mountains south of Marrakesh, with the government accused of bottle-necking relief efforts to the marginal area. (Map: USGS via DirectRelief)

Africa

Did Africa’s first climate summit miss the point?

The inaugural biennial Africa Climate Summit, attended by some 30,000 delegates including 17 heads of state, wrapped up in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, following three days of discussions largely centred on the opportunities for “green” economic growth on the continent. The summit issued the Nairobi Declaration, containing a slew of pledges and demands, including calls to accurately value the continent’s natural carbon sequestration assets (such as its forests). The declaration also called on wealthy countries to live up to their existing commitments to cut emissions and to deliver funds for adaptation—by properly launching, for example, the Loss & Damage Fund agreed to at last year’s COP27 in Egypt. However, the summit was also dogged by controversy and protests, with more than 500 civil society organizations signing an open letter claiming its agenda had been hijacked to market “false solutions” such as carbon markets. (Photo: Evan Habil/Greenpeace)

The Amazon

Win for rainforest in Ecuador elections

Winning 60% support in Ecuador’s election is a ballot measure to permanently bar oil drilling from Yasuní National Park, a world biodiversity hotspot in the Amazon rainforest. Parastatal PetroEcuador must now halt extraction at Bloc 43, which lies near the heart of the reserve. Likewise approved by a wide margin was a referendum on halting copper, gold and silver mining activity in the Chocó Andino de Pichincha, a biosphere reserve outside of Quito. (Image: Wikimedia Commons)

Central America

Relocation of Panama coastal islanders stalled

Human Rights Watch released a report critiquing the Panamanian government’s lax efforts to assist coastal indigenous peoples with relocation as their ancestral homelands are destroyed by climate change. The report focuses on the island of Gardi Sugdub and its Guna indigenous inhabitants. The residents of Gardi Sugdub have been planning an evacuation from the island due to rising sea levels since 2017. However, HRW charges that the Panamanian government’s promised support for the evacuation has been slow to come: little work has been done at the site residents are being relocated to on the mainland, with the location still lacking sewage, water, garbage removal and health services. Additionally, there may not be enough water supply in wells on site to support Gardi Sugdub residents, even if water service is connected. (Photo: Congress hall on Gardi Sugdub. Credit: Erica Bower/HRW)