Tag: Indigenous People

Gold Mining Is Poisoning the Planet With Mercury

Media Library

Jeovane de Jesus Aguiar was knee-deep in mud in the 100-yard gash he had cut into the Amazon rainforest, filtering brown water out of a pan, when he found the small, shiny flake he was looking for: a mixture of gold and mercury. Mr. Aguiar had drizzled liquid mercury into the ground in his makeshift gold mine on the eastern edge of the small South American nation of Suriname, just as he had every few days. The toxic element mixes with gold dust and forms an amalgam he can pluck…

Global Leaders Pledge to End Deforestation by 2030

Chin@Strategy

Efforts to keep forests standing, nevertheless, have struggled. One effort, recognized in the Paris climate accord, seeks to pay forested nations for reducing tree loss, but progress has been disappointingly slow. Governments have made similar promises before, without making much progress in stemming the felling of forests for farming and commercial lumber. This year, scientists found that parts of the Amazon have begun emitting more carbon than they store. A United Nations plan announced in 2017 made similar commitments. An agreement in 2014 to end deforestation by 2030, the New…