The Environment

Multiple Latino activists in the Stop Cop City and Defend the Atlanta Forest movements warn that the $90 million police training facility —and the repression tactics being used against those who oppose it— is U.S. imperialism brought home.

In what’s being hailed as a major victory for those looking to halt construction of a police training facility in a forest near Atlanta, a federal judge in Georgia ruled Thursday that a ban on non-Atlanta residents collecting signatures for a potential ballot measure is unconstitutional.

During Latino Conservation Week, which ended Sunday, July 23, the organization Latino Outdoors held a series of events aimed at encouraging communities to get outside and preserve natural areas.

Threatened, arrested, attacked, and shot, Puerto Rico’s environmental activists have endured a lot while trying to enforce the environmental protection laws they feel the government refuses to enforce. Still, most of them refuse to back down.

As the effects of climate change intensify across the Caribbean, it will only lead to more extreme weather events that will in turn force Puerto Ricans out of the places they once considered “safe” and make many reconsider their life plans.

After her child “Tortuguita” was killed by Georgia State Patrol in January of this year while defending Atlanta’s South River Forest, Belkis Terán, a Venezuelan native now living in Panama, quickly took up the cause that they died fighting for.

Tropical Storm Bret, the third of the 2023 Atlantic hurricane season, formed on Monday halfway between the eastern Caribbean and Africa is expected to hit the Lesser Antilles at near-hurricane strength closer to the weekend.

Governments can play a crucial role in supporting livestock farmers and safeguarding the agricultural sector against the adverse effects of climate change.

Stepping outside in Puerto Rico’s capital city feels like walking inside a giant oven due to an “unprecedented” and record-breaking heat wave, which has already caused power and water outages as well as health concerns.

With this year’s hurricane season only a few days away, most forecasters have predicted a fairly “normal” season with an average of 14 named storms, seven hurricanes, and three of those reaching Category 3 or above—though experts still warn to prepare for the worst.

Towering a couple of hours from one of the world’s largest cities, the Popocatepetl volcano has been coating nearby towns with ash and disrupting flights at Mexico City’s airport, the busiest in Latin America.

With rising temperatures and the increasing threat of tropical storms due to climate change menacing Puerto Rico, many fear the islands’ access to electrical power will only worsen under privatization.

Brazil President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Friday granted official recognition of nearly 800 square miles of Indigenous lands, most of it in the Amazon, in a move that seeks to safeguard critical rainforest from the unchecked exploitation that marked his predecessor’s administration.

An Indigenous anti-mining activist has been killed in western Mexico, authorities confirmed Tuesday. The killing of Eustacio Alcalá comes just over two months after two other anti-mining activists disappeared near where his body was found.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has made completing the Mayan Train, a project that looks to connect parts of the Yucatán Peninsula and drive tourism in remote areas, has met with increasing resistance from the Indigenous people of the region.

During the last few decades, illegal construction projects have encroached on Puerto Rico’s beautiful beaches, leading to the destruction of mangrove forests that protect the coastline from storms and rising sea levels.

The plan to build the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, dubbed “Cop City,” has seen people of all backgrounds unite and organize against it, including Atlanta’s Black residents, various religious organizations, Indigenous people, climate activists, college students, and families affected by police violence.

Starlink, a division of Elon Musk’s SpaceX, has almost 4,000 low-orbit satellites across the skies, connecting people in remote corners of the Amazon. The lightweight, high-speed internet system has also proved a new and valuable tool for Brazil’s illegal miners.

With thousands of Bolsonaro supporters either in jail or under investigation for plotting against democracy in Brazil, the nation’s attention has shifted to the defense of the Amazon rainforest and its Indigenous peoples and the policy shifts under President Lula.

On Saturday, hundreds of activists flooded Playa Almendros in Rincón, Puerto Rico to complete the demolition of a wall that was illegally built too close to the beach by a condo developer.

On Wednesday, Puerto Rico’s Department of Natural and Environmental Resources ordered a developer that built illegally built on top of Cueva Las Golondrinas in Aguadilla must restore the area impacted by the construction.