A sea elephant became an instant tourist attraction when it appeared in late January on two beaches in the Pacific coastal state of Nayarit, Mexico, before returning to the sea. Measuring three meters plus and weighing an estimated three tons, the big male was a southern sea elephant (Mirounga leonina), a mammal normally found in coastal Chile and Argentina, the Falkland and South Georgia islands, and Antarctica. The visit was not the creature’s first. He showed up in Nayarit in 2020 and in the upper Gulf of California in the next few years, garnering public attention and inspiring Mexican biologist Iyari Espinoza to give it a name: “Pancho.” Espinoza helped confirm Pancho’s species when he showed up in 2020. She joined with other scientists then—and is doing so again now—to protect him from inquisitive humans and dogs, and to protect humans and dogs from him. Scientists say non...
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The effects of climate change will ensure that at least 5.9 million additional Latin Americans under the age of 25 will live in poverty by 2030 than would otherwise be the case, according to Unicef and the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (Eclac). That figure could be as high as 17.9 million in the region if countries around the world fail to meet greenhouse gas-reduction goals set under the Paris Agreement, the two agencies say. Unicef and Eclac make these projections in “The Impact of Climate Change on Child and Youth Poverty in Latin America,” a joint report originally issued on Aug. 28. The report asserts that overall, climate change does more harm to children and adolescents than to adults, not only because of their physical vulnerability but also because it undermines their education and their families’ livelihoods. International climate financing comes in for criticism in...
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Legal and illegal gold mining in Suriname’s Amazon rainforest has destroyed an area of rainforest larger than New York City during the past 25 years, a recent report says. The report—issued Feb. 3 by the monitoring arm of the Amazon Conservation Association (ACA) a U.S- based non-profit working to protect the Amazon Basin—estimates 92,000 hectares (227,332 acres) of Amazon rainforest in Suriname had been decimated since 2001. Suriname’s Amazon gold mining takes place in the country’s northeastern corner near the French Guiana border. The first comprehensive assessment on deforestation caused by gold mining in the Surinamese Amazon, the report was modeled on ACA’s Monitoring of the Andes Amazon Program (MAAP). MAAP used satellite data, dating from 2001, with AI findings from Amazon Mining Watch, an AI-powered platform that detects gold mining-driven deforestation in Amazon countries. “Record-breaking increases in gold prices have driven similar increases...
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Brazilian environmental authorities on Feb. 6 fined the state energy company Petrobras R$2.5 million (US$480,000) for spilling oily drilling fluid into the sea while exploring for petroleum and gas in a deepwater basin off the country’s northern coast. Ibama, the autonomous enforcement and licensing arm of Brazil’s Environment and Climate Change Ministry, issued the fine in connection with a Jan. 4 spill of 18,000 liters (4,755 gallons) of drilling fluid into the Atlantic Ocean. The fluid, a lubricant used to ease drilling of seabed rock, was released accidentally from the oil rig of a drillship exploring the deepwater Mouth of the Amazon Basin, located 500 kilometers (310 miles) off the Amazon River delta. Ibama says the fluid “represents a medium risk to both human health and the aquatic ecosystem.” The drilling is taking place in Block 59, one of six contiguous concession areas Petrobras owns in the Mouth...
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