Instead of fighting other countries, we should be fighting our overflowing landfills.
Huguette Roe/shutterstock.com
Trump’s plan to slap $200 billion more in tariffs on Chinese goods is premised on yesterday’s waste-fueled economy. Tomorrow’s economy is ‘circular.’
Shutterstock
New coal mining operations could threaten
South Africa’s Mapungubwe World Heritage Site.
A river dike on the Rio Nil near El Asintal, Guatemala.
(Consejo de Comunidades en Defensa del Ambiente del Municipio de El Asintal)
Increased use of renewable energies could help curb climate change, but the water required for their production has dispossessed rural Guatemalans.
Local communities need to know that old coal seam gas wells aren’t going to cause ongoing problems.
AAP Image/Dean Lewins
The coal seam gas industry and its regulators still have work to do in persuading local communities that old wells can be decommissioned without future problems, according to new CSIRO research.
31moonlight31 / shutterstock
It’s not easy to get all those metals out of the ground.
Chased from mining sites, rebels simply try to control roads in the DRC.
Peer Schouten
The DRC’s roads are a crucial space where conflict, illegal taxation, and conflict financing entangle.
Sapphire beads in a Jaipur workshop.
Lynda Lawson
Sapphires and rubies are both crystals of the mineral corundum - but with different impurities to create blue and red hues. Australian sapphires are renowned for being inky blue.
Ephraim Escudero’s child holds a photo near by his memorial. The father of two was murdered in the brutal drug war of Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte.
Sheerah Escudero
From the war on drugs to a crackdown on human rights and environmental activists, life for Filipinos is increasingly nightmarish.
Cobaltite ore.
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Electric cars and smartphones have created growing demand – and volatile prices – for once obscure metals.
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The devastating impact of mine closures could be avoided with economic and scientific interventions.
Aerial view of the Auyán Tepuy and the Caroni River in Venezuela.
(Luis Ovalles/Wikimedia)
In 2016, Venezuela opened up a large swath of the country to mining in an effort to prop up its economy. Now it is paying the environmental price.
Development is peaking in the high country between India and China.
Vinay Vaars/Wikimedia Commons
For decades, China and India have clashed over their disputed Himalayan border. This clash is also playing out via a development boom that threatens the health of one of the world’s biggest river catchments.
Snowshoe hares near the now closed Giant Mine outside of Yellowknife, N.W.T show signs of arsenic contamination.
(Denali NPS/flickr)
Historical gold mining at the Giant Mine near Yellowknife, N.W.T. released toxic arsenic into the environment. Snowshoe hares are showing signs of poisoning.
In Delhi, middle class residents and informal recyclers joined together to oppose the privatisation of waste management.
EPA
The Environmental Justice Atlas highlights the most pertinent findings of environmental conflicts facing the world today.
Male sage grouse at the Seedskadee National Wildlife Refuge, Wyoming.
Tom Koerner/USFWS
The Trump administration is reopening a plan negotiated under President Obama to protect Western sage grouse. This could signal to states not to bother working together to protect other endangered species.
Andrey N Bannov / shutterstock
Richer countries import products but not the emissions used to make them.
There’s more to e-waste than the discarded monitors, cell phones and other electronics.
(Shutterstock)
No amount of post-consumer recycling can recoup the waste generated before consumers purchase their devices.
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The mining industry in South Africa needs an inclusive model that builds on and improves shared value.
reisegraf.ch
As companies and governments attempt to intensify extraction, cultural resistance offers a space for imagining alternative futures.
Artist’s impression of a solar-powered satellite on a mining mission.
NASA
The first step to mining an asteroid is finding a suitable candidate. Scientists estimate there should be some ten nearby targets.