On 24 January, the eve of the first anniversary of mining company Vale's crimes in Brumadinho, human rights defender Leonardo Boff expressed his solidarity with the 270 victims and their families. The theologian, philosopher and writer participated in an international seminar, ‘One year after the crime committed by Vale in Brumadinho’, organized by the Brazilian Movement of People Affected by…
At 12:28 on 25 January, 2019, Dam 1 of the Córrego do Feijão mine, containing 12,000,000 cubic meters of toxic mud, collapsed and spilled the mud over 9 kilometers to the city of Brumadinho (Minas Gerais) and then along the path of the Paraopeba River. The Brazilian Movement of People Affected by Dams (MAB) arrived to Brumadinho a few hours…
Lead, mercury, cadmium and zinc are just some of the heavy metals found in the toxic mud left over from mining activities. Government officials in Minas Gerais, Brazil, identified levels of these metals up to 21 times above the acceptable metal in the mud that spread through Brumadinho and the Paraopeba River on 25 January, 2019. Geraldo Martins, a healthcare…
“This is the second crime of this type. Brumadinho has been worse than Mariana. How many more crimes will it take to rethink the mining paradigm?” Moisés Borges, member of the National Coordination of the Movement of Peoples Affected by Dams (MAB) told Real World Radio. The MAB is getting ready to host tens of activists from around the world…
La Vía Campesina (LVC) will hold an International Solidarity Mission in Venezuela from 20-27 January, with the aim of showing the everyday life of Venezuelan people suffering from the impacts of the US blockade, and how they are facing this with creativity, solidarity and resistance. The Ezequiel Zamora National Peasant Front (FNCEZ) of the Bolivar and Zamora Revolutionary Current will…
The Peoples' Tribunal will assess and rule on the crimes committed during the 15 years of international military occupation in Haiti through the United Nations “peacekeeping” missions (such as MINUSTAH and MINUJUSTH). The Tribunal will aim to promote “processes of disengagement, justice and reparation for all the victims of repression, sexual violence and cholera introduced by the occupation troops”, reported…
"Australia is experiencing an unprecedented fire crisis. 10 million hectares have been burned already. Nearly 2000 homes have been destroyed and many lives lost. The fires are so immense they have created their own weather systems, sparking more fires by generating their own dry electrical storms. Firefighters have never seen anything like it. Scientists are now saying many billions of…
A vibrant and protected civic space is an essential part of a healthy democracy - but it´s under attack. 16 Friends of the Earth member organisations have told us they are facing restrictions, intimidation, harassment and attacks - what we collectively call 'shrinking space'. In this episode we hear how it is affecting our members in Austria and in Cyprus,…
The COP25 negotiations came to an end after breaking the record: from December 2 to 14th. To get no deal on carbon markets at COP25 in Madrid has been Friends of the Earth's big fight this week, because carbon markets devastate Indigenous Peoples, Southern communities and fuel climate chaos. But they warned: "It's not the end of the fight; we…
On December 5, international social movements and organizations fighting for climate justice demanded the elimination of carbon markets from the Paris Agreement, at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 25) in Madrid. Friends of the Earth International, La Vía Campesina, Grassroots Global Justice Alliance, the Indigenous Environmental Network, and the Asian Peoples’ Movement on Debt and Development launched a…
