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Pope Francis presides the weekly general audience at Paul-VI hall at the Vatican
Hard Numbers: Pope cracks down, Americans live (bit) longer, coup plotters arrested, Amazon deforestation slows, adopt axolotls
77.5: The good news: Life expectancy in the United States rose over one full year to 77.5 in 2022, up from 76.4 years in 2021, according to new CDC data. The bad news: That’s still more than a year lower than 2019’s pre-pandemic 78.8 years.
13: Authorities have arrested 13 military officers in Sierra Leone following Sunday’s failed coup, which came several months after the contested election of President Julius Maada Bio to a second term. Amid the chaos, 20 were killed and nearly 1,900 inmates escaped a central prison in Freetown. Coups are very on trend in the region: There have been eight military takeovers in Central Africa since 2020.
55.8: Deforestation in the Amazon rainforest is down 55.8% this year compared to the same period in 2022, according to a new study by the nonprofit Amazon Conservation Association. The 9,117 square kilometers of forest loss between January and November 2023 – roughly the size of Puerto Rico – is the lowest level since 2019.
600: The future of the axolotl, the fish-like salamander known for its adorable grin, is not all smiles. The endangered amphibian has seen its population density drop by 99.5% over the past two decades, thanks to pollution and invasive species. But Mexico’s National Autonomous University has relaunched a campaign to allow people to virtually adopt an axolotl (and get live updates on its health) for as little as 600 pesos — around $35 USD.
Researchers from the Mamiraua Institute for Sustainable Development analyze a dead dolphin at Tefe lake
Dire drought in the Amazon
In a region where rivers are the principal means of transport, water levels have dropped an average of 30 centimeters (11.8 inches) a day since mid-September, causing shortages of food, water, and other essentials. The government is dispatching emergency assistance to 500,000 people who could be affected by the drought before the end of the year.
Already, the local government response has cost $20 million, which is just the beginning of the drought's economic toll. Tourism in the region has all but halted since the Rio Negro is not deep enough to carry passenger boats to Amazonian hubs like the river port of Manaus.
The Amazon drought in the north of Brazil comes as the southern reaches of the country are experiencing severe flooding. Both are evidence of climate change and made worse by El Niño, a periodic warming of the Pacific Ocean that can exacerbate both droughts and rainfall across the Western Hemisphere and even globally.
The Amazon drought comes as scientists warn that the Amazon rainforest could be approaching a tipping point: when the Amazon would no longer be able to recover from droughts and much of the biodiverse forest would turn into savannah. The drought also makes extreme wildfires more likely, according to Eurasia Group’s Brazil expert Silvio Cascione. That in turn could undermine the government’s recent successes in reducing the rate of deforestation.
An aerial view shows trees as the sun rises at the Amazon rainforest in Manaus, Amazonas State, Brazil.
Lula celebrates big drop in deforestation
Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon fell 66% in August compared to the same month last year – a huge achievement reflecting the ambitious climate goals of President Luis Inácio Lula da Silva. What’s more, cumulative deforestation for the first eight months of 2023 was down 48%.
Lula has staked much of his political capital on environmental priorities, promising to end deforestation by 2030. His administration is using satellites to monitor the forest and sending in police to disrupt illegal logging. The fact that the reductions have come during the Amazonian dry season, when illegal loggers and miners usually take advantage of the weather to push their operations into high gear, is all the more impressive.
Lula also officially recognized two indigenous territories within the forest, granting their inhabitants legal protections from encroachment. Brazil’s indigenous peoples are considered particularly effective custodians of the environment and figure prominently in Lula’s policies.
The bigger, bleaker picture. These efforts, for all their success, are facing headwinds. In June, Brazil’s opposition-controlled legislature rolled back the powers of the environmental and indigenous affairs ministries, and in August, the Senate passed legislation restricting the ability of indigenous people to make land claims, though it faces a Supreme Court challenge.
When leaders from all eight countries that share the Amazon gathered last month, they were able to create a notional alliance to combat deforestation — but they did not agree on goals.
Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General António Guterres says the “climate breakdown has begun” amid the hottest summer on record, devastating wildfires in the northern hemisphere, collapsing Arctic sea ice, and surging ocean temperatures.
Ecuador's Foreign Minister Gustavo Manrique, Guyana's Prime Minister Mark Phillips, Colombia's President Gustavo Petro, Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Bolivia's President Luis Arce, Peru's President Dina Boluarte, Venezuela's Vice President Delcy Rodriguez and Suriname's Foreign Minister Albert Ramdin at ACTO
Amazon nations can't agree on deforestation goal
Leaders of eight Amazon nations converged in Brazil this week for the first time in 14 years to devise a plan to save the Amazon rainforest, but they appeared to fall short of finding common ground on how to end deforestation.
A joint statement released after the summit implied that countries would set out their own conservation goals rather than adhere to a shared regional policy. There was also no consensus on how to end illegal gold mining in the Amazon.
Ahead of the summit, Brazil's President Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva proposed an agreement to end deforestation by 2030.
But a key striking point has been oil exploration. Colombia’s leftist President Gustavo Petro has called for a complete end to oil exploration in the Amazon, which has been a point of contention in Brazil as the country’s state-run Petrobras company has been trying to get a license for an oil drilling project near the Amazon River.
Indeed, ending deforestation comes at a significant cost for Amazon countries, which will have to forgo profits from ranching, agriculture, and new oil and mining projects. Lula says he hopes some of these costs can be offset by international contributions and carbon credits. Norway and Germany are already funding Amazon preservation, and the Amazon nations believe they could convince other countries to contribute if they show a united front -- an effort that appears to have fallen short.
In addition to international contributions, Amazon nations hope to take advantage of the growing carbon market, where an organization that pollutes can buy a credit worth one ton of carbon dioxide, which then goes toward carbon-lowering efforts in Amazonian communities. The World Bank currently estimates that the carbon credit market in the rainforest is worth $210 billion a year.
A river flows through the Amazon rainforest.
Hard Numbers: US ponies up for the Amazon, African children miss vaccines, the Buzz clips the News, holy wine for sale
500 million: Looks like Washington isn’t that upset at Brazil for schmoozing with China and Russia recently. The US on Thursday pledged half a billion dollars to a Brazilian government fund for protecting the Amazon. The Amazon Fund, set up in 2008, is a big priority for Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who’s put climate change at the center of his agenda these days.
12.7 million: Stay-at-home orders and other pandemic-related disruptions caused some 12.7 million children in Africa to miss their scheduled vaccinations between 2019 and 2021, according to UNICEF. It’s the biggest inoculation backslide in three decades, and it leaves the continent’s children especially vulnerable to diseases like measles, cholera, and polio.
15: The buzz is gone. Digital media giant BuzzFeed is shuttering its news division as part of a broader plan to cut 15% of its workforce. BuzzFeed News, which launched in 2012, overcame early skepticism about its home within the cat-listicle powerhouse BuzzFeed and became a top-notch news org that even won a Pulitzer for its coverage of China’s abuses in Xinjiang. But despite all of that, it never made money.
64,000: An unusually strong grape harvest last year has left a Dutch convent with a surplus of 64,000 bottles of wine produced at its vineyards. The nuns of Sint-Catharinadal in Oosterhout produce and sell wine – rather than just converting it from water – to finance the upkeep of the convent. The bottles go for about $15 a pop now. If you buy one, be sure to toast the Guardian headline writer who came up with this gem.Supporters of Senegalese opposition leader Ousmane Sonko gather during a protest to support its leader, Ousmane Sonko in Dakar, Senegal March 14, 2023.
Hard Numbers: Senegalese protests, Wifi in the Amazon, Sri Lankan strikes, Ukraine’s day in court
5,000: About 5,000 supporters of Senegalese opposition leader Ousmane Sonko are protesting against the government of two-term President Macky Sall, who they say is cracking down on civil society and targeting Sonko with cooked-up lawsuits. Sonko, who aims to run for president in 2024, is facing trials for libel and rape.
7: To be an illegal miner deep in the Amazon, you need diggers, guns, gumption, and evidently … good wifi. Amid a broader crackdown on these lawless wildcatters, Brazilian feds have seized 7 of Elon Musk’s Starlink portable internet terminals, which were set up at covert mining sites. The swoop comes as Amazon deforestation reached a new monthly high in February.
40: More than 40 Sri Lankan unions are striking to protest the country’s all-but-signed IMF loan deal, crippling the country’s ports, rail stations, airports, and schools. While the government sees the bailout as an essential lifeline to end the country's worst-ever economic crisis, the unions are furious about the tax-hikes that are part of the package.
3bn: Ukraine and Russia are going to court! In 2013, just before protests toppled the Russian-backed president of Ukraine, Kyiv got a $3 billion loan from Moscow. The Kremlin did it to keep Ukraine from slipping further into Europe’s orbit, but the subsequent pro-Western Ukrainian government saw it as a Russian financial albatross imposed under duress and refused to pay it back. Russia sued, and a UK court on Wednesday ruled that Ukraine has a case – so now it will go to trial.