South America

A Trump Ally’s Rise in Colombia Could Mean the End of Landmark Climate Policies

Abelardo de la Espriella, the apparent winner of the presidential election, has vowed to expand oil, gas and mining production, alarming activists in the world’s deadliest country for environmental defenders.

By Katie Surma

Environmental Defenders Remain Among World’s Most Targeted Activists

By Katie Surma

Colombia Passes First-Ever National Law Requiring Beef to Be Traced Back to Its Origins

By Georgina Gustin

In Venezuela, Anxiety About Ramping Up Oil Production in the Heavily Polluted Lake Maracaibo Region

By Avril Silva

The Brazilian Supreme Court Makes Way for the ‘Grain Train’

By Georgina Gustin

Latin America Faces ‘Hydrological Whiplash’ as Climate Risks Mount

By Bob Berwyn

Amazon Deforestation at Eight-Year Low, Report Shows

By Gabriel Matias Castilho

As Energy, War and Climate Collide, a Conference in Colombia Charts a Path Beyond Fossil Fuels

By Bob Berwyn

How to Think About the Extractive Problem of Lithium Mining

Interview by Paloma Beltran, Living on Earth

As the UN Global Climate Talks Lose Momentum, a Smaller Coalition Eyes a Fossil Fuel Exit

By Bob Berwyn

Rights of Nature Defender Wins Goldman Prize for Protecting Colombia’s Magdalena River From Fracking

By Katie Surma

At ‘Sloth World’ in Florida, Wild Sloths Have Died by the Dozens

By Katie Surma, Kiley Price

Scientists Deploy First Satellite Tag on a Leatherback Sea Turtle in Ecuador to Better Reveal Gaps in Ocean Protection

By Teresa Tomassoni

In the Fight to Defend the Amazon, This Indigenous Community’s Secret Weapon Is Science

Story and photos by Katie Surma

A New Study Links a Record-Breaking Tropical Disease Outbreak in Peru to Climate-Driven Extreme Weather

By Liza Gross

Patagonia Is Burning

By Anika Jane Beamer

Trump Wants to Accelerate Extraction in Venezuela. So Do Drug Trafficking Organizations.

By Katie Surma

‘The Dirtiest, Worst Oil’ Is in Venezuela

By Phil McKenna

Oil Industry Will Eye Venezuela Warily, Experts Say

By Marianne Lavelle, Georgina Gustin