South America

"Up to half of the Amazon rainforest could transform into grasslands or weakened ecosystems in the coming decades, a new study found, as climate change, deforestation and severe droughts like the one the region is currently experiencing damage huge areas beyond their ability to recover."

Dengue fever has surged in Brazil's hot rainy season, forcing health authorities to take emergency measures and start mass vaccination against the mosquito-borne illness."

"Fires devastating parts of central Chile have killed at least 64 people and the country faces a "tragedy of very great magnitude," President Gabriel Boric said on Sunday, as he warned that the death toll likely will surge in coming days."

"Native to the tropics, these pollinators are taking a lead role in one of the latest efforts to conserve the Amazon rainforest."

"As a child, Heriberto Vela, an Indigenous resident of Loreto, Peru, watched his father pull nests of wild stingless bees from trees in the Amazon forest. Together, the two then extracted honey from the nests to help cure colds and other ailments.

"Suriname’s Saamaka Maroons still grow rice from seeds an ancestor escaping from a plantation carried in her hair. Now a gene bank seeks to widen use of the rare species to help fight the climate crisis".

"A Brazilian federal judge ruled that miners Vale, BHP and their joint venture Samarco must pay 47.6 billion reais ($9.67 billion) in damages for a 2015 tailings dam burst, according to a legal decision on Thursday seen by Reuters."

"Climate change was the primary driver of a massive drought in the Amazon basin in 2023 and will likely cause future extreme droughts, with potentially dire consequences for global efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions, according to a new report from World Weather Attribution."

"An unusual collection of Senate leaders, British lords, environmentalists and a secretive lobbying group is urging the Biden administration to block a Brazilian meat processing giant linked to Amazon deforestation from offering shares to U.S. investors."

"The Americas’ smallest wild cat, the guina (Leopardus guigna), is superbly adapted to its home range in Chile and Argentina. But the region is severely affected by deforestation and increasing human population, putting the cat’s future at risk."