[posted by Vince Beiser on The Guardian, February 27, 2017] From Cambodia to California, industrial-scale sand mining is causing wildlife to die, local trade to wither and bridges to collapse. And booming urbanisation means the demand for this increasingly valuable resource is unlikely to let up. Times are good for Fey Wei Dong. A genial, middle-aged businessman based near Shanghai, China, Fey says he is raking in the equivalent of...

[posted on Global Witness, February 13, 2017] The latest developments in a multi-billion dollar corruption scandal show how the net is closing in on oil bosses who allow shady deals to happen on their watch – and how vital global transparency rules that make such deals much harder must be upheld. Last month, we celebrated a huge victory for the people of Nigeria when news broke that the Nigerian government seized a valuable block OPL...

[posted by Steven Mufson on The Washington Post, February 14, 2017] The Standing Rock and Cheyenne River Sioux Tribes on Tuesday submitted a new filing in a District of Columbia federal court in another last-ditch effort to stop completion of the Dakota Access pipeline in North Dakota. The filing calls the actions of the Army Corps of Engineers in issuing a final easement for the oil pipeline — as well as the agency’s environmental...

[posted by Mary Jo Dilonardo on Mother nature network, February 7, 2017]  It’s not over, but he’s won the first round in 16-year pollution case. On the eve of the Lunar New Year in 2001, Farmer Wang Enlin was socializing with his neighbors when the house they were in was flooded by wastewater from a nearby factory, reports the Daily Mail. The toxic wastewater also flooded some of the farmland in the village of Yushutun in...

[posted by Entitle collective and Stefania Barca on Entitle Blog, January 31, 2017] In the first post of the Ecology after capitalism series, Stefania Barca argues that degrowth has potential to facilitate the discussion and practice of an emancipatory ecological class-consciousness, provided it engages with the centrality of work and class in the transition to a post-carbon and post-capitalist paradigm. Ecological economist Giorgos...

[posted on The Democracy Center] PUBLIC STATEMENT – TO CEASE THE JUDICIAL PERSECUTION AGAINST MILLER DUSSÁN AND ELSA ARDILA AND IN SUPPORT OF THE ASSOCIATION OF THOSE AFFECTED BY THE QUIMBO DAM PROJECT (ASOQUIMBO), IN COLOMBIA. Background: Miller Dussán is a Colombian university professor and President of the Association of Those Affected by the Quimbo dam (ASOQUIMBO). El Quimbo is a mega-dam built by the Italian corporate energy...