Varkey The landfills used for burying electronic waste result in lead seeping into the ground and eventually into the local water supply. The dumping of first world waste has formed a billion dollar global industry that is directly linked to arms trafficking and money laundering. Third world workers, who lack essential equipment needed for working…
Category: ENVIRONMENT
Brazil: A Nation Contaminated by Agrotoxins
Danay Galletti Hernández A law passed in 2003 by then-President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva requires that intentional contaminants not be used in the production process. | Photo: EFE According to an investigation revealed last year, about 40 thousand people were treated in the Brazilian health system from 2007 to 2017, after being exposed to…
Tricontinental Briefing No 1: Canadian Mining Companies
Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research Introduction Of the world’s mining companies, 60% are headquartered in Canada. In February 2019, 216 companies were listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) and 961 companies were listed on the TSX-Venture Exchange (TSXV). Mining accounts for 53% of the composite index. This kind of industry dominance suggests that investors…
How GMO Seeds and Monsanto/Bayer’s “RoundUp” are Driving US Policy in Venezuela
Whitney Webb As the political crisis in Venezuela has unfolded, much has been said about the Trump administration’s clear interest in the privatization and exploitation of Venezuela’s oil reserves, the largest in the world, by American oil giants like Chevron and ExxonMobil. Yet the influence of another notorious American company, Monsanto — now a subsidiary…
Brazil’s Brumadinho Dam: Corporate Terrorism and Environmental Racism
Why the Brumadinho dam collapse is also a case of environmental racism Rute Pina A demographic survey on the communities impacted by the burst three months ago of a Vale dam in Brumadinho, in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, shows that black and low-income people were the most affected by the tragedy. Down the first…
Cyclone Idai, Sanctions and Capitalism
Mafa Kwanisai Mafa About a month ago Zimbabwe, Malawi and Mozambique were devastated by a tropical cyclone that was described by the United Nations as one of the worst disasters ever to strike the Southern Hemisphere. Approximately 2.6 million people were affected in the three countries. Cyclone Idai hit the Mozambican port city of Beira…
Brazil’s Amazon: The Wealth of the Earth Generates the Poverty of Humankind
The Tricontinental In Open Veins of Latin America (1971) Eduardo Galeano wrote, ‘our wealth has always generated our poverty by nourishing the prosperity of others’. Galeano’s book lyrically details Latin America’s long history, from its colonisation to the era of military coups of the 1970s. In this long period, the wealth of the continent was…
Three Vale Dams in Minas Gerais at High or Imminent Risk of Collapse
Brasil de Fato The risk level of three dams operated by Vale in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, was raised to the highest grade, the mining giant said on Wednesday, sounding the warning sirens for the second time in little more than one month. The dams are located in the same state that suffered two…
How Vale Impacts the Lives of Indigenous and Landless Communities in Northern Brazil
Joana Zanotto Vale trains have killed 39 people in eight years in Pará / Laís Souza | Joana Zanotto Archive After latest dam disaster in Brumadinho, Pará state becomes one of the mining giant’s priority destinations Geny Viana Porto has killed an anaconda and is grateful to God for the strength she has. Her back…
It Was Not an Accident, It Was a Crime! The Collapse of a Dam in Brumadinho, Brazil
Brasil de Fato Profit in the midst of mud As the sludge spreads. Undeclared shame Exposed and privatized By the owners of civilization Who insist on pushing forward and being right. It is the mud of order and progress That mirrors the steps backward. Ademar Bogo In Brazil, the collapse of the dam at Córrego…
Venezuelan CRBZ Communiqué of Solidarity with the Brazilian People for Tragic Dam Collapse
From the Revolutionary Current Bolívar and Zamora we manifest all our support and unconditional solidarity with the people and social organizations of the brother people of Brazil, after the tragedy that occurred on January 25 with the breaking of a dam that contained mining waste from the company Vale S.A, events that occurred in Minas…
Brazil: Movement of People Affected by Dams (MAB) Calls Out New Crime by Mining Giant Vale
LA VIA CAMPESINA On 25 January 2019 three iron-ore tailings dams collapsed at the Córrego do Feijão Mine, part of the Paraopeba Complex. The dam under the responsibility of the mining company Vale is in the municipality of Brumadinho, at the metropolitan area of Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais. It is estimated that 14 million m³…
