Environment Archive

In late December, Japan formally announced it would withdraw from the International Whaling Commission, or IWC, clearing the way for it to resume commercial whaling in July 2019. In announcing the move, the Japanese government criticized the IWC and member states for what it portrayed as an uncompromising anti-whaling posture. But environmental activists attacked the decision, with the executive director of Greenpeace Japan calling it “out of step with the international community.” In an email interview with WPR, Natalie Barefoot, acting director and lecturer at law for the University of Miami School of Law’s Environmental Justice Clinic, discusses Japan’s reasons […]

The new year marked the beginning of a new era for Latin America’s largest country. Jair Bolsonaro, the far-right winner of Brazil’s presidential election, assumed office amid a remarkable swirl of contrasting expectations. While the former army captain’s incendiary declarations during the election campaign last fall sparked fears among millions of Brazilians and others abroad, a less noticed phenomenon took shape in the weeks leading up to his inauguration on Jan. 1: Brazilians, by large majorities, are optimistic about his tenure. In two surveys last month, Brazilian pollsters found that a stunning 75 percent of respondents approved of Bolsonaro, and […]

Editor’s Note: This article is part of an ongoing series on food security around the world. The impacts of a drastically warming climate are already being felt in Mongolia, where air temperatures have risen at three times the global rate since the 1940s. Average precipitation is declining and extreme weather disasters are more frequent, posing challenges for the country’s agriculture sector, which accounts for one-tenth of GDP and employs one-third of the labor force. In an interview with WPR, Tungalag Ulambayar, the research director of Saruul Khuduu Environmental Research & Consulting in Ulaanbaatar, discusses the threat that climate change poses […]