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This Bay Area Tropical Forest Network event takes place at 6pm on the Stanford Campus. Speaker Luis Fernandez, a tropical ecologist at the Carnegie Institution’s Department of Global Ecology and director of the Carnegie Amazon Mercury Project, will discuss the dynamics that have made artisanal gold mining both the primary driver of deforestation in the Western Amazon and the number one source of anthropogenic mercury in the world today, and describe its effects on forests, wildlife and humans.
"LIMA, Peru — The authorities here are investigating the killing of an environmental advocate and indigenous leader who died along with three other men in a remote region of the Amazon jungle that he had sought to protect from illegal logging."
"BOGOTA, Colombia — Cesar Florez is often hesitant to answer his phone because there might be another death threat at the end of the line. Sometimes the threat comes in a phone call, other times in a text message or an email. In April, flyers were posted in the restroom stalls at Florez’s workplace, declaring him and his colleagues 'permanent military targets.'"
"Ecuador’s government has issued an environmental permit for oil drilling in the pristine Amazon reserve that President Rafael Correa initially offered to exempt from exploration if rich countries would pay his government."
"The so-called leaf rust, or roya, is a yellow and orange-colored fungus that has swept coffee fields from Mexico to Peru over the past two years, threatening to stunt production and drive up the price of Latin American roasts."
"Could pesticides - their use and abuse - increase levels of cancer and birth defects? It is a question asked across the vast belt of Argentina where GM crops are grown. In Chaco, the Minister of Public Health wants an independent commission to investigate a growing health crisis."
"Scientists have made a surprising discovery about ethanol: The more it was used by drivers in Sao Paulo, Brazil, the more ozone they measured in the local environment."
Mongabay.org offers grant opportunities every month or two to support in-depth reporting on key environmental themes under a given topic. Top proposal receives a $12,000 stipend and up to $3,000 for reporting and travel costs. Next up: Could the focus on climate overshadow biodiversity in Latin America? If so, what would a low carbon world with impaired biodiversity look like? Apply by Oct 5, 2014.