venezuela
Newsletter
Credit: Norman Meyer/Unsplash
Venezuela struggles with severe wildfires and institutional failure
Amid record-breaking wildfires, Venezuela faces a severe test due to both environmental challenges and governmental inefficiencies.
In short:
- Experts attribute the unprecedented scale of wildfires in Venezuela to a combination of extreme weather conditions and severe institutional degradation.
- Wildfires have destroyed significant areas, including UNESCO sites and critical habitats, with the state's inability to manage and prevent these disasters exacerbating the damage.
- The government’s response to the fires has been criticized as politicized and inadequate, lacking investment in essential public services and infrastructure.
Key quote:
“The solution for fires is to manage them, not to control them.”
— Bibiana Bilbao, researcher of tropical savannas and fire ecology at Simón Bolívar University
Why this matters:
In Venezuela, where political turmoil has often hampered the effectiveness of public institutions, the response to environmental crises becomes complicated, raising concerns about the adequacy of the emergency measures and the speed of governmental response.
Environmental experts are particularly worried about the aftermath of the wildfires, including the loss of biodiversity and the long-term impacts on the soil's fertility which could affect agricultural productivity and food security in the region. The health implications are also significant; wildfires degrade air quality, which can lead to a spike in respiratory problems and other health issues among the population.
Keep reading...Show less
Newsletter
Photo by Tyler Palmer on Unsplash
Guyana Amerindian communities fear Venezuela’s move to annex oil
Amerindian communities in Guyana have raised concerns that Venezuela’s takeover may threaten decades-long battles for recognition of their customary lands and, in the process, endanger the region’s rich biodiversity.
Image by David Mark from Pixabay
How Venezuela’s oil industry has devastated the environment
Gas flares and leaking pipelines from Venezuela’s once-booming oil industry, hobbled by U.S. sanctions and mismanagement, are polluting towns and a major lake.
Sam valadi/Flickr/Commercial use & mods allowed
Brazilian police probe deadly shooting on Indigenous land
Brazil’s federal police said Sunday they are investigating a shooting that killed one and wounded two Yanomami Indigenous people, saying the main suspects were illegal gold miners working in that area of Roraima state.
Top Story
Biden gives Chevron permit to restart Venezuelan oil sales
The move could help ease global oil prices and speed the declines in U.S. gasoline prices.
commons.wikimedia.org
Maduro faults capitalism for causing climate change, but doesn’t mention Venezuela’s historic role in oil
President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela denounced capitalism and the extraction of natural resources as the causes of climate change during a scorching critique at COP27 on Tuesday that made no mention of his own country’s history as an oil producer.
Newsletter
‘Nature is striking back’: flooding around the world, from Australia to Venezuela
While floods are indeed natural phenomena, a longstanding result of storms, the human-induced climate crisis is amplifying their damage.
ORIGINAL REPORTING
MOST POPULAR
CLIMATE
