My handful of primitive news collecting helpers have unceremoniously done their work for another week. So, I bid you welcome to a short summary of the highlights produced by yours truly over a blended Scotch in a dark and quiet Sunday evening hour.
A large group of desperate Central Americans are walking towards the US border, and have become an object of propaganda in the upcoming elections there. By certain media and politicians, they are unbelievably demonized. What is rarely mentioned by anyone, is how their exodus is powered by climate change.
“It didn’t rain this year. Last year it didn’t rain […] My maize field didn’t produce a thing. With my expenses, everything we invested, we didn’t have any earnings. There was no harvest.”
Jesús Canan, climate refugee from Copan, to The Guardian
“This is the worst drought we’ve ever had […] We’ve lost absolutely everything. If things don’t improve, we’ll be forced to migrate somewhere else. We can’t go on like this.”
Méndez López, Guatemala to National Geographic
In the UK, a movement of civil disobedience called Extinction Rebellion gain traction. The very day after the news that humans have now killed 60% of all animal life, fifteen activists got arrested for blocking a road outside houses of parliament.
“We must rise up. When the law tells you to support something that your deep inner voice is fundamentally against, you should take non-violent direct action.”
Scott Cato, green MP and activist, to The Guardian
Nine members of Philippine union National Federation of Sugarcane Workers, who were occupying part of a plantation, were shot and killed, reports The New York Times. The union suspects the plantation owner to have something to do with it.
Also, another far-right, anti-environmentalist populist won an election by spreading fake news and propaganda on social media. This time in Brazil. If you read only one tweet about that tragedy, let it be this one: