People around the world are celebrating Earth Day to find creative ways to reflect on the beauty and importance of nature, to encourage people to do more for the planet or to congratulate others on their environmental achievements. Nevertheless, much of the mainstream environmental movement consists of people who belong to the middle or upper classes in the developed world.
Relying on the exploitation of the land, resources, and people of the developing and undeveloped world, the global capitalist economy allows some to enjoy lives of privilege and plenty while others live in pollution and squalor as the ongoing global ecological deepens. While the North continues to put its hopes in moral persuasion or technological solutions to the crises of water scarcity, extractivism and climate change, many of the leading fighters for the rights of Mother Earth – or Pachamama – are the communities and peoples most affected by these crises.
teleSUR invites you to review our ongoing coverage of the communities and nations fighting back to preserve our planet in the face of the constant onslaught on our natural ecology.
World Leaders Signed a 'Death Warrant for the Planet' at COP21
As world leaders celebrate the “historic” Paris COP21 climate deal, climate activists suggest a lot of the praise is just hot air. READ MORE
Overheated Arctic Sign of Climate Change 'Vicious Circle'
Ice cover at the top of the globe shrank to its smallest area in 2016 — some 4.14 million sq km (1.6 million sq. miles) — on Sept. 16. READ MORE
Drought Crisis Shows Mother Earth Is Thirsty and Bolivians Are Suffering
teleSUR delves deeper into the current crisis and looks at how access to water in Bolivia has long been a political, social and economic battle and is increasingly wrought with environmental challenges brought on by climate change. READ MORE
Water Wars? Experts Urge Rethinking Our Relationship with Water
Humans are quickly depleting water at higher rate than nature can replenish, transforming it into both a catalyst and a weapon during wars and conflicts. READ MORE
Reclaiming Water: Chilean Fight Against US Dam Project Heats Up
A years-long, high-stakes fight against an embattled U.S. hydroelectric dam in Chile has taken a small but important step in the campaign to halt the project that jeopardizes the water supply for some 7 million people living in and around the capital city of Santiago. READ MORE
5 Water Warriors Defending Rights from North Dakota to Chile
Activists and environmentalists lead the struggle to protect water sources across the planet, from the top of the continents of the Americas in Alaska all the way down to Argentina. READ MORE
El Salvador Water Warriors Fight Corporate Greed to Win Rights
El Salvador faces a water scarcity emergency, and yet proposals by water rights defenders have been blocked for years by corporate interests. READ MORE
5 Ways Latin America Learned to Love Mother Nature
Latin America is leading efforts to protect nature and prove to the world that ecological well-being and development don't need to be mutually exclusive. READ MORE
Cuba's Sustainable Agro-Ecological Model Could Save the World
teleSUR spoke to Professor Raj Patel, an award-winning writer and defender of food security and sustainable models of agriculture. READ MORE
How Donald Trump Is Violating Mother Earth
From claiming that climate change was a hoax invented by the Chinese to unraveling Obama-era environmental regulations since taking office, teleSUR looks at some of Trump's worst attacks against the environment. READ MORE
Peru Campesinos Could Face More Violations from Mining Giant
Campesinos pitted against giant Newmont Mining have been subject to ongoing oppression. READ MORE
DAPL Builder Spills Drilling Fluids Into Ohio Wetlands: Report
The spills were attributed to Energy Transfer Partners' Rover natural gas pipeline, which spans 713 miles and is worth about US$4.2 billion. READ MORE
Argentina's Mapuche to March 500 Miles to Fight Extractivism
The new regulation calls for experimenting with “new technologies” like fracking. READ MORE
Chile's Largest Copper Mine Forced to Suspend Major Projects
The decision was a result of the "permanent blockades" that have prevented the subcontractors from going back to work, according to the company. READ MORE