This is the story of Weda Bay – and how nature is being sacrificed for mining Analysis has found more than 3,000 mining operations within the most naturally precious areas of the planet – a much bigger footprint than previously thought

This is the story of Weda Bay – and how nature is being sacrificed for mining

😢😢 danke für die jahrelange leidenschaftliche Arbeit und die vielen wichtigen Beiträge!

Closing out my year with a journal editor shocker 🧵

Checking new manuscripts today I reviewed a paper attributing 2 papers to me I did not write. A daft thing for an author to do of course. But intrigued I web searched up one of the titles and that's when it got real weird...

The project is currently hiring (postdoctoral and PhD positions)!

My dear colleague @victormaus.bsky.social has launched the website for MINE-THE-GAP, his ERC Consolidator Grant project: minethegap.eu Excited to see how AI and satellite Earth observation will add to our understanding of the mining sector’s global environmental footprint.

World’s climate plans fall drastically short of action needed, analysis shows Recent plans submitted to UN by more than 60 countries would cut carbon by only 10%, a sixth of what is needed

The world is deeply unserious about dealing with climate change. We need to reduce emissions by 50% in 5 years and we're nowhere near that.

Bergbau in Brasilien Schaden für die Umwelt, aber kein sicheres Einkommen für Kommunen

Bergbau in Brasilien treibt die #Entwaldung voran – doch profitiert auch die lokale Wirtschaft davon? Was bedeutet das für die Umwelt, welche Probleme treten auf?

#WUresearch #Mining #Wirtschaft
📷️ © @sluckene.bsky.social​

The figure shows how much global food systems contribute to pressures on all nine planetary boundaries.

New EAT-Lancet warns: food systems breach Planetary Boundaries.

“EAT-Lancet 2025 places justice at the centre, not only as a goal but also as a vital part of enabling transformation,” says Centre Director Line Gordon, one of the report’s lead authors.

www.stockholmresilience.org/5.5e96ff7d19...

Buchkontor 💫

Super Interview, danke! Einige der Kommentare zeigen anschaulich, wie lost wir sind.

Seven of nine planetary boundaries now breached – ocean acidification joins the danger zone," says PIK director Johan Rockström presenting the key findings of the Planetary Health Check 2025 today. #PlanetaryBoundaries
➡️ www.pik-potsdam.de/en/news/late...

Politicians and industry call it “development” when they build a few hospitals, schools, or sports arenas. Real progress requires a fully fledged, long-term social programme, not just a handful of short-term projects.

Brazil: Lula Should Veto “Devastation Bill” President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva should veto a bill that would remove many environmental licensing requirements and weaken Brazil’s ability to prevent environmental harms.

#Brazil can’t lead the climate fight w one hand & allow the destruction of the Amazon rainforest w the other.

President Lula da Silva should veto "Devastation Bill" that would remove many environmental licensing requirements & weaken environmental & rights protections.

cri.org/brazil-lula-...

Nice to see @iiasa.ac.at putting a spotlight on our new research ✨

More great news: I have started as a postdoc at the Stockholm Resilience Centre @sthlmresilience.bsky.social! Looking forward to new topics and collaborations.

My second PhD chapter is now published open access in Resources Policy!

While the first thesis chapter published last year was showing how artisanal mining causes substantial deforestation even in remote forest areas of the eastern DRC (doi.org/10.1038/s418...), … (1/3)

Huge thanks to @victormaus.bsky.social, Juliana, Tamás and Michael for great collaboration, and everyone who provided feedback along this (long) journey. @ecologicalecon.bsky.social @wuvienna.bsky.social @iiasa.ac.at @uspoficial.bsky.social 9/

Also striking: both benefits and harms from mining can spill across municipal borders – something often missed in localised assessments. 8/

When it comes to regional economic growth, industrial mining shows some potential for positive effects, but neither type leads to consistent or lasting GDP growth. In some years, industrial mining is even tied to negative outcomes. 7/

We find that garimpo is linked to increased deforestation. In contrast, industrial mining shows no strong link to changes in forest cover. 6/

Our study adds data to the larger debate on the local environmental and socioeconomic costs and benefits of mining. We analysed how both garimpo (informal) and industrial mining are linked to deforestation and economic outcomes – across all Brazilian municipalities. 5/

Six months on, the Yanomami crisis continues amid rising violence In early April, 35-year-old Indigenous health worker Angelita Prororita Yanomami went missing near Boa Vista, the capital city of the northernmost Brazilian state of Roraima. Two months later, her rem...

Do you remember when Amazon mining made global headlines for causing a humanitarian crisis among the Yanomami people? The crisis did not start overnight. It was the outcome of years of resource extraction expanding into Indigenous lands. news.mongabay.com/2023/07/six-... 4/

Uncontrolled Illegal Mining and Garimpo in the Brazilian Amazon - Nature Communications 91% of Brazil’s garimpo activity is in the Amazon, where almost 40% of them are five years old or younger. This paper finds in 2022, 77% of the detected garimpos showed explicit signs of illegality.

These policy signals helped pave the way for a massive increase in mining, especially in the Amazon. Many operations are illegal – inside Indigenous lands or protected areas. www.nature.com/articles/s41... 3/

Proposed Legislation to Mine Brazil's Indigenous Lands Will Threaten Amazon Forests and Their Valuable Ecosystem Services The impacts of proposed legislation to allow mining within Indigenous Lands in the Brazilian Amazon could affect a large extent of forests—up to 20% more than the potentially affected area under curre...

Remember when Brazilian governments – not just the last one – rolled back environmental protections and paved the way for mining in Indigenous territories, under the banner of “development”? www.cell.com/one-earth/fu... 2/

Forest loss and uncertain economic gains from industrial and garimpo mining in Brazilian municipalities - Nature Communications Mining is often seen as having opposing local economic and environmental effects. This study models these dynamics across Brazilian municipalities and shows that outcomes vary over time and by type of...

Excited to share that a study that has followed me through almost my entire PhD is now published in @natcomms.nature.com : www.nature.com/articles/s41... 🧵 1/

Heute verabschieden wir uns von WeTransfer 🚮

Klimaforscher bezeichnet ÖVP-Politik als "eine Form von Klimawandelleugnung" Sozialökonom Andreas Novy schrieb an Österreichs Sachstandsbericht zum Klimawandel mit und arbeitete heraus, wie die Politik Mehrheiten fürs Klima finden kann

"Unsere Analyse lautet: Wenn ein Umweltminister Verbote kategorisch ausschließt, sind die Klimaziele nicht erreichbar", sagt Sozialökonom Novy, leitender Autor des großen Klima-Sachstandsberichts.

Wie die Klimapolitik wieder in die Gänge kommt, erzählt er hier:
www.derstandard.at/story/300000...

5. Wars are easy to start and hard to stop

Metal mining is a global driver of environmental change Nature Reviews Earth & Environment, Published online: 12 June 2025; doi:10.1038/s43017-025-00683-wGlobal metal ore extraction has increased almost fourfold since 1970. This Review explores the drivers, patterns and environmental consequences of the growth of metal ore extraction and discusses interventions to reduce negative impacts across metal supply chains.

New online! Metal mining is a global driver of environmental change

@ecologicalecon.bsky.social @wuvienna.bsky.social @jgzon.bsky.social @iiasa.ac.at