"Brazil’s National Space Research Institute, INPE, registered over 53,000 forest fires in the country up to Friday, and warns that the hot, dry weather may make things worse, if law enforcement efforts are not increased."

"Brazil's environmental regulator Ibama decided on Thursday to shelve the environmental license request for a hydroelectric dam on the Tapajos River in the Amazon, a project that had been opposed by indigenous tribes and conservation groups."

"More than 20 land rights activists have been killed in Brazil so far this year, with most deaths linked to conflicts over logging and agribusiness."

"On a cool December night in Paris, at an awards ceremony in the city’s 3rd arrondissement, Eduardo Paes, the mayor of Rio de Janeiro, took the stage to thunderous applause from an audience full of his fellow mayors from around the world. Paes’ voiced boomed as he stressed the importance of cities leading the fight against climate change ...."

"Rio de Janeiro's air is dirtier and deadlier than portrayed by authorities and the Olympics' promised legacy of cleaner winds has not remotely been met, an analysis of government data and Reuters' own testing found."

"A major part of Rio’s winning Olympic bid was a plan to capture and treat 80 percent of the sewage that flows into Guanabara Bay, something organizers now admit will not happen — certainly not by August, if ever."

"How the country challenged the junk-food industry and became a global leader in the battle against obesity."

"The fate of a mysterious hummingbird — and that of the indigenous population that shares its territory — hangs by a thread."

"A new pollution problem has surfaced in Guanabara Bay, the venue for sailing in the Rio de Janeiro Olympics."

"SANTIAGO - A ban on harvesting shellfish in Chiloé due to a severe red tide outbreak sparked a social uprising that has partially isolated thousands of local residents of the southern Chilean archipelago and revived criticism of an export model that condemns small-scale fishing communities to poverty and marginalisation."