The right to protest is under threat across the world.
News of the world environment
NEWSLETTER | APRIL 19, 2024
Crackdown on Climate Protest
In Uganda, the climate crisis poses a real and present threat to citizens. So too does the act of protesting against climate-polluting projects, due to the state’s brutal crackdown on climate activists.
That threat is being felt by 11 young climate activists, all of the them Kyambogo University students, who have been embroiled in Uganda’s criminal-legal system since late last year. The students were arrested while protesting against the controversial East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP), a 1,443-kilometer pipeline that will transport crude oil produced in Uganda’s Lake Albert oilfields to Tanzania’s port of Tanga for export. The most recent crackdown came on Dec. 15, when four activists, members of Justice Movement Uganda, were arrested — and, they say, beaten — by security forces during a peaceful march to deliver a petition to the country’s parliament. The petition asked parliament to halt the pipeline project and free seven of their colleagues who were arrested in November and locked up in the country’s Luzira Maximum Security Prison.
“My friends and I, numbering over 50 students, marched from our hostels of residence to parliament, but only a few us managed to reach the gate of the parliament because we were attacked by police from the start,” Bwete Abdul Aziiz, one of the four students arrested on Dec. 15, told Earth Island Journal. The 26-year-old Kampala resident was separated from the main body of protesters along with a few other marchers. Although this separation helped the smaller group reach the grounds of the parliament, it led to their alleged assault and arrest by Ugandan security forces.
Reporter Obiora Ikoku reports on the criminalization of climate protest in Uganda, where more than 30 environmental and human rights defenders, many of them students protesting the East African Crude Oil Pipeline, have been arrested since 2021.
READ MORE
Image by Phototheque AT
NEWS WE ARE FOLLOWING
Coral Crisis
On Monday, NOAA declared the world's fourth Global Coral Bleaching Event, marking the second such occurrence in the past decade. It’s a stark reminder of how climate change is threatening the survival of the coral reefs that are critical to ocean and human life. (NOAA)
Dangerous Jobs for Kids
The US Labor Department says it discovered children working in dangerous jobs at a Los Angeles-area poultry company, and is demanding the company forfeit money made through their work. (CalMatters)
Bird Flu Hits Cows
H5N1, or bird flu, has hit dairy farms — but the dairy industry doesn’t want us saying so. (Vox)
EU's Last Wild River Under Siege
Developers want to build a massive set of hotels and luxury villas in Albania along the delta of Europe’s last wild river. Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner is spearheading the effort. (YaleEnvironment360)
Not a subscriber yet?
You can get 4 issues of our award-winning print magazine delivered for $20 ($25 for international addresses) by clicking this secure link.
YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Earth Island Journal is a nonprofit publication. Our mission is to inform and inspire action. Which is why we rely on readers like you for support. If you believe in the work we do, please consider making a tax-deductible donation to our Green Journalism Fund.
DONATE TODAY!
Did a thoughtful friend forward you our newsletter? Keep up with the latest from Earth Island Journal!
SIGN UP TODAY
Follow
Follow
Subscribe
You are receiving this email newsletter because you signed up on our website.
If this newsletter was forwarded to you, you can sign up to the email newsletter here.
Support our work by subscribing to our quarterly print magazine.
Copyright © 2023 Earth Island Journal, All rights reserved.
Our mailing address is:
Earth Island Journal
2150 Allston Way Ste 460
Berkeley, CA 94704-1375
Add us to your address book
No longer want to receive these emails? Unsubscribe
