Susan Ormiston

The Amazon rainforest is one of the most important natural assets on the planet. As Brazilians head to the polls later this month, the question is whether protecting this environmental gem will trump economic pressures.

Missiles and mortars kill and maim people, but Russia’s year-long war in Ukraine is also poisoning the air, ground and sea, says Ukraine’s minister of environmental protection, who is building a case that Russia should pay for its ecological “crimes.”

It’s been a year since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. But nine years ago this week, CBC News correspondent Susan Ormiston and videographer Pascal Leblond witnessed dramatic events in Ukraine that set the stage for the current war.

The world’s coral reefs are endangered from warming oceans, disease and heavy human use. Piece by piece, a group of scientists is working to save the reefs from the edge of extinction.

People on both sides of the Hamas-Israel conflict agree it will lead to profound shifts in attitudes, and how Israelis and Palestinians perceive their future and each other.

In Tel Aviv, traumatized survivors of the Kfar Aza kibbutz attacked by Hamas militants on Oct. 7 recently gathered in a seaside park to fly kites to bring attention to the 18 hostages from their community presumed captive in Gaza. The longing for peace the residents once had has been displaced by anxiety and worry for those still missing.

Hosting the UN’s biggest climate talks allows the United Arab Emirates to showcase its transition from petrostate to emerging green-energy powerhouse. But as COP28 opens in Dubai, its national oil company is also rushing to expand oil and gas production, leading some to question its commitment to meeting climate targets.

Wildfires in the normally humid, tropical Amazon rainforest have been supercharged by a disastrous combination of elevated temperatures, historic drought and deforestation. In Roraima State, in northern Brazil, the number of fires in February were more than five times the average.

Whether it’s too much water or not enough, scientists say extreme events — like the recent deadly floods that displaced families in Brazil and Afghanistan — are becoming more frequent and battering many parts of the world that aren’t prepared to deal with them.

Solar is now the cheapest option for new electricity, and the Dutch are all in. The Netherlands is known for scattered showers, abundant waterways, and actively-used agricultural land, so it took ingenuity for the small country to soar to the top of the Europe’s solar pyramid.