"For many people in Benin, the forests empowered them before they were born, or in the first months of their lives. Barren women performed Voodoo rituals by sacred trees to get pregnant. Others were brought as newborns by parents seeking to ward off evil spirits."
"WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. — Whenever Amy Begaye’s extended family butchered a sheep, she was given what she considered easy tasks — holding the legs and catching the blood with a bowl. She was never given the knife. That changed recently."
"Nepal's snow-capped mountains have lost close to one-third of their ice in over 30 years due to global warming, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Monday after a visit to the area near Mount Everest, the world's highest peak."
"Thanks to a changing climate and a deeper navigation channel in the Mississippi River, the saltwater intrusion that has threatened New Orleans area drinking water supplies this year is expected to become more frequent. The scale of the crisis has sparked calls for a permanent solution. While there is no shortage of ideas, they all come with a huge price and no certainty about who will pay for them."
It was the dead of night when the ship caught fire, Patrick Aganyebi remembers, but the flames made it seem as bright as day. ... Five workers were killed and two others presumed dead in the blast on the Trinity Spirit, a rusting converted oil tanker anchored 15 miles (24 km) off the coast of Nigeria that pulled crude oil from the ocean floor."
"Compensation claims filed by veterans and others who say they were sickened by toxic water at Camp Lejeune already total nearly $3.3 trillion, US Justice Department lawyers said in a court filing."
"Louisiana has increased fines for inactive oil and gas wells in an effort to reduce the number of polluting and dangerous wells that are eventually abandoned and made the responsibility of the state."
"It’s a glaring weak spot in climate protection: Millions of U.S. residents don’t have flood insurance and face financial ruin if their home is inundated. But the nation’s insurance gap would shrink under a dramatic proposal that could require millions of property owners to buy flood coverage for the first time, potentially costing them thousands of dollars a year."
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