Tiffany M. Higgins
@tiffanymhiggins.bsky.social
Independent journalist covering the Brazilian Amazon. @Noosphere.app contributor. muckrack.com/tiffany-higgins/portfolio
Important reporting from the Amazon. Read the full story and get access to videos on the Noosphere app.
Tiffany M. Higgins@tiffanymhiggins.bsky.social · 6d agoDespite orders to stop, U.S. mining company Alcoa has been dredging the Amazon River in Juruti, Pará state, in the Brazilian Amazon since July 10. Dutch co. Van Oord is dredging. Alcoa is being sued by the Brazilian Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office www.noosphere.app/us-alcoa-ill...
Despite orders to stop, U.S. mining company Alcoa has been dredging the Amazon River in Juruti, Pará state, in the Brazilian Amazon since July 10. Dutch co. Van Oord is dredging. Alcoa is being sued by the Brazilian Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office www.noosphere.app/us-alcoa-ill...
US Alcoa illegally dredging the Amazon River, prosecutors charge
Dead fish & dolphins, blocked stream entrances reported as Dutch contractor Van Oord dredges
noosphere.app
The Richest 10% Cause up to $5.7 Trillion in Environmental Damage Each Year https://www.byteseu.com/2192249/ A new analysis estimates that the world’s highest-consuming 10% generate trillions of dollars in environmental damage each year across climate, biodiversity, pollution, and water …
The Richest 10% Cause up to $5.7 Trillion in Environmental Damage Each Year - Bytes Europe
A new study finds that biodiversity loss accounts for the largest share of global environmental damage, surpassing climate change.
byteseu.com
📢 A Amazon revelou que seus data centers consumiram 273,3 milhões de litros de água no Brasil em 2025. Globalmente, a empresa retirou quase 9,5 bilhões de litros da natureza no mesmo período.
Traditional peoples who use the Amazon’s riverways could be mistaken for drug runners under U.S. narcotrafficking policy, making them vulnerable to operations targeting Brazilian cartels, a researcher told me on a boat on the Tocantins River. @noosphere.app www.noosphere.app/u-s-may-mist...
U.S. may mistake Amazon fishers for terrorists
River chat, Part 3
noosphere.app
www.noosphere.app/fear-in-the-... Is the U.S. using terrorist labels to gain access to rare earth metals in the Amazon? This story is worth a watch, and more to come from @tiffanymhiggins.bsky.social
Fear in the Amazon as U.S. Labels Brazilian Cartels Terrorists
River chat (part 1)
noosphere.app
Important story from the Amazon for us that are concerned about deforestation and climate change. By Tiffany Higgins @tiffanymhiggins.bsky.social www.noosphere.app/whats-up-in-...
What's up in the forest
Four little bills
noosphere.app
After weeks of antigovernment protests and blockades across Bolivia, protesters are demanding the resignation of Bolivia’s U.S.-backed president, Rodrigo Paz. In my article for @noosphereapp, I examine the protests' origin in the Amazon & the U.S. response. www.noosphere.app/untitled-121/
Protests and blockades choke Bolivia
Demands that began in the Amazon have spread
noosphere.app
As Brazil moves to explode the deep, rocky river territory of the Lourenção Rocks, locals on the Tocantins River say the government’s refusal to recognize them as “impacted” excludes thousands of fishers from protections. Tiffany Higgins for @mongabay.com news.mongabay.com/2026/02/amaz...
Amazon riverfolk warn blasting rocks for shipping route will kill fisheries
Generations of fishers have called these rocky formations home. Now, they say Brazil is not hearing their knowledge.
news.mongabay.com
A downward spiral - climate change lowers agricultural productivity, leading to cropland expansion and deforestation, and thus more climate change. www.nber.org/papers/w3502...
Climate Change, Deforestation, and the Expansion of the Global Agricultural Frontier
Founded in 1920, the NBER is a private, non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to conducting economic research and to disseminating research findings among academics, public policy makers, an...
nber.org
My @noosphere.app video reporting: In Belém, social movements protested the installation of a Belo Sun open-pit gold mine on the Xingu River. On Feb 19, a judge reaffirmed the license’s validity, triggering Indigenous protests lasting more than a month. www.noosphere.app/lives-are-wo...
Watch: "Lives are worth more than gold"
Belém protest targets Canadian Belo Sun mining project on the Xingu River
noosphere.app
My reporting for @mongabay.com
Mongabay@mongabay.com · 5mo agoBrazil plans to blast the Lourenção Rocks on the Tocantins River, but fishers say many affected communities aren’t officially recognized. Scientists warn the “underwater Galápagos” could be devastated as shipping expansion prioritizes exports over traditional livelihoods.
Indigenous protesters boarded a ship near Cargill’s grain port, hanging banners saying “The Tapajós River isn’t merchandise” & demanding repeal of a decree privatizing three Amazon rivers. Police ordered them away from an “area of international security" My report www.noosphere.app/untitled-113...
Indigenous board ship near Cargill port; police respond
On Feb. 19, Indigenous protesters boarded a ship near Cargill’s grain port in Santarém, hanging banners saying “The Tapajós River isn’t merchandise” and demanding repeal of a decree privatizing three ...
noosphere.app
My video interview of Auricélia Arapiuns in Santarem for @noosphere.app - Part 2 of our interview www.noosphere.app/auricelia-ar...
"Shipping channels will cause deforestation." Auricélia Arapiuns (Part 2)
Auricelia Arapiuns says “a series of destructive projects” — shipping channels, railways, ports, mining — threaten traditional peoples in the Amazon. The government narrative of shipping channels redu...
noosphere.app
My video reporting from the Amazon on a new bill that would reduce the prison term of former president Jair Bolsonaro. I went to a demonstration in #Belém and talked with a history professor about what's at stake for democracy. www.instagram.com/p/DSYRLHCCdAA/
Noosphere App on Instagram: "In Belém, Pará, Brazil, protestors have taken to the streets after a bill advanced that could reduce the prison time of former president Jair Bolsonaro. In her latest rep...
In the latest development in Brazil, protests are erupting in Belém as a bill that could reduce the prison term of former president Jair Bolsonaro gains traction. We spoke with Israel Esteban, a geogr...
instagram.com
My video reporting from the Amazon for @noosphere.app
Noosphere@noosphere.app · 8mo agoSince Dec. 8, about 200 Indigenous people—most of them women—have occupied a federal building in Altamira, Pará, blocking access to Brazil’s Indigenous affairs agency, FUNAI, in protest of the Belo Sun gold mining project.
An honor to have been in #Belem for the COP30 climate conference. My article for @noosphere.app describes how fire literally broke out in the COP halls. Then, fires in the COP agreements broke out, too. Video by young communicator Caed Alves #COP30 www.noosphere.app/untitled-89/
Fire Breaks Out as Climate Deals Burn in COP Climate Conference’s Final Hours
Get news direct from reporters you trust.
noosphere.app
Appreciated the chance to work with Steve Gibbs on this piece. We talked with Indigenous & traditional river communities about how they're feeling about COP30 while oil drilling & new shipping channels are being approved, set to harm Amazonian communities, they say. www.thetimes.com/world/latin-...
‘We thought Lula would protect the Amazon. Now he’s approved oil drilling’
As Brazil hosts Cop30, indigenous territory untouched even by the environmental ‘criminal’ Jair Bolsonaro has been opened up to oil by his left-wing successor
thetimes.com
I’m a bilingual US journalist based in Belém with years of experience reporting from the Amazon region. I hope to connect w/ editors for COP30 coverage. I speak Portuguese fluently, have widespread Amazon contacts w// experts & traditional communities' voices. Feel free to fwd @revkin.bsky.social
My article for Climate Home News, edited by the excellent Megan Rowling
Megan Rowling@meganrowling.bsky.social · last yr.It's still very unclear whether large-scale carbon offsetting schemes led by governments can work - either for forests and the climate, or for the people whose land they involve #brazil #COP30 www.climatechangenews.com/2025/06/08/p...
My interview with Federal Prosecutor Felício Pontes on the Tocantins River in the Brazilian Amazon. Brazil’s federal government has a license to blow up an ecologically sensitive stretch, the Lourenção Rocks, to turn the river into a shipping channel. www.instagram.com/reel/DOLWVWv...
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Emerging evidence suggests that deforestation in the Amazon is already altering South American monsoon patterns, resulting in drier conditions that may compromise the long term resilience of the rainforest. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
How climate change and deforestation interact in the transformation of the Amazon rainforest - Nature Communications
In this study, the distinct impacts of deforestation and global climate change on the Brazilian Amazon are quantified for the period 1985-2020. Deforestation amplifies the temperature increase and dom...
nature.com
My reporting for Climate Home News
Climate Home News@climatechangenews.com · 12mo agoBrazil’s Tropical Forests Forever Facility (TFFF) and other innovative finance tools will be showcased at COP30, but surging wildfires in the Amazon pose a threat to their success, climate experts warn www.climatechangenews.com/2025/08/07/a...
Justiça suspende licença para obras em pedral no Rio Tocantins, no Pará ⬇️ Pedido havia sido feito pelo MPF, alegando que a permissão federal foi concedida sem cumprir condições legais e judiciais
Justiça suspende licença para obras em pedral no Rio Tocantins, no Pará - ((o))eco
Agências públicas estariam tentando evitar obrigações legais e reduzir o alcance das compensações socioambientais
oeco.org.br
Brazil plans to blow up a key Amazon biodiversity spot, the #LourençãoRocks. A judge just suspended the license until a complete ruling is made on federal prosecutors' suit to overturn the license. An August judge's visit to the rocks' impacted traditional communities was set. #hidrovia
Justiça suspende licença para obras em pedral no Rio Tocantins, no Pará - ((o))eco
Agências públicas estariam tentando evitar obrigações legais e reduzir o alcance das compensações socioambientais
oeco.org.br
Brazil plans to blow up a key Amazon biodiversity spot, the #LourençãoRocks. A judge just suspended the license until a complete ruling is made on federal prosecutors' suit to overturn the license. An August judge's visit to the rocks' impacted traditional communities was set. #hidrovia
Justiça suspende licença para obras em pedral no Rio Tocantins, no Pará - ((o))eco
Agências públicas estariam tentando evitar obrigações legais e reduzir o alcance das compensações socioambientais
oeco.org.br
Journalist and current Sacatar Fellow Tiffany Higgins has published an article discussing the shortcomings of carbon credit policies in Pará and highlighting how traditional quilombola and indigenous communities are being sidelined in negotiations. www.climatechangenews.com/2025/06/08/p...
Pará's Amazon forest carbon deal in doubt as prosecutors move to block it
The Brazilian state’s contract with foreign governments and companies has run into trouble over concerns it was premature and agreed without consulting Indigenous communities The Brazilian state’s con...
climatechangenews.com
Brazilian meat giant JBS has claimed that the company's net-zero emissions pledge was "never a promise." These comments are a clumsy attempt to evade accountability and to wash its hands for its outsized impact on the planet. mightyearth.org/article/migh...
Mighty Earth responds to JBS’ claim that it never promised to be Net Zero by 2040 - Mighty Earth
Brazilian meat giant JBS has claimed that the company’s net-zero emissions pledge was “never a promise” and that it only has an “aspiration” to be Net Zero by 2040.
mightyearth.org
