Ignacio Amigo
Mongabay
Manaus, AM, Brazil
Contact Ignacio
Discover and connect with journalists and influencers around the world, save time on email research, monitor the news, and more.
| Recent: |
|
| Past: |
|
Past articles by Ignacio:
Electricity day and night: Solar power is changing isolated Amazon communities
TERRA FIRME, Brazil — Growing up, Maria de Fátima Batista often studied in the dark, using a candle or lantern for light because the riverine community where she lives in Brazil’s Amazon did not have electricity. Today, aged 58, Batista, her family and the rest of the Terra Firme community, which sits by the banks […] → Read More
How coronavirus could spread like wildfire in Brazil’s favelas
In the middle-class and high-end neighbourhoods of Brazil, a quietness hangs over the empty streets as people stay at home and businesses close their doors, but down in the favelas, life continues its frantic rhythm. With more than 46,348 official cases across the country and 2,934 deaths, Brazil is currently the epicentre of the Covid-19 epidemic in South America. → Read More
Amazon fires: Children having trouble breathing as nearby villages choked with smoke
For residents of Porto Velho, the capital of the state of Rondonia in the Brazilian Amazon, waking up to a cloud of smoke is becoming all too familiar. Since the beginning of August, foggy days have become the norm and hospitals are starting to see a surge in respiratory problems. “is normal during this season, but this year it is worse,” a member of the Rio Branco → Read More
The Metro Stations of São Paulo That Read Your Face
As a Personal Data Protection Bill sits in Brazil’s congress, a privately operated transit line debuts a product that has privacy advocates worried. → Read More
Betting on agroforestry in Brazil's Atlantic Forest
GUAPIRUVU, Brazil – To reach Guapiruvu one has to drive 20 kilometers (12 miles) on a gravel road. The first houses are big, solid, holiday homes for the wealthy people of Sete Barras. Farther away from the city, though, the houses become smaller and scattered. Every now and then, birds of many shapes and colors … → Read More
Madrid’s Getting Close to “Plan A” Rollout to Fight Air Pollution
“It will be important to collect data on what works and what doesn't work.” → Read More
Only 6 in 10 British adults believe climate change is caused by humans
According to a new poll, only 6 in 10 adults agree that climate change is happening and is caused by humans. The poll , commissioned by the non-profit Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit from researchers ComRes, involved 2,045 British adults. The pollsters weighted the data by age, gender, region and social grade to make it representative of the UK population. 22% of those polled said they… → Read More
A&E just had the worst month in 13 years and guess what the next step will be
Figures leaked to the BBC indicate that January was the worst month in A&E in England since 2004. More than 780 people waited more than 12 hours to get a hospital bed, setting a new record. And the percentage of patients discharged within four hours has plunged from above the target 95% just three years ago to 82%. But this worrying situation is not limited to A&E. The West Kent Clinical… → Read More
European cities are finally tackling the problem of air pollution at its root
The latest European Environment Agency report indicates that air pollution is responsible for over 500,000 premature deaths [pdf, p9] in Europe every year. The problem is especially serious in cities, where concentrations of air pollutants are persistently high. Among the causes, the use of fossil fuels for transportation ranks high in the list. To tackle the problem, European cities are… → Read More
Trump announces the creation of a Journal of Alternative Facts
US President Donald Trump has already acknowledged that the concept of global warming was invented by the Chinese. In fact, he knows for sure that the planet is actually freezing, which is the reason why it sometimes snows in New York City. [Note: All tweets below are real. Unfortunately.] > The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing… → Read More
We need to stop saying that everything causes cancer
We need to stop saying that everything causes cancer from The Canary on 28th January 2017 → Read More
Yes we should be concerned about the WhatsApp 'security bug'
Time to move to another platform? → Read More
Theresa May is about to sell off one of Britain's greatest assets to a bank called 'The Vampire Kangaroo'
Theresa May is about to sell the Green Investment Bank (GIB) to the Australian bank Macquarie – nicknamed ‘The Vampire Kangaroo’. Critics already feared that Macquarie might be after the GIB solely to make a quick profit by selling its assets. Now, an investigation conducted by think tank E3G and Greenpeace UK has found evidence that the GIB has recently made changes in its structure that… → Read More
Solar power wins hearts as well as minds as it looks to revolutionise the biotech industry
People with pacemakers might be about to see the light. New research suggests that solar cells implanted under the skin could produce enough energy to power a pacemaker. The technology could put an end to the need to replace batteries, an important drawback with pacemakers. The battery scandal Every year, 25,000 people in the UK have a pacemaker fitted, according to the British Heart Foundation.… → Read More
Beware of the green gas hype
There’s been a great hype in the last few weeks about Ecotricity’s plan to make gas from grass. Many people tout this ‘green gas’ as a suitable alternative to fracking. And The Canary recently reported that Ecotricity had launched a petition to ask Theresa May to replace fracking with green gas. But green gas also comes with some drawbacks that we need to take into account. The assets of green… → Read More
Ecstasy could soon become a prescription drug
Dance drug ecstasy could be on the way to becoming a prescription medicine. On Tuesday 29 November, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorised large-scale clinical trials of ecstasy to treat post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The new trials, involving 230 patients, could be the last step before the popular recreational drug is licensed for therapeutic use. Although authorised by… → Read More
Deforestation and climate change are being financed with our savings
Palm oil production is the main driver of rainforest deforestation in the world. In turn, destruction of rainforests is the second biggest cause of climate change, only outpaced by the burning of fossil fuels. But now, two organisations have launched a campaign to tackle deforestation by targeting the investment funds that finance the palm oil industry. Palm oil Vegetable oil is used in the… → Read More
LGBT people are being hit hard by austerity measures
Six years of austerity and spending cuts in health services have disproportionately affected LGBT people. That’s the conclusion of a recent report conducted by NatCen Social Research on behalf of UNISON, one of the UK’s largest trade unions. The report also states [PDF, page 6] that cutbacks are leaving some LGBT services “focusing on survival, rather than delivering a high quality and… → Read More
NINE former health secretaries have joined forces to condemn the government
The pressure's mounting on Jeremy Hunt. → Read More
The government wants to make standing up for the environment ruinously expensive
The Ministry of Justice has just published a set of proposals that will make it increasingly difficult to challenge controversial projects on environmental grounds. Once the new regulations are passed, plans like the new Heathrow runway or initiatives for fracking across the UK would be harder to contest. Uncertainty The law allows people to challenge administrative decisions on environmentally… → Read More