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Brazilian artist targets MN-based Cargill with climate mural
Soy farming is one of the biggest drivers of deforestation in the Amazon.
SÃO PAULO, Brazil — Brazilian artist Mundano is presenting a massive street mural in São Paulo on Wednesday that uses ash from wildfires and mud from floods to highlight extreme weather events wreaking devastation across the country — as well as their causes.
Over 30 meters (98.4 feet) high and 48 meters (157.5 feet) wide, the mural depicts deforestation and severe drought in the Amazon Rainforest with its parched brown earth and gray tree stumps. It features Indigenous activist Alessandra Korap wearing a crown of flowers and holding a sign that says: “Stop the destruction #keepyourpromise.”
It is a call to the Minnesota-based soy giant Cargill, according to Mundano. Soy farming is one of the biggest drivers of deforestation in the Amazon.
Cargill says on its website that it will eliminate deforestation from its supply chain in Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay by 2025.
Mundano is seeking to hold them to account.
“We are tired of being a country, a continent where we and the natural resources we have here are exploited… We have to regenerate our planet instead of destroying it,” Mundano said in an interview on Tuesday.
Cargill did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday morning.
Over the past few months, uncontrolled human-caused wildfires have ravaged protected areas in the Amazon, the vast Cerrado savanna and the world’s largest tropical wetland area, the Pantanal. Those blazes have spread smoke over a vast expanse, choking residents of some cities.
Drought has caused a critical situation nationwide, and forecasts indicate it will persist in much of the country through at least the rest of the month, according to a Sunday report from Cemaden, Brazil’s disaster warning center.
Climate change — primarily caused by the burning of fossil fuels such as oil, gas and coal — leads to frequent and more extreme alterations in weather patterns.
The depth of the Amazon’s Negro River was 12.46 meters (41 feet) on Tuesday, a slight increase from 10 days earlier when it registered its lowest level since measurements started 122 years ago. Tuesday’s depth was still around 6 meters (20 feet) less than usual for the same date in prior years, according to data from the Manaus port.
Rivers in Brazil’s Amazon always rise and fall with its rainy and dry seasons. But the dry season this year has been much worse than usual.
Earlier this year, an unprecedented flood in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul killed more than 180 people, affected over 2 million people and destroyed urban communities.
Mundano, who calls himself an “artivist,” used mud from that flood collected by the activist group Movement of People Affected by Dams in the mural, as well as ashes from the Amazon, the Atlantic Forest, the Pantanal and the Cerrado. He also used earth thrown away in dumpsters in Sao Paulo and clay collected from the Sawre Muybu Indigenous land in the Amazon, from where Korap hails.
“From floods to droughts, everything is connected!” Mundano said in an Instagram post on Tuesday, accompanied by a video showing the mural in Sao Paulo, which the artist said was his biggest ever.
Three years ago, Mundano employed ash from the Amazon to create a similar mural in Sao Paulo. That work depicted a firefighter standing amid deforested areas and featured a cattle ranch as well as trucks loaded with logs.
Dr. Abigail Miller, Chief Medical Officer at UnitedHealthcare of MN, joined KARE 11 News at Noon to offer tips for parents.
MINNETONKA, Minn. — As teens have returned to school, many are participating – or will participate – in fall and winter sports.
Federal data estimates that over 50% of young people between ages 6 and 17 played on a sports team or took after-school sports lessons, forecasting that number to increase to 63% by 2030.
Playing sports can have physical and mental health benefits, including strengthening social relationships with friends and family. However, it can also become overwhelming and even lead to lower mental health due to the many expectations some young athletes are put under.
Dr. Abigail Miller, Chief Medical Officer at UnitedHealthcare of MN, joined KARE 11 News at Noon to offer tips for parents and promote mental health.
For more on the impact of youth sports and issues that impact young athletes, their families, coaches and officials, check out our serial blog SportsLife.
The City of Roseville hopes to lower pollution with the move.
ROSEVILLE, Minn — The City of Roseville has become the latest municipality in Minnesota to enact some form of a ban on plastics in the hope of lowering pollution.
The city is going after non-recyclable to-go containers with a new ordinance encouraging the use of compostable packing.
According to the ordinance, the new rules will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2025, but enforcement won’t begin until a year later. The initiative is part of the city’s ‘Green To Go’ ordinance, which allows only compostable, recyclable or reusable containers.
Hospitals and nursing homes are excluded from the new rules, which also carve out an exception for any packaging that doesn’t meet standards, but for which there is no practical alternative.
Minnesota lawmakers have often discussed wider plastic-banning or limiting legislation, with such a debate occurring over the most recent session.
Gov. Walz, his wife Gwen and son Gus pulled up to the Ramsey County elections office — accompanied by a secret service detail — and cast their ballots.
ST PAUL, Minn. — Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and his family walked the walk on Wednesday, casting their ballots early to encourage voters to use every opportunity available to take part in the 2024 election.
Walz, his wife Gwen and son Gus hopped in their motorcade just after 9:30 a.m. and made the 10-minute journey from Eastcliff on the University of Minnesota Campus to the Ramsey County elections office on St. Paul’s west side.
Once at the office at 90 Plato, the Walz family entered the building with the governor greeting election workers. At the counter, Tim Walz told a worker that Gus, now 18, was voting for the first time. After filling out their ballots Tim and Gus fed their ballots into the machine, with a red-shirted election worker shouting, “First time voter!” The governor and Gus high-fived as the room broke into applause.
A pool reporter said other voters seemed to go about their business, noting that Gus Walz took the opportunity to compliment an elections staffer on his Anthony Edwards sneakers.
The Democratic vice-presidential candidate stopped outside the elections office for a brief chat with reporters, saying he voted for Kamala Harris for president without mentioning his spot on the ticket. Walz also addressed interviews published Tuesday in the New York Times and The Atlantic with former Trump Chief of Staff General John Kelly. In those interviews, Kelly said the former president had expressed admiration for the generals who served Adolph Hitler, adding that Trump “certainly falls into the general definition of fascist, for sure.”
“If there was ever a red line, he has stepped across it,” Walz told reporters when asked about Trump’s alleged comments. “And so I appreciate General Kelly coming out at this moment.”
Trump’s campaign denied Kelly’s accounts Tuesday, with campaign spokesman Steven Cheung saying that Kelly had “beclowned himself with these debunked stories he has fabricated.”
Reporters also asked Walz about U.S. intelligence reports saying Russian interests were behind false allegations that he had acted inappropriately while employed as a teacher at Mankato West High School, and why he thought he had been targeted.
“Putin wants Donald Trump to win,” Walz opined.
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