#mining

With this unprecedented move, the Government of Change takes a historic step to protect more than 483,000 km2 of the Amazon biome — 42% of the national territory and 7% of the great South American Amazon — and calls on the countries of the region to join in an Amazon Alliance for Life.

Protests and lawsuits from Native American tribes and other local groups stopped a graphite mining operation in South Dakota that was going forward without appropriate environment review.

"There are more than 20 million fewer children in child labor today than in 2020...

This reduction is especially welcome news given that so many development trends, including child labor, stalled or reversed during the pandemic. Experts weren’t sure if or how quickly the world would get back on track.

Here is the even better news: since 2000, there are 108 million fewer children in child labor, even as more and more children were born during that same time period. 

To be clear, the child labor I am talking about isn’t your teenager pulling some shifts at the local ice cream shop. These are kids as young as five in poor countries who are out breaking rocks or working the fields when they should be in school.

Per a joint report by UNICEF and the International Labour Organization, since 2020, progress has occurred across all global regions and also included a substantial dip in hazardous work, defined as work that is likely to compromise a child’s health, safety, or morals.

The global goal was to end child labor by this year. With 138 million children still engaged in it worldwide, we are clearly far from success. But, the report says, “most regions could see the near or total elimination of child labor in the coming decades,” with the exception of Sub-Saharan Africa, where birth rates remain high, conflict rife, and economic growth slow...

If the current pace of progress continues, child labor in Asia and the Pacific will be eliminated by 2060 and near zero in Latin America and the Caribbean...

What is behind the downturn in child labor? One big factor is that old, familiar song of economic growth—parents who aren’t cash strapped don’t need an extra pair of hands. A second is better access to schooling, and a third, social protections for children like healthcare and cash transfers."

-via The Progress Network, July 3, 2025

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Note: Something that article, which is pretty short, doesn't get into is that progress WILL increase and speed up significantly in sub-Saharan Africa. A number of countries in sub-Saharan Africa are undergoing huge revolutions in access to basic needs, economic development, and quality of life. Child labor rates in sub-Saharan Africa are NOT going to continue declining at the current rate, they are going to increasingly decline at a FASTER rate as access to clean water, plumbing, electricity, and sanitation will all drastically change the labor landscape of Africa and reduce child labor. These trends are already happening in a number of countries, as they have in the other regions of the world.