Casey Wetherbee Reported On Deforestation and Climate Politics in Gran Chaco

For Climate Home News, Casey Wetherbee reported from the northern Argentine province of Chaco. He covered the “illegal deforestation and the impact of national climate deregulation under the governance of right-wing president Javier Milei.”

Wetherbee told Study Hall, “I lived in Buenos Aires for two years, working as a freelancer, before moving back to New York to start journalism school in August. The last assignment that I had in South America was a trip to northern Argentina, where I joined a five-day press trip with lawyers and nonprofit leaders about illegal deforestation.”

He added, “The Gran Chaco region, of which over half is located in northern Argentina, is the second-largest forest in South America and home to tremendous biodiversity and carbon stores, as well as indigenous groups that have coexisted with the forest for centuries. Javier Milei, the president of Argentina whose right-wing coalition faces tense midterm elections at the end of October, has called climate change a ‘socialist hoax’ and has slashed climate-related budgets at the national level, hamstringing efforts to fight deforestation and other manifestations of natural resource exploitation that damage the environment.” 

Wetherbee’s writing has appeared in Jacobin, Buenos Aires Herald, and other outlets.