On Wednesday, the butterfly sanctuary closed again — this time, indefinitely — due to safety concerns for staff and the public.

The false trafficking rumors around the National Butterfly Center echo “Pizzagate,” a 2016 conspiracy theory that claimed a Washington, D.C., pizza restaurant was the site of a child abuse ring led by Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Pizzagate made headlines when a man fired a gun at the restaurant based on the false information.

QAnon, a far-right political conspiracy and movement, emerged shortly after in 2017 and falsely claimed a child sex trafficking ring conspired against Trump. Once limited to fringe platforms, QAnon conspiracy theorists have flooded mainstream social networks and have been accused of plotting or carrying out violent crimes. They were also among the mob of Trump supporters that stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The FBI has identified the movement as a domestic terrorism threat.

“It’s incredibly distressing that the United States has come to the point where a really significant part of the public is just no longer tethered to reality,” said Jeffrey Glassberg, the founder of the North American Butterfly Association, the parent organization of the butterfly center.

​​Glassberg has worked as a molecular biologist and patented DNA fingerprinting. He authored several books on butterflies before he established the butterfly center out of an empty onion field.

For the butterfly conservatory to be at the center of false trafficking allegations, he said, “nothing could be more absurd, frankly.”

Source: Conspiracy theorists’ threats force Texas butterfly sanctuary to close | The Texas Tribune

A special task force in Brazil is conducting raids deep in the Amazon, in a new crack-down against what they call ‘blood gold’ mining.

Mining in territories that are supposed to be protected by law is destroying the lives of indigenous people, and wreaking havoc on the environment.

The UK is the third biggest buyer of Brazilian gold, and public prosecutors have alleged that 30% of Brazil’s exports may be illegally mined.

The BBC was given exclusive access to film a rare special forces operation. The identities of some of the operatives have been protected.

Source: The illegal Brazilian gold you may be wearing – BBC News

Unvaccinated 14 times at risk of death

“Hospitalizations remain high, and deaths also remain quite high,” Walensky said, before she detailed data on how and if vaccination status was linked to current hospitalizations.

Walensky said the latest data on the Omicron wave show the unvaccinated were at a 14-times-greater risk from dying from COVID-19 than vaccinated and boosted peers. She also said 54% of those currently hospitalized for COVID-19 in the United States were unvaccinated.

“People currently hospitalized for COVID-19 are disproportionately unvaccinated and unboostered,” she said.

Source: US COVID-19 cases drop, but hospitalizations in unvaccinated still high | CIDRAP

Source: In honour of World Wetlands Day, Caribbean wetlands in photos · Global Voices

In Small Island Developing States like the Caribbean, which are at the receiving end of the worst impacts of climate change, wetlands are integral to the fight against global warming.
— Read on globalvoices.org/2022/02/02/in-honour-of-world-wetlands-day-caribbean-wetlands-in-photos/