Alessandra Bergamin
@alessandrabergamin.bsky.social
Journalist — international environmental violence & human rights
she/her 🌈 🫒 🐡 🧿
Work: In These Times, The Baffler, Atmos, Alta, Harpers, Waging Nonviolence
Find me on IG: @_alessandrabergamin
https://campsite.bio/alessandrabergamin
she/her 🌈 🫒 🐡 🧿
Work: In These Times, The Baffler, Atmos, Alta, Harpers, Waging Nonviolence
Find me on IG: @_alessandrabergamin
https://campsite.bio/alessandrabergamin
Reposted by Alessandra Bergamin
For @inthesetimes.com, @alessandrabergamin.bsky.social compiles data on the past decade of violence against environmental defenders in 10 countries. Conservatively, she estimates 573 killings took place, with close to half involving state authorities. inthesetimes.com/article/bran...
October 16, 2025 at 8:22 PM
For @inthesetimes.com, @alessandrabergamin.bsky.social compiles data on the past decade of violence against environmental defenders in 10 countries. Conservatively, she estimates 573 killings took place, with close to half involving state authorities. inthesetimes.com/article/bran...
I am so grateful to join such an impressive cohort of journalists and very grateful to everyone who helped this story come to fruition. Read the investigation: inthesetimes.com/article/bran...
The Death Squads Hunting Environmental Defenders
Around the world, government forces regularly attack environmental activists with impunity—and U.S. support.
inthesetimes.com
September 19, 2025 at 10:39 PM
I am so grateful to join such an impressive cohort of journalists and very grateful to everyone who helped this story come to fruition. Read the investigation: inthesetimes.com/article/bran...
Reposted by Alessandra Bergamin
If you do good journalism & report accurately, you convey a worldview that is broadly congenial to liberals & infuriating to the right (not in every case, but generally). Journalism has to choose. And it is choosing, over and over again, to betray itself.
Donald Trump and the rise of tribal epistemology
Journalism cannot be neutral toward a threat to the conditions that make it possible.
www.vox.com
July 4, 2025 at 8:21 PM
If you do good journalism & report accurately, you convey a worldview that is broadly congenial to liberals & infuriating to the right (not in every case, but generally). Journalism has to choose. And it is choosing, over and over again, to betray itself.
18. Read the full story at the link below or subscribe to my newsletter, Defender, for more about Bhopal and reporting this story: defender.earth
atmos.earth/meet-the-wom...
atmos.earth/meet-the-wom...
Meet The Women Survivors of the World’s Worst Industrial Disaster | Atmos
Forty years after a pesticide company leaked toxic chemicals into the air and water of Bhopal, these women are still fighting for justice.
atmos.earth
March 31, 2025 at 9:23 PM
18. Read the full story at the link below or subscribe to my newsletter, Defender, for more about Bhopal and reporting this story: defender.earth
atmos.earth/meet-the-wom...
atmos.earth/meet-the-wom...
17. ““We kept on fighting, we did not fear anyone,” Bano Bee said. “Even today, we are ready to fight.”
March 31, 2025 at 9:22 PM
17. ““We kept on fighting, we did not fear anyone,” Bano Bee said. “Even today, we are ready to fight.”
16. Despite the backlash women such as Bano Bee have faced, hundreds once again took to the streets in December 2024, marking the 40th anniversary of the gas disaster, protesting corporate crime, and reminding the world that the people of Bhopal will not be silenced.
March 31, 2025 at 9:20 PM
16. Despite the backlash women such as Bano Bee have faced, hundreds once again took to the streets in December 2024, marking the 40th anniversary of the gas disaster, protesting corporate crime, and reminding the world that the people of Bhopal will not be silenced.
15. At a New Delhi demonstration, Bano Bee was struck by police while being arrested. Unconscious, her limp body was carried to a police car and driven to hospital. Another time, she was arrested and taken jail where, she says, police demanded she remove her dupatta, or head covering.
March 31, 2025 at 9:20 PM
15. At a New Delhi demonstration, Bano Bee was struck by police while being arrested. Unconscious, her limp body was carried to a police car and driven to hospital. Another time, she was arrested and taken jail where, she says, police demanded she remove her dupatta, or head covering.
14. Among these activists is Bano Bee — a survivor in her mid-seventies who tried to flee the poison cloud on the night of December 3rd, 1984 and ever since, has been on the frontlines of protest.
March 31, 2025 at 9:20 PM
14. Among these activists is Bano Bee — a survivor in her mid-seventies who tried to flee the poison cloud on the night of December 3rd, 1984 and ever since, has been on the frontlines of protest.
13. In response to their struggle for accountability, they have been arrested, detained, and beaten by state forces.
March 31, 2025 at 9:19 PM
13. In response to their struggle for accountability, they have been arrested, detained, and beaten by state forces.
12. These women have walked hundreds of miles to New Delhi, undertaken months long sit-ins, chained themselves to fences, staged die-ins, and embarked on multiple weeks-long hunger strikes.
March 31, 2025 at 9:19 PM
12. These women have walked hundreds of miles to New Delhi, undertaken months long sit-ins, chained themselves to fences, staged die-ins, and embarked on multiple weeks-long hunger strikes.
11. I met about a dozen women survivors and activists in Bhopal — and heard stories of both immense pain and bold resistance.
March 31, 2025 at 9:19 PM
11. I met about a dozen women survivors and activists in Bhopal — and heard stories of both immense pain and bold resistance.
10. Since then, gas and water victims have organized side-by-side, fighting for compensation, medical assistance, clean water, environmental remediation, and the blacklisting of Dow Chemical who, in 2001, purchased UCC, but refused to accept its liabilities.
March 31, 2025 at 9:16 PM
10. Since then, gas and water victims have organized side-by-side, fighting for compensation, medical assistance, clean water, environmental remediation, and the blacklisting of Dow Chemical who, in 2001, purchased UCC, but refused to accept its liabilities.
9. “Our uteruses are also harmed,” Krishna Bai said. “It has affected us severely.”
March 31, 2025 at 9:16 PM
9. “Our uteruses are also harmed,” Krishna Bai said. “It has affected us severely.”
8. Families, such as Prem Bai’s, did not know they were consuming and bathing in poisoned water. People, including children born long after the original disaster, began to suffer from cancers such as leukemia, skin problems, and reproductive issues.
March 31, 2025 at 9:15 PM
8. Families, such as Prem Bai’s, did not know they were consuming and bathing in poisoned water. People, including children born long after the original disaster, began to suffer from cancers such as leukemia, skin problems, and reproductive issues.
7. In the years following the disaster, the full extent of UCC’s neglect began to emerge when activists and residents found excessive levels of organochlorines, common in pesticides, and heavy metals including lead and mercury in samples of groundwater, well water, soil, and even breast milk.
March 31, 2025 at 9:14 PM
7. In the years following the disaster, the full extent of UCC’s neglect began to emerge when activists and residents found excessive levels of organochlorines, common in pesticides, and heavy metals including lead and mercury in samples of groundwater, well water, soil, and even breast milk.
6. “If he has gone somewhere he is unable to return home,” Ramkali said, tears glazing her eyes. “He does not understand.”
March 31, 2025 at 9:13 PM
6. “If he has gone somewhere he is unable to return home,” Ramkali said, tears glazing her eyes. “He does not understand.”
5. Ramkali’s eldest son was just two years old at the time of the disaster and grew up with an intellectual disability. In his mid-twenties he wandered from his home and was found in another state seven and half months later. Now, he is confined to the home for his own safety.
March 31, 2025 at 9:13 PM
5. Ramkali’s eldest son was just two years old at the time of the disaster and grew up with an intellectual disability. In his mid-twenties he wandered from his home and was found in another state seven and half months later. Now, he is confined to the home for his own safety.
4. The effects have also been intergenerational with disabilities and deformities common among the children and grandchildren of survivors.
March 31, 2025 at 9:09 PM
4. The effects have also been intergenerational with disabilities and deformities common among the children and grandchildren of survivors.
3. More than 10,000 people died within three days of the disaster with that figure more than doubling in the years to come as survivors have struggled with hypertension, kidney and lung problems, cancer, musculoskeletal issues and ongoing mental health problems.
March 31, 2025 at 9:09 PM
3. More than 10,000 people died within three days of the disaster with that figure more than doubling in the years to come as survivors have struggled with hypertension, kidney and lung problems, cancer, musculoskeletal issues and ongoing mental health problems.
2. More than forty years ago, the US-owned Union Carbide (UCC) pesticide plant leaked more than 27 tons of the chemical methyl isocyanate into Bhopal’s air, exposing half a million people to deadly levels of a chemical once described by the company that produced it as a “poison to humans."
March 31, 2025 at 9:09 PM
2. More than forty years ago, the US-owned Union Carbide (UCC) pesticide plant leaked more than 27 tons of the chemical methyl isocyanate into Bhopal’s air, exposing half a million people to deadly levels of a chemical once described by the company that produced it as a “poison to humans."