rainforest – Page 6 – Desdemona Despair

A Brazilian soldier puts out fires at the Nova Fronteira region in Novo Progresso, Brazil, on 3 September 2019. Photo: Leo Correa / AP

October 31, 2019

The Amazon hasn’t stopped burning. There were 19,925 fire outbreaks last month, and “more fires” are in the future – “The government is looking to promote mining and ranching in the Amazon”

By Jorge L. Ortiz 18 October 2019 (USA Today) – The proliferation of fires in the Amazon rainforest drew international attention in August, especially when French President Emmanuel Macron called for urgent action. Since then, the eyes of the world have shifted elsewhere as House Democrats launched an impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump, Hurricane […]

The sun shines orange through through smoke from wildfires in Bolivia in September 2019. Photo: Adolfo Lino / Mongabay

October 7, 2019

Fires still being set in blazing Bolivia – Up to 18 million wild animals killed, including 500 rare jaguars – “Bolivia needs to rethink its agricultural strategy, as the future of its immeasurable biodiversity is at stake”

By Claire Wordley 1 October 2019 (Mongabay) – Despite over six weeks of firefighting, the infernos destroying Bolivia’s forests continue to spread. 5.3 million hectares (about 13.1 million acres) — an area larger than the whole of Costa Rica — have been destroyed, and about 40 percent of that area was forest. A perfect storm of factors — from […]

A montage of photos that were submitted to the Environmental Photographer of the Year 2019 award. “Journey by Launch” by Azim Khan Ronnie; “Polluted New Year” by Eliud Gil Samaniego, “Remains of the Forest” by J Henry Fair, “Tuvalu Beneath the Rising Tide” by Sean Gallagher, “My Climate Future” by Souray Karmakar, “Looking Beyond What is There” by Graham Earnshaw, “Where the City Ends and the Ships Begin” by Azim Khan Ronnie, and “Tuvalu Beneath the Rising Tide” by Sean Gallagher (second entry). Photo: CIWEM

September 28, 2019

Photo gallery: Striking images from the 2019 Environmental Photographer of the Year competition – “Climate change is the defining issue of our time and now is the time to act”

23 September 2019 (CIWEM) – The CIWEM Environmental Photographer of the Year exposes the terrible impacts being wrought on our planet by humans, but also celebrates humanity’s innate ability to survive and innovate, lending hope to us all that we can overcome challenges to live sustainably. [See all of the submissions: Environmental Photographer of the […]

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, listens to the meeting introduction before delivering opening remarks while hosting a debate on key human rights issues in the country at ICS—Instituto de Ciências Sociais da Universidade de Lisboa on 29 April 2019 in Lisbon, Portugal. Photo: Horacio Villalobos / Corbis / Getty Images

September 23, 2019

We are “burning up our future”, UN’s Bachelet tells Human Rights Council – “The world has never seen a threat to human rights of this scope”

9 September 2019 (UN News) – The Human Rights Council opened in Geneva on Monday with a warning from the UN’s top rights official that, with forest fires raging in the Amazon, “we are burning up our future, literally”. In a direct appeal to the forum’s 47 Member States to unite to tackle climate change, […]

Satellite view of Gondwana rainforest fires, 4-15 September 2019. Photo: NASA Worldview

September 21, 2019

Drought exacerbates wildfires in Australia rainforest

By Michael Carlowicz 14 September 2019 (NASA) – Fire season in the Australian states of Queensland and New South Wales got off to an early and ugly start in September 2019. Fueled by a long and deepening drought, more than 100 fires burned in forest and bush areas near the southeast coasts, including some subtropical […]

Satellite data show fire activity is still heavy around Roboré, Bolivia but is intensifying in the northern and western portions of the Santa Cruz region. Data: NASA FIRMS / “VIIRS Active Fires”. Accessed through Global Forest Watch on 6 August 2019. Graphic: Mongabay

September 19, 2019

Disaster strikes in Bolivia as agricultural fires lay waste to unique forests – “Fire is a monster and is threatening us. Everything is ashes and fear.”

By Carolina Méndez, Isabel Mercado 6 September 2019 (Mongabay) – “Fire is a monster and is threatening us. Everything is ashes and fear,” says Iván Quezada, the mayor of Roboré, a town in eastern Bolivia. Last week, fires consumed more than 450,000 hectares (1.11 million acres) of forest; if added to the amount of forest […]

Conservationists from Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation hold a baby orangutan rescued along with its mother during a rescue and release operation for orangutans trapped in a swath of jungle destroyed by forest fires in Sungai Mangkutub, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. Photo: Quartz

September 18, 2019

Global demand for palm oil drives fires in Indonesia – “Palm oil plantations make a wasteland out of paradise”

By Zoë Schlanger 18 September 2019 (Quartz) – The smoke wafting from fires in the tropical forests of Indonesia—forming plumes big enough to blot out the sky in Malaysia and Singapore—is a reminder of a global supply chain run amok. Whereas the devastating fires burning in the Amazon rainforest were set largely for cattle ranches that feed the […]

Aerial view of the Amazon rainforest burning out of control in the municipality of Colniza, Mato Grosso state on 24 August 2019, just days before nine Amazon state governors met with Bolsonaro to discuss pkans to continue destroying the rainforest and assimilating the indigenous peoples of Amazonia. Photo: Victor Moriyama / Greenpeace

September 16, 2019

State governors support Bolsonaro’s plan to continue destruction of Amazon rainforest for mining and agribusiness – Indigenous peoples of Amazonia to be assimilated

By Jenny Gonzales 9 September 2019 (Mongabay) – It is not only President Jair Bolsonaro who views rainforests and indigenous people as obstacles to Brazilian economic development. Seven of the nine Amazon state governors are in line with the policies of the chief executive, as attested to at an August 27 meeting between the president and representatives […]

Satellite view of smoke from forest fires in Indonesia, from 3 September 2019 to 12 September 2019. Photo: NASA Worldview

September 13, 2019

Thousands pray for rain in Indonesia as forests go up in smoke – “We’re doing everything we can, now we pray to Allah for the rain”

By Gayatri Suroyo and Jessica Damiana 11 September 2019 JAKARTA (Reuters) – Thousands of Indonesians prayed for rain in haze-hit towns on the islands of Sumatra and Borneo on Wednesday, as forest fires raged at the height of the dry season, the state Antara news agency reported. Fires have burnt through parts of Sumatra and […]

The Sentinel-2 satellite captured a headfire in heath fuels burning as a part of the Shark Creek bush fire near Yamba, 8 September 2019. Photo: Nicholas McCarthy

September 11, 2019

Australia rainforest burns as bushfires arrive early – Queensland faces worst fire threat in recorded history – “This isn’t the new normal. We’re going to see much worse. The pace of the change is going to accelerate.”

By Damien Cave 9 September 2019 SYDNEY, Australia (The New York Times) – The conservationists who built the secluded Binna Burra Lodge in Australia’s lush mountains more than 80 years ago hoped to protect and share the natural beauty of the surrounding rainforest. But over the weekend, a bushfire destroyed the beloved getaway, one of […]