Large-scale industrial activities threaten Canada’s boreal forest

Contact: Elyssa Rosen03/16/2011 Ottawa, Canada – A first of its kind report by the Pew Environment Group reveals that Canada’s boreal, the world’s largest intact forest and on-land carbon storehouse, contains more unfrozen freshwater than any other ecosystem. As United Nations’ International Year of Forests and World Water Day coincide, world leaders are grappling with […]

Fred Palmer interview: ‘We’re 100 percent coal. More coal. Everywhere’

By Leo Hickman, www.guardian.co.uk8 March 201 All eyes are on the oil industry as prices continue to rise. But some argue that the biggest energy story in coming years will not be our travails with oil, but the increasing importance of coal, particularly if the much-discussed ‘carbon capture and storage‘ (CCS) hurdles can be cleared. […]

Guyana deforestation rate triples despite funding for forest protection

GEORGETOWN, Guyana, March 7, 2011 (ENS) – Deforestation rates in the South American country of Guyana have increased during the last year, despite a 2009 agreement with the Norwegian government aimed at supporting forest protection to avert climate change, the nonprofit watchdog organization Global Witness said today. Signed in November 2009 and worth up to […]

Graph of the Day: Carbon Emission from Arctic Permafrost Thaw, Projected to 2200

Contact: Katherine Leitzell, NSIDC Communication, leitzell@nsidc.org16 February 2011 One- to two-thirds of Earth’s permafrost will disappear by 2200, unleashing vast quantities of carbon into the atmosphere, says a study by researchers at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). “The amount of carbon released is equivalent […]

2 severe Amazon droughts in 5 years alarm scientists – ‘A grim future for Amazonia’

Contact: Hannah Isom, h.isom@leeds.ac.uk, University of Leeds3 Feb 2011(University of Leeds) New research shows that the 2010 Amazon drought may have been even more devastating to the region’s rainforests than the unusual 2005 drought, which was previously billed as a one-in-100 year event. Analyses of rainfall across 5.3 million square kilometres of Amazonia during the […]

First high-resolution maps of carbon emitted by deforestation

Palo Alto, CA—By integrating satellite mapping, airborne-laser technology, and ground-based plot surveys, scientists from the Carnegie Institution’s Department of Global Ecology, with colleagues from the World Wildlife Fund and in coordination with the Peruvian Ministry of the Environment (MINAM), have revealed the first high-resolution maps of carbon locked up in tropical forest vegetation and emitted […]

Humans reverse carbon cycle on Texas river

(Rice University) A new study by geochemists at Rice University finds that damming and other human activity has completely obscured the natural carbon dioxide cycling process in Texas’ longest river, the Brazos. “The natural factors that influence carbon dioxide cycling in the Brazos are fairly obvious, and we expected the radiocarbon signature of the river […]

Deforestation of tropical forests ‘occurs in waves’

  By Mark Kinver Science and environment reporter, BBC News 3 August 2010 Last updated at 05:17 ET An international team of researchers has developed a model that suggests degradation of tropical forests occurs in a series of “waves”. High-value trees were felled in the first “wave”, followed by a wave that removed mid-value timber […]

Eastern U.S. forests resume decline — New research finds 4.1 percent loss over 3 decades

After increasing during much of the 20th century, forest cover in the eastern United States in recent decades has resumed its previous decline, according to an exhaustive new analysis published in the April 2010 issue of BioScience. The work is described in an article by Mark A. Drummond and Thomas R. Loveland of the US […]

Graph of the Day: Global Trends in Land-Use Area for Livestock Production, 1961-2001

Nearly 30% of the Earth’s terrestrial ice-free surface is devoted to livestock production, while 8% is devoted to production of crops that are directly consumed by people. As livestock production shifts to more intensive systems, it will place more pressure on arable land for the production of feed. Over-grazing has resulted in loss of biodiversity […]

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