More than half of cropland expansion between 1980 and 2000 occurred at the expense of natural forests, while another 30 percent of occurred in disturbed forests, reported a Stanford University researcher presenting Saturday at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Chicago. Holly Gibbs, formerly of the University […]
CORUMBA, Brazil (Reuters) – Jaguars still roam the world’s largest wetland and endangered Hyacinth Macaws nest in its trees but advancing farms and industries are destroying Brazil’s Pantanal region at an alarming rate. The degradation of the landlocked river delta on the upper Paraguay river which straddles Brazil’s borders with Bolivia and Paraguay is […]
The Gaia thinker’s latest book warns that climate disaster is imminent by Camilla Cavendish You may feel, as job losses soar and parts of the world descend into turmoil, that you’re apocalypsed-out for February. If so, you may not immediately leap at James Lovelock’s forthcoming book, The Vanishing Face of Gaia. His warning that climate […]
by Asa Wahlquist VICTORIA’S bushfires have released a massive amount of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere – almost equal to Australia’s industrial emission for an entire year. Mark Adams, from the University of Sydney, said the emissions from bushfires were far beyond what could be contained through carbon capture and needed to be addressed in […]
Despite Brazilian Policy, Park in Amazon Falls Prey to Farming, Logging and a Lack of Government Resources By Joshua Partlow, Washington Post Foreign Service BOM FUTURO NATIONAL FOREST, Brazil — Antonio Elson Portela had already passed acres of charred stumps and rows of corn and coffee plants when he drove up behind a flatbed truck […]
One third of the world’s plants are threatened with extinction By Georgina Cooper ARDINGLY, England (Reuters) – A seed bank that is trying to collect every type of plant in the world is now under threat from the global financial crisis, its director says. The Millennium Seed Bank Project aims to house all the 300,000 […]
Death Rates Have Doubled, Researchers Find By Juliet Eilperin, Washington Post Staff Writer The death rates of trees in western U.S. forests have doubled over the past two to three decades, driven in large part by warmer temperatures and water scarcity linked to climate change, a new study spearheaded by the U.S. Geological Survey has […]
Leakey’s ‘angel’ says world’s frenzy to ‘go green’ pushing orangutans to brink of extinction By ROBIN MCDOWELL Associated Press Writer TANJUNG PUTING NATIONAL PARK, Indonesia January 18, 2009 (AP) Hoping to unravel the mysteries of human origin, anthropologist Louis Leakey sent three young women to Africa and Asia to study our closest relatives: It was […]
Deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon forests has flipped from a decreasing to an increasing trend, according to new annual figures recently released by the country’s space agency INPE. Commenting on the figures, Brazilian environment minister Carlos Minc confirmed that the government will on Monday announce forest related carbon emission reduction targets, which will link halting deforestation […]
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Climate-change specialists are visiting Forest Service offices in the agency’s Northern Region to educate employees about shifting climatic conditions and their ramifications. "We’re almost on the cusp of an ecosystem shift," Faith Ann Heinsch, a University of Montana professor of climatology, said at a recent session in Billings. "If we don’t […]
