Environmental activist assassinated in Mexico

By Natalie Gallón19 January 2017 (CNN) – An indigenous activist who protested against illegal logging in Mexico’s Sierra Madre mountains has been killed, highlighting the dangers that Latin American environmentalists face. Isidro Baldenegro López, 51, a leader of the Tarahumara people and fervent environmentalist — was shot dead Sunday at his uncle’s home in the […]

Forest die-offs alter global climate “like El Niño’

By Christopher Intagliata22 November 2016 (Scientific American) – Climate change may be partly to blame for the massive die-off of pine trees in the western U.S. But it works the other way, too: forest die-offs can alter the global climate. “I like thinking of this as a parallel to something like El Nino.” Abigail Swann, […]

Amazon deforestation in 2016 up 29 percent over 2015 – ‘The loggers are better equipped than we are’

By Camila Domonoske 30 November 2016 (NPR) – An annual study released by the Brazilian government estimates that the rate of deforestation in the Amazon has increased by 29 percent over last year. That’s the second year in a row that deforestation in the Amazon quickened; last year, the pace rose by about 24 percent. […]

Image of the Day: Deforestation sculpture in Brazilian Amazon, 11 November 2016

11 November 2016 (Reuters) – Brazil’s Amazon guardians: fallen trees are seen during an operation to combat illegal mining and logging conducted by agents of the Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources, or Ibama, supported by military police, in the municipality of Novo Progresso, Para State, northern Brazil, 11 November 2016. Photo: […]

Study predicts deserts in Spain if global warming continues

By Frank Jordans27 October 2016 (PhysOrg) – Southern Spain will become desert and deciduous forests will vanish from much of the Mediterranean basin unless global warming is reined in sharply, according to a study released Thursday. Researchers used historical data and computer models to forecast the likely impact of climate change on the Mediterranean region, […]

102 million dead California trees ‘unprecedented in our modern history’

By Matt Stevens18 November 2016 (Los Angeles Times) – The number of dead trees in California’s drought-stricken forests has risen dramatically to more than 102 million in what officials described as an unparalleled ecological disaster that heightens the danger of massive wildfires and damaging erosion. Officials said they were alarmed by the increase in dead […]

Failed economic development policies drive deforestation in Andean Amazon

By Mike Gaworecki20 October 2016 (mongabay.com) – Cultivation of coca, the plant from which the drug cocaine is extracted, has long been considered a “deforestation multiplier” in the Andean Amazon rainforests of Bolivia, Colombia, and Peru. For instance, a 2001 report by the U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy stated: “Coca cultivation and processing […]

Significant deforestation in Brazilian Amazon goes undetected – ‘Landowners deforest in ways and places that evade the monitoring and enforcement system’

PROVIDENCE, Rhode Island, 12 October 2016 (Brown University) – Efforts by the Brazilian government over the past 15 years to curb deforestation have been a widely celebrated success, but a new study finds that there’s more deforestation happening in Brazil than official accounts suggest. The study, led by researchers from Brown University, compared data from […]

One billion trees felled in the Brazilian Amazon rainforest now 10 million hectares of abandoned pasture

  [Translation by Google.] By Alexandre Mansur5 October 2016 (Época) – One of the strongest arguments to end deforestation in Brazil is the existence of abundant land already cleared and abandoned. The area already deforested and abandoned in Brazil is equivalent to the states of Parana, Rio Grande do Sul, and Santa Catarina added. That […]

Amazon rainforest degradation increased 272 percent in September 2016 compared with 2015

[Translation by Bing Translator.] By Antônio Fonseca, Marcelo Justino, Carlos Souza Jr., and Adalberto Veríssimo20 October 2016 (Imazon) – In September 2016, Imazon’s Deforestation Alert System (SAD) detected 387 square kilometres of deforestation in the Amazon rainforest. This represented an increase of 69% compared to September 2015, when deforestation totaled 229 square kilometers. In September […]

Social media & sharing icons powered by UltimatelySocial