By Ned Rozell31 December 2012 Anchorage, Alaska (Anchorage Daily News) – In almost every patch of boreal forest in Interior Alaska that Glenn Juday has studied since the 1980s, at least one quarter of the aspen, white spruce, and birch trees are dead. “These are mature forest stands that were established 120 to 200 years […]
By SANDRA BLAKESLEE24 December 2012 LOS ALAMOS, New Mexico (The New York Times) — Everywhere, trees are dying. The boreal forests of Canada and Russia are being devoured by beetles. Drought-tolerant pines are disappearing in Greece. In North Africa, Atlas cedars are shriveling. Wet and dry tropical forests in Asia are collapsing. Australian eucalyptus […]
By Jethro Mullen11 December 2012 (CNN) – The death toll from the destructive typhoon that savaged the southern Philippines last week has climbed above 700, authorities said Tuesday, warning that the final number may be much higher. Nearly 900 people are still unaccounted for in the aftermath of Typhoon Bopha, the strongest and deadliest storm […]
By JIM ROBBINS7 December 2012 The death rate of many of the biggest and oldest trees around the world is increasing rapidly, scientists report in a new study in Friday’s issue of the journal Science. They warned that research to understand and stem the loss of the trees is urgently needed. “It’s a worldwide problem […]
By Bullit Marquez9 December 2012 NEW BATAAN, Philippines (AP) – The number of people missing after a typhoon devastated parts of the southern Philippines jumped to nearly 900 after families and fishing companies reported losing contact with more than 300 fishermen at sea, officials said Sunday. The fishermen from southern General Santos city and nearby […]
China is now the biggest importer, exporter, and consumer of illegal timber in the world. Its footprint impacts vital forest ecosystems ranging from neighbouring countries such as Myanmar to remote areas of Africa. With domestic forests incapable of meeting surging demand, China has a gaping and growing timber deficit that can only be filled by […]
BEIJING, 29 November 2012 (EIA) – China, emergent superpower and the world’s second biggest economy, is effectively standing on the sidelines as its exponential growth devastates forests in a trade worth billions of dollars a year. In the new report Appetite for Destruction: China’s Trade in Illegal Timber, launched today in Beijing, the London-based Environmental […]
By Jeremy Hance29 November 2012 (mongabay.com) – Runaway economic growth comes with costs: in the case of China’s economic engine, one of them has been the world’s forests. According to a new report by the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), China has become the number one importer of illegal wood products from around the world. Illegal […]
By Jeremy Hance26 November 2012 (mongabay.com) – Newly released photos by Greenpeace show the dramatic destruction of tropical forest in Cameroon for an oil palm plantation operated by SG Sustainable Oils Cameroon (SGSOC), a subsidiary of the U.S. company Herakles Farm. The agriculture company is planning to convert 73,000 hectares to palm oil plantations on […]
By SIMON ROMERO24 November 2012 PARAUAPEBAS, Brazil (The New York Times) — The Amazon has been viewed for ages as a vast quilt of rain forest interspersed by remote river outposts. But the surging population growth of cities in the jungle is turning that rural vision on its head and alarming scientists, as an array […]
