By Taran Volckhausen 21 June 2018 (Mongabay) – The large-scale expansion of oil palm has been a major driver of deforestation and biodiversity loss in many areas of the tropics. In Malaysia and Indonesia, where 85 percent of the world’s oil palm is cultivated, rampant industry growth over the past several decades has replaced rainforest […]
By Shannon Van Sant 21 June 2018 (NPR) – A Canadian mining firm says it will move forward with plans to mine minerals from land that was previously part of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah.Last December, President Trump removed nearly half of the Grand Staircase-Escalante from protection, as well as part of the […]
By Fabiano Maisonnave 20 June 2018(Folha de S. Paulo) – The Jamanxim National Forest (Flona) recorded in two months more than double the amount of deforested area in the last year.Located in the southwest of Pará, Flona lost 57 km2 of vegetation cover between April and May, according to the calculation of the NGO Imazon […]
By Umair Irfan 23 June 2018 (Vox) – Trump’s executive order voids an Obama policy that aimed to prevent oil spills. The Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling rig exploded on 20 April 2010, killing 11 workers. Gas erupted into a massive fireball, and then the rig gushed 4.9 million barrels of crude oil into the Gulf […]
By Stefania Costa 24 May 2018(Imazon) – In April 2018, SAD detected 217 square kilometers of deforestation in the Amazon forest. In this bulletin, the fraction of deforestation between 1 and 10 hectares was 18% of the total detected (39 square kilometers). Considering only the alerts from 10 hectares, there was an increase of 84% […]
By Josh Gabbatiss Science Correspondent 5 June 2018 (The Independent) – The forest which is home to some of the last remaining Bornean orangutans is being logged despite the Indonesian government’s vow to protect it, Greenpeace has claimed.The group said six illegal logging settlements had been identified in Sungai Putri, the peatland forest home to […]
By Oliver Wheaton 7 June 2018 (The Independent) – An orangutan has been filmed seemingly defending its home from being demolished by loggers. The animal was seen fruitlessly lashing out against a digger in the Sungai Putri forest in Borneo, Indonesia as loggers bulldozed through. The video, which was reportedly filmed in 2013 but only […]
By Rosamaria Loures, Sue Branford, and Maurício Torres 31 May 2018 (Mongabay) – “The gold mining in our territory is bringing a lot of illness, a lot of malaria. It’s bringing alcohol into our communities. It’s bringing drugs into our territory,” said Maria Leusa, a Munduruku female warrior and a leading member of the Ipereg […]
AMES, Iowa, 15 May 2018 (EWG) – Across the U.S., a growing epidemic of toxic algal blooms is polluting lakes and other waterways, according to a new report by the Environmental Working Group.Toxic algal blooms occur when chemical pollution from farms and other sources runs off into waterways, forming a thick, green, soup-like substance on […]
30 May 2018 (James Cook University) – With palm oil production exploding around the world, a new study of a leading producer has found ways to make the process easier on the environment.James Cook University PhD candidate Lain Pardo studied the industry in Colombia – a country described as being on the “tip of the […]
