By Angus Macqueen20 February 2016 (Guardian) – Footage of a man handing bananas to two naked men in the middle of an Amazonian river went viral in late June 2014. At the time, the Brazilians claimed it was a once in a generation event – that the moment of “first contact” was caught on camera. […]
18 February 2016 (Global Witness) – EU member states are failing to enforce laws designed to protect the world’s forests from illegal logging, according to a European Commission report published today [EU Timber Regulation: First two years show progress, but more effort needed from Member States and private sector]. The first review of the EU […]
By Ruxandra Guidi 19 February 2016 (mongabay.com) – Agriculture in Argentina has expanded at an accelerated rate in the past twenty years due to technological advances, the use of genetically modified crops, and, in particular, to the cultivation of soybean. The South American country is the first global exporter of soy, and the biggest provider […]
[cf. Desdemona’s collection of polar bear stories.] By Simon Tomlinson18 February 2016 (Daily Mail) – A photographer has captured a heartbreaking image of a dead polar bear which he claims starved to death as a result of climate change. Sebastian Copeland was trekking in the Canadian Arctic when he came across the animal’s emaciated […]
By Ana Aranha; translated by Holly Holmes 27 January 2016 (Upside Down World) – Source in Portuguese: Reporterbrasil.org This report follow up on an earlier article by Ana Aranha, published by Upside Down World here. Gliding through the waters of the Xingu River in Pará, between white sand beaches and four-story trees, the contrast is […]
CORVALLIS, Oregon, 11 February 2016 (OSU) – A study at Oregon State University has concluded that significant outbreaks of viruses may be associated with coral bleaching events, especially as a result of multiple environmental stresses. One such event was documented even as it happened in a three-day period. It showed how an explosion of three […]
By John C. Cannon 11 February 2016 (mongabay.com) – The Republic of the Congo announced the allocation of 6 timber concessions on 8 January 2016 covering 2 million hectares (7,722 square miles), an area about the size of Israel. Two of the concessions were awarded ahead of government-established bid deadlines, an apparent breach of protocol, […]
1 February 2016 (Pachamama Alliance) – The indigenous people in this region are strongly opposed to any plans for oil development and vow to resist and stop these projects. They know the environmental and social disaster that oil development will bring. On January 26, the government of Ecuador formally signed exploration contracts for two Amazonian […]
By Yereth Rosen 5 February 2016 (Alaska Dispatch News) – Sea ice extent over the Arctic last month was the lowest for any January in the satellite record, with freeze-up slowed by unusually high air temperatures over the Arctic Ocean and an atmospheric pattern in the Atlantic side that moved cold weather to more southern […]
(Imazon) – SAD detected 99 square kilometers of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon in November 2015. That represented a 49% reduction in relation to November 2014 when deforestation totaled 195 square kilometers. It was possible to monitor 80% of the forest area in the Brazilian Amazon, while in November 2014 monitoring covered a smaller area […]
