By TIMOTHY EGAN2 June 2011 For a few months, still, you can see the sunlit room where the author of “Call of the Wild” wrote his daily thousand words before noon, and walk under redwoods and wild oaks on his 1,400-acre Beauty Ranch, where he pioneered “sustainability” before anyone was pushing $20 plates of arugula […]
Map showing loss of headwater streams to mountaintop mines and valley fills (MTM-VF). This diagram depicts the loss of stream miles and channel complexity that can result from extensive mountaintop mining and valley filling. Solid blue lines inside valley fill areas represent buried streams. Note that some headwaters above filled areas are disconnected from the […]
Reporting by Leonardo Goy, Raymond Colitt; Editing by Reese Ewing and Eric Beech1 June 2011 (Reuters) – Brazil’s environment agency gave its definitive approval on Wednesday for construction of the Belo Monte hydroelectric dam, a controversial $17 billion project in the Amazon that has drawn criticism from native Indians and conservationists. The regulator, Ibama, issued […]
By JOHN COLLINS RUDOLF28 May 2011 Early last Tuesday, José Cláudio Ribeiro da Silva, a forest activist and tree nut harvester, and his wife, Maria do Espirito Santo, drove a motorcycle through Brazil’s northern Para State, in the Amazon rain forest. As they crossed a river bridge, gunmen lying in wait opened fire with a […]
Commentary by Rhett A. Butler, mongabay.com27 May 2011 Republican House Representative Dana Rohrabacher shocked scientists on Wednesday when he asserted clear-cutting the world’s rainforests would be a way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, reports Politico. “Is there some thought being given to subsidizing the clearing of rain forests in order for some countries to eliminate […]
ScienceDaily (May 25, 2011) — A team of 21 researchers from 11 nations, including professor Robert “JJ” Orth of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, has completed the first-ever study of the risk of extinction for individual seagrass species around the world. The 4-year study, requested by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature […]
By Raymond Colitt; Editing by Stuart Grudgings24 May 2011 BRASILIA (Reuters) – An Amazon rainforest activist and his wife were shot dead in northern Brazil on Tuesday as the country’s Congress debated a divisive land bill that threatens to fuel deforestation. Joao Claudio Ribeiro da Silva, a rubber tapper and leading forest conservationist, and his […]
Writing by Neil Chatterjee; Editing by Ramthan Hussain; Additional reporting by Niluksi Koswanage in KUALA LUMPUR, David Fogarty in SINGAPORE and Alister Doyle in OSLO20 May 2011 JAKARTA (Reuters) – Indonesia revealed a long list of exemptions on Friday to a two-year moratorium on new permits to clear forest, a concession to the hard-lobbying plantation […]
By Andrew Nikiforuk, TheTyee.ca 20 May 2011 Wildfires ripping through Alberta’s boreal forest or what government officials call “freakish” firestorms are really a snapshot of how warming global temperatures and intensified insect infestations will change the nation’s boreal forest, say scientists. In the last week nearly 100 wildfires, battled by 1,000 forest fighters, have shut […]
By Rhett A. Butler, www.mongabay.com18 May 2011 New data from the Brazilian government seem to confirm environmentalists’ fears that farmers and ranchers are clearing rainforest in anticipation of a weakening of the country’s rules governing forest protection. Wednesday, Brazil’s National Space Research Agency (INPE) announced a sharp rise in deforestation in March and April relative […]
