By JULIANA BARBASSA15 June 2011 RIO DE JANEIRO — A landless peasant activist was killed by a gunshot to his head outside his home in Brazil — the fifth murder in a month likely tied to the conflict over land and logging in the Amazon. The body of the victim, Obede Loyla Souza, was found […]
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 […]
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 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 […]
By Rhett A. Butler, www.mongabay.com16 May 2011 Deforestation has increased sharply in Mato Grosso over the past nine months according to information leaked to Folha.com. The news, revealed during a lecture last Friday in Cuiaba, is significant because INPE, Brazil’s space research agency that tracks deforestation has unusually not provided any updates from its rapid […]
By Jeremy Hance, www.mongabay.com16 May 2011 The wild rivers of Patagonia may soon never be the same. Last week, Chile’s Aysén Environmental Review Commission approved the environmental assessment of a five dam proposal on two rivers. The approval, however, is marred in controversy and has set off protests in many cities, including Santiago. Critics say […]
Contact: Morgan Kelly, mekelly@pitt.edu, 412-624-4356, Cell: 412-897-1400 11 May 2011 A 2,300-year climate record University of Pittsburgh researchers recovered from an Andes Mountains lake reveals that as temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere rise, the planet’s densely populated tropical regions will most likely experience severe water shortages as the crucial summer monsoons become drier. The Pitt […]
