rainforest – Page 7 – Desdemona Despair

Conservationists from Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation hold a baby orangutan rescued along with its mother during a rescue and release operation for orangutans trapped in a swath of jungle destroyed by forest fires in Sungai Mangkutub, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. Photo: Quartz

September 18, 2019

Global demand for palm oil drives fires in Indonesia – “Palm oil plantations make a wasteland out of paradise”

By Zoë Schlanger 18 September 2019 (Quartz) – The smoke wafting from fires in the tropical forests of Indonesia—forming plumes big enough to blot out the sky in Malaysia and Singapore—is a reminder of a global supply chain run amok. Whereas the devastating fires burning in the Amazon rainforest were set largely for cattle ranches that feed the […]

Aerial view of the Amazon rainforest burning out of control in the municipality of Colniza, Mato Grosso state on 24 August 2019, just days before nine Amazon state governors met with Bolsonaro to discuss pkans to continue destroying the rainforest and assimilating the indigenous peoples of Amazonia. Photo: Victor Moriyama / Greenpeace

September 16, 2019

State governors support Bolsonaro’s plan to continue destruction of Amazon rainforest for mining and agribusiness – Indigenous peoples of Amazonia to be assimilated

By Jenny Gonzales 9 September 2019 (Mongabay) – It is not only President Jair Bolsonaro who views rainforests and indigenous people as obstacles to Brazilian economic development. Seven of the nine Amazon state governors are in line with the policies of the chief executive, as attested to at an August 27 meeting between the president and representatives […]

The Sentinel-2 satellite captured a headfire in heath fuels burning as a part of the Shark Creek bush fire near Yamba, 8 September 2019. Photo: Nicholas McCarthy

September 11, 2019

Australia rainforest burns as bushfires arrive early – Queensland faces worst fire threat in recorded history – “This isn’t the new normal. We’re going to see much worse. The pace of the change is going to accelerate.”

By Damien Cave 9 September 2019 SYDNEY, Australia (The New York Times) – The conservationists who built the secluded Binna Burra Lodge in Australia’s lush mountains more than 80 years ago hoped to protect and share the natural beauty of the surrounding rainforest. But over the weekend, a bushfire destroyed the beloved getaway, one of […]

Fractional area of agriculture and secondary vegetation in the Brazilian Amazon under the two analyzed land-use change scenarios (“Sustainability” and “Fragmentation”) by the mid (2041-2070) and the end (2071-2100) of the 21st century. Graphic: Fonseca, et al., 2019 / Global Change Biology

September 11, 2019

Amazon deforestation and development heighten Amazon fire risk – “Most of the current fires are related to the deforestation process”

By Sarah Sax 6 September 2019 (Mongabay) – As of 24 August 2019, there were 41,858 fires reported this year in the Brazilian Amazon — the highest number since 2010, when 58,476 were recorded by that date. Likewise, the U.S. space agency NASA has shown this to be the most active fire year for the region since 2010. However, […]

The sun shines red through smoke and dust left by the fires in the Amazon rainforest, near Porto Velho, Brazil, on 29 August 2019. Photo: Joedson Alves / EPA-EFE / Shutterstock

September 3, 2019

Rain will not extinguish Amazon fires for weeks, weather experts say

By Jake Spring 27 August 2019 BRASILIA (Reuters) – Weak rainfall is unlikely to extinguish a record number of fires raging in Brazil’s Amazon anytime soon, with pockets of precipitation through 10 September 2019 expected to bring only isolated relief, according to weather data and two experts. The world’s largest tropical rainforest is being ravaged […]

Krimej village indigenous Chief Kadjyre Kayapo, of the Kayapo indigenous community, pauses on the path opened by illegal loggers on the border between Menkragnotire indigenous lands and the Biological Reserve Serra do Cachimbo in Altamira, Para state, Brazil, Saturday, 31 August 2019. He wears a traditional headdress and a necklace reading “Jesus Christ” in Kayapo language. Much of the deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon is done illegally -- land grabbers burn areas to clear land for agriculture and loggers encroach on national forests and indigenous reserves, and Kayapo says he does not want loggers and prospectors on his land. Photo: Leo Correa / AP Photo

September 2, 2019

Indigenous leaders in Brazil’s Amazon try to thwart loggers and miners – “What is being done here is an atrocity against us”

By Leo Correa 1 September 2019 ALTAMIRA, Brazil (AP) – An indigenous leader in Brazil’s Amazon says he will do what he can to stop loggers and prospectors encroaching on his people’s land. Kadjyre Kayapo, his son and other companions searched in recent days for signs of trespassing in the lush rainforest of the Kayapo […]

Greta Thunberg arrives by racing yacht in Manhattan, 28 August 2019. Photo: Greta Thunberg

August 31, 2019

Greta Thunberg, teen climate change activist, sails into New York City – “Our war on nature must end”

28 August 2019 (BBC News) – Teenage environmental activist Greta Thunberg has arrived in New York after a 15-day, 3,000-mile (4,800km) voyage across the Atlantic. She will be participating in UN climate summits in New York City and Chile. The 16-year-old Swede sailed from Plymouth in the UK on a zero-emissions yacht in order to […]

Map showing Amazonian species richness (number of species per grid cell) affected by global change and deforestation. (a) Original AOO only. (b) Original AOO and 2050 IGS53,54. (c) Original AOO and 2050 BAU53,54. (d) 2050 RCP 2.6 AOO only. (e) 2050 RCP 2.6 AOO combined with 2050 IGS deforestation. (f) 2050 RCP 2.6 AOO combined with 2050 BAU deforestation, (g) 2050 RCP 8.5 AOO only. (h) 2050 RCP 8.5 AOO combined with 2050 IGS deforestation. (i) 2050 RCP 8.5 AOO combined with 2050 BAU deforestation. Colour scale indicates decrease in AOO from blue (forested area) to red (loss in AOO). Graphic: Gomes, et al., 2019 / Nature Climate Change

August 30, 2019

Deforestation, climate crisis could crash Amazon tree diversity – “Deforestation is no longer the only major threat to the Pan-Amazon”

By Jenny Gonzales 18 August 2019 (Mongabay) – The combined impact of ongoing deforestation and escalating climate change on the Amazon rainforest could radically transform its configuration by 2050, with the biome divided into two distinct blocks — one occupied by still significant but very seriously diminished rainforest, the other dominated by agribusiness and scattered […]

Satellite views of land subsidence in Jakarta Indonesia in 1984-1991 and 2010-2015. Data: Subsidence data courtesy of Irwan Gumilar of Geodesy Research Group of ITB; satellite images via Landsat 5 and Landsat 8. Graphic: The New York Times

August 28, 2019

Indonesia announces site of capital city to replace sinking Jakarta – Choice of Borneo for £27 billion project raises fears of forest destruction and pollution

By Jonathan Watts 26 August 2019 (The Guardian) – Indonesia has announced plans to move its capital from the climate-threatened megalopolis of Jakarta to the sparsely populated island of Borneo, which is home to some of the world’s greatest tropical rainforests. President Joko Widodo said the move was necessary because the burden on Jakarta was […]

Brazil president Jair Bolsonaro gestures during the Brazilian Sugarcane Industry Association's Unica Forum 2018 in São Paulo, 18 June 2018. Photo: Miguel Schincariol / Getty Images

August 27, 2019

Humans bicker while the rainforest burns: Brazil rejects G-7 aid pledged to fight Amazon fires, but Bolsonaro might accept offer if Macron apologizes

By Guy Davies 27 August 2019 LONDON (ABC News) – A senior government official said Brazil would reject the $22 million G-7 countries promised to help fight the wildfires raging in the Amazon. Brazilian President Bolsonaro’s chief of staff Onyx Lorenzoni told Globo News, a Brazilian publication, that Brazil would reject the $22 million aid package, suggesting that the money […]