By Jonathan Watts31 October 2014 (Rio de Janeiro) – The Amazon rainforest has degraded to the point where it is losing its ability to benignly regulate weather systems, according to a stark new warning from one of Brazil’s leading scientists. In a new report, Antonio Nobre, researcher in the government’s space institute, Earth System Science […]
Jaguari Reservoir, 16 August 2013 Jaguari Reservoir, 3 August 2014 By Brad Plumer 23 October 2014 (Vox) – São Paulo, in southeast Brazil, is the largest city in South America and the 7th largest metropolitan region in the world, with more than 21 million people. It’s the engine behind Brazil’s richest state, which is […]
By Jonathan Watts 19 October 2014 Rio de Janeiro (The Guardian) – The deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon has accelerated rapidly in the past two months, underscoring the shortcomings of the government’s environmental policies. Satellite data indicates a 190% surge in land clearance in August and September compared with the same period last year as […]
By Diego Leal and David Salisbury 9 Septemer 2014 (Forest Trends) – Always carrying a sheaf of legal documents and maps, Peruvian indigenous leader Edwin Chota tirelessly traveled from his native community of Alto Tamaya – Saweto to the city of Pucallpa, Ucayali, using the seven-day boat trip as an opportunity to plan his next […]
By Emma Marris29 September 2014 COCHA CASHU BIOLOGICAL STATION, Peru (National Geographic News) – Ernesto Ráez-Luna, a prominent Peruvian ecologist and environmentalist, has spent his career fighting for the Amazon rain forest. In 2011, he was appointed as an adviser to Peru’s Ministry of the Environment. In this role, Ráez-Luna was involved in organizing the […]
By Drew Sterwald September 2014 (Pinnacle) – Trees and creek banks stained black with petroleum. Lakes too polluted to fish. Villagers suffering skin and organ ailments associated with contaminated water. This was just part of the evidence Shauna Stoeger (’14, M.S., Forensic Studies) uncovered when she spent four months in remote Amazonian villages to investigate […]
By Rena Silverman19 September 2014 (NPR) – They’re silvery and stunning — and their beauty bears a message. “Genesis” is a new exhibit of more than 200 black-and-white images from the noted Brazilian photographer Sebastiao Salgado. He wants to show us what the world and its peoples look like now, how climate change has already […]
By Marianna Musset 15 September 2014 (tcktcktck.org) – The ongoing drought crisis in São Paulo has reached a critical level that continues towards rock bottom. Brazil’s largest city, home to more than 9 million people, could run dry in the next 100 days according to Brazil’s Public Ministry. The Cantareira reservoir which supplies 45% of […]
By Jan Rocha15 September 2014 (theguardian.com) – The unprecedented drought now affecting São Paulo, South America’s giant metropolis, is believed to be caused by the absence of the “flying rivers” − the vapour clouds from the Amazon that normally bring rain to the centre and south of Brazil. Some Brazilian scientists say the absence of […]
Translated by Fabrício Ferreira8 September 2014 (Agência Brasil) – Activists from the Friends of the Manatee Association (Ampa) have placed a 12-meter-tall inflatable dolphin dummy outside the National Congress. The act was staged as part of a campaign entitled Red Alert, which aims to urge the Ministry of Environment to take action and bring into […]
