Deforestation
The Biomass Peril
By all appearances, woody biomass is an unstoppable behemoth initiated by the EU, which is now scrambling, as it tries to undo a monster of its own creation.
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Climate Change is Killing Trees
Just once in our planet’s long history, nearly all of the trees died – during the Permian-Triassic 252 million years ago, and event known as “the Great Dying.” It appears that such an event may be re-appearing. Throughout the world, trees are dying en masse.
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Burned-out Forests Are Not Re-Growing
Forests are our last, best natural defense against global warming. Without the world’s trees at peak physical condition, the rest of us don’t stand a chance.
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Kiss the Amazon Rainforest Goodbye
Right before the eyes of the world, the most legendary rainforest on the planet is going up in smoke.
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Boundless Dying Trees
Global warming is ravaging forests throughout the world.
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How to Stop the Next Pandemic: U.N. Report Links Outbreaks to Climate Crisis & Industrial Farming
A new UN report says COVID-19 has a zoonotic origin, meaning it jumped from animals to humans, and the U.N. report finds that such diseases are spreading with greater frequency due to human activity, including industrial farming and the climate crisis.
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Amazon Rainforest Hit By Killer Droughts
Over the past 20 years, like clockwork, severe droughts have hit the Amazon every five years with regularity 2005, 2010, 2015. Of course, droughts have hit the Amazon rainforest throughout paleoclimate history, but this time it’s different. The frequency and severity is off the charts.
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Why ‘Carbon-Cycle Feedbacks’ Could Drive Temperatures Even Higher
New research indicates that parts of the Amazon and other tropical forests are now emitting more CO2 than they absorb. Some scientists are concerned this development, which is not yet incorporated into climate models, could put the temperature goals set by the Paris Agreement out of reach.
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The Biomass Fiasco
Stop cutting down trees for biomass… STOP WOODY BIOMASS! That should be a bumper sticker on every vehicle in America and around the world as easy-to-read bumper stickers are more effective than many forms of advertising.
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America’s Great Greenwashing
Celebrating 50 years of Earth Day, Michael Moore, executive producer and the director Jeff Gibbs re-released their daunting and alarming documentary about the heart and soul of America’s Green Movement in a compelling film: Planet of the Humans (2019).
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Our Growing Food Demands Will Lead to More Corona-like Viruses
As agriculture expands, habitats will shrink. That will likely lead to higher numbers of the species that transmit deadly diseases.
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What Humans Are Really Doing to Our Planet, in 19 Jaw-Dropping Images
Ahead of a series of major events later this year, The Foundation for Deep Ecology and the Population Media Center released a collection that illustrates the devastating effects of out-of-control growth and waste, and it’s breathtaking.
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‘A Common Germ Pool’: The Frightening Origins of the Coronavirus
Some 60 percent of the new diseases that crop up around the globe each year are zoonotic — meaning they come from domesticated animals or wildlife. Scientists have found that infectious diseases are now emerging more rapidly than in the past.
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This Graph Will Show You the Carbon Footprint of Your Protein
Even the most sustainable meat is worse for the environment than plant-based protein.
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‘The Saddest Thing Is That This Won’t Be Breaking News’: Concentration of CO2 Hits Record High of 416 ppm
“Emissions from fossil fuels and deforestation need to be reduced to ZERO to stop this trend!”
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How Much Would Giving Up Meat Help the Environment?
It is no secret that steaks and chops are delicious. But guzzling them incurs high costs for both carnivorous humans and the planet.
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Walmart, Costco, Target, McDonalds and More! Companies Linked to Promoting Amazon Deforestation
Fires in the Amazon made global headlines for weeks. Alongside the criticism of the Brazilian government for encouraging anti-environmental stances, new information is now available on business and companies‘ impact on the fires in the Amazon.
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Amazon Rainforest ‘Close to Irreversible Tipping Point’
Soaring deforestation coupled with the destructive policies of Brazil’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, could push the Amazon rainforest dangerously to an irreversible “tipping point” within two years
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Abrupt Climate Change,the Nuclear Threat, Methane in the ESAS: Robert Hunziker interviewed on Nature Bats Last
The October episode of Nature Bats Last featured a discussion between NBL co-hosts Professor Guy McPherson, Kevin Hester and US independent journalist Robert Hunziker.
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Sixty Scientists Sign Open Letter Calling for Less Meat and Dairy in Schools and Hospitals
‘Mayors are in charge of millions of meals every day – they should do everything in their power to create a healthy future for the planet,’ these scientists say.
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Greta Thunberg and Indigenous Amazon Defender Among Visionary Campaigners Honored With Right Livelihood Awards
The Right Livelihood Foundation celebrated four “practical visionaries whose leadership has empowered millions of people to defend their inalienable rights and to strive for a livable future for all on planet Earth.”
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World ‘Losing Battle Against Deforestation’
A historic global agreement aimed at halting deforestation has failed, according to a report.
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Why Protecting the Amazon Is Critical to Solving the Climate Crisis.
The world has spent weeks watching fires ravage the Amazon Rainforest, and along with it, our chances of meeting the Paris Agreement’s goals. What’s more, scientists predict that this critical ecosystem is nearing an irreversible tipping point: a decline from lush rainforest to dry savanna.
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Protecting Indigenous Rights Will Safeguard Future of Amazon Forest, Advise Colombian Tribal Leaders
A key way to safeguard the Amazon is by placing more land under protection, including indigenous reserves, backed up by government policy that monitors illegal logging, enforces laws and respects land rights in those areas, green groups say.
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The Companies Behind the Burning of the Amazon
The burning of the Amazon and the darkening of skies from Sao Paulo, Brazil, to Santa Cruz, Bolivia, have captured the world’s conscience. Much of the blame for the fires has rightly fallen on Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro for directly encouraging the burning of forests and the seizure of Indigenous Peoples’ lands. But the incentive for the destruction comes from large-scale international meat and soy animal feed companies.
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How Amazon Forest Loss May Affect Water—and Climate—Far Away
The Amazon has already been so degraded that even a small uptick in deforestation could send the forest hurtling toward a transition to something resembling a woodland savanna. But in addition to forever destroying huge sections of the world’s largest rainforest, that shift would release tremendous quantities of planet-warming greenhouse gases which will affect us all.
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Indigenous Tribes on Front Line of Amazon Rainforest Fires Vow to Resist Bolsonaro’s “Destruction of Mother Nature”
Indigenous tribes whose land and livelihoods are being directly harmed by the fires ravaging the Amazon rainforest vowed Tuesday to do everything in their power to resist Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s “destruction of Mother Nature” and called on the rest of the world to join them.
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The World’s Forest Animals Are Disappearing at a Terrifying Rate: Report
Forests around the world are losing the vertebrate animals that help to keep them alive, according to a new report by the World Wildlife Fund and the Zoological Society of London.
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Smoke Has Blotted Out the Sun in São Paulo as the Amazon Burns
The Amazon has been in deep, deep trouble ever since far-right president Jair Bolsnaro took over running Brazil. Advocates feared his regime would commit ecological “genocide” in the Amazon and with each passing month, those fears are becoming reality.
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We Can’t Keep Eating As We Are – Why Isn’t the IPCC Shouting This From the Rooftops?
In its crucial land and climate report, the IPCC irresponsibly understates the true carbon cost of our meat and dairy habits
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In Ecuador, One Man’s Mission to Restore a Piece of the Rainforest
Ecuador has lost thousands of square miles of rainforest, the land converted to pasture and crop fields and cleared for oil and gas development. Today, trees cover just 35 percent of the country’s surface, down from more than 90 percent a century ago.
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Environmentalists Risk Their Lives to Save the Planet
Kateryna Gandziuk’s brutal attack is just one of 164 murders of environmentalists and land and water defenders that occurred in 2018, cataloged in a new report titled “Enemies of the State? How governments and business silence land and environmental defenders.”
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Planting Trees Is Good. Eliminating Deforestation is Better.
Planting more trees is one way to offset deforestation. But now, a report from the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change finds that to have a shot at combatting the climate crisis, among other efforts, we’ll need to cut down fewer trees to begin with.
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Animal Agriculture Is Major Threat to Koalas
Koalas in Australia are at risk of becoming extinct. The key threat to koala survival is land clearing, both past and continuing, and the key driver for tree-clearing is the production of animal products.
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The Great Reckoning
In essence, the postmodern age was ending, though few seemed to know it — with elites, in particular, largely oblivious to what was occurring. What would replace postmodernity in a planet heading for ruin remained to be seen.
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Earth Overshoot Day is July 29, the Earliest Ever
It’s official. We’ve exhausted Earth’s natural resources for the year… and it’s only July. According to the Global Footprint Network, July 29 is Earth Overshoot Day this year, the date that human demand for ecological resources and services has surpassed what the Earth can regenerate in a year.
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Amazon Deforestation Accelerating Towards Unrecoverable ‘Tipping Point’
Deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon has surged above three football fields a minute, according to the latest government data, pushing the world’s biggest rainforest closer to a tipping point beyond which it cannot recover.
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Revealed: How the Global Beef Trade Is Destroying the Amazon
Between 1980 and 2005, Amazon deforestation levels reached 20,000 sq km per year — with an area the size of Wales being lost. Although there have been political murmurings about trying to halt the destruction, the latest data shows that deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has risen by 73% since 2012. The number one cause? Raising cattle for beef.
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Brazil Deforestation Exceeds 88% in June Under Bolsonaro
Deforestation in Brazil’s portion of the Amazon rainforest soared more than 88% in June compared with the same month a year ago, the second consecutive month of rising forest destruction under new President Jair Bolsonaro, who has called for development of the region.
Read MoreDeforested Areas Bleed Heat to Nearby Forests, Drive Local Extinctions
Areas cleared of forests bleed heat to neighboring forests, and this fuels increases in temperatures there, new research has found. Average temperatures in forests around the world are already rising because of climate change; this leaked heat exacerbates the problem and accelerates local extinctions of forest-dwelling species.
Read MoreTo Stop Destruction of Liberia’s Rainforest, He Put His Life on the Line
Alfred Brownell had to flee Liberia after challenging the powerful palm oil and other extractive industries that were clearing its forests. But he remains committed to seeing that the West African nation’s biodiverse lands be developed sustainably and the rights of its indigenous peoples respected.
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Why Is Veganism on the Rise?
If you asked for vegan food 20, 10, or even five years ago, you’d be met with surprise or even an eye-roll. Vegans were once stereotypically thought of as hippies, pictured sitting around eating nothing but lettuce in flower crowns. Fast forward to 2019, and times have changed. Times have really, really changed.
Read More‘Frightening’ Number of Plant Extinctions Found in Global Survey
Human destruction of the living world is causing a “frightening” number of plant extinctions, according to scientists who have completed the first global analysis of the issue.
Read MoreIf We Want Antibiotics to Work, Consumers Have to Put Big Pressure on Factory Farms
On March 1, Denny’s stopped purchasing chicken treated with medically important antibiotics for its U.S. restaurants. Many consumers might expect to see such promises at Whole Foods or their local farm-to-table restaurant, but why is a chain like Denny’s (i.e., one that is enjoyed more for its assortment of inexpensive breakfast foods than its moral standards) joining the trend to reduce antibiotics in meat?
Read MoreGlobal Rebellion to Save Our Planet
“The greatest threat to the Earth is thinking someone else will save it.” The responsibility is ours; politicians and governments are complacent, dishonest and buried in the ideology of the past. Despite repeated warnings nothing substantial has been done and time is running out. No one else is going to Save Our Planet; a global movement of civil disobedience is needed to force governments to take the radical action needed.
Read MoreGlobal Warming: Human Activity Is the Cause
Fresh studies have again confirmed a vital fact about global warming: human activity is its cause. Science questions its own findings, which is why we should trust it.
Read MoreClimate Change: ‘We’ve Created a Civilisation Hell Bent on Destroying Itself – I’m Terrified’, Writes Earth Scientist
To understand you are in a prison, you must first be able to see the bars. That this prison was created by humans over many generations doesn’t change the conclusion that we are currently tightly bound up within a system that could, if we do not act, lead to the impoverishment, and even death of billions of people.
Read MoreWe Are Witnessing the Collapse of Nature
We seem to be a pretty smart species, we create symphonies and 3D printed hearts and can take pictures of Mars. But really, how smart is a species that knowingly destroys its own habitat, to the point that it becomes unsurvivable? It is up to us, right now, to ensure that we protect biodiversity and treat the natural world with the care and respect required to support our species.
Read MoreWhy Carbon Credits For Forest Preservation May Be Worse Than Nothing
For the airline industry and industrialized nations in the Paris climate accord, offsets could be a cheap alternative to actually reducing fossil fuel use. But the desperate hunger for these carbon credit plans appears to have blinded many of their advocates to the mounting pile of evidence that they haven’t — and won’t — deliver the climate benefit they promise.
Read MoreThis Month in Climate Science: Warming-driven Economic Inequality, Disappearing Alps and Plummeting Penguin Populations
Every month, climate scientists make new discoveries that advance our understanding of climate change’s causes and impacts. The research gives a clearer picture of the threats we already face and explores what’s to come if we don’t reduce emissions at a quicker pace. A snapshot of the month’s significant scientific literature, compiled from some of the leading peer-reviewed journals.
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Paraguayan Indigenous Community Goes Digital to Protect Ancestral Lands
Rumilda Fernández’s indigenous community has long tended its ancestral lands in Paraguay, marking boundaries with an ancient system of names for trees and streams. Now, squeezed by deforestation and farming, the community is going digital to defend itself.
Read MoreHasan Minhaj Breaks Down Deforestation in the Amazon — and Offers a Way to Help
Comedian Hasan Minhaj grew up watching public service announcements about protecting the Amazon rainforest. While some of them were definitely cringey, global calls to action eventually slowed deforestation rates in the Amazon. But last year saw an alarming reversal of that progress, Minhaj explained on the latest episode of his Netflix series, Patriot Act.
Read MoreOne Million Species at Risk of Extinction, UN Report Warns
A landmark global assessment warns that the window is closing to safeguard biodiversity and a healthy planet. Yet solutions are in sight. Theh bonds that hold nature together may be at risk of unraveling from deforestation, overfishing, development, and other human activities, a landmark United Nations report warns. Thanks to human pressures, one million species may be pushed to extinction in the next few years, with serious consequences for human beings as well as the rest of life on Earth.
Read MoreThe World Lost a Belgium-sized Area of Primary Rainforests Last Year
The tropics lost 12 million hectares of tree cover in 2018, the fourth-highest annual loss since record-keeping began in 2001. Of greatest concern is the disappearance of 3.6 million hectares of primary rainforest, an area the size of Belgium.
Read MoreProducts That Destroy Rainforests Could Be Banned in California
A new bill could aid rainforest preservation by banning services or products linked to rainforest deforestation. This would include beef, soy, palm oil, paper, and wood pulp amongst other products.
Read MoreWhy Green Pledges Will Not Create the Natural Forests We Need
Nations around the globe have pledged to increase their forest cover by planting millions of trees. But new research shows much of this growth would be in monoculture plantations that would be quickly cut down and do little to tackle climate change or preserve biodiversity.
Read MoreRestoring the Peruvian Amazon, One of the Most Ecologically Valuable Forests in the World
When the land is too degraded to support their crops, farmers often clear forests in search of new plots of nutrient-rich land. These scenarios are rapidly changing thanks to a groundbreaking project to transform agriculture in already-converted land in the southeastern region of Peru.
Read MoreThis Island Was on the Brink of Disaster. Then, They Planted Thousands of Trees
For centuries, Kokota’s residents subsisted by harvesting the island’s natural resources, including its trees. By the early 21st century, though, the deforestation had become unsustainable and the islanders faced a crisis. But in recent years, the island has managed to step back from the brink of ruin due to an intensive regeneration effort.
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