Deforestation

Four Landsat path/row footprints in purple, which were selected for accuracy assessment, are overlaid on the National Land Cover Database (NLCD) Forest Disturbance Date 1986-2019 science product. Credit: Suming Jin, U.S. Geological Survey Earth Resources Observation and Science Center Every second, the planet loses a stretch of forest equivalent to a football field due to logging, fires, insect infestation, disease, wind,…

WAMA DISTRICT, NURISTAN, AFGHANISTAN—When Dilaram comes into view through the trees, he’s standing astride the felled trunk of a huge cedar,  the chainsaw in his hands straining as it spews smoke and sawdust. It’s 10:30 A.M., and the air is filled with the smell of conifer needles and two-stroke exhaust. Forty-year-old Dilaram, who goes by one name, has already been hard at work with fellow logger Sanaullah for six hours under the fierce summer sun, and their shalwar kameez are soaked through with sweat. A jumble of…

Tesla has promised to plant double the number of trees that it will remove as part of the deforestation effort to build Gigafactory Mexico. There are a lot of eyes on a piece of land spanning 4,200 acres just outside of Monterrey since Tesla confirmed its plan to build a gigafactory there. Not much is known about the plant yet, as information has only been slowly released through Tesla and government officials. The massive size of the piece of land secured by Tesla was confirmed; it is…

Fire destroyed 4,141 km² of forest and 6,484 km² of pasture and cropland between 2003 and 2019 in the area of Boca do Acre. Credit: Débora Dutra A swathe of the Amazon Rainforest almost twice the size of Luxembourg was destroyed by fire between 2003 and 2019. The area is in the southwest of Amazonas state, in Brazil's North region, and includes parts of nine municipalities with some of the worst sustainable development…

The ecologically and economically important dipterocarp trees that get extensively logged in Malaysian Borneo. Credit: Tristram Hales A pioneering global study has found deforestation and forests lost or damaged due to human and environmental change, such as fire and logging, are fast outstripping current rates of forest regrowth. …

Amazon forest. Credit: Dr. Jess Baker, University of Leeds Deforestation is resulting in reduced rainfall across large parts of the tropics, according to new research. People living in tropical forest communities have often complained that the climate gets hotter and drier once trees are cleared but until now, scientists have not…

Viewed from high above, the Amazon in South America is a lush emerald quilt, home to millions of animals and the planet’s largest river by volume. It is also key to protecting our planet from the detrimental effects of climate change. But why? And what could happen to the global climate if we lost it? The Amazon’s sheer size—it covers nearly seven million square kilometers, or about the area of Australia—makes it shine on the climate stage. With so many trees covering such an enormous swath of land, everything the…

Study after study has sounded the alarm on the deteriorating Amazon rainforest. Plagued by deforestation, drought, fires and other human disturbances, the iconic ecosystem is teetering on a dangerous precipice, scientists warn. New research is once again driving the point home. A pair of studies published this week in the journal Science conclude that the mighty Amazon is swiftly transforming—and it may be at risk of collapsing into a new kind of ecosystem altogether. Human disturbances have degraded more than a third…

Forest cleared for palm oil planting in Aceh province, Indonesia.Photo: Ulet Ifansasti (Getty Images)If you’ve ever been offered the opportunity to donate money to plant a tree to offset a purchase, you’ve probably guessedthat trees naturally store carbon. Forests are an invaluable source of carbon storage around the world; one would assume that forests that have been cut down but are regrowing trees are also regaining their capacity to store carbon.But that assumption may be incredibly incorrect. Forests that are…

Supporters of President Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva display a Brazilian flag during the presidential inauguration ceremony at Planalto Palace on January 1, 2023 in Brasilia, Brazil.Photo: Myke Sena (Getty Images)This story was originally published by Grist. You can subscribe to its weekly newsletter here.It is the tradition of inaugurations in Brazil for the incoming president to ascend the ramp of the Planalto Palace, the country’s equivalent to the West Wing of the White House, and receive the presidential sash from the…