Deforestation

Many popular grocery store items, from beef to coffee, have a dark side. They’re often grown on land where forests were cut down. That means that when you shop, you might be inadvertently contributing to the ongoing destruction of nature. And much of it is happening in the Amazon rainforest and Congo Basin — two of the most important ecosystems on Earth. That’s the bad news. But thankfully, there’s good news, too. In December, the European Union agreed on a landmark law to prevent companies from selling beef,…

Schematic view of the tipping elements of the Earth climate system, their connectivity and teleconnections. The numbered symbols show the potential tipping elements in the Earth system. The dashed yellow lines show the possible connections between these tipping elements and the solid red lines show teleconnection uncovered in this article. The arrows show the direction of the influence. Credit: Nature Climate Change (2023). DOI:…

by The Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture Deforestation in municipalities of Candeias do Jamari and Porto Velho in Rondonia State, Brazil. a Terra-i and Global Forest Change (GFC) data for 2004; b accumulated Terra-i and GFC data from 2004 to 2010; c Terra-i and GFC data from 2004 to 2016; and d Terra-i data from 2004 to 2020, GFC data from 2004 to 2019 and GLAD data…

Fashion companies are planning to buy more recycled fibers as part of a wider trend of businesses using their spending power to foster innovative, low-carbon suppliers.  Owners of fashion brands H&M, Zara, Gucci and Stella McCartney were among companies that said Monday they would collectively buy 550,000 metric tons of alternative fibers to make textiles and packaging, such as those made from agricultural residues or recycled materials. The planned purchase represents only a small portion of their total…

This time of year, global and social leaders gather at the United Nations’ Conference of the Parties (COP) to seek solutions and to confront the climate crisis that threatens society as a whole. In these meetings it is common to hear that the Amazon rainforest is the “lungs of the planet,” but this year, as COP’s 27th meeting comes to an end, if we want to make a more accurate analogy, we should refer to the Amazon as the “heart of the planet.” The Amazon River feeds a tropical forest of 2.86 million square miles, which…

Environmentalists are calling Brazil’s presidential election of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, popularly known as Lula, a big win for the Amazon rain forest. The ecosystem suffered record high levels of deforestation after the nation’s far-right president Jair Bolsonaro took office nearly four years ago. Brazil contains more than half of Amazonia, a region whose fate is crucial to slowing climate change. During Bolsonaro’s tenure, loggers, cattle ranchers and soy farmers cut down or burned more than two billion trees in the…

Brazilian study analyzed active fire occurrences between 2003 and 2020 in the nine countries with Amazon Rainforest areas. Brazil accounted on average for 73% of the fires detected in the period. Credit: Liana Anderson/CEMADEN A Brazilian study shows that the number of fires detected in the entire Amazon region between 2003 and 2020 was influenced more by uncontrolled human use of fire than by drought. According to the…

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain An international team of researchers has attempted to assess the impact of both deforestation and afforestation on the global water cycle. In their paper published in the journal Nature Geoscience, the group analyzes precipitation records along with hydrologically weighted leaf area indices to measure changes in surface water over a multiyear period. …

Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro attends a speech at the Ministry of Economy, in Brasilia, Brazil, Friday, Oct. 22, 2021.Photo: Eraldo Peres (AP)This weekend, Brazilians voted out Jair Bolsonaro, the right-wing, Christo-fascist president who oversaw vast environmental destruction during his nearly four years in office.Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has gone from a political prisoner to the incoming president of Brazil. Lula, who led the country previously from 2003 to 2010, won in a narrow victory. He received 50.9% of the…

Scenarios of PAs downgrading in the study region with respective road network required to access mineral deposits. Credit: Nature Sustainability (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41893-022-00921-9 A model developed by Brazilian researchers shows that opening up protected areas of the Amazon to mining projects would lead to the deforestation of 183 square kilometers (km²) due directly to new mines and the loss of an additional 7,626 km²…