deforestation

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In Amazon's Deforestation, a Potent New Threat Emerges

Authorities say chemicals are being used more because the practice is harder to detect

(Newser) - Authorities in Brazil trying to protect the Amazon from illegal deforestation have long relied on satellite images to alert them to areas that have been clear-cut or burned in a matter of days. Now, however, loggers are increasingly using a potent new tool that is much harder to detect, reports...

Report: More Than a Third of Tree Species Are in Trouble

More than 16K are at risk of extinction, according to Global Tree Assessment

(Newser) - If the Lorax is still speaking for the trees, he's going to have a lot to say about the International Union for Conservation of Nature's first Global Tree Assessment. The report found that almost 35% of the world's tree species are at risk of extinction. More than...

Message to US Firm Was Made From Destroyed Rainforest

Giant mural in Sao Paolo urged Cargill to 'stop the destruction'

(Newser) - Environmental activists in Brazil want US farming giant Cargill to keep its promise to act against deforestation—and they have used destroyed rainforest to send a message almost 100 feet tall. A mural on the side of an 11-story building in Sao Paolo was made from ash and charcoal from...

With Warmer Weather, Expect More Visits From Snakes

Australian snake catchers have seen an uptick in post-season snake activity

(Newser) - Snakes are keeping their Australian catchers in Queensland busy these days as they pop by more homes uninvited, to the horror of unsuspecting residents. But the reason snake visits are on the rise has to do with changes in their environment, the New York Times reports, largely caused by climate...

America's Avocado Habit Is Wreaking Havoc in Mexico

As demand for the lucrative fruit grows, so do land seizures, deforestation, and violence

(Newser) - The evils of avocado toast are back for more scrutiny—only this time because of an environmental nightmare. Illegal deforestation in avocado-growing regions of Mexico is on the rise, the New York Times reports, as chunks of forests are being burnt to make room for the profitable plant. Along with...

Bourbon Industry Has a Tree Problem
Bourbon Industry
Has a Tree Problem
Oct 29, 2023 7:30 AM CDT

Bourbon Industry Has a Tree Problem

The spirit must age in oak barrels, and the industry is set on saving the crucial tree

(Newser) - An imbalance of mature white oaks growing in US forests poses a long-term threat to the bourbon industry, which uses them to age the spirit in barrels. And brands like Makers Mark are taking action before it's too late. Modern Farmer explains the issue, which boils down to the...

Deforestation Comes to the Hundred Acre Wood

Who Gives a Crap accused of 'manipulating kids' with Winnie the Pooh PR campaign

(Newser) - Winnie the Pooh's world is transformed. The Hundred Acre Wood is no more. All the trees are stumps. Winnie-the-Pooh: The Deforested Edition—a new book, already sold out in hard copy, with proceeds supporting increased access to clean water and sanitation—is the latest reuse of the character who...

Palm Oil, Long the Bad Guy, Has Something to Teach Us

Other industries could learn something from its turnaround story

(Newser) - Depending on how you look at it, palm oil is an angel or a devil. The angelic part is its versatility: no other vegetable oil is like it. As the Guardian puts it, palm oil is cheaper than other options, and works in wonderous ways, making "cookies more healthy,...

Report Details 'Enormous, Virtually Irreversible' Loss in Amazon

Region has lost 10% of its native vegetation since 1985, an area the size of Texas, per Raisg

(Newser) - The Amazon region has lost 10% of its native vegetation, mostly tropical rainforest, in almost four decades, an area roughly the size of Texas, a new report says. From 1985 to 2021, the deforested area surged from 190,000 square miles to 482,000 square miles, unprecedented destruction in the...

Charcoal: Essential for Survival, Devastating for Environment

The need for fuel is helping to destroy the world’s second-largest rainforest

(Newser) - The Democratic Republic of Congo is one of Africa's poorest and most populous nations, with nearly 90 million people, all of whom—like other humans—need to eat. But only 17% have access to electricity, and gas-burning stoves are a luxury. That leaves charcoal as the staple fuel for...

Report on 'Virgin' Forests Offers Bleak News

Deforestation is continuing at a rapid pace

(Newser) - Global deforestation continued at an alarming pace in 2021, according to an annual report released by the World Resources Institute. A total of 43,000 square miles of forest were lost, of which about a third occurred in primary or “virgin” tropical forests. Per CNN, that means primary forests...

New Report on the Amazon Rainforest Holds Worrying Number
This Photo Shows What's
Happening in the Amazon
the rundown
Apr 13, 2022 11:45 AM CDT

This Photo Shows What's Happening in the Amazon

Deforestation in Q1 hits record

(Newser) - The deforestation of the Amazon rainforest has been tracked since 2015 by Brazil's National Institute for Space Research (INPE). An INPE report out Friday says the numbers recorded in the first quarter of this year were the worst yet. CNN reports 363 square miles, an area just about the...

Romania's Trees Are Coveted, Sometimes Dangerously So

Loggers in Romania wage bloody campaign to secure the last of Europe's old-growth forests

(Newser) - Alexander Sammon's gripping piece on threats to one of the biggest remaining old-growth forests in the world—it's in Romania—for the New Republic begins with a disturbing story about logging thugs who smash a documentary film crew’s equipment and nearly kill an activist. It's even...

Amazon Deforestation Sets Record
Amazon
Deforestation
Sets Record
Feb 12, 2022 1:10 PM CST

Amazon Deforestation Sets Record

Brazil's government promised to do better, but polices remain, experts say

(Newser) - "There is a race to deforest the Amazon," said a researcher at Brazil's Federal University of Minas Gerais. It's becoming clearer that the Amazon is the loser. Trees in the Brazilian Amazon were cut down in an area five times the size of the deforested land...

Scientists: Expect Next Pandemic at Edge of Forest

Deforestation contributes to favorable conditions for an outbreak

(Newser) - There will be more pandemics, scientists say. They don't know when the next one will begin, but they have a rough idea of where. Places where humans are moving into untouched habitats, such as the edge of the Amazon rainforest, have all the ingredients of an outbreak, the Los ...

Amazon Rainforest Plots Are Being Sold on Facebook

BBC investigation finds illegally cleared land available on Facebook Marketplace

(Newser) - "Enabling deforestation in the Amazon" can be added to the list of Facebook's misdeeds, according to a BBC investigation. The broadcaster says many plots of illegally deforested land in the Brazilian rainforest can be found for sale via Facebook Marketplace—and some of the sellers who spoke to...

Environmentalists Alarmed Over Latest Amazon Data

Deforestation is at an 11-year high, Brazil says

(Newser) - Environmentalists are ringing alarm bells after Brazil released its latest data on the Amazon rainforest, CNN reports. According to the government, the rainforest lost nearly 3,800 square miles over 12 months through July 2019, marking an 11-year high in deforestation and a 29.5% increase over the year before....

500-Mile Trek for Environment Has Unusual Twist

Indonesia's Medi Bastoni will be doing it backward, with the help of a rearview mirror

(Newser) - He's walking backward for a month in the hope of moving forward with forest conservation. The Guardian has the story of Medi Bastoni, an Indonesian man who set out Thursday to walk 500 miles in reverse from his village of Dono in East Java to the State Palace in...

Iceland Trying to Undo What the Vikings Did

The reforestation effort is a slow-moving one

(Newser) - That Iceland is the most lightly forested country in all of Europe is the doing of man, not nature—long-since-deceased man. The AFP reports more than 25% of the island was covered in trees, mostly birch, when the Vikings reached its shores in the late 800s. A century later, only...

Whistleblower: Brazil Is Aiding in Amazon's Destruction

About 2.5 acres of rainforest are destroyed every minute

(Newser) - "It feels like we are the enemies of the Amazon." That's according to a senior environmental official in Brazil, where satellite images show a chunk of Amazon rainforest the size of a soccer field is being destroyed every minute. Speaking anonymously to the BBC , the official describes...

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