deforestation

Stories 21 - 40 | << Prev   Next >>

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...

8 Bird Species Fall Victim to 'Growing Wave of Extinctions'

Habitat loss via deforestation among issues: study

(Newser) - Eight bird species, including the Brazilian blue parrot featured in 2011 animated flick Rio, make up the first confirmed avian extinctions this decade. The Spix's macaw (the species of the Rio characters Blu and Jewel ) hasn't been seen in the wild since 2000, as a 2016 sighting...

Amazon's Deforested Areas Could See 73M New Trees

Seeding effort aims to restore 74,000 acres of rainforest

(Newser) - The Amazon rainforest's "arc of deforestation" could soon have 73 million new trees. In an effort to reseed 74,000 acres of the Amazon—20% of which has been destroyed in the last 40 years—Conservation International, the World Bank, Brazil's environmental ministry, and several other groups...

Inevitable Finally Happens: NYC Gets Avocado Bar

'Painfully trendy' fruit will be featured in all the menu items

(Newser) - If you like to put avocado on just about everything, you're in luck—if you can make it to Brooklyn, at least. Three friends from Italy are opening Avocaderia, what they call the world's first avocado bar. (A Food & Wine blogger thinks the folks behind one already...

Drones Find Hundreds of Stonehenge-Like Spots in Amazon

More than 450 'geoglyphs' date from around the year 0

(Newser) - Scientists flying drones over the Amazon rainforest in Brazil have found more than 450 "geoglyphs" that are similar in size, structure, and possibly purpose to Stonehenge in England. The earthworks were likely used for public gatherings and rituals, researchers report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences...

&#39;Major Extinction Event&#39; Could Hit Primates
Primate Study Finds It's
'Worse Than We Thought'
NEW STUDY
Jan 20, 2017 7:13 AM CST

Primate Study Finds It's 'Worse Than We Thought'

75% are in decline, 60% at risk of extinction

(Newser) - "It's worse than we thought 10 years ago," a researcher says following a "landmark" study on the world's primates that found many could go extinct in the next 50 years. Primatologists studied every primate species—all 504 of them—and found 75% are in decline,...

Mexico's Avocado Boom Drives a Forest Bust

Farmers are rapidly expanding orchards, clearing trees at much faster clip than thought

(Newser) - Your guacamole is taking a toll south of the border in the form of higher-than-thought deforestation as Mexican avocado orchards expand rapidly, reports the AP . Talia Coria, an official in the attorney general's office for environmental protection, said almost 50,000 acres of forest are converted to agricultural use...

An Entire Country Just Banned Deforestation

Norway to stop buying products that contribute to clear-cutting

(Newser) - Norway just became the world's biggest tree-hugger. The Independent reports the European country is the first in the world to ban deforestation, following a pledge by its parliament. That means the Norwegian government won't purchase anything that contributes to the destruction of the world's rainforests, especially beef,...

Since 1990, We've Erased a Forest Twice as Big as Texas

Still, UN report finds rate of forest loss has improved over 25 years

(Newser) - There are positives and negatives to grasp from a new report on forest loss from the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization. The good news: The rate of deforestation worldwide has been halved over the last 25 years. The bad news: We lost 500,000 square miles of forest—an...

Earth Has Just 2 Giant Forests Left
 Earth Has Just 2 
 Giant Forests Left 
STUDY SAYS
Mar 24, 2015 10:40 AM CDT

Earth Has Just 2 Giant Forests Left

The only 2 unfragmented forest habitats are the Amazon, Congo

(Newser) - To see the Earth's ecology forest for its trees, first we have to acknowledge there aren't many large, intact forests around. In fact, according to a new study published in Science Advances , there are only two such continuous forests left: in South America and Africa, Christian Science Monitor ...

Brazil: 'Biggest Amazon Deforester' Arrested

Suspect blamed for 20% of forest loss

(Newser) - Brazil has detained a land-grabber thought to be the Amazon's single biggest deforester, the country's environmental protection agency says. The Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources says Ezequiel Antonio Castanha, who was detained Saturday in the state of Para, operated a network that illegally seized federal...

Kilns Recall 'Almost Criminal' US History

Utah's old charcoal kilns led to wide deforestation

(Newser) - In Utah's backcountry, you're liable to see wide stretches of open space populated by little more than old brick huts. Their purpose, once essential to the state's economic life, came to be considered "almost like a criminal activity," an expert tells the Deseret News . In...

Ugly Number: Amazon Deforestation Up 28%

Rise follows 4 years of decline

(Newser) - A year after reporting the lowest rates of Amazon deforestation since monitoring began, Brazil has noted a big change this time around: a 28% surge in deforestation from August 2012 to this July. During that period, 2,255 square miles were destroyed, compared with 1,765 square miles during the...

25% of Liberia at Mercy of Loggers

Thanks to loophole in country's law: report

(Newser) - By exploiting a loophole in Liberian law, international logging companies have gained access to as much as one-quarter of Liberia's landmass, according to a report out today by watchdog group Global Witness. It explains that foreign companies are relying on so-called "Private Use Permits," which were designed...

Greenpeace: Barbie's Killing Rainforests

Group unfurls a banner over Mattel headquarters

(Newser) - Greenpeace has set its sights on a new eco-villain: Barbie. The group says it has traced packaging used by Mattel and other toy companies to protected Indonesian rainforests, and they’re taking it out on Mattel’s perpetually well-accessorized doll, Reuters reports. Activists dressed like Ken descended on Mattel’s...

Girl Scouts: Thin Mints Killing Orangutans' Home

Duo protests cookies' palm oil recipe

(Newser) - America's cookie buyers shouldn't have to choose between buying Girl Scout cookies and saving orangutans, say a pair of Michigan girl scouts leading calls for the organization to change its recipe. Seventh graders Rhiannon Tomtishen and Madison Vorva, who have rallied Girl Scout troops across the country and...

Nations Near Deal to Save Tropical Forests

Developing nations would be paid to preserve land

(Newser) - Looks like the UN climate talks under way in Cancun could yield at least one tangible deal—an agreement to start saving the world's tropical forests. The concept is simple enough: Developing nations such as Brazil, Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea would be paid to stop bulldozing their forests, reports...

Back From Brink, Eastern Forests Face New Threats

Damage from early colonization recouped, but other forces conspire

(Newser) - In the early days—or, rather, centuries—of the American experiment, the vast Eastern forests were logged almost to oblivion. But with the opening of the frontier to the West, trees from the Northeast to the Gulf Coast rebounded, and by 1997 the forests had regained almost 70% of their...

Huge Sandstorm Turns Beijing Sky Orange

Storms have jumped sixfold in 50 years due to deforestation

(Newser) - China's capital woke up to orange-tinted skies today as the strongest sandstorm so far this year hit the country's north, delaying some flights at Beijing's airport and prompting a dust warning for Seoul. The sky glowed and a thin dusting of sand covered Beijing, causing workers to muffle their faces...

Why Whaling May Worsen Warming

Whales store carbon in their bones, scientists say

(Newser) - A hundred years of whaling has released about a forest's worth of carbon into the atmosphere, researchers say. Whales serve as "forests of the ocean" by storing carbon in their bones and releasing it when they die. "When you kill and remove a whale from the ocean, that's...

Stories 21 - 40 | << Prev   Next >>