deforestation

It seems intuitive that large forests exist in areas where there is a lot of rainfall. But what if the converse were true? What if forests themselves were a significant factor in causing rainfall?[read more]

Terrance Emerson/Shutterstock

As governments roll out public policy directing increased biofuel production for all sectors of the transportation industry, serious questions around environmental sustainability still remain.Although the food versus fuel debate -- should arable land be used to grow energy crops, or food crops be used to fuel our cars instead of our...[read more]

NASA has just released a new map which shows the carbon stored in the forests around the world.  While it doesn’t show us exactly which forests are at risk of deforestation – thus turning the current stored carbon into carbon pollution that causes global warming – it does provide us with a visual of what is at risk if we don’t...[read more]

leoffreitas via flickr

Major Changes in Brazilian Forest Law Could Undo Decades of Work Trying to Protect the Amazon Brazilian legislators tight with agribusiness interests are looking to "drastically weaken conservation requirements of the country’s Forest Law," which would have a devastating effect on the Amazon rainforest, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF)...[read more]

The Sierra Club and American Electric Power, the nation’s largest coal-burning utility, don’t agree on much, but there is this: Money does grow on trees. Along with other big environmental groups and such businesses as Duke Energy and El Paso Corp., they are part of a coalition that wants to use markets to protect the world’s forests...[read more]

Copenhagen is over, so the post-game commentary, in true sports fashion, is just beginning. The best summary of what did and didn’t happen that I’ve seen so far, is Copenhagen climate conference: The grim meaning of ‘meaningful’ (but not one pointed exception in []’s): Like businessmen who insist a deal is legit, politicians...[read more]

The first Tuesday in Copenhagen saw the leak to the Guardian newspaper  of a document called “The Copenhagen Agreement”, a proposed political agreement prepared by the Danish hosts, supposedly in consultation with the USA, the UK and some others. This may be one of several such texts in circulation. Neverthless, it raises a...[read more]

In October, Brazil’s President announced, “I foresee that by 2020 we will be able to reduce deforestation by 80 percent; in other words, we will emit some 4.8 billion fewer tons of carbon dioxide gas.” Now, a new article in the December 4 issue of Science, “The End of Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon,” (subs. req’d, abstract below...[read more]

I've written here before about the land use cascade, the sequence of land transformations and land use changes that follow a change in one region.A new Policy Forum in Science argues that ignoring the cascading carbon consequences of converting lands for biofuels will undercut global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.The logic...[read more]

From Environmental Capital at the WSJ:The law of unintended consequences strikes yet again. Global plans to tackle climate change, from the Kyoto Protocol to the recently-passed Waxman-Markey bill, have a fatal flaw: They essentially encourage large-scale deforestation, which pretty much undermines the whole idea of curbing greenhouse-...[read more]

Originally posted at the Breakthrough InstituteSerious doubts about the efficacy of carbon offsets projects to produce real, verifiable emissions reductions have been validated by a Greenpeace report, released this week, that exposes a prominent sub-national forest offset project as a "carbon scam." The Noel Kempff Climate Action...[read more]

Sustainable rainforest management is based on the principles of sustainable forestry, a practice where trees are harvested in a manner that minimizes damage to the surrounding ecosystem. Trees are selectively cut, rather than clearcut, and often felled close to the end of their natural life cycle.  Sustainable rainforest...[read more]

Veteran conservationist David Cleary knows what's critical for protecting the Amazon: beef.Cleary, the director of conservation strategies in South America for The Nature Conservancy, lived in the Amazon for over a decade and he knows that "the most important driver of deforestation in the Amazon is ranching, with pasture having...[read more]

Photo credit leoffreitas GreenPeace released a damning report last month called Slaughtering the Amazon in which it detailed how the Brazilian cattle sector is the largest driver of deforestation in the world. In this shocking exposé Greenpeace detailed how: Cattle are responsible for about 80% of all deforestation’ in the Amazon...[read more]

My guest blogger, Glenn Hurowitz, is Washington Director of Avoided Deforestation Partners.  This post is excerpted from a piece first published here.One of the little-known ingredients of the American Clean Energy and Security Act, H.R. 2454 is a breakthrough agreement on ending tropical deforestation, which is responsible for about 20...[read more]