deforestation

Indonesia’s new shining city of the hill

If the Bill of Rights contains no guarantee that a citizen shall be secure against lethal poisons distributed whether by private individuals or by public officials, it is surely only because our forefathers, despite their considerable wisdom and foresight, could conceive of no such problem.
— Rachel Carson, author of Silent Spring

Earth Day & Capitalism Like Vinegar and Oil?
Continuously, discussions focusing on degraded ecosystems and tipping points forcing climate change to ramp up to chaos many times center around the “C” word.
Not “c” as in “cancer.”
“Capitalism is destroying the planet,” said Pat DeLaquil, an energy policy expert working with various governments, NGO’s and the private sector to “help achieve economic development and combating climate change.”

The Brazilian Amazon registered a 104 percent surge in deforestation last month, compared to the same month last year. The 563 km2 [217 square miles] razed area that month is also the highest number for any month of November since 2015, according to the country’s National Institute for Space Research [INPE], which provides official data on deforestation. This stark change is particularly interesting, for during the rainy season, general deforestation activity slows.

Scientists working on the issue have often told me that, once upon a time, they assumed, if they did their jobs, politicians would act upon the information. That, of course, hasn’t happened. Anything but, across much of the planet. Worse yet, science failed to have the necessary impact in significant part because of disinformation promoted by the major fossil-fuel companies, which have succeeded in diverting attention from climate change and successfully blocking meaningful action.”

A slow, tacking flight: float then flap. Then a pirouette and it has swung on to a different tack, following another seam through the moor as if it is tracking a scent. It is like a disembodied spirit searching for its host…” — description of the strongest of all harriers, the goshawk, by James Macdonald Lockhart in his book, Raptor: A Journey Through Birds

We’re watching a female red-tail hawk rejecting the smaller male’s romantic overtures barely 50 yards overhead.

During August thousands of fires ravaged the Amazon rainforest in Brazil and Bolivia. Some are still burning. In the wet ecosystem of the rainforest fires are not a natural phenomenon, they are started by people, mostly well-organized criminal gangs that profit from illegal logging and land clearance.

  I sometimes watch a show on TV about New Hampshire while eating dinner. It always includes a history segment and I like it because it puts our current times nestled into a larger framework.. One of the most interesting ones was about Livermore, NH — a long abandoned town. According to the TV show: the town was entirely owned[Read More...]

Scientists from the University of Leicester have won a ‘Space Oscar’ for their research into combatting deforestation
The post Scientists awarded for their ‘pioneering’ mobile app to combat illegal logging appeared first on Positive News.

With worn single barrel shotguns slung over their shoulders, two Indigenous men tread quietly through the thick Amazon forest of their land, checking for illegal activity.
They say that since 2015, their territory – where they live with around 40 other fellow Karipuna in Brazil’s north-western state of Rondônia – has been increasingly targeted by illegal loggers and land grabbers.