amazon rainforest

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    ‘There Will Be an Increase in Deforestation’: Brazil’s New President Signs Order Endangering Amazon and Indigenous Rights

    ‘There Will Be an Increase in Deforestation’: Brazil’s New President Signs Order Endangering Amazon and Indigenous Rights

    In his first day in office, right wing Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro realized the fears of environmentalists and Indigenous communities. They knew he would use his time in office to increase the access of extractive industries in the Amazon Rainforest. Within hours of taking power Tuesday, Bolsonaro transferred responsibility for recognizing Indigenous lands to the […]

    40 Scientists: Protecting Forests Is an Urgent Climate Issue

    40 Scientists: Protecting Forests Is an Urgent Climate Issue

    “Avoiding forest carbon emissions is just as urgent as halting fossil fuel use.” That’s the message contained in a statement written by 40 scientists from five different countries urging the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to consider preserving and regrowing forests as an important part of limiting global warming to 1.5° Celsius above pre-industrial […]

    World’s Largest River Floods Five Times More Often Than It Used to

    World’s Largest River Floods Five Times More Often Than It Used to

    Extreme floods have become more frequent in the Amazon Basin in just the last two to three decades, according to a new study. After analyzing 113 years of Amazon River levels in Port of Manaus, Brazil, researchers found that severe floods happened roughly every 20 years in the first part of the 20th century. Now, […]

    Amazon Deforestation in Brazil: What Does It Mean When There’s No Change?

    Amazon Deforestation in Brazil: What Does It Mean When There’s No Change?

    By Doug Boucher I was recently invited by the editors of the journal Tropical Conservation Science to write an update of a 2013 article on deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon that I had published with Sarah Roquemore and Estrellita Fitzhugh. They asked me to review how deforestation has changed over the past five years. The […]

    Amazon Mangroves ‘Twice as Carbon Rich’ as Its Rainforests

    Amazon Mangroves ‘Twice as Carbon Rich’ as Its Rainforests

    By Daisy Dunne The vast mangroves of the Amazon store twice as much carbon per hectare as the region’s tropical forests, new research shows. The relatively understudied ecosystem also stores 10 times more carbon than Amazon savannahs—a type of grassy plain with sparsely populated trees, according to the study. However, the wetlands face threats from […]

    Tax Havens Shelter Illegal Fishing and Amazon Deforestation, Study Finds

    Tax Havens Shelter Illegal Fishing and Amazon Deforestation, Study Finds

    A first-of-its-kind study published Monday shows that tax havens don’t just shelter the wealth of celebrities and large corporations—they also obscure the financial transactions behind environmental destruction. The study, published in Nature Ecology and Evolution by the Stockholm Resilience Centre at Stockholm University and Global Economic Dynamics and the Biosphere (GEDB) at the Royal Swedish […]

    Climate Change Could Bring Drought to Amazon, Greater Rain to Pacific and African Forests

    Climate Change Could Bring Drought to Amazon, Greater Rain to Pacific and African Forests

    Scientists have discovered another factor that might interact with rising carbon dioxide emissions to influence climate change—tropical forests. In a study published in Nature Climate Change Friday, researchers found that the way tropical forests interact with increased atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide could alter rainfall patterns, drying out the Amazon rainforest and increasing precipitation in […]