Aptly called, “Earth’s lungs,” the planet’s two largest swaths of rainforest, in Amazonia and Africa, suck up 15 percent of all carbon dioxide emissions produced by humans. These ecosystems are essential for carbon sequestration and therefore curbing climate change, and while the Amazon rainforest has been the subject of mountains of research, scientists are just […]
By Jared Kaufman Nearly one-third of the land on Earth is forested, but because of agriculture and infrastructure development, nearly 27 soccer fields’ worth of forest are destroyed every minute. Globally, forests are home to a significant majority of the world’s land biodiversity and absorb billions of tons of carbon dioxide every year. Over 1.5 […]
By Jessica Corbett New data from a Norwegian nonprofit is generating fresh concerns about humanity’s destruction of the natural world, revealing Monday that people have ravaged about two-thirds of original tropical rainforest cover globally. The Rainforest Foundation Norway (RFN) analysis found that human activities including logging and land-use changes—often for farming—have destroyed 34% of old-growth […]
In October 2020, two men living in Indonesia’s South Kalimantan province on Borneo managed to catch a bird that they had never seen before. They photographed and released it, then sent the pictures to birdwatching organizations in the area for identification. Ornithologist Panji Gusti Akbar was equally surprised when he saw Fauzan and Suranto’s picture […]
By René Mora, Translated by Romina Castagnino Catatumbo Barí National Natural Park protects the unique, remote rainforest in northeastern Colombia. Satellite data show the park lost 6.2% of its tree cover between 2001 and 2019, with several months of unusually high deforestation in 2020. Sources say illegal coca cultivation is rapidly expanding in and around […]
Tens of thousands of children in Indonesia and Malaysia work to harvest the palm oil that ends up in several beloved Western snacks, including Girl Scout cookies. An in-depth Associated Press report published recently used U.S. customs records and the most up-to-date information from producers, traders and buyers to link palm oil harvested using child […]
Between 2000 and 2013, Earth lost an area of undisturbed ecosystems roughly the size of Mexico. That’s the mind-melting finding of a new study published in One Earth Friday, and the researchers say it has “profound implications” for global biodiversity and for humans who rely on natural resources. “We were expecting there to be high […]
By Sean Fleming The Borneo rainforest is a treasure trove of biodiversity. It is home to 221 species of land-living mammals and 420 species of birds, not to mention 15,000 species of flowering plants and 3,000 species of trees. A team of scientists from Imperial College London, Universiti Malaysia Sabah and the South East Asia […]
Rainforests are an important defense against climate change because they absorb carbon. But many are being destroyed on a massive scale. In the tropics, farmers often slash and burn forests to clear fertile land for crops. The practice involves cutting down vegetation and burning it. But the soil’s fertility does not last long, so the […]
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