While the murder of anti-deforestation activists and environmentalists is nothing new in most parts of the world nowadays, the recent news that a plane carrying members of Brazil’s special environmental protection forces recently crashed due to “unexplained” causes does still stand out. Image by CIFOR (some rights reserved) If nothing else — I’d there was foul-play involved,
Solar has taken a back seat this year in the first scheduled Brazil solar auction, The event has been cancelled and will not occur until December. Brazil’s Ministry of Mines and Energy (MME) has announced only hydroelectric energy projects can be submitted to its 1st Reserve Energy Auction, which has also been delayed and rescheduled from
In Mozambique, human honey hunters communicate and cooperate with a species of bird called the greater honeyguide in order to find bee hives. They do this by making a certain vocalization to the birds that they are ready to be guided. The birds come to where the humans are and then begin taking them to the locations. The
According to Bloomberg, Brazil has rejected requests from developers seeking more time to complete the country’s first large-scale solar farms. Brazil’s energy regulator Aneel reportedly sent a statement to a group of solar developers scheduled to completing solar farms by 2017, denying their request for extensions of as long as two years. Brazil economy blamed Financing
Originally published on CleanTechnica A historic net metering revision for distributed electricity is now in play in Brazil. Planned revisions to Brazil’s net metering program for small-scale distributed electricity generation systems came into force today. These changes were approved in November 2015 by Brazil’s energy regulator National Electric Energy Agency (ANEEL). The change was described at the
Many people find global warming an overwhelming issue, and have no idea how to contribute to a solution. But now, combating climate change can be as easy as a credit card purchase. Every time a Sustain:Green biodegradable card is used, a tangible contribution to the fight against global warming is made through carbon offsets, and
Imagine: You are a zoologist on a research expedition, exploring the remote riverine ecosystems in some of the remotest parts of the Brazilian Amazon river basin…You have heard rumors from the local tribes people of a large, strange, long-nosed creature that inhabits the waters here (it’s bad luck to kill a such a creature)…You know
At the late November meeting of UN climate delegates in Warsaw, negotiators from Canada–once a strong supporter of fast-start financing to limit greenhouse gas emissions from developing countries–and Australia, now led by a rashly conservative government, sat on their hands. Reeling from the costs of mitigation at Fukushima and a stopgap return to fossil fuels,
We’re trying to get more solar energy stories going here on Planetsave. To catch readers up, I’m doing a short series on the top 50 solar energy stories of 2013 so far. Learning from the Top 33 EV Stories article I recently published, I’m splitting this one into 5 posts. Otherwise, the page would take forever to load.
All of the sudden people said, “Wait a minute, this is not how we have to live.” …Call us Peace, We’re about peace… Paul Watson on a wide screen is sweet looking, kind of like a baby as a young man, thinner with dark curly hair framing his doe-eyed face as he stands in life-threatening
No other tribe in the Amazon is experiencing the same type of loss as the Awá. Loggers are taking over the land, often by force, and killing anyone who gets in their way. Without intervention, the entire tribe may soon be extinct.
In a briefing paper released January 19 by Oxfam.org entitled, “Left behind by the G20? How inequality and environmental degradation threaten to exclude poor people from the benefits of economic growth,” the standard mantra of pro-growth policy — a rising tide lifts all boats — appears to be an economic myth (like “trickle down”) and
by Juliana Russar Tired of the poor quality of public transportation in São Paulo, 350 partners and participants of the World Car Free Day movement organized a flashmob in the subway for the immediate release of R$ 15 million that has been provided to the Secretary of Transportation in the 2011 budget to make
If you haven’t heard the news yet, the “New7Wonders of Nature” have been announced. First some background,.. then the new 7 Wonders,.. then 2 “Buts.” So, the New7Wonders of Nature project was stated in 2007 and led by Canadian-Swiss Bernard Weber, with organizational work done by the Swiss-based New7Wonders Foundation. Through a global poll,
A new study from a team of French researchers from the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris (CNRS/IPGP/Université Paris Diderot) working on conjunction with scientists from Brazil and the United States has challenged the belief that Earth was completely covered in ice 635 million years ago, creating what is now colloquially known as the Snowball Earth hypothesis.
Along with the many top activism stories I’ve shared in the past couple weeks, here are several more I keep forgetting to get to because I was saving them on email and not in my normal places. Check them out:
Scientists on an expedition backed by WWF-Brazil to one of the last unexplored areas in the Brazilian Mid-west have discovered a new species of monkey.
A new report from the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) in Brazil has announced a total of 225 kilometres squared were destroyed during the month of July. The measurements were taken by DETER, the Alert System for Support and Control Deforestation which is able to analyse a region from space to determine whether any
With over 50, 000 photos (and counting) capturing over 100 mammal species from seven protected areas across Africa, Asia and the Americas…a global ‘hidden camera” research project is giving conservation biologists a rare glimpse into the ordinary lives of many endangered or threatened mammal species.The camera study, conducted by The Tropical Ecology Assessment and Monitoring Network (TEAM), is helping to confirm what smaller, isolated studies have indicated: that habitat destruction is jeopardizing the biological integrity and diversity of many of the world’s mammals.
on June 22, the Brazilian Bureau of Indian Affairs announced confirmation of a group of uncontacted people living in the western part of the Amazon’s Javari Valley, which is near the border of Peru. The existence of the group of about 200 or so people were confirmed following an over-flight expedition of the region; a series of aerial photographs clearly show several rounded-top huts in small clearings dotting the forested land. Analysis of the photos also showed that the tribe is growing a variety of crops, including corn, bananas, and peanuts.
The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) has unveiled its latest salvo in the fight to curtail human-caused global warming: an interactive ‘Climate Hot Map Scavenger Hunt’. The Climate Hot Map educate sand entertains as it stimulates the user’s curiosity to sift clues and scavenge for answers. What’s more, completing the scavenger hunt qualifies you for a chance to win the fabulous Grand Prize: an Earthwatch Institute trip for two to assess climate impacts in Rio Cachoeira national Reserve in Brazil!
The Thematic Mapper on the Landsat 5 satellite captured this 2006 image of barrier islands along the northeast coast of Brazil, halfway between the mouth of the Amazon River and the coastal city of São Luís.
Following up on the murder of a world-renowned Brazilian rain forest activist and his wife that I wrote about last week, it turns out another environmental activist in the rain forests of Brazil was shot and killed on Friday.
A controversial piece of “forest reform” legislation was passed by the Brazilian senate this past Tuesday that would ostensibly give amnesty to landowners and give more autonomy to Brazilian states over setting their own conservation standards. Environmental groups largely view this as a major mistake and a give-away to ranchers and farmers.
If you haven’t seen this news, it’s pretty disturbing. A rainforest activist in Brazil (José Cláudio Ribeiro da Silva) who had been working to protect rainforests from logging was shot and killed this week, as well as his wife. This, ironically, happened just a few hours before Brazil horrible new legislation that will increase deforestation in the area.
A leech with over-sized teeth, a glow-in-the-dark mushroom, a bacterium that eats iron, a giant orb spider that spins super silk…”New” to us, for sure, but not new in Nature. Some on the list have been around for millions of years,no doubt. Some, like the jumping cockroach, may not so appealing to human ears.
In a press conference held on Wednesday, Brazils Environment Minister Izabella Teixeira that the Brazilian Government was in the process of intensifying efforts to halt deforestation in the Amazon.
Here’s a great quote my mother shared with me this past week, from Stephanie Austin of Mountain Astrologer.
Thousands of hectares of tropical dry forests are now safe from logging in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, thanks to scientists affiliated with the research project Tropi-Dry.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gY1sY8UDwjs If you haven’t seen the video above yet, I think the story is pretty clear: a man drove into a peaceful, critical mass bike ride in Porto Alegre, Brazil with the apparent attempt to kill or seriously injure a number of the cyclists. As noted in the video above, he even accelerated as he
I included the video above in my global weirding news of the week wrap-up on Monday. But, seriously, it’s worth another share in case you don’t read through those. Excellent coverage by ABC. Additionally, here are two more videos on recent extreme weather events. The first, on the tremendous, horrific floods in Australia that “ripped
Since we had plenty of news last Friday and I was heading out of town, I decided to leave our weekly roundup of global weirding and environmental news (that we didn’t already cover) to Monday. Here’s the global weirding portion. Climate: Student Reporters Take on Climate Change and Security Coincidences abound—just after posting an item
There is more global weirding news streaming through my news feeds every week than I could ever cover in depth here on Planetsave. There are a number of pieces every week that I wish I had more time for but, unfortunately, just don’t. So, I think I am going to get back to weekly news
This is a horrible and sad story. A beleaguered Indian community in Brazil which has been cut off from the outside world by the rancher who has taken over their lands is still imprisoned, despite winning a recent court ruling. The Guarani community of Ypo’i returned to their ancestral land in 2009, which had been
By the 2030’s, more and more regions across our planet will be entering drought conditions, according to a recently published study by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) at the University of Colorado, Boulder. This dryness trend, which encompasses much of the temperate and tropical Western Hemisphere along with large areas of Eurasia and
Avatar may have been a science-fiction story, but many of its themes were based off of some of the world’s biggest real-life struggles. One such struggle is going on in the Amazon, where a large dam, the Belo Monte Dam, is threatening the environment and tribes living in Brazil’s Amazon Rainforest. Avatar-Like Battle in the
This Summer, Conservation International recently joined a promising initiative by some of the largest corporations operating in Brazil including Walmart, to commit themselves to biodiversity conservation in the country and the sustainable use of its natural resources.
Anti-corruption legislation passed in Brazil. I recently got word from Avaaz, a major worldwide activist community I’m a part of, that some huge anti-corruption legislation was passed in Brazil. The new Brazilian law prohibits anyone convicted of serious crimes from running for office. (I think we’ve got more than a few politicians in Congress who
Global asbestos lobby keeps the asbestos market going despite proof that asbestos causes cancer and other fatal diseases. Heard of asbestos? It is the terrible toxin used in insulation and construction that can kill you by giving you lung cancer, mesothelioma and asbestosis. It is banned or restricted in at least 52 countries due to
In my opinion, here are 10 of the best waterfall pictures on the web. Have more? Include a link in the comments. [social_buttons] I think a critical part of care for the environment is experiencing the beauty of nature. Although doing so by looking at pictures on your computer screen may not be the best
In the guest post below, Lester R. Brown of the Earth Policy Institute discusses transforming our cities into more sustainable and more livable places. (Subheadings and pictures added.) by Lester R. Brown As I was being driven through Tel Aviv from my hotel to a conference center in 1998, I could not help but note
[social_buttons] Brazil soya traders agreed to extend a moratorium on buying soya linked to Amazon destruction this week and Greenpeace was quick to give them a big thank you from the world. International companies such as McDonald’s are happy, and companies like Nike, Wal-Mart and Carrefour are asking for more.
Timberland has announced a new policy agreement with Greenpeace to ensure that leather used in new boots and shoes won’t contribute to deforestation in the Amazon. The policy will issue a moratorium on purchasing any cattle raised in newly deforested areas within the Amazon Rainforest, and it will force all of its suppliers to do
Nike has stopped all imports of leather from the Amazon region of Brazil, after a Greenpeace report claimed that its shoes and trainers could be speeding up the destruction of the world’s largest rainforest and contributing to global warming. The report, published last month, revealed how cattle hides from deforested areas were entering the supply
Over 1,000 indigenous rights activists formed human banners across a stretch of deforested Amazon rain forest this week at the World Social Forum in Brazil. “We are the guardians of the forest,” said Marco Apurina, vice-coordinator of Coordenação das Organizações Indígenas da Amazônia Brasileira. “This is a critical moment for indigenous peoples to unite with
[social_buttons] The Brazilian government has today signed a federal decree establishing the Brazilian Whale and Dolphin Sanctuary, which will drastically increase protection for all cetacean species along the country’s entire 5,000 mile long coast. According to José Truda Palazzo, Jr., Brazilian Commissioner to the International Whaling Commission, “the initiative sends a clear and powerful message
[social_buttons]Thousands of people rioted on Sunday in Paragominas, Brazil, protesting the government’s crackdown on illegal logging in the Amazon rainforest. The protesters burned vehicles, set the offices of the environmental agency Ibama on fire, and stole 14 trucks carrying 400 cubic meters of logs seized from illegal logging activities in the Amazon. The rioters chased
Hundreds of penguins have been jet-lifted to their native home in the Southern Atlantic Ocean, after washing up lost and tired on the beaches of Northern Brazil. [social_buttons] At least 1,000 penguins this year to date, have washed up on Brazilian beaches. Though it is normal for penguins to travel North from their South Atlantic
