deforestation
Study: Orangutans Are Facing a Form of Eco-Genocide
If people had been doing this to other people, we’d call it genocide. Yet that’s what people have been doing to Borneo’s orangutans: perpetrating a form of eco-genocide against them. In this new century alone as many as 100,000 of…
A Shortage of Beer and Fries? Climate Change Hits Europe Where It Hurts
Climate change has fueled raging wildfires around the world, bleached coral reefs and intensified hurricanes—and now it’s coming for Europe’s fries. A hot and dry summer has caused low potato yields in Belgium and across Europe, resulting in sad, stubby…
Norway Becomes World’s First Country to Ban Deforestation
Norway has become the first country to ban deforestation. The Norwegian Parliament pledged May 26 that the government’s public procurement policy will be deforestation-free. Any product that contributes to deforestation will not be used in the Scandinavian country. The pledge…
EU Climate Law Could Cause ‘Catastrophic’ Deforestation
Senior climate scientists say that the world’s carbon sinks could be facing a grave threat from a wholly unexpected source: the EU’s renewable energy directive. The climate law could suck in as much imported wood as Europe harvests each year…
Deforestation in South America Causes Extinction of 8 Bird Species
The Spix’s Macaw, a bird many would recognize as the star of the animated film Rio, is officially extinct. The macaw has been listed among eight bird species that have gone extinct in South America in the last decade in…
Trees Are Migrating West to Escape Climate Change
An individual tree has roots and, of course, it doesn’t move. But trees, as a species, do move over time. They migrate in response to environmental challenges, especially climate change. Surprisingly, they don’t all go to the Poles, where it…
Indonesia’s Deforestation Dropped 60 Percent in 2017
In the midst of the second-worst year for tropical tree cover loss in 2017, Indonesia saw an encouraging sign: a 60 percent drop in tree cover loss in primary forests compared with 2016. That’s the difference in carbon dioxide emissions…