Deforestation // Current

"From Trees to T-issues: Raising Awareness on Our Beloved Trees" Picture

Excerpt: "By using a tissue box made from 100% recycled paper and the graphic of a... more

lookatmypix
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3 hours ago
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What Ever Happened to the Amazon Rain Forest?

We used to hear so much about the destruction of the Amazon rainforest, but lately not... more

atomiclegion
added this
6 days ago
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2 comments

Over 17,000 species threatened by extinction

A rare Panamanian tree frog, a rodent from Madagascar and two lizards found only in... more

WakeUpPeople
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6 days ago
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12 comments

They Cut the Trees and Lost Their Lives

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-sci-nazca2-2009nov02,0,2088132.story

Progresshiv
added this
6 days ago
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4 comments

Tree Nation: planting trees for a better planet

http://www.tree-nation.com/projects Many of us feel as though being here we cannot... more

JanforGore
added this
8 days ago
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2 comments

What's Beck's Beef? Vegetarians, This Time

I've been following Glenn Beck's exploits for a while now, from his take down of Van... more

pjacobs51
added this
11 days ago
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73 comments

Rainforest treaty 'fatally flawed'

This is just plain crazy. How can they let this happen? Excerpt: "Under... more

lookatmypix
added this
13 days ago
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0 comments

"Orangutans struggle to survive as palm oil booms"

Watch videos. (sensitive material) I say boycott palm oil products and take action.... more

lookatmypix
added this
15 days ago
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13 comments

Kenya: What is behind the Mau Complex controversy?

The continued degradation of the Mau complex - Kenya's largest water catchment area -... more

JanforGore
added this
19 days ago
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4 comments

Impressive: This is What a 15 Tons Illegally cut Tree from the Amazon Looks Like

This Chestnut tree was cut down, whose base is two meters thick. Let that become now... more

lookatmypix
added this
23 days ago
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1 comment

Huge Holes in the Earth: Open-Pit Mines Seen From Space

People have become significant earth movers, outpacing all sources of natural erosion.... more

eva2
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25 days ago
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6 comments

Save the Forests, Save the Climate

Blog Action Day post from Through a Green Lens: I’ve said before that climate... more

DaidR4
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25 days ago
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Monsanto penetrating carbon credits

As the UN Climate Change Conference 2009 (COP15) gets closer, a new agreement has to be signed for the period after 2012. It is becoming clear how agribusiness attempts to gain profits from the massive carbon credits market. Under the term "Conservation Agriculture", Monsanto and other biotech allies have penetrated the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) aiming to get carbon credits for agribusiness. A voluntary 'responsible' label for Roundup Ready soy sponsored by World Wild Life Fund (WWF), and a newly approved Clean Development Mechanisms (CDM) methodology are important steps for Agribusiness to get access to this three billion dollar business.

Proposals to include agriculture in carbon offsetting focus on changes in tillage practices and reductions in methane and nitrous oxide emissions. All these practices are included in the concept of "Conservation Agriculture", which is based on three principles: minimal soil disturbance, permanent soil cover and crop rotations . However, in the name of Conservation Agriculture and with the explicit consent of FAO and UNFCCC, very different agricultural methods are included. Under this label a range of systems from biological agriculture to No-till GM industrial agriculture can be labelled as sustainable and so receive carbon credits.

No-till is an agricultural technique that requires no ploughing or digging of the soil. When sowing, seeds are drilled into the soil. In general, No-till is considered a conservation practice that increases levels of soil organic matter and reduces soil erosion, but in RR soy industrial monocultures it part of this technique is used in conjunction with very harmful environmental practices.

In practice, Carbon credits for No-till could mean a massive economic support for Genetically Modified (GM) soy monocultures in South and North America and a promotion of this agribusiness model in other Southern Hemisphere regions.

GM soy monocultures are a production model which is not sustainable in any way. In South America, soy production of this kind is one of the main drivers of deforestation, land use change, biodiversity destruction and human rights violations . Moreover, these monocultures sustain the industrial feed industry which is a main cause of climate change as well. To label these agricultural production models as “sustainable” only because they involve less ploughing (no tillage or No-till) means falling into a trap of absurdly reductionism and blindness.

The report "Agriculture and Climate Change: Real Problems, False Solutions" presented in June 2009 reveals the main agriculture-related proposals in the negotiations for a post -2012 climate agreement. It provides an informative panorama on how current and proposed agricultural practices for the post Kyoto agreements really impact on climate change. However, in this article we will focus specifically on some cases related to soy monocultures.
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And the current climate bill in Congress aids their scheme which discredits it right from the start.As the UN Climate Change Conference 2009 (COP15) gets closer, a new agreement has to... more

JanforGore
added this
29 days ago
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2 comments

Brazil's Beef & Leather Giants Unite Against Amazon Deforestation

Beautiful, great victory! Thank you for stopping the killing of our Earth. My... more

lookatmypix
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1 month ago
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2 comments

The other inconvenient truth: the crisis in global land use

It’s taken a long time, but the issue of global climate change is finally getting the attention it deserves. While enormous technical, policy, and economic issues remain to be solved, there is now widespread acceptance of the need to confront the twin challenges of energy security and climate change. Collectively, we are beginning to acknowledge that our long addiction to fossil fuels — which has been harming our national security, our economy and our environment for decades — must end. The question today is no longer why, but how. The die is cast, and our relationship to energy will never be the same.

Unfortunately, this positive shift in the national zeitgeist has had an unintended downside. In the rush to portray the perils of climate change, many other serious issues have been largely ignored. Climate change has become the poster child of environmental crises, complete with its own celebrities and campaigners. But is it so serious that we can afford to overlook the rise of infectious disease, the collapse of fisheries, the ongoing loss of forests and biodiversity, and the depletion of global water supplies?

Although I’m a climate scientist by training, I worry about this collective fixation on global warming as the mother of all environmental problems. Learning from the research my colleagues and I have done over the past decade, I fear we are neglecting another, equally inconvenient truth: that we now face a global crisis in land use and agriculture that could undermine the health, security, and sustainability of our civilization.

Our use of land, particularly for agriculture, is absolutely essential to the success of the human race. We depend on agriculture to supply us with food, feed, fiber, and, increasingly, biofuels. Without a highly efficient, productive, and resilient agricultural system, our society would collapse almost overnight.

But we are demanding more and more from our global agricultural systems, pushing them to their very limits.

Continued population growth.The massive environmental impacts of our agricultural practices rival the impacts of climate change.(adding more than 70 million people to the world every year), changing dietary preferences (including more meat and dairy consumption), rising energy prices, and increasing needs for bioenergy sources are putting tremendous pressure on the world’s resources. And, if we want any hope of keeping up with these demands, we’ll need to double, perhaps triple, the agricultural production of the planet in the next 30 to 40 years.

Meeting these huge new agricultural demands will be one of the greatest challenges of the 21st century. At present, it is completely unclear how (and if) we can do it.

If this wasn’t enough, we must also address the massive environmental impacts of our current agricultural practices, which new evidence indicates rival the impacts of climate change. Consider the following:

Ecosystem degradation. Already, we have cleared or converted more than 35 percent of the earth’s ice-free land surface for agriculture, whether for croplands, pastures or rangelands. In fact, the area used for agriculture is nearly 60 times larger than the area of all of the world’s cities and suburbs. Since the last ice age, nothing has been more disruptive to the planet’s ecosystems than agriculture. What will happen to our remaining ecosystems, including tropical rainforests, if we need to double or triple world agricultural production, while simultaneously coping with climate change?

end of excerptIt’s taken a long time, but the issue of global climate change is finally getting... more

JanforGore
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1 month ago
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1 comment

more GREENWASHING...'Can Palm Oil Be Sustainable?'

I AM IN DISBELIEF THAT A COMPANY that is supposed to be based on healthy, CRUELTY-FREE... more

julesrs007
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1 month ago
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0 comments

Global brands refuse to endorse 'slaughter of the Amazon'

Great work Greenpeace! As posted previously cattle ranching is a major driver of... more

lookatmypix
added this
1 month ago
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2 comments

Documentary: The Real McCoys

'Link TV - Television Without Borders' http://www.linktv.org/ Meet Nina and... more

julesrs007
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1 month ago
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0 comments

The great drought: Disaster looms in East Africa

Across the north of Kenya competition for water, grazing land and surviving cattle has... more

JanforGore
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1 month ago
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1 comment

Gulf Restoration Network

Cypress trees belong in the ground, not in plastic bags!

A Florida cypress forest is a beautiful thing. Cypress trees provide habitat for threatened and endangered species, critical areas for migratory birds, help protect our communities from flooding, filter our waters, and are part of the amazing experience of being in nature in Florida. They are a valuable and intrinsic element of all that is wild and free in Florida. They belong in the ground, in our wetlands, and along our coastlines…NOT in plastic bags as mulch.

Cypress forests in Louisiana, Florida, and throughout the Gulf are being clear-cut to produce cypress mulch. Whole swamp ecosystems are being lost and the entire trees are being ground up to be sold in the garden departments of Wal-Mart, Home Depot, and Lowe's.

These forests and wetlands are literally being sold off for two dollars a bag. It's like shredding the Constitution to make post-it notes: a NATIONAL TREASURE is being turned into a disposable product.

The Gulf Restoration Network (http://www.healthygulf.org/) and the Save Our Cypress Coalition (http://www.saveourcypress.org) has presented Lowe's, Wal-Mart, and Home Depot with extensive evidence of the destruction that is caused from cypress mulch. All three companies recognize it is a problem, but none of them have taken the concrete steps that are necessary to live up to the environmental commitments that they tout so loudly. These companies need to stop selling cypress mulch.

Cypress mulch is an unsustainable and unnecessary product, and there are much better options available. Melaleuca mulch is a great alternative and using this product is a way to help protect the Everglades while saving cypress trees. (Melaleuca trees were planted by the Army Corps of Engineers around the edges of the Everglades in the early 1920s as a way of drying the "swamps." This tree has become a pest because it proliferates at an enormous rate and can overtake native vegetation). And of course, there are always the leaves that fall in the driveway or the grass clippings from your yard.

The Gulf Restoration Network is proud to be working with Florida Defenders of the Environment to spread the word about protecting cypress forests. FDE has signed on to a Save Our Cypress campaign letter, and recently hosted a meeting of local activists in Gainesville who are working together to stop the sale of cypress mulch. Together we can protect rivers like the Withlacoochee and the Ocklawaha, and ensure the cypress-filled banks are there for future generations.

Please take a moment on your next shopping trip to tell the store manager that you don't want the company to sell cypress mulch, and visit www.healthygulf.org to send a message directly to the CEOs of Wal-Mart, Home Depot, and Lowe's.

To learn more about the campaign and to get involved in this effort please contact Joe Murphy at 352-583-0870, or joe@healthygulf.org.Cypress trees belong in the ground, not in plastic bags! A Florida cypress forest... more

julesrs007
added this
1 month ago
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1 comment

tagged w/ Deforestation

"From Trees to T-issues: Raising Awareness on Our Beloved Trees" Picture

What Ever Happened to the Amazon Rain Forest?

Over 17,000 species threatened by extinction

They Cut the Trees and Lost Their Lives

Tree Nation: planting trees for a better planet

What's Beck's Beef? Vegetarians, This Time

Rainforest treaty 'fatally flawed'

"Orangutans struggle to survive as palm oil booms"

Kenya: What is behind the Mau Complex controversy?

Impressive: This is What a 15 Tons Illegally cut Tree from the Amazon Looks Like

Huge Holes in the Earth: Open-Pit Mines Seen From Space

Save the Forests, Save the Climate

Monsanto penetrating carbon credits

Brazil's Beef & Leather Giants Unite Against Amazon Deforestation

The other inconvenient truth: the crisis in global land use

more GREENWASHING...'Can Palm Oil Be Sustainable?'

Global brands refuse to endorse 'slaughter of the Amazon'

Documentary: The Real McCoys

The great drought: Disaster looms in East Africa

Gulf Restoration Network

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