Climate change, ecology, nature, environment, eco-friendly politics, non-profit projects, human rights, preservation, wildlife... all that we care about.
Brush fires and strong winds have resulted in a rare fire tornado in the Brazilian state of São Paulo.
The firestorm occurred in the city of Araçatuba in the northwest of São Paulo state. The region has experienced humidity levels similar to the Sahara Desert
From a report by the Associated Press:
A whirlwind of flame, spiralling several [...]
Latin America has huge potential for wind and solar power. Brazil already has large and long-established hydropower and biofuel industries, but along with Mexico, Colombia and other Latin American countries, they are increasingly looking towards European models of renewable energy.
From an article in Scientific American:
European wind farms dwarf Latin American efforts in terms of production [...]
Much of the feed for British livestock comes from soybeans imported from South America – mainly Brazil and Argentina. According to an article in the Telegraph, 350,000 hectares of rainforest is being cut down to grow soy for UK animal feed.
Environmental group Friends of the Earth (FoE) has published a report entitled ‘Pastures New’ detailing [...]
Over a period of only 10 days, more than 500 dead penguins have washed ashore on Brazilian beaches. The penguins’ bodies exhibit signs of death by starvation.
During the past few years Magellanic Penguins have been discovered on of the beaches of Rio de Janeiro state with increasing frequency. For some reason – perhaps due to [...]
In 2000 a massive oil leak from an underwater Petrobras pipeline spilled into Guanabara Bay near Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is considered one of Brazil’s worst environmental disasters ever and was given an estimated recovery time of 10 years.
What Al Jazeera English reporter Gabriel Elizondo discovered on a recent trip to Guanabara Bay is [...]
A proposed reevaluation of forestry codes in Brazilian law could have catastrophic consequences for the Amazon rainforest.
The issue of keeping Brazil’s strict forestry laws intact or legally opening up more forest for economic development pits environmentalists against Ruralistas, who claim that current laws are stifling economic growth and keeping peasants in poverty.
So why is this [...]
Is there is just too much revenue in big oil to stop dangerous deep sea drilling? The oil industry, like the massive investment banks behind the financial crisis of 2008, is considered by some to be ‘too big to fail’. Yet also like financial crashes, disasters are calculated by those in charge as risks worth [...]
Flooding and mudslides in the northeast of Brazil have resulted in the deaths of at least 44 people, with as many as 1,000 more missing. Torrents following heavy rains over the past three days have swept away some 40,000 homes in the region, displacing 180,000 people.
From an Al Jazeera English report:
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, [...]
Some people want their work to be remembered and shared with the rest of the world for centuries to come; in many cases this involves going down in a blaze of glory (so to speak). Unfortunately, sometimes that blaze is real and will consume all those years of work.
A fire destroyed the world’s largest scientific [...]
A ton of shark fins bound for Japan was seized in Brazil on Tuesday.
Uncovered by prosecutors from IBAMA’s Fish and Wildlife Division, the frozen shark fins had an estimated value of $17,000. You can bet that the boats responsible for catching the sharks will receive penalties. The owner of the export company was also fined [...]
Plans for the construction of a massive hydroelectric dam in the Brazilian Amazon have experienced some recent setbacks in the form of back and forth legal action as well as controversy over indigenous rights and environmental issues. As of Friday, however, bids for construction contracts are again set to move forward on the previously planned [...]
When US President Barack Obama opened up large areas of America’s Atlantic coastline to new oil drilling two weeks ago, some astute observers suggested that it might not be much more than a political maneuver. There is a distinct lack of knowledge concerning how much oil is out there; estimates put the amount of the [...]
A deadly combination of rain, flooding and mudslides has washed away the homes, lives, and hopes of many Rio de Janeiro citizens this week.
Death tolls climbed to 205 as search and rescue teams pulled more bodies from a mudslide that destroyed a hillside shantytown. At least 100 people were buried in that mudslide, which also [...]
Heavy rains in the Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro resulted in flooding and mudslides, killing perhaps hundreds of people. So far at least 107 have died in mudslides in the slums or favelas of Niterói, a city that lies across the bay from the well-known metropolis of Rio de Janeiro city.
This raw video from [...]
The death toll from the flooding and landslides that swept through Rio de Janeiro has risen to 153 and at least 200 more are feared to be dead.
The 200 other victims are included in a landslide that buried at least 60 houses in the Morro Bumba slum in Niteroi—a town next to Rio. The [...]
The worst rain in Rio de Janeiro’s history took 95 lives yesterday.
In less than 24 hours, the city saw 11 inches (29 cm) of rainfall and more is expected to come. Thousands of drivers were stranded overnight on roads blocked by the rising water. Landslides cut through roads and destroyed shantytowns. Homes of wood and [...]
Stranded Magellanic Penguins occasionally wash up on the beaches of Brazil or are found at sea by local fishermen.
According to the president of the Niteroi Zoo near Rio de Janeiro, the zoo has been receiving stray penguins since 1999, at first only around two or three per year. But the numbers soon climbed: to around [...]
Forests are vanishing at an alarming rate in some countries – most notably parts of Africa and South America – according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Global Forest Resources Assessment 2010. But on the positive side, the overall global rate of forest loss has slowed down considerably over the past ten years.
The [...]
A new report by the Forest Footprint Disclosure initiative discloses how global business is destroying the one of the world’s most valuable resources: its rainforests. A UK government backed project, Forest Footprint Disclosure’s aim is to inform investors and the public about how organizations contribute to deforestation.
The results are not good: the beef, soy, palm [...]
Malaysian palm oil lobbyists have apparently succeeded in keeping – and even increasing – the amount of biodiesel sourced from palm oil used in European cars and power plants. In an effort to curb greenhouse gas emissions, the European Commission’s Renewable Energy Directive (RED) requires 10% of fuels in the EU to come from renewable [...]
To the disappointment of environmental and indigenous rights groups, the construction of a massive hydroelectric dam in the Amazon rainforest has been green-lighted by the Brazilian environmental ministry. The Belo Monte dam project on the Amazon’s Xingu River will be the world’s third largest project of its kind. The hydroelectric dam is part of a [...]
The heaviest rains in 15 years have caused flooding in Peru, including the site of the ancient Incan ruins of Machu Picchu. The floods, as stated by Australia’s Herald Sun, stranded some 1,500 tourists, many of whom had to be airlifted. Among the stranded were significant numbers of tourists from Taiwan, Australia, New Zealand, Korea [...]
The major developing nations of China, India, Brazil and South Africa will meet on January 24th in New Delhi to hash out a common position on emission reductions and climate aid. It is believed that once such an agreement is reached the block of powerful developing countries will then attempt to convince other nations to [...]
According to a BBC News report around 50 people have died in mudslides brought on by heavy rains in and around the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro. Mudslides frequently threaten densely populated ‘favelas’ or shantytowns, which are often built on hillsides in the Rio region. But it is not only the poor residents of [...]
It sounds like something out of the American Wild West: gunfights, cattle ranching, mining, farming and frontier spirit in a dangerous, rugged wilderness. But it’s happening now and has been for many years in Brazil’s Amazon basin – one of the Earth’s most precious natural resources. The violent situation in this remote, semi-charted part of [...]
Many of Brazil’s ultra-poor survive by recycling in the cities or farming in the Amazon in underground economies that both harm and help local and global ecology. A similar dichotomy is reflected in Brazil’s legitimate energy and farming markets.
‘If the desecration of the rainforest is Brazil’s carbon footprint, it is ethanol and hydro that ensure [...]
JBS-Friboi, the leading meat exporter in Brazil, has pledged to stop purchasing meat from cattle raised in the Amazon. In order to meet the increasing demand of beef, many companies have been clearing Amazon forests to make way for grazing land for cattle. The company promises it will no longer patronize farmers who use slave [...]
“One groundbreaking new study in Science concluded that when this deforestation effect is taken into account, corn ethanol and soy biodiesel produce about twice the emissions of gasoline.” – Michael Grunwald, Time
I recently wrote an article about Indonesia’s bad biofuel industry, which is based on palm oil, resulting in mass deforestation via intense CO₂ producing [...]
When I visited Brazil several times during the latter half of the 1990s I noticed that many of the petrol/gas stations sold something called álcool. When I asked my friends what this was, they explained that it is a fuel made in Brazil from sugar cane. I thought this was brilliant: growing gasoline from yummy [...]
In 1996 I went on a tour of Brazil with an American punk band called Shelter, in which I was playing at the time. It was for the most part a surreal, yet hectic schedule of concerts in front of hundreds of fans in metropolises several of which we’d never heard of. Brazil is a [...]
