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Headline	Author	Published	Section
To Preserve and Protect Vermont-sized area of Amazon may be protected		06 Jun 2008	News
Posted at 10:51 AM on 06 Jun 2008 Brazil's president has unveiled plans to protect a large area of the Amazon rainforest, after weeks of mutterings that the country has insufficient protections in place. The proposal by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva would create three protected reserves for a total area the size of Vermont; the plan still has to be approved by Brazil's Congress. Amazon deforestation is on the rise, and w ...
Topics: Amazon, Brazil, habitat protection, news, rainforests (all these topics)

Slave ethanol? Amnesty International: forced labor in Brazil's sugarcane fields	Tom Philpott	30 May 2008	Gristmill
As the case for corn-based ethanol unravels, a lot of pundits and green-minded investors have settled on a new panacea: ethanol from sugar cane, which thrives in the tropics. Thomas Friedman has been blustering about it for years now; Richard Branson recently hinted he might start investing in it. Sugarcane is a deeply ironic crop on which to hang a 'sustainable energy revolution.' Historically, the spread of sugarcane in Caribbean islands and South America involved ...
Topics: agriculture, Brazil, energy, environmental justice, ethanol (all these topics)

At Least He'll Be Better Than Ours Brazil swears in new environment minister		28 May 2008	News
Posted at 3:01 PM on 28 May 2008 Carlos Minc was sworn in as Brazil's environment minister on Tuesday. Minc succeeds Marina Silva, who quit after six years of uphill battling to protect the Amazon rainforest from development. Greens are cautiously optimistic about Minc, who was a founder of Brazil's Green Party, a former environment secretary in the state of Rio de Janeiro, and one of 500 winners of a 1989 United Natio ...
Topics: Amazon, Brazil, international politics, news, politics, rainforests (all these topics)

Fertile for problems South America's industrial-ag powerhouse eyes rainforest potash deposits	Tom Philpott	21 May 2008	Gristmill
I've been writing for a while about industrial agriculture's fertilizer problem -- about how mass-scale food (and biofuel) production relies on finite, geopolitically problematic, and environmentally destructive resources to maintain soil fertility. (See posts here, here, and here.) Well, that story is heating up down in Brazil, an increasingly important hub in the global industrial food system. Brazil ranks as the world's second-largest soy producer (soon to overtak ...
Topics: agriculture, biofuels, Brazil, food, industrial ag (all these topics)

Silva Buckle Brazil's pro-rainforest environment minister resigns		13 May 2008	News
Posted at 4:05 PM on 13 May 2008 Brazilian Environment Minister Marina Silva resigned Tuesday after six years in office, leading a Greenpeace campaigner to lament that "Brazil is losing the only voice in the government that spoke out for the environment." Silva's policies prioritized environmental protection, particularly for the Amazon; while her policies landed her a spot as one of Grist's fave green politicians, they ...
Topics: Amazon, Brazil, international politics, news, politics, rainforests (all these topics)

China's coming land grab More hidden costs of our love affair with cheap imported goods	Tom Philpott	11 May 2008	Gristmill
Remember a couple of weeks ago, when a Brazilian soy magnate turned a voracious eye on the Amazon rainforest, marveling at how awesome it would be to raze more of it to plant soy? Blairo Maggi, known as Brazil's 'soy king,' said this: With the worsening of the global food crisis, the time is coming when it will be inevitable to discuss whether we preserve the environment or produce more food. There is no way to produce more food without occupying more land and taking d ...
Topics: agriculture, Big Ag, Brazil, China, economy, rainforests (all these topics)

Where in the World? Brazilians and Indians are the greenest, says survey		08 May 2008	News
Posted at 12:29 PM on 08 May 2008 Brazilians and Indians are the most eco-friendly folks in the world, and Canadians and Americans are the least, according to a new survey done by the National Geographic Society. Consumers in 14 countries, representing more than half of the world's population and about three-quarters of its energy use, were ranked on their sustainability in the areas of housing, transportation, food, and co ...
Topics: Brazil, Canada, China, consumerism, green living, India, news, United States (all these topics)

Food crisis resolved! Let's raze more Amazon rainforest!	Tom Philpott	28 Apr 2008	Gristmill
Blairo Maggi is a powerful man in Brazil. He owns a company called Grupo Andre Maggi that runs vast soybean plantations in the state of Matto Grasso, which straddles the Amazon rainforest and what the Nature Conservancy calls 'the world's most biologically rich savanna.' The New York Times has called Maggi 'the largest soybean grower in the world ... with 400,000 acres of his own under production.' Maggi works closely with the world's biggest soybean processors: Arch ...
Topics: agriculture, Big Ag, biofuels, Brazil, deforestation, food, rainforests (all these topics)

Trying to Rubber the Right Way Brazil aims to protect Amazon by using sustainably harvested rubber in condoms		08 Apr 2008	News
Posted at 5:53 AM on 08 Apr 2008 Photo: iStockphoto Hard up for ways to preserve the Amazon rainforest, the Brazilian government has announced it's opening a condom factory that will use rubber harvested sustainably from the imperiled rainforest -- no tree-chopping required. The latex will come from the Chico Mendes reserve, named for a well-known Amazon activist gunned down by ranching ...
Topics: Amazon, Brazil, deforestation, health, news, sex (all these topics)

'The Clean Energy Scam' Biofuel boom leveling rainforest, Time reports	Tom Philpott	30 Mar 2008	Gristmill
From an excellent article in Time: Indonesia has bulldozed and burned so much wilderness to grow palm oil trees for biodiesel that its ranking among the world's top carbon emitters has surged from 21st to third according to a report by Wetlands International. Malaysia is converting forests into palm oil farms so rapidly that it's running out of uncultivated land. But most of the damage created by biofuels will be less direct and less obvious. In Brazil, for instance, ...
Topics: agriculture, biofuels, Brazil, deforestation, energy, ethanol, rainforests (all these topics)

Razing, a Riot Brazil seizes huge load of illegal Amazon timber after riots		25 Feb 2008	News
Posted at 6:50 AM on 25 Feb 2008 Brazilian troops and police seized about 500 truckloads of illegal hardwood timber from the Amazon rainforest over the weekend, following riots and protests by sawmill workers and others that had forced out environmental inspectors earlier in the week. After the inspectors were driven out, they came back days later with over 450 troops to confiscate illegal timber that the government has ...
Topics: Amazon, Brazil, deforestation, news, rainforests (all these topics)

Biofuels: good for agrochemical/GMO biz GMO giant Monsanto wows Wall Street, consolidates its grip on South America	Tom Philpott	13 Feb 2008	Gristmill
While debate rages on Gristmill and elsewhere about whether biofuels are worth a damn ecologically, investors in agribusiness firms are quietly counting their cash.As corn and soy prices approach all-time highs, driven up by government biofuel mandates, farmers are scrambling to plant as much as they can -- and lashing the earth with chemicals to maximize yields. At a Wall Street meeting on Tuesday, genetically modified seed/herbicide giant Monsanto promised investors ...
Topics: agriculture, Argentina, Big Ag, biofuels, Brazil, business, energy, food, GMOs, industrial ag (all these topics)

On a Clear-Cut Day, You Can Seed Forever Brazil unveils plan to slow deforestation and soy cultivation in Amazon		25 Jan 2008	News
Posted at 6:49 AM on 25 Jan 2008 Following Brazil's recent announcement of a dramatic rise in Amazon deforestation in the country in the last months of 2007, the country this week announced new plans to try to slow the destruction. Plans include tapping the army to conduct inspections of known problem areas and keep deforested land from being cultivated or used for pasture, fining me ...
Topics: Amazon, Brazil, deforestation, logging, news (all these topics)

Plowing up the Amazon Scientist says biofuel boom endangers world's largest rainforest	Tom Philpott	18 Jan 2008	Gristmill
A fifth of the Amazon rainforest -- the world's biggest carbon sponge -- has disappeared since the 1970s. The Brazilian government has succeeded in recent years in slowing the deforestation rate, but its efforts have recently been faltering. Bungle in the jungle. Photo: iStockphoto In the last four months, 2300 square miles of rainforest got leveled, Reuters reports. In the year before that, the forest surrendered 3700 square miles. If the current rate hold ...
Topics: agriculture, biofuels, Brazil, deforestation, energy, rainforests (all these topics)

The cash nexus Is there really so much money in environmental devastation that it can't be stopped?	Tom Philpott	26 Nov 2007	Gristmill
In the Nov. 12 New Yorker, Elizabeth Kolbert published an article (unavailable online; abstract here) typical of her style: spare, restrained, vivid, cogent, devastating. The topic was Canada's tar sands, now being profitably exploited by the major oil companies: Shell, Conoco-Phillips, Chevron, and ExxonMobil. And they've only just begun. According to Kolbert, the oil majors intend to invest more than $75 billion over the next five years in building infrastructure t ...
Topics: biofuels, Brazil, business, Canada, energy, oil (all these topics)

Living in Deforest Amazon land settlement said to increase deforestation		23 Aug 2007	Daily Grist
Living in Deforest Amazon land settlement said to increase deforestation The Brazilian government is looking into accusations that sketchy sustainable-development deals may have led to increased logging in the Amazon rainforest. After an eight-month investigation, Greenpeace has reported that Brazil's national land-reform agency housed thousands of poor families in rainforest areas valuable to the timber industry, then looked ...
Topics: Amazon, Brazil, deforestation (all these topics)

Brazil be dammed Each country will have to find its own way to carbon neutrality	biodiversivist	17 Aug 2007	Gristmill
Thankfully the lay press has finally stopped calling for the United States to follow Brazil's lead for energy independence. The blogosphere took over where the lay press left off on that misdiagnosis, although I still hear the echo once in a while. Turns out, Brazil may be heading for an energy crunch of its own. According to this article in the Economist, Brazil may be experiencing blackouts within five years if the economy grows as predicted. Because they are f ...
Topics: biofuels, Brazil, energy, ethanol, Sweden (all these topics)

George Soros vs. the planet Soros, Goldman Sachs financing destruction of Brazilian forests	Glenn Hurowitz	02 Aug 2007	Gristmill
Well, that whole beating George Bush thing in 2004 didn't work out, so now billionaire financier / Democratic fundraiser / anti-Communist crusader George Soros is back to his first love: making money -- apparently even when it comes at the expense of the planet. Sabrina Valle of the Washington Post is reporting that Soros is one of the biggest investors in growing sugarcane ethanol in the Brazilian cerrado, 'a vast plateau where temperatures range from freezing to ...
Topics: biofuels, Brazil, business, carbon sequestration, consumerism, deforestation, ethanol, rainforests, wildlife (all these topics)

Brazil ...	David Roberts	31 Jul 2007	Gristmill
... realizes that global warming is going to hurt it too, and starts to come around on the notion of market mechanisms that could prevent further deforestation in the Amazon, one of the principal global sources of greenhouse gas emissions.This is good news -- it needs to become more profitable to save the forest than to cut it down, and quickly.
Topics: Brazil, climate, climate change mitigation, deforestation, greenhouse-gas emissions, rainforests (all these topics)

Frankly, Madeira, We Don't Want a Dam Brazil gives go-ahead to controversial dams in Amazon		11 Jul 2007	Daily Grist
Frankly, Madeira, We Don't Want a Dam Brazil gives go-ahead to controversial dams in Amazon Brazil has given the preliminary OK for two hydroelectric dams to be built on a major Amazon River tributary. Business leaders, who say the dams will provide much-needed energy, are impressed; greens, who see the project as a disaster waiting to happen, are depressed. Proponents say the Santo Antonio and Jirau dams c ...
Topics: biodiversity, Brazil, energy, hydropower, news (all these topics)

Mongabay highlights for June '07 Some good news and some bad news	biodiversivist	29 Jun 2007	Gristmill
First up is an interview with Jack Ewing, owner of an eco-lodge in Costa Rica. I must admit that writing checks to conservation organizations is about as pleasurable as a trip to the dentist. Spending a week in a place like Hacienda Barú also supports conservation and is a hell of a lot more fun. I managed to photograph about half of the wildlife I saw while staying less than a week in Costa Rica. Best vacation I've ever had. I might put the video (much more interesti ...
Topics: agriculture, biodiversity, biofuels, Brazil, Costa Rica, endangered species, energy, extinction (all these topics)

Yeah, Right, and Pluto's Not a Planet Research team says Amazon River is longer than the Nile		18 Jun 2007	Daily Grist
Yeah, Right, and Pluto's Not a Planet Research team says Amazon River is longer than the Nile Every so often, a news story comes along that is so astonishing, so monumental, that it shakes the foundations of everything you hold dear, leading you to question fundamental truths. This ... is not one of those stories, but it's interesting nonetheless. A team of researchers from Brazil claims to have found a new source ...
Topics: Brazil, Egypt, news, scientific research (all these topics)

Natural gas from dams Dam it all	Gar Lipow	08 Jun 2007	Gristmill
Tucuruí, Brazil's second largest dam has many times the GHG emissions of a natural gas plant of the same capacity -- though there is fierce argument over whether that output substantially exceeds what a natural watercourse would produce. (The emissions are due to methane from trapped organic matter in the dam.) There is now a proposal to tap that methane to run gas turbines and produce electricity, reducing the emissions many times, since CO2 from burning the methane ha ...
Topics: Brazil, energy, greenhouse-gas emissions, hydropower, renewable energy (all these topics)

Bullets flying in Brazil? A bullet train, that is	Ron Steenblik	20 Apr 2007	Gristmill
According to this article, Brazil's transport ministry is considering whether to tender bids for a high-speed train linking Săo Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Once (OK, if) the bullet train goes into operation, travel time would be just under an hour and a half, compared with the five hours it currently takes to drive between the two cities. Initial studies for the project estimate a total investment of US$6 billion would be required. That's about how much the U.S. feder ...
Topics: Brazil, energy, placemaking, public transportation (all these topics)

The Route of the Problem Following U.S. consumerism through the fields of China and Brazil	Tom Philpott	12 Apr 2007	Victual Reality
In what surely counts as one of the greatest feats in the history of global trade, the United States has essentially outsourced its manufacturing base to China in little more than a decade. It all starts with shuttered factories. Photo: iStockphoto But in doing so, the U.S. has helped unleash new trends in global agriculture that threaten global climate stability and biodiversit ...
Topics: ag policy, agriculture, Brazil, China, industrial ag, United States, Victual Reality, Wal-Mart (all these topics)

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