Grist | Topics | 131 Results

RESULTS		Results 51 – 75 of 131
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Headline	Author	Published	Section
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)

Regular oil cleaner than ethanol Saving and restoring forests better for climate than switching to biofuels	Glenn Hurowitz	20 Aug 2007	Gristmill
A new study in the journal Science ($ub req'd) validates what many have been saying here in Gristmill: Biofuels, especially those from the tropics, are far worse for the planet than regular old crude oil. The study finds that we could reduce global warming pollution two to nine times more by conserving or restoring forests and grasslands than by razing them and turning them into biofuels plantations -- even if we continue to use fossil fuels as our main source o ...
Topics: biofuels, climate, deforestation, energy, ethanol, greenhouse-gas emissions, oil, rainforests (all these topics)

Environmental charity Fairness tradeoff?	Gar Lipow	07 Aug 2007	Gristmill
Sven Wunder, a researcher with the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), notes the following trade-off [PDF] for the kind of environmental charity where people are paid not to pollute. His conclusion: we are better off paying the moderately bad guys than the really bad guys or the good guys. I'm going to post this without further comment, because either you see hidden assumptions and problems with this, or you don't: From the February 2007 issue of Conserv ...
Topics: agriculture, biodiversity, deforestation, rainforests (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)

For peat's sake, stop the palm oil madness It's not a 'sustainable' biofuel	Joseph Romm	31 Jul 2007	Gristmill
So Europeans are buying Indonesian palm oil as a 'sustainable' biofuel, but it isn't sustainable, as we've noted before. The tragedy continues: Palm oil companies are burning peat forests to clear land for plantations in Indonesia's Riau province, despite government pledges to end forest fires ... Blazes have started flaring again since the end of June with the start of the dry season. How a big deal is this? As The New York Times put it earlier ...
Topics: biofuels, climate, deforestation, energy, greenhouse-gas emissions, logging (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)

Can't see the trees for the forest Park Service hacks down some trees in Pa.	Kate Sheppard	18 Jul 2007	Gristmill
This is sorta effed. The National Park Service is cutting down hundreds of acres of trees on the Gettysburg Battlefield to restore historical accuracy. From NBC News in Pennsylvania: The National Park Service is starting another phase of its efforts to return Gettysburg Battlefield to how it looked in 1863, during the Civil War. The Union Army placed its cannons in the area, WGAL-TV reported. Park historians said the extra trees give visitors the impression tha ...
Topics: deforestation, logging, national parks, Pennsylvania (all these topics)

Truth in the Tongass Gathering data in the U.S.' largest temperate rainforest a heroic and necessary task	Erik Hoffner	03 Jul 2007	Gristmill
Hiking part of the Tongass National Forest in southeastern Alaska a few summers ago, I was utterly wowed, but knowing that it accounts for nearly one-third of the old-growth temperate rain forest left in the world seemed incredibly incongruent with the fact that my government was working so hard to wreck it (thanks to some truly absurd subsidies). An excellent story in the new National Geographic retells the tale and shines light on new efforts aimed at allowing the ...
Topics: Alaska, deforestation, logging, national forests, rainforests (all these topics)

The Tahoe Blues Blaze rages around Lake Tahoe; blame game begins in earnest		27 Jun 2007	Daily Grist
The Tahoe Blues Blaze rages around Lake Tahoe; blame game begins in earnest What's to blame for the raging fire that has burned more than 200 homes near California's South Lake Tahoe? Try the homogenous stands of white fir planted post-clear-cut by 20th-century miners. Or was it this year's low-snow winter and current drought? Perhaps criticism should be leveled at homeowners who failed to clear brush and o ...
Topics: California, deforestation, news, severe weather (all these topics)

As If Trees Didn't Have Enough to Worry About As landowners age, future of family-owned forests in U.S. is unclear		15 Jun 2007	Daily Grist
As If Trees Didn't Have Enough to Worry About As landowners age, future of family-owned forests in U.S. is unclear An interesting phenomenon is sprouting up among American landowners -- or forest-owners, to be precise. Nearly 60 percent of U.S. forests are privately owned, most by families and individuals, the majority of whom are 55 years old and older. More often than not, aging landowners' offspring have moved to the city, a ...
Topics: deforestation, United States (all these topics)

Low-hanging fruit Dirt cheap carbon	biodiversivist	08 Jun 2007	Gristmill
Great interview over on Mongabay with Daniel Nepstad, head of the Woods Hole Research Center's Amazon program. When it comes to immediate carbon emissions reductions, the biggest bang for the buck is to stop deforestation of the tropics. This revelation would have much less relevance if there were not also a mechanism envisioned to achieve it called the RED initiative (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation). As with anything, the concept has its critics. In my unqu ...
Topics: carbon sequestration, climate, climate change mitigation, deforestation, greenhouse-gas emissions, rainforests (all these topics)

That's It, No More Toothpaste For Us Growing palm-oil plantations put orangutans in peril		31 May 2007	Daily Grist
That's It, No More Toothpaste For Us Growing palm-oil plantations put orangutans in peril Thank your lucky stars you evolved, because it's not a great time to be an ape. In Indonesia and Malaysia, forests are being converted lickety-split into lucrative palm-oil plantations, and orangutans that leave their rapidly diminishing habitat to sneak in for a palmy snack are often tortured or killed. As if habita ...
Topics: biofuels, deforestation, energy, Indonesia, news (all these topics)

So That's Why Their Little Hearts Beat So Fast New hummingbird species discovered, imperiled by cocaine trade		16 May 2007	Daily Grist
So That's Why Their Little Hearts Beat So Fast New hummingbird species discovered, imperiled by cocaine trade It's hard out here for a gorgeted puffleg. The hummingbird species with the fabulous name was just discovered in southwestern Colombia, where farmers slash and burn 1,235 acres of cloud-forest habitat every year to grow coca, the raw ingredient in cocaine. That's bad news for a spec ...
Topics: biodiversity, Colombia, deforestation, endangered species, news (all these topics)

Reece on MTR mining	David Roberts	06 May 2007	Gristmill
Erik Reese has an op-ed in the NYT about mountaintop-removal mining and a new program that shows promise in helping landscapes recover from it. Here's the nut: Appalachia's land is dying. Its fractured communities show the typical symptoms of hopelessness, including OxyContin abuse rates higher than anywhere in the country. Meanwhile, 22 states power houses and businesses with Kentucky coal. The people of central and southern Appalachia have relinquished much of the ...
Topics: coal, deforestation, energy, greenhouse-gas emissions, Kentucky (all these topics)

Trees and climate change Not as simple as it seems	Jason D Scorse	13 Apr 2007	Gristmill
Before any Grist readers write off this article in the Economist, read it through and get to the conclusions at the bottom. They might surprise you. They also contain another lesson not mentioned in the article: we need to value comprehensive ecosystem services from forests, not just any single dimension.
Topics: climate, climate change mitigation, deforestation (all these topics)

Greenpeace hacks Kleenex PR Fun video	David Roberts	30 Mar 2007	Gristmill
This is a pretty clever stunt by Greenpeace activists. They infiltrated the filming of a Kleenex commercial to get the word out about the fact that Kimberly-Clark (maker of Kleenex) uses 100% virgin wood pulp in their products -- as a result, the Canadian Boreal Forest, one of the biggest carbon sinks in the world, is being clear cut. Check out kleercut.net, and watch this video: There's another video of the same protest here. (hat tip: reader BE)
Topics: deforestation, grassroots activism, Greenpeace (all these topics)

Information More, please	David Roberts	30 Mar 2007	Gristmill
This is a much more significant story than it might appear at first glance: Brazil's government said it will provide free Internet access to native Indian tribes in the Amazon in an effort to help protect the world's biggest rain forest. The environment and communications ministers signed an agreement Thursday with the Forest People's Network to provide an Internet signal by satellite to 150 communities, including many reachable only by riverboat, allowing them ...
Topics: Brazil, deforestation, environmental movement, rainforests (all these topics)

Don't Make Me Pull This Cargill Over Amazon soy export plant shut down in win for environmentalists		28 Mar 2007	Daily Grist
Don't Make Me Pull This Cargill Over Amazon soy export plant shut down in win for environmentalists Greens did a victory dance this weekend as Brazil forced U.S. agribiz giant Cargill to close a soy export terminal in the country's Amazon region. The facility has long been the focus of a targeted Greenpeace campaign protesting rapid deforestation of the tropical rainforest -- which lost about 6,5 ...
Topics: Amazon, Big Ag, deforestation, food and agriculture, news (all these topics)

Come to a virtual Tongass public meeting Grill the feds without leaving your armchair	Lisa Hymas	21 Mar 2007	Gristmill
The Tongass National Forest in Southeast Alaska is the world's largest temperate rainforest, encompassing almost 17 million acres and oodles of charismatic megafauna. The Forest Service has a new draft management plan for the forest, and a spanking new draft environmental impact statement to go along with it. The EIS lists alternatives ranging from, on the high side, chopping down 421 million board feet of timber a year from the forest, to, on the low(er) side, essentiall ...
Topics: Alaska, deforestation, national forests, Wilderness Society (all these topics)

Canadian Boreal Forest Canada needs help saving it	David Roberts	06 Feb 2007	Gristmill
I don't usually pass these things along, but this email caught my eye: ----- With last week's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report concluding that humans are significantly increasing global warming, we're all looking for some global warming news with a glimmer of hope and potential. To our North, Canada is on the brink of deciding whether to protect its northern Boreal Forest in Canada -- one of the world's last defenses against global warming -- o ...
Topics: Canada, deforestation (all these topics)

On the Ball: Olymp-ing along Wow, that's a truly terrible pun.	Sarah K. Burkhalter	05 Feb 2007	Gristmill
Sick and tired of hearing from me about lead-up to the Olympics in London and Beijing? (I know Patrick is.) Well, exciting news, sports fans -- we can look ahead to environmental devastation in preparation for Olympics 2014! Leading environmental groups said on Friday Russia's bid to host the 2014 Winter Olympics would involve tearing down forest that is home to rare wildlife including brown bears and red deer. All together now: You Can't Always Nyet What You W ...
Topics: deforestation, Russia, sports, wildlife (all these topics)

Bra-vo Victoria's Secret pledges to end use of endangered-forest paper in catalogs		07 Dec 2006	Daily Grist
Bra-vo Victoria's Secret pledges to end use of endangered-forest paper in catalogs The parent company of sexed-up retailer Victoria's Secret announced yesterday that it will nip a bad trend in the bud: sourcing its catalog paper from endangered forests. Succumbing to two years of pestering from ForestEthics and other green groups, U.S.-based Limited Brands agreed to stop supporting suppliers who log in at-risk bo ...
Topics: Canada, deforestation, green living, news (all these topics)

The Balancing Act How experts measure the energy balance of alternative fuels	Julia Olmstead	05 Dec 2006	Main Dish
For years, critics have claimed that corn-based ethanol is fundamentally a bust: that it takes more fossil fuel to produce than it displaces in the gas tank. It takes a lot of ugly to make this pretty biofuel. Photo: industrial-innov.lbl.gov This condition, known as a negative net energy balance, has haunted the biofuel throughout its long career as a darling of corn-belt politicians like ...
Topics: agriculture, biofuels, cellulosic ethanol, deforestation, energy, ethanol (all these topics)

What About the Land? A look at the impacts of biofuels production, in the U.S. and the world	Julia Olmstead	05 Dec 2006	Main Dish
Nothing but blue skies from now on? Photo: house.gov Great news! We can finally scratch "driving less" off our list of ways to curb global warming and reduce our dependence on foreign oil! Biofuels will soon not only replace much of our petroleum, but improve soil fertility and save the American farmer as well! Sound too good to be true? Well, yes. But you coul ...
Topics: agriculture, biofuels, cellulosic ethanol, deforestation, energy, ethanol (all these topics)

A win-win-win-win scenario Carbon offsets that go to developing world forests rule	biodiversivist	02 Nov 2006	Gristmill
Here's an uplifting article by Rhett Butler over at Mongabay. It enables my personal eco-fantasy. It's titled, Avoided deforestation could help fight third world poverty under global warming pact. $43 billion could flow into developing countries: When trees are cut greenhouse gases are released into the atmosphere -- roughly 20 percent of annual emissions of such heat-trapping gases result from deforestation and forest degradation. Avoided deforestation is the concep ...
Topics: air pollution, biodiversity, deforestation, Kyoto Protocol, politics, wildlife (all these topics)

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