It Takes Money

Trucks, Trains, and Trees

November 11, 2009

According to Thomas L. Friedman, the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by all the cars, trucks, planes, trains and ships in the world is actually less than the yearly carbon emissions that result from the chopping down and clearing of tropical forests in places like Brazil, Indonesia and the Congo: we are now losing a tropical forest the size of New York State every year! However, if we could eliminate 17% of global CO₂ emissions, we could halt rainforest destruction. Friedman adds on that to do this requires implementing a whole new economic system that can sustain people’s profitable capital- which mostly comes from logging, furniture manufacturing, and agriculture- while protecting the rainforests from over-logging.

The good news is that Brazil has put in place all the elements of a system to compensate its forest-dwellers for maintaining the forests. Brazil has already set aside 43 percent of the Amazon rainforest for conservation and for indigenous peoples. Another 19 percent of the Amazon, though, has already been deforested by farmers and ranchers. So the big question is what will happen to the other 38 percent. The more we get the Brazilian system to work, the more of that 38 percent will be preserved and the less carbon reductions the whole world would have to make. But it takes money.

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-WooJung Kim

Pictures Worth a Thousand Words

New Photos Highlight Rainforest Devastation

October 2, 2009

Prince Charles of Britain has been leading a campaign again tropical deforestation; to highlight his efforts to combat environmental issues, North America and Europe have organized photographic exhibitions.

The images at the exhibition vividly portray the dire effects of climate change on South American, African, and Indonesian rainforests. Photographer Daniel Beltra, a world-renowned environment photographer who won the Prince’s Rainforest Project Award this past year, selected 1,000 images of a total of 40,000 to display.

Beltra’s collection of images was targeted on capturing scenes primarilyfrom the Amazon Basin, the Congolese Forest, and Borneo and Sumatra in Asia.

To view some of these images, click on the link above.

-WooJung Kim

Chevron’s Grave Error

Ecuador’s Amazonians Sue Chevron Over Poison Waterways

November 15, 2009

Approximately 30,000 Amazonians have filed a lawsuit against the US oil company, Chevron. The company illegally dumped toxic waste from its oil production and may pay up to $27 billion as compensation of the damages that the region had to undergo. The locals have seen increasing rates of cancer, miscarriages and birth defects due to the contamination. According to Kent Robertson, a representative of Chevron, in the early 1990s when Texaco left Ecuador, 40 percent of the remaining grime was to be decontaminated and the rest, dealt with by Petroecuador.

Regardless, the company’s reputation has depreciated. Moreover, attention to this case has come from supporters such as the wife of musician Sting, Trudie Styler, and human rights campaigner Kerry Kennedy.

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–Susan Lee

The Impact on Journalists Who Expose Environmental Issues

Dangers for Journalists Who Expose Environmental Issues

September 19, 2009

Environmentalists who are fully committed to protecting the environment, particularly the Amazon Rainforest, are ubiquitous in presence. Yet, awareness of the hindrances that some of these activists must overcome, is not typically highlighted.

However, this article underscores the consequences that some journalists endure due to examining topics such as deforestation. These unwanted witnesses are viewed as a threat to companies that rely on the Amazon rainforest’s resources. An astounding thirteen cases of journalists and bloggers have been censored, threatened, jailed, attacked, or even killed by accentuating the wrongdoings that are occurring everyday to the rainforest. Thus Reporters Without Borders has provided encouragement to the continued efforts of the journalists by publishing a new photography book, “Nature: 100 photos for press freedom” to not only defend journalists but also to support press freedom throughout the world.

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–Susan Lee

Brazil, the 2016 Olympics, and its Dams.

Will Brazil’s Blackout Drive a New Push for More Rainforest Dams?

November 12, 2009

In 2016, Brazil will not only be home to one of the world’s greatest rainforests, the Amazon Rainforest, but will also be the host city of the Olympics. Last Tuesday, a third of Brazil’s population was affected by a power outage, and had raised concerns whether Brazil would be truly prepared to overcome the massive incursion of people. Therefore, the possibility of developing hydroelectric dams as the main source of energy in Brazil has become increasingly likely. However, there is a lot of opposition for this alternative solution to generate additional electricity because these dams have caused further stress on the rainforest. Examples include, flooding thousands of square kilometers of rainforest, causing a surplus of greenhouse gases, as well as encouraging settlers to move in that have impacted the region negatively such as loggers, ranchers and soybean farmers.

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–Susan Lee

Changing Worlds

ABC7 News: Changing Worlds

November 15, 2009

Two organizations

Two missions

Changing the world

Click on the link to watch a video!

–Jieun Kim

Solutions to Amazon Deforestation

How to Save the Amazon Rainforest

January 04, 2009

Hope for avoiding the worst outcomes in the Amazon increasingly rests on the belief that markets will soon pay for the services provided by healthy rainforests. These services—which include biodiversity maintenance, rainfall generation, carbon sequestration, and soil stabilization, among others—have traditionally been undervalued by markets, but there are signs that the situation is changing. A major development was the decision at the 2007 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) talks in Bali, Indonesia, to recognize forest conservation as a means for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation, which accounts for roughly one-fifth of emissions—more than the entire transportation sector.

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–Jieun Kim

Declining Amazon’s Deforestation

Amazon Deforestation to Fall 30% in 2009

September 02, 2009

The reduction in Amazon deforestation comes a year after Brazil announced an ambitious plan to reduce forest loss by 70 percent by 2018 as part of its climate policy. Deforestation accounts for more than half of Brazil’s greenhouse gas emissions and nearly 20 percent of emissions worldwide. Brazil is seeking billions of dollars from industrialized nations for its efforts to reduce deforestation but is opposing an scheme that would allow rich countries to “offset” their emissions by paying tropical countries for protecting forests. Brazil argues that industrialized countries need to do more to reduce their own emissions.

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–Jieun Kim

Global Warming Will Decimate Nearly Half of Amazon

40% of Amazon will Disappear Despite Climate Change Efforts

April 24, 2009

In this satellite image of deforestation in Brazil, tropical rainforest appears bright red, while pale red and brown areas represent cleared land. Black and gray areas have probably been recently burned.

Evapotranspiration clouds trap moisture near the surface of the earth and help maintain cooler temperatures in rain forests. This protective layer of water vapors helps promote rain forest growth and consequently leads to more CO2 absorption. However, disappearing rain forests have upset this balance and caused a drastic increase in local temperatures and the rate of evaporation.  This, in turn, has led to a decrease in the amount of moisture in the atmosphere, and this cycle, if prolonged, can lead to desertification.
The center of this environmental issue lies in yedoma, a soil component that is high in methane, which is also responsible for the destruction of the ozone layer. This further exacerbates the problematic heating of the atmosphere and accumulation of CO2; with rapidly-increasing atmospheric temperatures and decreasing moisture levels in protective vapor layers, decimation of rain forests around the world will exponentially increase until, and beyond, the year 2050, by which nearly 40% of the Amazon would have disappeared.

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-WooJung Kim

Has it Already Become a Point of No Return?

Amazon Could Shrink by 85% Due to Climate Change, Scientists Say

March 11, 2009

We have all heard about global warming destroying the Amazon Rainforest but not of the new study that predicted the demise of one-third of its trees by even modest temperature rises. Some of Britain’s leading experts on climate change have shown that even severe cuts in deforestation and carbon emissions would not save this jungle. Even under the most optimistic climate change scenarios, destruction of the Amazon is “irreversible,” a point which many people feared would come. This inevitable death would not only affect the flora and fauna of the Amazon but also cause widespread drought. Is the Amazon really coming to an end?

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–Ashley Kim

Brazil to the Rescue!

Brazil’s Plan to Save the Amazon Rainforest

June 02, 2009

Brazil, being the most important player when it comes to reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD), called for a giant fund financed with donations from industrialized nations in attempts to reduce emissions that would be harmful to the Amazon. Because Brazil feels that climate change is occurring due to rich countries, it is unwilling to let countries like US and Europe off the hook without reducing their own emissions. Brazil has already encountered a preview of what may come if the health of the Amazon continues to deplete. A severe drought in 2005 was thrust upon Brazil because of above normal temperatures in the tropical Atlantic. After the devastating consequences of this drought, Brazil announced a plan to reduce deforestation by 70 percent to cut emissions from deforestation by 4.8 billion tons, roughly 80 percent of the country’s emissions. This proposal has been debated among different government agencies, however, it shows that Brazil has found an incentive to save the rainforest and is taking its first steps towards doing so.

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–Ashley Kim

Is the Problem in the Amazon Not as Bad as Predicted?

Global Warming May Drive the Amazon Rainforest Toward Seasonal Forests Rather than Savanna

February 11, 2009

The issue of the demise of the Amazon rainforest has expanded to become a global issue. Previous hypotheses have included the big possibility that the Amazon would become a savanna, which is a plain characterized by coarse grasses and scattered tree growth. However, contributors of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences have argued that changes in rainfall resulting from climate change may drive parts of the Amazon rainforest toward seasonal forests rather than savanna, and they promote the reduction of human pressures in order to improve the rainforest’s resilience to climate change. The authors have still recognized a “die-back” as a distinct possibility due to increasing deforestation and believe that the immediate limitation on deforestation may be the most effective intervention to save the Amazonian forest.

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–Ashley Kim