MetaFilter posts tagged with deforestation

Green? Orangutans, biofuel, and logging

ChuraChura — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 16:20:34 -0800

Green tells the story of one orangutan captured and brought to a rehabilitation facility after her home is logged and converted to a palm oil plantation. This award winning documentary is a powerful indictment of the palm oil and logging industries in South Asia. It is also another voice in the crowd drawing attention to the potential ecological consequences of growing dependence on biofuels. The Sumatran Orangutan is one of the top 25 most endangered primates, and like most of the other primates on the list, is especially threatened by habitat loss due to deforestation. Indonesia's forests are being chopped up or burned down to make way for palm plantations. Palm oil is found in an unlikely variety of products - from Ben and Jerry's to Loreal to Campbell's Soup - and has been used as a biofuel to power commercial air travel. Rain forest woods like teak and mahogany are particularly valuable, but come from the same forests orangutans depend on - rain forest advocates suggest avoiding rain forest hardwood altogether unless it has been certified by a sustainable forestry organization like the Forest Stewardship Council.

10 years is just a blink of the ever-watching galactic eye

filthy light thief — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 13:08:15 -0800

Inspired by its 10th anniversary, the Earth Observatory has pulled together a special series of NASA satellite images documenting how the world has changed. From these images, Wired Science has made 5 videos, presenting convenient time-lapse views of the world changing (mainly) because of human actions. Watch the urbanization of Dubai, specifically the growth of Palm Jumeirah. See the Aral Sea dry up - once the fourth largest lake, down to 10 percent of its original size (marked by the thin black line in the video) by 2007. View the clearing the Amazon, as observed from above the state of Rondônia in western Brazil. Behold the return of Mesopotamia's Wetlands, now in the process of being restored from near total destruction under the regime of Saddam Hussein. Witness the impact of drought on Southern Utah's Lake Powell, where water level dropped from 20 million to 8 million acre-feet from 2000 to 2005.

Biofuels worsen global warming

salvia — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 13:50:30 -0800

Biofuels worsen global warming, according to two studies published in Science last week. Current US biofuel policies would double carbon emissions over the gasoline alternative. More details: ScienceExpress fulltext pdf of study #1, powerpoint summary of study #1, abstract of study #2, summary of both, policy recommendations pdf (via: 1, 2). Here's some context I needed to understand the US study: annually, the US produces ~5 billion gallons of ethanol and uses ~140 billion gallons of gasoline = 145 billion gallons total (sour ces). US law now calls for 36 billion gallons of biofuel production by 2022. The projections are based on increasing biofuel production to 31 billion gallons by 2015 (or the equivalent of the entire US grain crop from 2004).

Are dead-tree magazines good or bad for the climate?

finite — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 22:12:14 -0800

"So by this analysis dead-tree magazines have a smaller net carbon footprint than web media. We cut down trees and put them in the ground. From a climate change perspective, this is a good thing" explains Chris Anderson, Wired Magazine's editor-in-chief. While some decry this type of carbon footprint accounting as "cheating", the paper industry has lately been eager to convince the public that they are carbon-neutral.

Good news for World's Forests

storybored — Tue, 14 Nov 2006 14:42:44 -0800

Good news for the world's forests. "...the researchers, using new analytical techniques, calculated that in the last 15 years forests had actually expanded in 22 of the 50 countries with the most forest, and that many others were poised to make the transition from deforestation to reforestation in the coming decades." Unfortunately, countries like Brazil and Indonesia aren't doing so well.....

The Amazon becomes Iowa

punkbitch — Sun, 12 Jun 2005 13:29:46 -0800

"When they emerged after 50 yards, the landscape no longer looked anything like the southern edge of the Amazon forest. It looked like Iowa." In Mato Grosso, Brazil the rainforest is vanishing. And all because of soybeans and beef. "If we were an aggressive tribe, we would have killed the land owners already," said Tupxi, one of the canoeists, who estimated his age at 77. " good Washpost story...

Tigers bite back

i_cola — Thu, 13 May 2004 11:33:19 -0800

Tigers bite back. Endangered Sumatran tigers have taken the destruction of their habitat into their own mouths by killing three & mauling several other illegal loggers.

specialk420 — Thu, 04 Apr 2002 07:45:04 -0800

end of the worlds forests? are there other very important issues for the world that are slipping by us while the we are caught up with the problems in the middle east the the "war on terror"? should there be US leadership in this area?

skallas — Wed, 25 Jul 2001 21:45:29 -0800

Pro-Deforestation book on the way to your local elementary school. (via cruel.com)

croutonsupafreak — Wed, 24 Jan 2001 20:35:02 -0800

And you thought US environmental policies were bad. Europe is facing a major environmental crisis that it seems unwilling or unable to act on -- deforestation, flooding, desertification and more. From the article: "One fifth of the land in Spain is already so degraded that it is turning to desert" -- and it's as bad if not worse elsewhere on the continent & in Britain.