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Forests
The Amazon Rainforest is still on fire. This fact comes as Brazil’s newly-elected president Jair Bolsonaro addressed the United Nations General Assembly for the first time and told the world (as the New Yorker reported) that the forest was “practically untouched,” and blamed a “lying and sensationalist media” for propagating fake news about their destruction. […]
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Twenty years ago, President Clinton put a large area of pristine Alaskan rain forest off-limits to logging, but President Trump is now apparently set to open parts of the 16.7 million-acre Tongass National Forest up again, according to The Washington Post. The President spoke to Alaska’s Governor and then directed the Secretary of Agriculture, who manages national forest lands, to lift the restrictions on road building, which in effect banned logging and other development there.
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Labor Day marks the end up summer and it’s not too soon to start thinking about your autumn leaf-peeping adventures. SmokyMountains.com recently released its annual interactive fall foliage forecast map, predicting when and where leaves are going to be at their prime. As Thrillist explained, at the moment, these are the best projections available based on […]
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After threats of trade retaliation from the EU, ridicule at the G7, and even pressure from the Pope, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has made the unexpected move of deploying troops to help fight the devastating fires raging in the Amazon rainforest. As CNN explained, “Brazil’s space research center (INPE) said this week that the country has […]
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U.S. forests are under threat, and not just from logging or drought but from invasive insects and fungi that could kill 40% of all domestic forests. As the Guardian explained, “About 450 overseas pests that damage or feed on trees have been introduced to US forests due to the growth in international trade and travel. […]
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We think he doesn’t look a day over 65! On Friday, the lead character in the longest-running public service campaign, Smokey The Bear, turned seventy-five. His message has always been simple and highly effective — reminding Americans that “Only you can prevent wildfires,” When Smokey first took to the airwaves, the overwhelming majority of U.S. […]
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Wildfires raging across Siberia this year have reached historic levels — It is estimated that the fires released 300 megatonnes of carbon dioxide in July, the most since satellite records began around two decades ago. In response, the government declared a state of emergency for five regions of Siberia — with the “acrid smoke” impacting both small settlements and “major cities in Western Siberia and the Altai region as well as the Urals such as Chelyabinsk and Yekaterinburg,” and even disrupting air travel.
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On Monday, Ethiopians around the nation planted trees — and not just a few — the citizens of the second-largest African nation planted 353 million trees in just 12 hours as part of the “Green Legacy” initiative led by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.
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We wrote last week that trees and forests have an important role to play in fighting climate change and their importance was only underscored by the recent heatwave that much of the east coast experienced. Tree cover can cool cities by as much as 10°F but in the United States, we’ve been losing a significant […]
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by Alexandra Patel A new study published in the journal Science reveals that restoration of forested land on a global scale could help capture atmospheric carbon and mitigate climate change at an unprecedented rate. Why This Matters: Trees and forests play a crucial role in maintaining balance within our environment and atmosphere, as they absorb […]
Continue Reading 277 wordsIf you’re a fan of Busch beer then this one’s for you: As Fast and Company reported, this Saturday Busch Beer will sponsor a secret pop-up shop (the “Busch Pop Up Schop”) that will last for one day—in a national forest somewhere in America. Attendees will receive free merchandise, with one winner getting free Busch […]
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A study just published in the Journal Earth’s Future found that as a result of California’s increasingly long and dry summers caused by climate change, the state overall has experienced in the last 50 years a 500% increase in the amount of land burned in fires. While non-forest areas have not experienced a huge increase in fires in those areas, forested areas have seen an 800% increase in areas that have burned.
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