GE turbines in Brazil (Photo:
Fast-growing Brazil has been criticized for chopping down rainforests to make way for beef cattle, soy and sugar farms.
But those days may be behind us. Brazil is fast becoming an industrial leader with a growing green conscience, as two reports out this week show.
Tags: · Brazil, clean energy, deforestation, GE, Wind Turbines
Brazilian conservation policies were responsible for about half of the 70 percent decline in deforestation within the Amazon rainforest from 2005 to 2009, according to a new study. In an analysis conducted by the Climate Policy Initiative (CPI), resear…
Tags: · Brazil, deforestation, greenrightnow.com
Timed with the re-release of Avatar in theaters today, director James Cameron has teamed up with Amazon Watch to produce a short feature A Message from Pandora. The documentary spotlights the battle to stop the massive Belo Monte Dam Complex on the Xingu River in the Brazilian Amazon, which thousands of local Indigenous people have vowed to resist, citing its potential devastating impact on their communities and the rainforest environment.
Tags: · A Message from Pandora, Amazon River, Amazon Watch, Avatar, Belo Monte Dam Complex, Brazil, James Cameron, Joel David Moore, Sigourney Weaver, Xingu River
A study published by researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison suggests that the link between deforestation and disease—in this case, malaria—may not be as tenuous as some have suggested.
Based on satellite data showing the extent of logging in the Amazon and research from 54 Brazilian health districts, the report concludes that even minimal change to the natural landscape can increase the spread of malaria by up to 50 percent.
Tags: · Amazon rainforest, Brazil, Climate Change, deforestation, malaria, University of Wisconsin study
From Green Right Now Reports
The soybean is a versatile crop. It helps add nitrogen back to the soil. It’s a cheap source of animal feed. In various forms, it eventually becomes suitable for human consumption, albeit it mostly indirectly, in the form of chicken (or eggs) we consume or beef on the table.
So what’s wrong with a hard-working legume gaining a little popularity? As is often the case, too much of a good thing is, indeed, too much.
Tags: · Amazon rainforest, Brazil, Earth Policy Institute, soybean
By Ashley Phillips
Green Right Now
“Amazon deforestation dropped 46 percent for the period August 2008 – July 2009 when compared to the same period a year before,” according to a report published in Em Questao, the digital newsletter of the Secretariat of Communications of the Presidency of Brazil. The data was collected by Deforestation Detection in Real Time (DETER) and the National Institute for Space Research (INPE). The results marked the lowest accumulated index since the survey began in May 2004.
Tags: · Amazon rain forest, Brazil, Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Rnewable Na, Carlos Minc, illegal logging, rain forest, rainforest preservation
By Ashley Phillips
Green Right Now
When we put our shoes on, we don’t really think about where they’ve been before they got to us.
Most likely, they were manufactured somewhere overseas, China or Vietnam perhaps, then shipped to the United States. But where did the material used to manufacture them come from? Are your shoes made of leather? If so, there’s a chance they’re contributing to climate change — and the illegal destruction of the Amazon rainforest.
Greenpeace International says rainforests are being needlessly lost not just to the meat trade but to the leather industry, as cattle ranches expand illegally in Brazilian Amazon region.
Tags: · Adidas/Reebok, Amazon rainforest, Brazil, cattle trade, Clarks, deforestation, Geox, Greenhouse Gases, leather, Nike, Prada, shoes, Timberland
From Green Right Now Reports
Greenpeace’s report “Slaughtering the Amazon” notes that Brazil’s thriving and expanding cattle trade, which has made it the world’s largest exporter of beef and the top producer (along with China) of leather, has out-sized environmental consequences.
“The cattle sector in the Brazilian Amazon is responsible for 14% of the world’s annual deforestation. This makes it the world’s largest driver of deforestation, responsible for more forest loss than the total deforestation in any country outside Brazil except Indonesia,” according to the report, the result of a three-year investigation by Greenpeace International.
Tags: · Amazon, beef, Brazil, cattle trade, deforestation, Greenhouse Gases, illegal deforestation, leather, rainforests, ranches, supply chains
Product features from Amazon.com
Tags: · Brazil, Coffee, Marques De Paiva Medium Roast, organic, Swiss Water® Process Ground Coffee
Marques De Paiva Medium Roast, 100% USDA Organic Decaf, Swiss Water® Process Ground Coffee, 10-Ounce Bags (Pack of 4)
Barbara Kessler
Andrew Winston
Danielle Nierenberg
Anthony Swift