Support the Arctic Sea Ice Forum and Blog

Author Topic: Forests: An Endangered Resource  (Read 123342 times)

Tom_Mazanec

  • Guest
Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #100 on: August 22, 2019, 01:24:35 AM »
Quote
Internet users around the world are planting trees—nearly 65 million of them to date—just by browsing the internet. That’s because instead of relying on Google or Yahoo to conduct their online searches, they are using Ecosia.
Like other search engines, Ecosia makes money through advertising—every time someone clicks on one of the ads located next to search results, Ecosia makes a few cents. Only instead of using its profits to line shareholder pockets, the Berlin-based start-up invests 80 percent of its profits in tree planting. On average, it takes 45 searches to plant a tree.
https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/ecosia-you-can-help-plant-trees-just-surfing-internet

AUG 22
Brazil’s Amazon rainforest is burning at a record rate, research center says
https://fox59.com/2019/08/21/brazils-amazon-rainforest-is-burning-at-a-record-rate-research-center-says/
Quote
Fires are raging at a record rate in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest, and scientists warn that it could strike a devastating blow to the fight against climate change.

The fires are burning at the highest rate since the country’s space research center, the National Institute for Space Research (known by the abbreviation INPE), began tracking them in 2013, the center said Tuesday.

There have been 72,843 fires in Brazil this year, with more than half in the Amazon region, INPE said. That’s more than an 80% increase compared with the same period last year.
« Last Edit: August 23, 2019, 01:53:09 AM by Tom_Mazanec »

Tom_Mazanec

  • Guest
Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #101 on: August 27, 2019, 09:27:08 PM »
Carbon offsets are not enough to save forests:
If Carbon Offsets Require Forests to Stay Standing, What Happens When the Amazon Is on Fire?
https://www.propublica.org/article/if-carbon-offsets-require-forests-to-stay-standing-what-happens-when-the-amazon-is-on-fire
Quote
But the devastating blaze encapsulates a key weakness of offsets that scientists have been warning about for the past decade: that they are too vulnerable to political whims and disasters like wildfires. As a recent ProPublica investigation noted, if you give corporations a pass to pollute by saying their emissions are being canceled out somewhere else, you need a way to guarantee that continues to be the case.

longwalks1

  • Frazil ice
  • Posts: 204
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 65
  • Likes Given: 19
Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #102 on: August 29, 2019, 05:47:34 PM »
A nice little read about the plundering of forests in Cambodia. 

https://interactive.aljazeera.com/aje/2019/plundering-cambodias-forests/index.html

Quote
In one of his more daring exploits, Leng disguised himself as a chef working at logging camps to infiltrate the network of notorious logging baron, Try Pheap, an adviser to Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen.

It has a slider for 2009 versus 2019 and also a map showing what geographic areas are being plundered via which nations. 

I have not watched the "101 East" video the web page springs from.   Hopefully it will also discuss the trafficking in animal species that would probably occur during forest raping.  Sending lumber out of a country via container shipping, something I had never considered before, but for more rare or exotic lumber, probably worth the cost. 

peace out,

Tom_Mazanec

  • Guest
Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #103 on: August 29, 2019, 10:45:25 PM »
‘We have cut them all’: Ghana struggles to protect its last old-growth forests
https://news.mongabay.com/2019/08/we-have-cut-them-all-ghana-struggles-to-protect-its-last-old-growth-forests/
Quote
Deforestation of Ghana’s primary forests jumped 60 percent between 2017 and 2018 – the biggest jump of any tropical country. Most of this occurred in the country’s protected areas, including its forest reserves.
A Mongabay investigation revealed that illegal logging in forest reserves is commonplace, with sources claiming officers from Ghana’s Forestry Commission often turn a blind eye and even participate in the activity.
The technical director of forestry at Ghana’s Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources said attempts at intervention have met with limited success, and are often thwarted by loggers who know how to game the system.
A representative of a conservation NGO operating in the country says a community-based monitoring project has helped curtail illegal logging in some reserves, but additional buy-in from other communities is needed to scale up its results. Meanwhile, the Ghanaian government is reportedly starting its own public outreach program, as well as coordinating with the EU on an agreement that would allow only legal wood from Ghana to enter the EU market.

Tom_Mazanec

  • Guest
Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #104 on: September 01, 2019, 01:06:37 AM »
British Columbia’s 'irreplaceable' forest could disappear after decades of clear-cut logging
https://crosscut.com/2019/08/british-columbias-irreplaceable-forest-could-disappear-after-decades-clear-cut-logging
Quote
Only 9% of BC’s inland rain forest has been designated as protected areas or parks by the provincial government, leaving more than three-quarters of the remaining land open to clear-cut logging, which has removed more than a quarter of all the old-growth cedar and hemlock over the past half century. There is no end in sight.

Tom_Mazanec

  • Guest
Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #105 on: September 04, 2019, 08:06:59 PM »
Actually, maybe forests aren't as good at storing carbon as we thought
Are We Overestimating How Much Trees Will Help Fight Climate Change?
https://undark.org/article/imaging-scans-climate-change/
Quote
But Marra, a forest pathologist at the Experiment Station with a Ph.D. in plant pathology from Cornell University, has documented from studying his fallen trees that internal decay has the capacity to significantly reduce the amount of carbon stored within.

Will Deforestation and Warming Push the Amazon to a Tipping Point?
https://e360.yale.edu/features/will-deforestation-and-warming-push-the-amazon-to-a-tipping-point
Quote
In an e360 interview, Carlos Nobre, Brazil’s leading expert on the Amazon and climate change, discusses the key perils facing the world’s largest rainforest, where a record number of fires are now raging, and lays out what can be done to stave off a ruinous transformation of the region.
« Last Edit: September 04, 2019, 08:12:29 PM by Tom_Mazanec »

Tom_Mazanec

  • Guest
Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #106 on: September 06, 2019, 10:52:44 PM »
We could help prevent deforestation by simply reprogramming logging machines
https://www.fastcompany.com/90398939/we-could-help-prevent-deforestation-by-simply-reprogramming-logging-machines
Quote
In the Amazon, protected forests sit right next to logging operations. With lax enforcement, sometimes the protected forest ends up getting logged, as well. But what if it was impossible for the logging machines to cut down protected trees? A few lines of computer code entered into the machine’s source code could make it possible—code which some developers have created. They now hope that heavy equipment manufacturers will begin to add it to new machinery to help prevent deforestation in areas that struggle with enforcement.

Sigmetnow

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 25763
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 1153
  • Likes Given: 430
Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #107 on: September 07, 2019, 02:08:29 PM »
Rodius recently posted information concerning old growth forests versus reforested or plantation areas in the Wildfires thread:

https://forum.arctic-sea-ice.net/index.php/topic,1368.msg227251.html#msg227251
People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.

kassy

  • Moderator
  • First-year ice
  • Posts: 8235
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 2041
  • Likes Given: 1986
Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #108 on: September 07, 2019, 09:00:01 PM »
We could help prevent deforestation by simply reprogramming logging machines
https://www.fastcompany.com/90398939/we-could-help-prevent-deforestation-by-simply-reprogramming-logging-machines
Quote
In the Amazon, protected forests sit right next to logging operations. With lax enforcement, sometimes the protected forest ends up getting logged, as well. But what if it was impossible for the logging machines to cut down protected trees? A few lines of computer code entered into the machine’s source code could make it possible—code which some developers have created. They now hope that heavy equipment manufacturers will begin to add it to new machinery to help prevent deforestation in areas that struggle with enforcement.

If that worked it would force them to use more manual labor.

You can alternatively just enforce the laws and protect the people.

Or do what happens in reality and pander to the money interests.
Buying gadgets optional but appreciated.
Þetta minnismerki er til vitnis um að við vitum hvað er að gerast og hvað þarf að gera. Aðeins þú veist hvort við gerðum eitthvað.

Tom_Mazanec

  • Guest
Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #109 on: September 09, 2019, 06:20:02 PM »
Pope says deforestation must be treated as a global threat
http://news.trust.org/item/20190907160919-kjhjd/
Quote
Pope Francis said on Saturday rapid deforestation and the loss of biodiversity in individual countries should not be treated as local issues since they threaten the future of the planet.

Francis made his appeal on a visit to Madagascar, the world's fourth-largest island, which research institutes and aid agencies say has lost about 44% of its forest over the past 60 years, abetted by illegal exports of rosewood and ebony.

gerontocrat

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 20378
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 5289
  • Likes Given: 69
Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #110 on: September 13, 2019, 09:39:07 PM »
I try to avoid Forest news, it is just too depressing. But this one just came up on the screen.
Note that the data is to 2018 - before Bolsonaro

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-49679883
World 'losing battle against deforestation'
Quote
A historic global agreement aimed at halting deforestation has failed, according to a report.

An assessment of the New York Declaration on Forests (NYDF) says it has failed to deliver on key pledges.

Launched at the 2014 UN climate summit, it aimed to half deforestation by 2020, and halt it by 2030.

Yet deforestation continues at an alarming rate and threatens to prevent the world from preventing dangerous climate change, experts have said.

The critique, compiled by the NYDF Assessment Partners (a coalition of 25 organisations), painted a bleak picture of how the world's forests continue to be felled.

Deforestation 'accelerating'
"Since the NYDF was launched five years ago, deforestation has not only continued - it has actually accelerated," observed Charlotte Streck, co-founder and director of Climate Focus, which co-ordinated the publication of the report.

The report says the amount of annual carbon emissions resulting from deforestation around the globe are equivalent to the greenhouse gases produced by the European Union.

On average, an area of tree cover **the size of the United Kingdom was lost every year between 2014 and 2018.

i.e. 250,000 km2

"Para a Causa do Povo a Luta Continua!"
"And that's all I'm going to say about that". Forrest Gump
"Damn, I wanted to see what happened next" (Epitaph)

Tom_Mazanec

  • Guest
Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #111 on: September 13, 2019, 09:47:28 PM »
It’s Time We Treat Some Forests Like Crops
https://www.outsideonline.com/2401572/mass-timber-logging-climate-change
Quote
Tree crops don’t always provide the kind of habitat that supports diverse ecosystems. For that we need to continue fighting like hell to protect our remaining old-growth forests. But if you take it as truth that climate change is the greatest threat to the planet, then mass timber offers a rare opportunity—a chance to transform the construction and logging industries so that we reduce emissions while adding millions of carbon-sequestering trees to the landscape. We’ll cut them down and then grow more, gardening the earth as stewards living in a built world made more and more out of wood.

Tom_Mazanec

  • Guest
Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #112 on: September 16, 2019, 05:48:42 PM »
Deforestation Is Getting Worse, 5 Years After Countries and Companies Vowed to Stop It
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/13092019/forest-loss-rate-global-deforestation-amazon-fires-corporate-agribusiness-international-declaration
Quote
As fires in the Amazon draw attention to the problem, critics say big agribusinesses aren't doing enough to stop deforestation in their supply chains.

Tom_Mazanec

  • Guest
Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #113 on: September 18, 2019, 07:58:20 PM »
Indigenous communities, wildlife under threat as farms invade Nicaraguan reserve
https://news.mongabay.com/2019/09/indigenous-communities-wildlife-under-threat-as-farms-invade-nicaraguan-reserve/
Quote
Nicaragua’s Bosawás Biosphere Reserve straddles the country’s border with Honduras and was declared a UNESCO site in 1997. It comprises one of the largest contiguous rainforest regions in Latin America north of the Amazon Basin and includes 21 ecosystems and six types of forest that are home to a multitude of species, several of which are threatened with extinction.
According to a report by the Nicaraguan environmental agency MARENA, a little more than 15 percent of the Bosawás reserve had been cleared and converted for agricultural use in 2000. But today, that number stands at nearly 31 percent. Satellite data show deforestation reached the heart of the reserve’s core zone earlier this year.
Deforestation in Bosawás stems mainly from migration, as people in other parts of the country move to the region looking for fertile land and space to raise cattle and grow crops.
Indigenous communities are allowed to own land within Bosawás. But sources say land traffickers are selling plots of land to non-indigenous farmers and ranchers, creating conflicts that have caused death on both sides.

Tom_Mazanec

  • Guest
Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #114 on: September 21, 2019, 12:31:08 AM »
Gran Chaco: South America’s second-largest forest at risk of collapsing
https://news.mongabay.com/2019/09/gran-chaco-south-americas-second-largest-forest-at-risk-of-collapsing/
Quote
Distributed between Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia and Brazil, the Gran Chaco is a collection of more than 50 different ecosystems typified by dry forest.
The Gran Chaco is one of the most deforested areas on the planet. Every month, an area twice the size of Buenos Aires is cut down.
Chaco deforestation is driven by the expansion of the agricultural frontier and hunting, as well as climate change.

Deforestation increase dovetails with armed conflict in Colombia, study finds
https://news.mongabay.com/2019/09/deforestation-increase-dovetails-with-armed-conflict-in-colombia-study-finds/
Quote
According to the report’s primary author, forested areas in Colombia that are less than 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) away from illicit crops are most likely areas to be deforested.
Deforestation linked to armed conflict and coca cultivation was most prevalent in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, La Macarena, and San Lucas mountains, and in the regions of Tumaco and Catatumbo.
All areas impacted in Colombia are those with high biodiversity and conservation value.
« Last Edit: September 21, 2019, 01:44:40 AM by Tom_Mazanec »

kassy

  • Moderator
  • First-year ice
  • Posts: 8235
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 2041
  • Likes Given: 1986
Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #115 on: September 23, 2019, 02:00:07 PM »
I read about this story on nu.nl but wanted to find an english article then forgot about it.
Luckily ASLR posted about it:

Also, let's not forget about the degradation happening now to Brazil's Cerrado (a mosaic of savannah, grassland and forest) regions, as I dare to point-out that consensus climate models do not capture this climate risk:

Title: "The Amazon burns. But another part of Brazil is being destroyed faster"

https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/22/americas/brazil-cerrado-soy-intl/index.html

Extract: "Brazil's Cerrado -- a "mosaic" habitat made up of savannah, grassland and forest -- is the world's most biodiverse such region, and spans around 200 million hectares.

Like in the Amazon, Cerrado habitats are being cleared because of global demand for meat -- to make way for cattle ranches, and later converted to grow soy which is used to feed livestock or exported to other parts of the world.

The destruction of the habitat is also bad news for climate change: the Cerrado, the WWF says, locks up a "deceptively large amount of carbon" in its deep root systems.

"It is a forest in a different way -- it is an upside-down forest, because a lot of the biomass is underground," de Oliviera Rosa told CNN.

In a recent report, Greenpeace suggested that the remaining original vegetation of the region contains a carbon store of equivalent to 13.7 gigatonnes of equivalent carbon dioxide.


Bolding mine.
Þetta minnismerki er til vitnis um að við vitum hvað er að gerast og hvað þarf að gera. Aðeins þú veist hvort við gerðum eitthvað.

Tom_Mazanec

  • Guest
Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #116 on: September 24, 2019, 10:14:36 PM »
Prompted by Amazon fires, 230 investors warn firms linked to deforestation
https://news.mongabay.com/2019/09/prompted-by-amazon-fires-230-investors-warn-firms-linked-to-deforestation/
Quote
Prompted by the Amazon fires in Brazil and Bolivia, 230 global investors with $16.2 trillion in assets have issued a strongly worded statement warning hundreds of unnamed companies to either meet their commodities supply chain deforestation commitments or risk economic consequences.
The statement was published by Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), an international network of investors and Ceres, a U.S. non-profit which works with investors to promote sustainability.
Among the 230 signatories are CalPERS (the California Public Employees’ Retirement System), which manages the largest public pension fund in the United States, and some more unexpected firms, such as China Asset Management.
Elsewhere, consumer pressure has led the VF Corporation, a US apparel and footwear firm which owns Timberland and The North Face brands, to announce it has stopped buying Brazilian leather. It remains to be seen whether a global Brazilian boycott linked to deforestation will develop.

A NEW GENERATION OF ACTIVISTS PUT THEIR BODIES ON THE LINE TO DEFEND CALIFORNIA’S FORESTS
Quote
https://theintercept.com/2019/09/21/environmental-activists-logging-trees/
In Humboldt County, California, activists have been fighting for decades to preserve the forests and have embraced direct action tactics aimed at physically preventing logging companies from felling redwoods, Douglas firs, madrones, and other trees by using their own bodies as blockades. They have built platforms 100 feet in the air in the canopies of trees and lived on them for weeks, months, or even years at a time. They have erected tripods to block logging roads and sat atop them, so that if the tripods were dismantled, they would face injury or death. They have chained themselves to bulldozers and other earth-moving equipment.

kassy

  • Moderator
  • First-year ice
  • Posts: 8235
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 2041
  • Likes Given: 1986
Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #117 on: September 27, 2019, 04:48:30 PM »
'Alarming' extinction threat to Europe's trees

...

The conservation status of most animals in Europe has already been assessed for the inventory of endangered species known as the Red List.

Experts are now turning their attention to plants, with an assessment of all 454 tree species native to the continent.

The report found:

42% are threatened with extinction (assessed as Vulnerable, Endangered or Critically Endangered)
Among endemic trees - those that don't exist anywhere else on Earth - 58% are threatened.
Species highlighted include the horse chestnut, which is declining across Europe, and most of almost 200 trees in the family that includes the rowan and mountain ash.

for details see:
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-49838650
Þetta minnismerki er til vitnis um að við vitum hvað er að gerast og hvað þarf að gera. Aðeins þú veist hvort við gerðum eitthvað.

nanning

  • Nilas ice
  • Posts: 2487
  • 0Kg CO₂, 37 KWh/wk,125L H₂O/wk, No offspring
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 273
  • Likes Given: 23170
Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #118 on: September 27, 2019, 05:29:37 PM »
Oops, kassy posted the same news. Anyway I'll post this version:
-
  More than half of native European trees face extinction, warns study
Ash, elm and rowan among trees threatened by pests and pollution, says biodiversity report

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/sep/27/more-than-half-of-native-european-trees-face-extinction-warns-study

  Quotes:

More than half of Europe’s endemic trees are threatened with extinction as invasive diseases, pests, pollution and urban development take a growing toll on the landscape, according to a study.

“I’ve been keeping an eye on it over the past five years. Last year, I began to get quite worried. This year, huge areas are experiencing a dieback and it’s not just affecting saplings like it was before. Now it’s whole big trees. I drove in some parts of Pembrokeshire recently, and every five or 10 metres there was an ash tree dead or dying. This is a major problem – way worse than I expected it to be.”

The study of trees is part of a wider European red list that examines the status of overlooked species in order to determine priorities for conservation. It found 20-50% of terrestrial molluscs, shrubs and bryophytes, such as moss and liverworts, are threatened with extinction due to a loss of wild areas, expanded agriculture and climate change. Although these species are unglamorous and rarely attract attention, they play a vital role in food production and other natural life support systems through oxygen production, nutrient recycling and soil regeneration.

"Thus, once these species are lost from Europe, they are gone for ever,”

“We are seeing our natural environment being eaten away,” he said. It’s such a wide scale problem, rather like climate
"It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents us from living freely and nobly" - Bertrand Russell
"It is preoccupation with what other people from your groups think of you, that prevents you from living freely and nobly" - Nanning
Why do you keep accumulating stuff?

aslan

  • Frazil ice
  • Posts: 226
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 175
  • Likes Given: 0
Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #119 on: September 27, 2019, 05:48:20 PM »
Yes, it is already some years that horse chestnut is screaming its sorrow and pain. It is often question of Amazon or Indonesia or California... but here in northeastern France trees are dying everywhere, it is crazy. Bark beetle are eating away forest, and relentless heatwaves are drying trees. You can't walk 5 meters in any forest without spotting dead trees after dead trees, of any species, old one or young one. Leaves are already falling here, which is really early -and while temperatures are still high and there is no frost still-.

https://www.foretpriveefrancaise.com/data/fe248_p54_60_1.pdf

In the mean, around 10% to 20% trees are dying now. With an annual harvest of 12 millions m3 it is at least 2 millions m3 of damaged wood for this year for France. But locally up to 80% to 90% (!) of trees are dry and dead. Hornbeam, beech, spruce, ash, douglas, you name it.

http://www.fncofor.fr/docs/library/secheressequestions-reponsesonf-fncoforseptembre-2019.pdf

Here it is named a "sanitary crisis", but it is no longer a crisis as it is only worst years after years. It was already very, very bad in 2018, and "only" very bad years before. It is just that mass mortality is growing more massive years after years. And in Deutshland or in Switzerland it is no better.

Tom_Mazanec

  • Guest
Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #120 on: September 27, 2019, 05:51:37 PM »
If we've just about finished up cataloging European animals and are working on plants, how are we doing on the organisms of the other regions?

kassy

  • Moderator
  • First-year ice
  • Posts: 8235
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 2041
  • Likes Given: 1986
Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #121 on: October 02, 2019, 06:49:31 PM »
https://earther.gizmodo.com/fewer-fires-burned-the-amazon-in-september-but-defores-1838701813

Fewer fires in the Amazon but the deforestation continues.
This sort of stood out:

Quote
In Brazil, however, most of the states that are home to the Amazon saw a reduction in their number of fires. Only Mato Grosso saw an increase. In that state—which is home to the Xingu Indigenous Park where some 16 tribes reside—the number of fires grew by 34 percent compared to August.

...

These fires aren’t natural or wild. They’re manmade fires set by loggers and ranchers illegally cutting down trees and then burning them to convert the land to pastures for cattle and eventually illegally sell to soy farmers.
Þetta minnismerki er til vitnis um að við vitum hvað er að gerast og hvað þarf að gera. Aðeins þú veist hvort við gerðum eitthvað.

kassy

  • Moderator
  • First-year ice
  • Posts: 8235
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 2041
  • Likes Given: 1986
Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #122 on: October 07, 2019, 02:38:54 PM »
Bolivia wildfires in east extinguished by rain

Heavy rains have extinguished wildfires which destroyed more than four million hectares of land in eastern Bolivia in recent months, officials say.

"It has rained all across Chiquitanía and our satellite no longer shows any active forest fires," a Santa Cruz province official said.

for the details see:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-49958767
Þetta minnismerki er til vitnis um að við vitum hvað er að gerast og hvað þarf að gera. Aðeins þú veist hvort við gerðum eitthvað.

nanning

  • Nilas ice
  • Posts: 2487
  • 0Kg CO₂, 37 KWh/wk,125L H₂O/wk, No offspring
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 273
  • Likes Given: 23170
Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #123 on: October 21, 2019, 08:00:25 AM »
In our local small woods there are many mushrooms 'blooming' from a wide variety of species. Lovely. I have never seen so many and most for the first time, like the fly agaric (see photo).

Here is a link to a photo sequence from a local website. The photo's are taken in the last few weeks and within 800m of my place. I feel lucky :).
https://www.trynwalden.nl/nieuws/2019/10/hjerst-yn-it-heemstra-en-kaetsjemuoibosk/
photo's by Annie Hellinga
"It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents us from living freely and nobly" - Bertrand Russell
"It is preoccupation with what other people from your groups think of you, that prevents you from living freely and nobly" - Nanning
Why do you keep accumulating stuff?

kassy

  • Moderator
  • First-year ice
  • Posts: 8235
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 2041
  • Likes Given: 1986
Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #124 on: October 21, 2019, 02:09:34 PM »
It´s good year for mushrooms here.

Meanwhile in Indonesia:

In september meer hectares in Indonesië door brand verwoest dan in heel 2018

De hoeveelheid door brand verwoeste hectares in Indonesië lag in september van dit jaar hoger dan in heel 2018, zo melden de autoriteiten maandag. In september gaat het om 857,756 hectares, vorig jaar zijn in totaal 529,267 hectares verwoest.

https://www.nu.nl/buitenland/6005494/in-september-meer-hectares-in-indonesie-door-brand-verwoest-dan-in-heel-2018.html

In Indonesia more forest has been destroyed this september that in the whole year 2018.

September saw the destruction of 8578 KM2 while the loss in 2018 was 5293 KM2
Þetta minnismerki er til vitnis um að við vitum hvað er að gerast og hvað þarf að gera. Aðeins þú veist hvort við gerðum eitthvað.

sidd

  • First-year ice
  • Posts: 6774
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 1047
  • Likes Given: 0
Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #125 on: October 26, 2019, 11:12:34 PM »
Amazon on fire: Harvard and US pension plans to profit

Farmlandgrab has detail:

"the Cerrado fires are also linked to other US-based financial interests: the Harvard University Endowment and TIAA, the private pension fund"

" TIAA and Harvard University have collectively spent over $1 billion on Brazilian farmland, making them two of the largest owners of farmland in the Cerrado."

"TIAA and Harvard's farms overlap with the areas of the Cerrado where there has been a heavy concentration of forest fires over this period."

https://www.farmlandgrab.org/post/view/29247-harvard-and-tiaa-s-farmland-grab-in-brazil-goes-up-in-smoke

sidd

rboyd

  • Nilas ice
  • Posts: 1334
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 226
  • Likes Given: 52
Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #126 on: October 27, 2019, 01:43:52 AM »
Amazon rainforest 'close to irreversible tipping point' Forecast suggests rainforest could stop producing enough rain to sustain itself by 2021

Bolsonaro is helping rapidly accelerate our journey to the Amazon tipping point it seems, anytime between the early 2020's (worst case) and last 2030's (best case). This is in my life time (I am 56), that reality needs to get through to the masses, its not the grandchildren's problem it will be their life experience.

Quote
Soaring deforestation coupled with the destructive policies of Brazil’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, could push the Amazon rainforest dangerously to an irreversible “tipping point” within two years, a prominent economist has said.

After this point the rainforest would stop producing enough rain to sustain itself and start slowly degrading into a drier savannah, releasing billions of tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere, which would exacerbate global heating and disrupt weather across South America.

The warning came in a policy brief published this week by Monica de Bolle, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington DC.

The report sparked controversy among climate scientists. Some believe the tipping point is still 15 to 20 years away, while others say the warning accurately reflects the danger that Bolsonaro and global heating pose to the Amazon’s survival.

Quote
“It’s a stock, so like any stock you run it down, run it down – then suddenly you don’t have any more of it,” said de Bolle, whose brief also recommended solutions to the current crisis.

Bolsonaro has vowed to develop the Amazon, and his government plans to allow mining on protected indigenous reserves. Amazon farmers support his attacks on environmental protection agencies. His business-friendly environment minister, Ricardo Salles, has met loggers and wildcat miners, while deforestation and Amazon fires have soared since he assumed office in January.

The policy brief noted that Brazil’s space research institute, INPE, reported that deforestation in August was 222% higher than in August 2018. Maintaining the current rate of increase INPE reported between January and August this year would bring the Amazon “dangerously close to the estimated tipping point as soon as 2021 … beyond which the rainforest can no longer generate enough rain to sustain itself”, de Bolle wrote.

Quote
“If Bolsonaro is serious about developing the Amazon without paying any attention to sustainability or maintaining the forest’s standing, these rates would happen within his mandate,” she said.

Carlos Nobre, one of Brazil’s leading climate scientists and a senior researcher at the University of São Paulo’s Institute for Advanced Studies, questioned her calculation that estimated deforestation would quadruple from an estimate of nearly 18,000 km2 this year to nearly 70,000 km2 by 2021.

“It seems very improbable to me – the projected deforestation increase is more an economic calculation than ecological,” he said. However, he added: “We are seeing an increase in deforestation, I am not questioning this.”

Quote
Last year, Nobre argued in an article written with celebrated American conservation biologist Thomas Lovejoy that the Amazon tipping point could happen in eastern, southern and central Amazonia when 20% to 25% of the rainforest has been felled – not expected for 20 to 25 years. He has since brought forward his prediction by about five years.

“The Amazon is already 17% deforested, so when you calculate at the current rate of deforestation, this 20% to 25% is reached in 15 to 20 years,” he said. “I hope she is wrong. If she is right, it is the end of the world.”

But Lovejoy, a professor at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, said that de Bolle’s projection could come true because global heating, soaring deforestation and an increase in Amazon fires have created a “negative synergy” that is accelerating its destruction – citing droughts in recent years as a warning sign.

“We are seeing the first flickering of that tipping,” he said. “It’s sort of like a seal trying to balance a rubber ball on its nose … the only sensible thing to do is to do some reforestation and build back that margin of safety.”

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/oct/23/amazon-rainforest-close-to-irreversible-tipping-point

Sigmetnow

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 25763
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 1153
  • Likes Given: 430
Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #127 on: October 30, 2019, 03:13:22 AM »
Elon Musk pledges $1 million to #TeamTrees viral tree-planting initiative
October 29, 2019
Quote
In May of 2019, popular YouTube creator “MrBeast” – real name: Jimmy Donaldson – reached 20 million subscribers. His followers quickly challenged him to plant as many trees as he had followers. In response, the YouTuber did what YouTubers do best: formed a collaborative effort of other well known YouTubers and legitimate foundations to crowdfund a viral challenge. The viral challenge has been so successful in just four days that it now has the backing of Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk.

With the help of multiple partners, Donaldson paired up with The Arbor Day Foundation to create a fundraising campaign that would plant 20 million trees. TeamTrees.org was created and went live on Oct. 25th following an announcement video posted to the MrBeast Youtube channel. As stated on the site’s FAQ page, the organizers have promised all donors that “for every dollar you donate, one tree will be planted in a forest of high need around the world.”  ...
https://www.teslarati.com/elon-musk-million-dollar-pledge-team-trees/
People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.

TerryM

  • First-year ice
  • Posts: 6002
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 893
  • Likes Given: 5
Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #128 on: October 30, 2019, 07:10:29 AM »
^^
Doesn't sound possible for someone who very recently, and under oath told the court that he had liquidity problems.
Is Kimbal somehow involved?
Terry

El Cid

  • Young ice
  • Posts: 2507
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 923
  • Likes Given: 225
Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #129 on: October 30, 2019, 09:23:41 AM »
20 million trees sounds good, but it is just a drop in the bucket. Don't misunderstand me, it's important to have initiatives like these but me and a friend planted 1.2 million oaks (8000/hectare), so I know that for us 20 million is a big number but planetary-wise that is nothing. If you plant 8000  per hectare, ie. 800 000 per sq km then it is only 25 sq km of forest. We need to plant many-many billions of trees to have any effect!!!

vox_mundi

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 10165
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 3510
  • Likes Given: 745
Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #130 on: October 30, 2019, 09:32:28 PM »
Carbon Bomb: Study Says Climate Impact from Loss of Intact Tropical Forests Grossly Underreported
https://phys.org/news/2019-10-carbon-climate-impact-loss-intact.html

A new study in the journal Science Advances says that carbon impacts from the loss of intact tropical forests has been grossly underreported.

The study calculates new figures relating to intact tropical forest lost between 2000-2013 that show a staggering increase of 626 percent in the long-term net carbon impacts through 2050. The revised total equals two years' worth of all global land-use change emissions.

Researchers found that direct clearance of intact tropical forests resulted in just 3.2 percent of gross carbon emissions from all deforestation across the pan-tropics. However, when they factored in full carbon accounting, which considers forgone carbon removals (carbon sequestration that would occur annually into the future if cleared or degraded forest had remained intact after year 2000), selective logging, edge effects and declines of carbon-dense tree species due to overhunting of seed-dispersing animals, they discovered that the figure skyrocketed by a factor of more than six times.

... The authors go on to say that a comparable analysis is needed for intact forests outside of the tropics such as the boreal forests of Canada and Russia, given that approximately half to two-thirds of carbon removals on earth's intact ecosystems occur outside the tropics. Without this global clean-up service, CO2 from human activities would accumulate in the atmosphere markedly faster than it does at present.



Open Access: Sean L. Maxwell, et.al. "Degradation and forgone removals increase the carbon impact of intact forest loss by 626%" Science Advances (2019)
“There are three classes of people: those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see.” ― anonymous

Insensible before the wave so soon released by callous fate. Affected most, they understand the least, and understanding, when it comes, invariably arrives too late

kassy

  • Moderator
  • First-year ice
  • Posts: 8235
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 2041
  • Likes Given: 1986
Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #131 on: October 31, 2019, 03:11:38 PM »
Campaign to save Czech forests reaches parliament

...

What’s the problem with Czech forests?
Czech forests have been stressed and dying off at an alarming rate in recent years. Dry years have struck Czech forests badly since 2013.

At first, the trees in the north-eastern Jeseníky Mountains, already impacted by low rainfall and air pollution, quickly began to die off. But it soon became apparent that trees across the whole country faced similar problems.

Consensus has grown that one cause of Czechia’s stressed forests is monoculture plantations of spruce trees – a species not adapted to warming temperatures. Planting forests of fast-growing spruce might have been profitable in the past, but they are bad for biodiversity and climate resilience.

Bark beetles have spread across the country – attacking weakened spruce trees. Czech foresters have reacted by clear-cutting infected areas, creating a glut of cheap wood and bare deforested landscapes.

But they are replanting with more inappropriate spruce plantations, creating weak forests in a warming world, as the European Forest Institute warns.

The Czech government has ignored the problem for the past decade, and failed to take action to improve forest management.

...

So far, the Lower House (Chamber of Deputies) voted to support a legal reforms to improve the state of Czech forests. But the Government and the Agricultural Committee have removed many of the good propositions for living forests – including giving more time to forests to regenerate naturally, and avoiding high-risk trees.

Now this week, the Upper House (Czech Senate) has the opportunity to vote to reinstate the best proposals. Hnuti Duha calls on the Senators to back a longer period for the reforestation of forests, to significantly improve the chances for natural reforestation.

http://www.foeeurope.org/campaign-save-czech-forests-reaches-parliament-301019
Þetta minnismerki er til vitnis um að við vitum hvað er að gerast og hvað þarf að gera. Aðeins þú veist hvort við gerðum eitthvað.

Sigmetnow

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 25763
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 1153
  • Likes Given: 430
Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #132 on: October 31, 2019, 09:01:08 PM »
Elon Musk pledges $1 million to #TeamTrees viral tree-planting initiative
October 29, 2019 ...

Add another million trees, inspired by Musk’s donation.
Quote
MrBeast (@MrBeastYT) 10/30/19, 1:31 PM
THE CEO OF SHOPIFY IS GOING TO PLANT 1,000,001 TREES TO TAKE THE TOP SPOT FROM ELON!!! WHAT IS GOING ON??? 

Tobi Lorax (@tobi) 10/30/19, 11:58 AM
Good idea. OK Boomers, on behalf of 1,000,000 Shopify merchants and my own defunct snowboarding store, I‘ll donate 1,000,001 trees. @elonmusk
https://twitter.com/tobi/status/1189572181501440001

Treelon (@elonmusk) 10/30/19, 1:39 PM
@tobi Congrats! Shopify is great btw. Nice work.
People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.

bluesky

  • Frazil ice
  • Posts: 231
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 70
  • Likes Given: 27
Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #133 on: October 31, 2019, 11:56:04 PM »
"Degradation and forgone removals increase the carbon impact of intact forest loss by 626%"
Sean L. Maxwell et al Oct 2019

https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/5/10/eaax2546

"Abstract
Intact tropical forests, free from substantial anthropogenic influence, store and sequester large amounts of atmospheric carbon but are currently neglected in international climate policy. We show that between 2000 and 2013, direct clearance of intact tropical forest areas accounted for 3.2% of gross carbon emissions from all deforestation across the pantropics. However, full carbon accounting requires the consideration of forgone carbon sequestration, selective logging, edge effects, and defaunation. When these factors were considered, the net carbon impact resulting from intact tropical forest loss between 2000 and 2013 increased by a factor of 6 (626%), from 0.34 (0.37 to 0.21) to 2.12 (2.85 to 1.00) petagrams of carbon (equivalent to approximately 2 years of global land use change emissions). The climate mitigation value of conserving the 549 million ha of tropical forest that remains intact is therefore significant but will soon dwindle if their rate of loss continues to accelerate."

gerontocrat

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 20378
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 5289
  • Likes Given: 69
Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #134 on: November 02, 2019, 08:02:19 PM »
Expect a lot of of tropical forests to be destroyed in the next few years as use of palm-oil for bio-diesel goes through the roof.

And the politicians will be congratulating each other on their green energy credentials as they commit his act of self-harm


https://www.reuters.com/article/indonesia-palmoil-fry/update-1-palm-prices-outlook-revised-up-as-output-disappoints-b30-sparks-buying-idUSL3N27H262
UPDATE 1-Palm prices outlook revised up as output disappoints, B30 sparks buying

Indonesia, the world’s biggest palm oil producer, has a target of implementing a mandatory ‘B30’ programme - meaning biodiesel with 30% bio-content - from 2020.

That represents expansion from the ‘B20’ mandate for 20% bio-fuel content and would be the highest bio-content ever used in a transport fuel.

Biodiesel mandates are not only increasing in Indonesia, Fry said, but also in Malaysia and Thailand, driving overall demand.

Malaysia increased its biodiesel mandate to 10% from 7% last December, and aims to implement a ‘B20’ programme in 2020.

Fry estimated that European crude palm oil prices would climb to more than $700 per tonne in the first-quarter of 2020, as lower-than-expected output and use of supplies in biodiesel squeeze stocks, he said on Friday.

Palm oil prices could then surge to $750 per tonne in the second quarter.
"Para a Causa do Povo a Luta Continua!"
"And that's all I'm going to say about that". Forrest Gump
"Damn, I wanted to see what happened next" (Epitaph)

Sigmetnow

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 25763
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 1153
  • Likes Given: 430
Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #135 on: November 03, 2019, 01:19:15 AM »
Expect a lot of of tropical forests to be destroyed in the next few years as use of palm-oil for bio-diesel goes through the roof.
...

Palm oil is used in a huge variety of food and personal care products, manufacturers of which will doubtless find a way to switch to another option if palm oil prices rise significantly.
People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.

gerontocrat

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 20378
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 5289
  • Likes Given: 69
Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #136 on: November 05, 2019, 01:31:13 PM »
Expect a lot of of tropical forests to be destroyed in the next few years as use of palm-oil for bio-diesel goes through the roof.
...

Palm oil is used in a huge variety of food and personal care products, manufacturers of which will doubtless find a way to switch to another option if palm oil prices rise significantly.

And the world will buy products from destroyed forests, and from the crops grown on the land cleared, even if they are somewhat bloodstained.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/02/brazilian-forest-guardian-killed-by-illegal-loggers-in-ambush
Brazilian 'forest guardian' killed by illegal loggers in ambush
Paulo Paulino Guajajara was killed by armed loggers in the Araribóia region in Maranhão

Quote
A Brazilian indigenous land defender has been killed in an ambush by illegal loggers in an Amazon frontier region.

According to a statement by the Brazilian Indigenous Peoples Association, Paulo Paulino Guajajara was shot and killed inside the Araribóia indigenous territory in Maranhão state. Another tribesman, Laércio Guajajara, was also shot and hospitalised and a logger has been reported missing. No body has yet been recovered.

Sérgio Moro, the justice minister of far-right president Jair Bolsonaro’s government, confirmed that Brazil’s federal police were investigating the killing. “We will spare no effort to bring those responsible for this serious crime to justice,” he tweeted.

The tribesmen are members of an indigenous forest guard called Guardians of the Forest, which formed in 2012 to ward off logging gangs pillaging their rare, hardwood-rich reserve.

Their work involves armed patrols and destroying logging encampments and has earned them dangerous enemies. Several Guardians in Maranhão have been killed in recent years, including three from Araribóia.

According to Gilderlan Rodrigues, Maranhão regional coordinator of Brazil’s indigenous missionary council, the murdered tribesman had been threatened several times. “Their work bothers those that want to loot their territory,” he said, adding that the killers were from a nearby rural settlement and had entered the reserve without permission. “These criminal actions must be combated so that more lives are not lost.”
"Para a Causa do Povo a Luta Continua!"
"And that's all I'm going to say about that". Forrest Gump
"Damn, I wanted to see what happened next" (Epitaph)

nanning

  • Nilas ice
  • Posts: 2487
  • 0Kg CO₂, 37 KWh/wk,125L H₂O/wk, No offspring
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 273
  • Likes Given: 23170
Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #137 on: November 05, 2019, 06:08:37 PM »
Thank you for your high morality gerontocrat. Nice to also have your opinions and views (in addition to those on the deteriorating cryosphere).
not just your choice to post this article but your apparent morals :)
"It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents us from living freely and nobly" - Bertrand Russell
"It is preoccupation with what other people from your groups think of you, that prevents you from living freely and nobly" - Nanning
Why do you keep accumulating stuff?

vox_mundi

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 10165
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 3510
  • Likes Given: 745
Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #138 on: November 06, 2019, 05:52:55 PM »
Human Activities Are Drying Out the Amazon: NASA Study
https://phys.org/news/2019-11-human-amazon-nasa.html
https://ecostress.jpl.nasa.gov/news


The image shows the decline of moisture in the air over the Amazon rainforest, particularly across the south and southeastern Amazon, during the dry season months - August through October - from 1987 to 2016. The measurements are shown in millibars. https://ecostress.jpl.nasa.gov/news

A new NASA study shows that over the last 20 years, the atmosphere above the Amazon rainforest has been drying out, increasing the demand for water and leaving ecosystems vulnerable to fires and drought. It also shows that this increase in dryness is primarily the result of human activities.

... "We observed that in the last two decades, there has been a significant increase in dryness in the atmosphere as well as in the atmospheric demand for water above the rainforest," said JPL's Armineh Barkhordarian, lead author of the study. "In comparing this trend to data from models that estimate climate variability over thousands of years, we determined that the change in atmospheric aridity is well beyond what would be expected from natural climate variability."

... "It's a matter of supply and demand. With the increase in temperature and drying of the air above the trees, the trees need to transpire to cool themselves and to add more water vapor into the atmosphere. But the soil doesn't have extra water for the trees to pull in," said JPL's Sassan Saatchi, co-author of the study. "Our study shows that the demand is increasing, the supply is decreasing and if this continues, the forest may no longer be able to sustain itself."

Scientists observed that the most significant and systematic drying of the atmosphere is in the southeast region, where the bulk of deforestation and agricultural expansion is happening. But they also found episodic drying in the northwest Amazon, an area that typically has no dry season. Normally always wet, the northwest has suffered severe droughts over the past two decades, a further indication of the entire forest's vulnerability to increasing temperatures and dry air.

If this trend continues over the long term and the rainforest reaches the point where it can no longer function properly, many of the trees and the species that live within the rainforest ecosystem may not be able to survive. As the trees die, particularly the larger and older ones, they release CO2 into the atmosphere; and the fewer trees there are, the less CO2 the Amazon region would be able to absorb—meaning we'd essentially lose an important element of climate regulation.


Top: Detection of externally forced changes in Vapor Pressure Deficit (VPD) trends. Bottom: The effects of land surface and atmospheric conditions on VPD. https://ecostress.jpl.nasa.gov/news

Open Access: Armineh Barkhordarian, et.al. "A Recent Systematic Increase in Vapor Pressure Deficit Over Tropical South America," Scientific Reports, (2019)



----------------------------------

Drought-Stressed Forest Fueled Amazon Fires
https://phys.org/news/2019-11-drought-stressed-forest-fueled-amazon.html
https://ecostress.jpl.nasa.gov/news

A new satellite-based map of a section of the Amazon Basin reveals that at least some of the massive fires burning there this past summer were concentrated in water-stressed areas of the rainforest. The stressed plants released measurably less water vapor into the air than unstressed plants; in other words, they were struggling to stay cool and conserve water, leaving them more vulnerable to the fires.


NASA's ECOSTRESS sensor measured the stress levels of plants when it passed over the Peruvian Amazon rainforest on Aug. 7, 2019. The map reveals that the fires were concentrated in areas of water-stressed plants (brown). The pattern points to how plant health can impact the spread of fires https://ecostress.jpl.nasa.gov/news

... "To the naked eye, the fires appear randomly distributed throughout the forest," said Josh Fisher, ECOSTRESS science lead at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. "But, if you overlay the ECOSTRESS data, you can see that the fires are mainly confined within the highly water-stressed areas. The fires avoided the low-stress areas where the forest appears to have access to more water."

---------------------------------

NASA's ECOSTRESS Detects Amazon Fires From Space
https://phys.org/news/2019-08-nasa-ecostress-amazon-space.html

https://ecostress.jpl.nasa.gov/news
« Last Edit: November 06, 2019, 06:03:26 PM by vox_mundi »
“There are three classes of people: those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see.” ― anonymous

Insensible before the wave so soon released by callous fate. Affected most, they understand the least, and understanding, when it comes, invariably arrives too late

Hefaistos

  • Guest
Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #139 on: November 10, 2019, 01:48:09 PM »
An international team analyzed decades of experiments to globally map the potential of forests to increase their biomass and continue to absorb and store CO2 in the future.

A massive international science collaboration, the Global Forest Biodiversity Initiative, is what made the study possible. Through the initiative, researchers shared data from surveys of forests, woodlands, and savannas from every continent (except Antarctica) and ecosystem on Earth. The team fed the location of 31 million trees from the database, along with information about what symbiotic fungi or bacteria most often associates with those species, into a learning algorithm that determined how different variables such as climate, soil chemistry, vegetation and topography seem to influence the prevalence of each symbiosis.
https://www.iiasa.ac.at/web/home/about/news/190517-microbial-symbioses-in-forests.html

 Several individual experiments, such as fumigating forests with elevated levels of CO2 and growing plants in high CO2 chambers, have provided critical data but no definitive answer globally. To more accurately predict the capacity of vegetation to sequester CO2 in the future, the researchers synthesized data from all elevated CO2 experiments conducted so far – in grassland, shrubland, cropland, and forest systems – including ones they directed themselves.

The study results show that CO2 levels expected by the end of the century should increase plant biomass by 12%, enabling plants and trees to store more CO2 – an amount equivalent to six years of current fossil fuel emissions. The study highlights important partnerships trees forge with mycorrhizal fungi to help them take up the extra nitrogen and phosphorus they need to balance their additional CO2 intake.

https://www.iiasa.ac.at/web/home/about/news/190812-preserving-forests.html

Research paper in Nature just published relating ecosystem processes to the functioning of distinct types of mycorrhizas on a global scale. It is not only about forests. Open access.
"Global mycorrhizal plant distribution linked to terrestrial carbon stocks"
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-13019-2

Figure byline: Percentage of aboveground plant biomass of mycorrhizal vegetation. a Arbuscular mycorrhizal plants, b ectomycorrhizal plants, c ericoid mycorrhizal plants, and d non-mycorrhizal plants. The map resolution is 10 arcmin.

kassy

  • Moderator
  • First-year ice
  • Posts: 8235
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 2041
  • Likes Given: 1986
Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #140 on: December 08, 2019, 11:31:09 PM »
Quote
Twee inheemse mannen zijn zondag vanuit een auto doodgeschoten in het Amazonewoud in het noordoosten van Brazilië, melden lokale autoriteiten. De slachtoffers zijn onderdeel van de Guajajara-stam

...

De plek waar de schutters het vuur openden, ligt niet ver van waar vorige maand Paulo Paulino Guajajara werd omgebracht. Hij was een prominent hoofd van de stam die zich inzette tegen illegale ontbossing.

https://www.nu.nl/buitenland/6016307/twee-inheemse-mannen-gedood-bij-drive-by-in-braziliaanse-amazone.html

Two men were killed in a drive by shooting in the Amazon. They were members of the Guajajara tribe which is protecting the forest (which is also their home, k). The spot was not far from the stop where one of their prominent leaders was killed.

Possibly some pressure will be applied by not signing the Mercosur trade agreement.

Þetta minnismerki er til vitnis um að við vitum hvað er að gerast og hvað þarf að gera. Aðeins þú veist hvort við gerðum eitthvað.

gerontocrat

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 20378
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 5289
  • Likes Given: 69
Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #141 on: December 09, 2019, 12:23:11 PM »
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union%E2%80%93Mercosur_free_trade_agreement
European Union–Mercosur free trade agreement

Blindly continuing down the path of mutually assured destruction......

It is just possible that the actions of Bolsonaro will force the EU to think again. Hope dies last.
Quote
According to Jonathan Watts ‘negotiations took almost two decades, which may explain why the outcome signed last week reflects the pro-industry values of the past rather than the environmental concerns of the present’.[12] An editorial in The Irish Times states “EU countries are committing to achieving net-zero carbon by 2050, but this will prove meaningless if the planet’s greatest carbon sink is destroyed.”

The deal is expected to trigger a huge surge of Brazilian beef exports to all EU countries.[8][12] Under the agreement, the EU will open its markets to a quota of up to 99,000 tonnes of beef per year at a preferential rate of 7.5% tariffs.

Cattle farming is the single largest driver of Amazon deforestation, and has been responsible for as much as 80% of the deforestation

Opposition
The deal has been denounced by European beef farmers, environmental activists and indigenous rights campaigners.[5][9] Protests against the deal have taken place.[5][10] After Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro received much criticism concerning the protection of the Amazon rain forest, both Ireland and France voiced concern, and threatened a veto on the agreement unless action is taken by the Brazilian government.[11]

European farmers
The deal is expected to trigger a huge surge of Brazilian beef exports to all EU countries.[8][12] Under the agreement, the EU will open its markets to a quota of up to 99,000 tonnes of beef per year at a preferential rate of 7.5% tariffs.[5] Farmers throughout the EU oppose this, particularly smaller farmers who fear being undercut on price.[5] The COPA-COGECA union, which represents 23 million farmers across the EU, warned the deal “will go down in history as a very dark moment”.[5] The Irish Farmers' Association denounced the deal as a “disgraceful and feeble sell-out”.[13]

Of concern also is the potential environmental impact of the agreement, in particular that it could represent a setback in the fight against climate change.[12] The Amazon rainforest is one of the world's largest carbon sinks.[14] But the amount of carbon that the Amazon is absorbing from the atmosphere and storing each year has fallen by around a third in the last decade.[15] This decline in the Amazon carbon sink amounts to one billion tonnes of carbon dioxide – equivalent to over twice the UK’s annual emissions.[15] Since the election of Jair Bolsonaro as President of Brazil deforestation of the Amazon has intensified.[12] The deforestation of the Amazon is now at its highest rate in a decade, with 2018 seeing a 13% increase in deforestation.[12]

Cattle farming is the single largest driver of Amazon deforestation, and has been responsible for as much as 80% of the deforestation.[12][16] The current increased rate of rainforest destruction comes at a time of record beef exports from Brazil.[12] The fear is that the deal could lead to even more deforestation as it expands market access to Brazilian beef.
"Para a Causa do Povo a Luta Continua!"
"And that's all I'm going to say about that". Forrest Gump
"Damn, I wanted to see what happened next" (Epitaph)

kassy

  • Moderator
  • First-year ice
  • Posts: 8235
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 2041
  • Likes Given: 1986
Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #142 on: December 10, 2019, 02:39:51 PM »
Then ofc there are other plans...


A report presented at COP25 says that plans are in place for a huge expansion of oil drilling in the upper Amazon.

The analysis says that Ecuador and Peru are set to sanction oil extraction across an area of forest the size of Italy.

...

The area in question is known as the sacred headwaters of the upper Amazon and spans some 30 million hectares (74 million acres) in Ecuador and Peru.

The region is home to around 500,000 indigenous peoples from 20 nationalities, and is a hotspot of biodiversity.

But a report prepared by campaign group, Amazon Watch, says that Ecuador and Peru are actively planning to expand extraction and auction new oil blocks across the area.

Right now this is a pristine area, with few roads. The indigenous people have title to these lands and in the area several tribes are living in voluntary isolation. Campaigners fear that if the oil blocks are sold it will see new roads built, which will lead to illegal logging, deforestation and poor outcomes for the residents of the region.

Ecuador is due to leave the OPEC oil consortium in 2020, allowing it to boost its oil production. The country is also under pressure from China to supply oil because of financial debts.

"There's about $14bn that Ecuador owes China right now and that's a big part of the drive to expand production and look for new oil," said Kevin Koenig, from Amazon Watch who authored the report.

"In addition there are about $6bn in hidden debt in these oil for loan deals between PetroChina and Petroecuador which Ecuador is paying in barrels of oil."

It's estimated that around five billion barrels of oils are to be found in the upper Amazon region, which would equate to two billion metric tonnes of CO2.

For all details see the full article:
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-50719386

We really need a worldwide effort to save areas like these. Not that i expect any.  >:(
Þetta minnismerki er til vitnis um að við vitum hvað er að gerast og hvað þarf að gera. Aðeins þú veist hvort við gerðum eitthvað.

nanning

  • Nilas ice
  • Posts: 2487
  • 0Kg CO₂, 37 KWh/wk,125L H₂O/wk, No offspring
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 273
  • Likes Given: 23170
Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #143 on: December 13, 2019, 07:55:27 AM »
Australia's bushfires have emitted 250m tonnes of CO2, almost half of country's annual emissions

Exclusive: forest regrowth can reabsorb emissions from fires but scientists fear natural carbon ‘sinks’ have been compromised

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/dec/13/australias-bushfires-have-emitted-250m-tonnes-of-co2-almost-half-of-countrys-annual-emissions
  by Graham Readfearn


  Excerpts:
Analysis by Nasa shows the NSW fires have emitted about 195m tonnes of CO2 since 1 August, with Queensland’s fires adding a further 55m tonnes over the same period.

In 2018, Australia’s entire greenhouse gas footprint was 532m tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent.

Experts say the pulse of CO2 from this season’s bushfires is significant, because even under normal conditions it could take decades for forest regrowth to reabsorb the emissions.

But scientists have expressed doubt that forests already under drought stress would be able to reabsorb all the emissions back into soils and branches, and said the natural carbon “sinks” of forests could be compromised.

More than 2.7m hectares of land has been burned in this NSW bushfire season, with authorities warning there will be more fires with little prospect of rain in coming months.

Emissions from bushfires are considered to be neutral because when forests regrow after fires, they absorb a similar amount of CO2 as they did when they burned.
"It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents us from living freely and nobly" - Bertrand Russell
"It is preoccupation with what other people from your groups think of you, that prevents you from living freely and nobly" - Nanning
Why do you keep accumulating stuff?

El Cid

  • Young ice
  • Posts: 2507
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 923
  • Likes Given: 225
Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #144 on: December 13, 2019, 08:01:22 AM »
You must realize though, that Australians consciously burn some part of the vegetation every year to stop the creation of real big fires. Moreover, this has been a practice for thousands of years! There is plenty of smoke and fire every year there

gerontocrat

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 20378
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 5289
  • Likes Given: 69
Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #145 on: December 14, 2019, 01:14:50 PM »
You must realize though, that Australians consciously burn some part of the vegetation every year to stop the creation of real big fires. Moreover, this has been a practice for thousands of years! There is plenty of smoke and fire every year there

The aborigines did not farm. It was mostly lightning strikes from dry electrical storms.

You would not be suggesting, perchance, that this year is not that unusual?

Because just about nobody else does, (except perhaps the Aussie Government & the usual assorted deniers, apologists etc)
"Para a Causa do Povo a Luta Continua!"
"And that's all I'm going to say about that". Forrest Gump
"Damn, I wanted to see what happened next" (Epitaph)

gerontocrat

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 20378
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 5289
  • Likes Given: 69
Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #146 on: December 14, 2019, 01:19:30 PM »
Unstoppable?

Brazil's Amazon deforestation this year nearly size of Puerto Rico, says agency
Destruction of the world’s largest tropical rainforest in November more than doubled the same period last year

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/dec/14/brazils-amazon-deforestation-this-year-nearly-size-of-puerto-rico-says-agency

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/dec/14/indigenous-boy-15-murdered-on-brazils-amazon-border
Indigenous boy, 15, murdered on Brazil's Amazon border
Erisvan Soares Guajajara’s body was found with knife wounds in Maranhão region

Quote
A 15-year-old indigenous boy has been murdered in Brazil on the edge of a heavily deforested indigenous reserve in the state of Maranhão, on the fringes of the Amazon.

The murder, the fourth from the Guajajara tribe in recent weeks, came as a wave of racist abuse against indigenous people swept social media in the state.

The Indigenous Missionary Council(CIMI), a non-profit group reported that Erisvan Soares Guajajara’s body was found with knife wounds on Friday in Amarante do Maranhão. The group said he had travelled to the town, on the edge of the Araribóia indigenous reserve, with his father. The G1 news site reported that a non-indigenous man called Roberto Silva, 31, was also killed with Erisvan and that both died in the early hours of Friday at a party in an area called Vila Industrial.

“Another brutal crime against the Guajajara people,” tweeted Sonia Guajajara, a leader from the same tribe and reserve who is executive coordinator of Brazilian indigenous association ABIP. “Everyone who doesn’t like us feels allowed to kill because they know impunity rules. It’s time to say ENOUGH.”

Murders of indigenous people soared 23% in 2018, according to CIMI figures, and land invasions have risen since far-right president Jair Bolsonaro took office in January. He has compared indigenous people living on reserves to “prehistoric men” and said their lands should be developed.
"Para a Causa do Povo a Luta Continua!"
"And that's all I'm going to say about that". Forrest Gump
"Damn, I wanted to see what happened next" (Epitaph)

El Cid

  • Young ice
  • Posts: 2507
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 923
  • Likes Given: 225
Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #147 on: December 14, 2019, 01:57:43 PM »
You must realize though, that Australians consciously burn some part of the vegetation every year to stop the creation of real big fires. Moreover, this has been a practice for thousands of years! There is plenty of smoke and fire every year there

The aborigines did not farm. It was mostly lightning strikes from dry electrical storms.

NOT AT ALL! See (as i personally saw it done - this was a widespread practice) :

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire-stick_farming

"Fire-stick farming, also known as cultural burning,[1][2][3][4] is the practice of Indigenous Australians regularly using fire to burn vegetation. While it has been discontinued in many parts of Australia, it has been reintroduced to Indigenous groups[5][1][3] by the teachings of custodians from areas where the practice is extant in continous unbroken tradition.[6][5] There are a number of purposes, including to facilitate hunting, to change the composition of plant and animal species in an area,[5][4] weed control,[5][4] hazard reduction,[1][4] and increase of biodiversity.[5] Fire-stick farming had the long-term effect of turning dry forest into savannah, increasing the population of nonspecific grass-eating species like the kangaroo.
One theory of the extinction of Australian megafauna implicates the ecological disturbance caused by fire-stick farming.[7]

In the resultant sclerophyll forests, fire-stick farming maintained an open canopy and allowed germination of understory plants necessary for increasing the carrying capacity of the local environment for browsing and grazing marsupials. "

El Cid

  • Young ice
  • Posts: 2507
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 923
  • Likes Given: 225
Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #148 on: December 14, 2019, 02:00:22 PM »
Furthermore: The aboroginals created pretty large scale climate change by burning the forest!

https://theconversation.com/how-aboriginal-burning-changed-australias-climate-4454

"...We showed that the climate responded significantly to reduced vegetation cover in the pre-monsoon season. We found decreases in rainfall, higher surface and ground temperatures and enhanced atmospheric stability. In other words, there was a decline in the strength of the early monsoon “phase”.

The results of the experiment lead us to suggest that by burning forests in northwestern Australia, Aboriginals altered the local climate. They effectively extended the dry season and delayed the start of the monsoon season...."

nanning

  • Nilas ice
  • Posts: 2487
  • 0Kg CO₂, 37 KWh/wk,125L H₂O/wk, No offspring
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 273
  • Likes Given: 23170
Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #149 on: December 14, 2019, 04:54:09 PM »
Hypothetical situation:
"I can't handle this. It must not be true that only civilisation is destroying all the forests, all life. I must find ways to water down all the good talk about those wild savages. To convince them that the savages are not better than us! Aarrgg. CAN'T be better than us. Impossible! I must convince them that us is all there is. Aaarrgg! it can't be trueee!"
"It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents us from living freely and nobly" - Bertrand Russell
"It is preoccupation with what other people from your groups think of you, that prevents you from living freely and nobly" - Nanning
Why do you keep accumulating stuff?