Staff / TruthdigApr 27, 2012
Critics say a new White House-sponsored program aimed at encouraging the development of “green solutions" to energy and manufacturing problems is a green light for corporate giants like Exxon Mobil, BP, Chevron, Monsanto and Dow to develop the “bioscience” industry without government oversight. Dig deeper ( 2 Min. Read )
Staff / TruthdigApr 23, 2012
Terrorized by gunmen, loggers, drug traffickers and encroaching farmers, the 355 surviving members of the Amazonian Awá tribe face extinction if the Brazilian government and the international community fail to protect them from what a Brazilian judge termed "a real genocide." Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )
Staff / TruthdigJan 2, 2012
Readers of Jared Diamond's "Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed" know that deforestation comes right before people eating each other to survive, so it is some relief that Brazil is sending armed officers into the Amazon to stop illegal logging. It's a war, says the BBC, and the environmentalists are winning. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )
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Christopher Ketcham / TruthdigSep 28, 2011
Cows are terribly destructive creatures, the cause of species extinction, topsoil loss, deforestation and desertification. There's an alternative you've probably never considered. Dig deeper ( 7 Min. Read )
Staff / TruthdigMay 20, 2011
Following a period that saw "the lowest level of deforestation in the history of Amazonia," Brazilian plant life and all things dependent upon it met a sudden reversal of fortune when slash-and-burn practices in the rain forest increased 27 percent over the past winter. (more) Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )
Staff / TruthdigMay 13, 2011
Echoing the now-weary warnings of scientists, environmentalists and other well-meaning people, a United Nations report released Thursday says: “By 2050, humanity could devour an estimated 140 billion tons of minerals, ores, fossil fuels and biomass per year -- three times its current appetite -- unless the economic growth rate is ‘decoupled’ from the rate of natural resource consumption.” Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )
Staff / TruthdigOct 25, 2010
Olive trees are a symbol of the long history of many Palestinian families, and some Israeli settlers have now launched assaults on the trees, cutting down and torching them and at times attacking farmers in what many observers believe is part of a crescendo of settler militancy. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )
Joe Conason / TruthdigJun 24, 2010
What would the wealthy nations of the West (and their rising rivals in the East) do if they actually wanted to prevent catastrophic warming? Here in Africa, the obvious answer is that they would find the ways and means to discourage deforestation. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )
Staff / TruthdigFeb 9, 2010
During her speech at a logging conference in Redding, Calif., on Monday, Sarah Palin criticized California's environmental regulations, pointed to her polar-bear-related lawsuit against the federal government, and compared certain global warming research to "snake oil science." Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )
Peter Z. Scheer / TruthdigDec 16, 2009
The film industry has produced no shortage of spectacles over the last hundred years, from "Ben Hur" to "Star Wars." In terms of technological sorcery and visual wonder, James Cameron's "Avatar" now ranks chief among them. Dig deeper ( 6 Min. Read )
Staff / TruthdigNov 28, 2009
Citing the fact that industrialized countries cause much more environmental destruction than loggers and farmers in the Amazon, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has called on Western countries -- "gringos" -- to help halt deforestation. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )
Staff / TruthdigOct 6, 2009
The U.N. is pioneering a carbon market that would allow rich countries to pay poor countries not to cut down forests. It's just the kind of feel-good program that could save the planet -- or make loggers and organized criminals filthy rich. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )
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