Planet Earth: bye bye green
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Scientists say the greening effects from rising levels of carbon dioxide might be over. The world is gradually becoming less green, scientists have found. Plant growth is declining all over the planet, and new research links the phenomenon to decreasing moisture in the air—a consequence of climate change. The study published in Science Advances points to satellite observations that revealed expanding vegetation worldwide during much of the 1980s and 1990s. But then, about 20 years ago, the trend stopped. Since then, more than half of the world’s vegetated landscapes have been experiencing a “browning” trend, or decrease in plant growth, according to the authors.
Wildfires spread in Siberia
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Hundreds of wildfires are torching huge swaths of Siberia after an unusually hot and dry summer left forests primed to burn. The blazes, likely ignited by lightning and strengthened by strong winds, have already burned more than 320,000 square kilometres, an area as large as Belgium, with the vast majority in areas that are hard to reach and where potential damage is likely to be less than the cost of fighting them.
Land defender violently killed by a security guard of a Canadian palm oil company in the DR Congo
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A member of the Congolese environmental and human rights organisation RIAO-RDC was brutally killed by a security guard of the Canadian palm oil company Feronia Inc. on Sunday, July 21, 2019, near the company’s Boteka plantations in Bempumba, Eqauteur Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The killing follows months of intimidation directed by the company at members of RIAO-RDC, who are supporting local communities in filing a grievance against the company for its occupation of their lands.
Tree plantation wildfires in Spain are a warning sign
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Temperatures have peaked record high in many parts of Europe this week and the consequences are directly felt also in Europe’s forests. As highlighted in a discussion document published by the EPNearlier this year, there’s an increasingly clear link between climate change, large scale industrial tree plantations and forest fires.
Eating forests
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In a decade big consumer brands caused forest twice size of UK destroyed, to be replaced with soy or oil palm plantations and livestock farms. According to a report released by Greenpeace, “Countdown to extincion”, these brands had committed to eliminating deforestation by 2020. A commitment that that has remained on the paper.