Details: Published: 19 September 2019

We are living in the beginning of a mass extinction.

**Greta Thunberg and George Montbiot have a message for YOU - watch the video below.**

Our climate is breaking down.

Environmental activists Greta Thunberg and George Monbiot have helped produce a short film (*) highlighting the need to protect, restore and engage nature to tackle the climate crisis.

Their message: To survive we need to stop burning fossil fuels, but this alone will not be enough.

We can engage nature to repair our broken climate.

But the crazy thing is that we are spending 1000 times more on global fossil fuel subsidies than on nature based solutions.

Living ecosystems like forests, mangroves, swamps and seabeds can pull enormous quantities of carbon from the air and store them safely, but natural climate solutions currently receive only 2% of the funding spent on cutting emissions.

Deforestation increase dovetails with armed conflict in Colombia, study finds

Coca causes armed conflict, death and destruction also to forests.
Burned land and roads in the middle of the Amazon. Picture courtesy of the Foundation for Conservation and Sustainable Development (FCDS).

By Antonio José Paz Cardona (*) - 18. September 2019

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.

Many of the world’s armed conflicts occur in areas with high biodiversity, according to a 2009 study published in Biological Conservation. The study found that more than 80 percent of such conflicts occurred in biodiversity hotspots, yet their impact on flora and fauna have rarely been studied since.

Details: Published: 18 September 2019

King Leopold's ghost still haunts the Congo

Genocide and ecocide still persist in Congo since 150 years.

By CaspianReport (video) - 18. Sptember 2019

In the heart of Africa lies a country called today the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

It is a vast country with lush forests, vigorous rivers, and incredible riches such as gold, timber, uranium, cobalt, diamond, and other riches.

These natural resources have inspired a most unnatural history of greed and violence.

While other African nations have somehow come to terms with a history of exploitation and colonisation, the Congo continues to relive the unshakable legacy of one man - King Leopold II of Belgium, whose ventures cost the lives of some 10 million people in the heart of Africa.

WATCH these Videos:

Axis Brazil/Bolsonaro-Pompeo/USA at the centre of ecocide

Deforestation in the Amazon basin in Colniza, Mato Grosso state, Brazil, on 29 August. Photograph: Mayke Toscano/AFP/Getty Images

Amazon deforestation is driven by criminal networks, report finds

Criminals threaten and attack government officials, forest defenders and indigenous people, also Human Rights Watch finds

By Dom Phillips - TG - 17. September 2019

Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon is a lucrative business largely driven by criminal networks that threaten and attack government officials, forest defenders and indigenous people who try to stop them, according to a new report by Human Rights Watch.

Rainforest Mafias concludes that Brazil’s failure to police these gangs threatens its abilities to meet its commitments under the Paris climate deal – such as eliminating illegal deforestation by 2030. It was published a week before the UN Climate Action Summit.

Details: Published: 17 September 2019

Leading burger supplier sourced from Amazon farmer using deforested land

A burger - source of much evil in the Amazon. Credit: Shutterstock

Brazilian meat company which has supplied McDonald’s and Burger King bought cattle from farm using deforested land earlier this year, investigation shows.

By 2030, when McDonald's wants to finally have eliminated deforestation from its global supply chains, the Amazon forests might have gone - being exterminated already.

By Andrew Wasley, Alexandra Heal and André Campos in São Paulo - TG - 17. September 2019

The world’s biggest supplier of burgers sourced meat from a farmer in the Amazon who had been found guilty of using deforested land, say reports, even as new figures reveal the beef industry’s deforestation risks.

Marfrig, a Brazilian meat company that has supplied McDonald’s, Burger King and other fast-food chains around the world, bought cattle from a farm that had been using deforested land earlier this year, according to a joint investigation by Repórter Brasil and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (see below).

Details: Published: 17 September 2019

Brazil: Criminal Networks Target Rainforest Defenders

Local communities of Indigenous peoples are threatened to be exterminated by the genocide that comes along with the ecocide of Amazon deforestation, mining, ranching and farming.

Violence and Impunity Endanger Climate Change Commitment

By HRW - September 17, 2019 - Español/Português

Rainforest Mafias: How Violence and Impunity Fuel Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon

Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon is driven largely by criminal networks that use violence and intimidation against those who try to stop them, and the government is failing to protect both the defenders and the rainforest itself.

(São Paulo) – Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon is driven largely by criminal networks that use violence and intimidation against those who try to stop them, and the government is failing to protect both the defenders and the rainforest itself, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.

$1m a minute: the farming subsidies destroying the world

Farm subsidies are and always have been very destructive to the economy and the environment. They usually are just bribes by the ruling government to secure votes for the next election.

By Damian Carrington (*) - 16. Sep 2019

Perverse’ payments must be redirected to measures such as capturing carbon, report says

The public is providing more than $1m per minute in global farm subsidies, much of which is driving the climate crisis and destruction of wildlife, according to a new report.

Just 1% of the $700bn (£560bn) a year given to farmers is used to benefit the environment, the analysis found. Much of the total instead promotes high-emission cattle production, forest destruction and pollution from the overuse of fertiliser.

The security of humanity is at risk without reform to these subsidies, a big reduction in meat eating in rich nations and other damaging uses of land, the report says. But redirecting the subsidies to storing carbon in soil, producing healthier food, cutting waste and growing trees is a huge opportunity, it says.

Details: Published: 15 September 2019

How climate change caused the world’s first ever empire to collapse

An ancient artefact from the Iraq Museum in Baghdad Image: REUTERS/ Petr Josek Snr

By Vasile Ersek (*) - 09. Jan 2019

Gol-e-Zard Cave lies in the shadow of Mount Damavand, which at more than 5,000 metres dominates the landscape of northern Iran.

In this cave, stalagmites and stalactites are growing slowly over millennia and preserve in them clues about past climate events. Changes in stalagmite chemistry from this cave have now linked the collapse of the Akkadian Empire to climate changes more than 4,000 years ago.

Details: Published: 15 September 2019

Join the climate strikes this September

Start or Join a Climate Strike

15.08.2019 - updated 15.09.2019

Fighting climate breakdown is about much more than emissions and scientific metrics – it’s about fighting for a just and sustainable world that works for all of us. If we are going to fight for this, we need everyone.

When the planet we love is under attack – STAND UP, FIGHT BACK.

THERE IS NO PLANET B !!!

Our house is on fire: sound the alarm. The time has come for multigenerational action against climate breakdown. We must follow alongside the youth who have been leading the way this year

This September, millions of us will walk out of our workplaces and homes to join young climate strikers on the streets and demand an end to the age of fossil fuels.

Our house is on fire — let’s act like it. We demand climate justice for everyone.

Join young people in the streets for global climate strikes and a week of actions to demand an end to the age of fossil fuels and to achieve climate justice for everyone.

Start or Join a Climate Strike

in the timeframe of the Global Climate Strike → Sep. 20–27, 2019

Pick your country =>

Brazil's Amazon Chief Raoni tapped for 2020 Nobel Peace Prize nomination

**STOP DESTROYING THE AMAZON FOREST, THE ECOSYSTEM, OUR HOME -** Chief Raoni

By Reuters - 14 September 2019

BRASILIA (Reuters) - A group of Brazilian anthropologists and environmentalists has put forward Chief Raoni Metuktire of the Kayapó tribe as a candidate for the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize for a lifetime of work protecting the Amazon rainforest.

Raoni, an unmistakable Amazon icon with his large lip plate, yellow macaw-feather headdress and ear rings, became known internationally as an environmental campaigner in the 1980s with musician Sting at his side.

At 89, Raoni took to the road again this year seeking help to stop a surge in fires destroying the forest, which he has blamed on the plans of right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro to develop the Amazon economically and assimilate its indigenous people.

Details: Published: 14 September 2019

The 5G Electromagnetic “Mad Zone” Poised to Self-Destruct: The 5G “Dementors” Meet the 4G “Zombie Apocalypse”

***How did we come to be in this 5G mad zone?***

Incisive research and carefully documented analysis of the impacts of 5G Electromagnetic Radiation

By Claire Edwards - GR - 14. September 2019

The entities rolling out 5G are tormenting humanity and sucking their humanity from them by taking their minds and their health, while on the other side, you have the zombie apocalypse of all the people with their 4G cell phones, blindly going about destroying the world.

The 4G zombie apocalypse lot have to wake up. They need to wake up now before it is too late and time is of the essence.

Details: Published: 14 September 2019

'Going to the streets again': what you need to know about Friday's climate strike

There will be massive turnout on 20. Sptember in Australia for the Climate Strike.
School students took part in the global Climate Strike rally in Brisbane in March. Australian school students are set to walk out of classrooms again to call for climate action as part of a global strike three days before a UN summit. Photograph: Dan Peled/AAP

Organisers expect a stronger presence from unions, workers and companies as student activists reach out to adults

By Lisa Cox - TG - 14 Sep 2019

Thousands of Australian school students are again preparing to walk out of classrooms across the country to demand action on the climate crisis.

The global mass day of action will take place on Friday 20 September, three days before the United Nations climate summit in New York.

It follows strikes in March this year in which 150,000 people marched in Australia and 1.5 million took part worldwide.

Organisers expect next week’s global strikes will be bigger and, this time there will be a much stronger presence from unions, workers and companies that have signed up to strike in solidarity with the young activists.

Here’s a guide to what’s happening.

Details: Published: 14 September 2019

Can a 4,815-Mile Wall of Trees Help Curb Climate Change in Africa?

The Great Green Wall project runs 4,815 miles

By TIME | JIC Media - 14. September 2019

The seedlings are ready. One hundred and fifty thousand shoots of drought-resistant acacia, hardy baobab and Moringa spill out of their black plastic casings. The ground has been prepared with scores of kilometer-long furrows leading to a horizon studded with skeletal thorn trees.

It’s early August, and in less than a week, 399 volunteers from 27 countries will arrive in this remote corner of northern Senegal to participate in one of the world’s most audacious efforts to combat the effects of climate change: an $8 billion plan to reforest 247 million acres of degraded land across the width of Africa, stretching from Dakar to Djibouti.

Republic of Congo to get US$65 million from the Central African Forest Initiative. Will it stop deforestation?

Deforestation Congo Brazzaville style

Not a chance!

By Chris Lang - 13 September 2019

Last week, the President of the Republic of Congo, Denis Sassou Nguesso, flew to Paris in a hired Boeing 787 Dreamliner, one of the most luxurious planes in the world. Le Figaro estimates that a one-way flight from Brazzaville to Paris would cost about US$500,000. Needless to say, Sassou Nguesso’s wife, Antoinette, travelled with him.

Sassou Nguesso’s first meeting was with France’s President, Emmanuel Macron, to discuss the protection of the Congo Basin’s rainforests.

Details: Published: 13 September 2019

But it also must be clear that the approach: "First you destroy it for your own greedy benefit and then you can try to restore it with global funding and will be able to cash in on both" can no longer be the name of the game or allowed.

Land restoration in Latin America shows big potential for climate change mitigation

By Erika Romijn et al. - 13. Sep 2019

Deforestation and Amazon fires grab headlines but 150-plus restoration projects in Latin America show where considerable advances at tackling climate change are happening.

Land restoration in Latin America and the Caribbean is picking up pace and scaling up projects will help the region meet its pledges under the Bonn Challenge, which aims to restore 350 million hectares of degraded and deforested land worldwide by 2030. A new study led by the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) and Wageningen University supplies a first map of restoration projects in Latin America and shows their potential to mitigate climate change through restoring forests.

Details: Published: 13 September 2019

AfDB ‘s Solar Project Aims at Making Africa a Renewable Power House

By Razeena Raheem - 13. September 2019

UNITED NATIONS (IPS) - When UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres launched the International Solar Alliance last October, he applauded the goal of mobilizing about $1 trillion dollars towards the deployment of some 1,000 gigawatts of solar energy by 2030.

“It is clear,” he said, “that we are witnessing a global renewable energy revolution.”

That revolution is also taking place under the leadership of the African Development Bank (AfDB) which has embarked on a highly ambitious solar project to make Africa a renewable power-house, titled “Desert to Power (DtP) Initiative”.

This project is expected to stretch across the Sahel region by tapping into the region’s abundant solar resource.

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