Amazon fires: deforestation has a devastating heating impact on the local climate – new study
The Amazon is under threat from all sides. Over recent weeks, unprecedented blazes have spread through an ecosystem not adapted to fire. Much has been made of the consequences of these fires for global heating – but at a local level, the effects could be even more severe.
While it’s too soon to establish the cause of the Amazon fires with certainty, levels of burning and deforestation are closely linked. Cut vegetation is routinely set alight to create cattle ranches and support land claims, in some cases sparking uncontrolled wildfires.
Kenya recently launched the Lake Turkana Wind Power project, Africa’s largest wind energy project and the biggest public-private investment in Kenyan history. The wind farm will produce 300MW of low-cost renewable energy for Kenya’s national grid.
Kenya is already a leader in green energy; 70% of its electricity comes from renewable sources, all part of the government’s plans to promote renewable energy in line with the national development strategy, Vision 2030. The Lake Turkana Wind Power project is a key component of this vision.
Lake Turkana Wind Power project occupies a vast concession of over 607km2. The wind farm development occupies 162 km2 of that larger concession. It’s located in the Sarima valley in Marsabit County, northern Kenya, on the shores of Lake Turkana. This is a long neglected part of the country and the communities living there have been deeply ambivalent towards the project.
The Amazon fire crisis has been 500 years in the making – as Brazil’s Indigenous people know only too well
São Paulo – the largest city in the Americas – was recently plunged into darkness in the middle of the day due to smoke from the Amazon rainforest burning more than 2,700km (1,700 miles) away.
These fires have brought global attention to the forests of South America, but the crisis surrounding them has deep roots. To understand what is happening in the Amazon today, it’s necessary to understand how deeply exploitation of the forest, and the Indigenous peoples who live within it, are ingrained in the global economy.
The first Portuguese explorers arrived in Brazil on April 22 1500. The region didn’t at first appear to offer the gold or silver that was to make Central America a tempting target for colonisers, but it did present a more obvious asset: vast forests with a seemingly inexhaustible supply of timber.
By Raoni Metuktire (*) - TG - 0
You destroy our lands, poison the planet and sow death, because you are lost. And soon it will be too late to change
For many years we, the indigenous leaders and peoples of the Amazon, have been warning you, our brothers who have brought so much damage to our forests. What you are doing will change the whole world and will destroy our home – and it will destroy your home too.
We have set aside our divided history to come together. Only a generation ago, many of our First Nations were fighting each other, but now we are together, fighting together against our common enemy. And that common enemy is you, the non-indigenous peoples who have invaded our lands and are now burning even those small parts of the forests where we live that you have left for us. President Bolsonaro of Brazil is encouraging the farm owners near our lands to clear the forest – and he is not doing anything to prevent them from invading our territory.
By Vincent Schilling - 02. September 2019
The First Nations Youth Suicide Prevention Curriculum program provides helpful online sources for teachers that are culturally helpful and relevant
There is an online program and curriculum resource for teachers that might be dealing with the difficulties of suicide among First Nations students.
Providing an expansive, accessible and downloadable curriculum that will “promote resilience and instill hope amongst First Nations youth,” the First Nations Youth Suicide Prevention program offers online sources and lesson plans for teachers as well as contemporary and culturally-relevant learning materials for students.
By Hanna Yael Gabay (*) -
There is no denying that our planet is undergoing a severe, if not fatal, transformation. We are living in times of ecosystem collapse, and the concern of no longer being able to drink nor breath in our lifetime ourselves, has now replaced the previous drive to leave our children a healthy planet. So how has all of this come about, despite the hype and rise in ecological awareness.
I believe this is a combination of several factors, and judging from the articles I have recently come across, my theory may not be as far fetched from the truth as I may have thought. The greatest ecological treasures, and what is providing the earth oxygen and trapping some nitrogen dioxide, are disappearing. What/who is responsible for this destruction?
Let us take a look at the Great Barrier Reef and Australia's land: Australia clears land for animal agriculture on a massive scale, causing the Great Barrier Reef to die off (manure run-off and climate change). Farmers are unwilling to provide data for the Great Barrier Reef water cleanup program 1. According to a chart from Mercando, approximately 74% of the animals bred and raised in Australia are exported, either in live exports (12.5%) or as meat after processing (61%) 2. The Australian government refuses to release data of live export animals on board a ship bound for the Middle East, saying it could be used selectively to lobby for a ban on the live export trade 3. Imagine how much land and water could have been saved from ecological disaster if the live export trade was banned, and meat industries were severely taxed.
By Nikolai Malishevski - Strategic Culture Foundation - 8. August 2012 - Global Research, August 31, 2019
Of relevance to an understanding of America’s military and economic agenda in Afghanistan. First published on August 2012
Curious information surfaced in the media [2012] – based on space reconnaissance, the US Department of Defense put together a map of Afghanistan showing in detail the country’s mineral riches which, as it transpired, may be quite impressive.
The fact that Afghanistan sits on lucrative natural resources was recognized indirectly back in 2010 when the Afghan ministry of mines rolled out a $1b (!) estimate of what the country might have, and The New York Times quoted a source in the US Administration as saying that Afghanistan’s list of reserves included copper, gold, cobalt, and even lithium on which the present-day industry is heavily dependent. A Pentagon memo actually described Afghanistan’s potential lithium holdings as big enough to make it the “Saudi Arabia of lithium”. Somehow, the news flew below the radars of most watchers worldwide.
By RNZ - 31 August 2019
An Australia-based human rights group and others the world over have condemned the fatal shooting of West Papuan protesters by Indonesian security forces this week.
This comes amid widespread protests in cities and towns across Papua region which began almost two weeks ago as anti-racism rallies but have developed into the biggest West Papuan pro-independence demonstrations seen in decades.
Reports filtering out from Deiyai regency have described a large public rally being met with a heavy handed response by Indonesian security forces.
The world’s largest institutional investor with US $6.5 trillion in assets is a global leader in financing forest destruction, new report says
By DTE Staff (*) - 31 August 2019
With the Amazon going down in flames, a report released on August 30, 2019 claimed that BlackRock Inc — the world’s largest institutional investor with $6.84 trillion in assets under management (AUM) — was heavily invested in companies most responsible for the destruction of tropical forests in the Amazon and around the world.
Denver, August 30, 2019 — Crimes Against The Future, a wide-ranging environmental documentary, will have its U.S. national broadcast premiere on Wednesday, September 4th, 2019, at 7 p.m. EST, on Free Speech TV. There will also be a global streaming simulcast on freespeech.org
Directed and produced by award-winner Frank Melli and hosted by the award-winning Karl Grossman (Enviro Close-Up), Crimes Against The Future investigates the environmental and human rights crimes currently being committed, and putting it into perspective for what it means for future generations.
Ranging from climate change to the dangers of nuclear power, this documentary methodically and expertly defines our moral imperative to act now! With special appearances by Bianca Jagger of the Bianca Jagger Human Rights Foundation; science broadcaster Dr. David Suzuki; Dr. Helen Caldicott, a founder of Physicians for Social Responsibility; best-selling author, Dr. Michio Kaku, City University of New York professor of theoretical physics; Derek Osborn, president of Stakeholders Forum; Randy Hayes of Foundation of Earth; Hunter Lovins of Natural Capital Solutions; Brice Lalonde, former environmental minister of France; and environmental journalist Barbara Y.E. Pyle; Crimes Against The Future defines our moral imperative to act now!
“I call on young environmentalists, farmers and social organizations to implement a recovery plan for locals in the affected areas. #UnityinAdversity”
Bolivia’s defense minister Javier Zavaleta announced on Wednesday afternoon, that the hotspots for the Amazon fires in Bolivia have been reduced by 85% in the past eight days. Bolivia’s government has mobilized a huge air operation, involving helicopters, planes and the ‘Supertanker’ to combat the fires that have raged in the country.
“More than 85 percent of the hotspots have been extinguished in almost eight days of operations, therefore, the fire is definitely receding, and we are already attacking specific places from air and land. So we hope the fire will continue receding” said Zavaleta, speaking at a press conference on Wednesday.
30 August 2019
People in Kiribati are making urgent preparations for what is predicted to be a record king tide tomorrow morning.
The Kiribati Climate Action Network's National Coordinator, Pelenise Alofa, says vulnerable communities on Tarawa have been building up seawalls in readiness for the inundation.
Today's high tide encroached 100 metres inland, seeping into water wells, destroying plants and caused flooding.
Tomorrow morning's king tide is predicted to be worse and will peak at 5am local time on Tarawa, home to half the country's 116-thousand people.
Under threat from fire, deforestation and Bolsonaro, Xikrin people take matters into own hands
By Fabiano Maisonnave in Trincheira Bacajá Indigenous land -
Threatened by fire, deforestation and invasion, the Xikrin people of the northern Amazon are fighting back.
While the authorities stand idle and the Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, tries to undermine their territorial rights, the indigenous community have taken matters into their own hands by expelling the loggers and ranchers who illegally occupied their land and set fire to the forest.
By Joseph Laws - MO - 29. August 2019
Almost 100 whales were killed less than 500 miles away from British shores on the Danish-owned Faroe Islands.
Gruesome photos show the butchered whale carcasses on a beach, while another harrowing image shows a dead calf inside their dead mother.
638 cetaceans have been cruelly killed in the Faroe Islands so far in 2019.
GRAPHIC CONTENT:
Read more: Faroe Islanders Again On Pilot Whale Killing Spree
TOWARDS A FLOURISHING FUTURE
Human activity has profoundly altered our climate and the environment.
Modern Lifestyles have caused many of us to lose touch with the natural world, disconnecting us from our planet, the other species with which we share it, and each other.
We are only beginning to understand what this means for our collective future; there are many unknowns. Given the likely scale of the impact, ensuring a collective habitable future demands practices that will foster, prize, support, defend and generate diversity at every possible level.
Communities of people living in Indigenous ‘wisdom traditions’ across the world maintain these connections.
They offer us alternatives we desperately need to embrace. Their traditions still care for and enhance the flourishing of diversity - conserving the multi-species relationships on which planetary well-being depends
By Matthew Ehret (*) - 28. August 2019
Long before the term “color revolution” ever existed as part of our geopolitical lexicon, the technique of directing violence-prone mobs towards the overthrow of their governments had been honed over centuries. Enflaming the rage of a mob and directing that rage towards the overthrow of established political structures only required money, propaganda and a few quality morality-free rhetoricians.
I was shocked to discover, upon reading the 2001-2002 studies published by historian Pierre Beaudry (Why France Did Not Have a French Revolution and Jean-Sylvain Bailly: The French Revolution’s Benjamin Franklin (1)), that the common narrative of the French Revolution is little more than British myth making that bears little to no resemblance to reality as it happened.
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