NASA: ATMOSPHERIC RIVERS WILL INCREASE THEIR INTENSITY

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=7141

A new NASA-led study shows that climate change is likely to intensify extreme weather events known as atmospheric rivers across most of the globe by the end of this century, while slightly reducing their number. 

The new study projects atmospheric rivers will be significantly longer and wider than the ones we observe today, leading to more frequent atmospheric river conditions in affected areas.

"The results project that in a scenario where greenhouse gas emissions continue at the current rate, there will be about 10 percent fewer atmospheric rivers globally by the end of the 21st century," said the study's lead author, Duane Waliser, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. "However, because the findings project that the atmospheric rivers will be, on average, about 25 percent wider and longer, the global frequency of atmospheric river conditions -- like heavy rain and strong winds -- will actually increase by about 50 percent."

Video of Gerard Moss on ‘flying river’ in Brazil:

https://youtu.be/jT0FgvjRthY

NICKEL MINING IN THE AMAZON: THE MOST POLLUTING ORE IN THE WORLD

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2018/may/15/brazil-xikrin-catete-river-amazon?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Let’s start with this statement of a Canadian geologist about copper ore:

“This area to the west is an area designed for nickel. Nickel is the worst of things that can happen. It is the most polluting ore, the most lethal ore there can be”.

The Xikrin, who have lived alongside the Cateté river in the Amazon rainforest in northern Brazil for centuries, have a mantra: “The river is our life.” Surrounded by an abundance of plant species, they swim and bathe here.

To fish, the tribe use timbó, a toxic vine that reduces the concentration of oxygen in the water, forcing the fish to come to the surface, where they are shot with arrows. “If we use hooks to fish, only one of our families will eat fish,” explains former tribal chief Onkray Xikrin. “But with timbó the whole village can eat.”

But the River Cateté is dying, and with it the way of life of the Xikrin. In 2010 Mineração Onça Puma, a company owned by the mining company Vale, began extracting nickel in the nearby hills, which have tributaries flowing into the Cateté. Vale is one of the world’s largest producers of nickel.

Around this time, the Xikrin who were diving into the river say they began suffering itchy skin and burning eyes. The tribe also noticed a decline in the quantity and diversity of fish. In 2015, tests by a professor at the Federal University of Pará found traces of nickel in the sediment of the river at almost double the safe level downstream from the mines, but no trace upstream. The tests also found unsafe levels of iron, chromium and copper.

EATING MEAT: THE REDUCETARIAN SOLUTION

Eating meat is bad for the planet: but what about eating less meat?

http://flip.it/y2yCyK

BP WARNING ON OIL DRILLING IN THE CORAL REEF OF THE AMAZON RIVER MOUTH

As reported in THE ECOLOGIST

http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_round_up/2988657/bp_total_oil_drilling_would_endanger_newly_discovered_amazon_coral_reef.html

A unique and pristine coral reef in the mouth of the Amazon is threatened by oil drilling planned by oil giants Total and BP, say the scientists who recently explored it. But the oil companies are determined to press ahead despite the risks, writes Lawrence Carter, and Brazil's environment ministry is set to give its approval

"3 SECONDS": THE SHORT FILM THAT RECEIVED FIRST PREMIUM IN THE "FILM4CLIMATE" 2016 FESTIVAL

A film of Fernando Meirelles.
The "spoken word artist" Prince tells us (subtitles in Portuguese) how human beings, in 140 thousands years are destroying our planet of 4.5 billions years!!!


Access:

https://youtu.be/V1P2pIBMaO4

BRAZILIAN BEEF INDUSTRY IN THE AMAZON WILL TRY TO REDUCE FOREST DESTRUCTION

MADISON, Wis. — Expansion of cattle pastures has led to the destruction of huge swaths of rain forest in Brazil, home to the world’s largest herd of commercial beef cattle. But a new study led by the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Holly Gibbs shows that market-driven “zero deforestation agreements” have dramatically influenced the behavior of ranchers and the slaughterhouses to which they sell. Publishing today [May 12, 2015] in the journal Conservation Letters, the research team – including other UW-Madison scientists, the National Wildlife Federation, and IMAZON Amazon Institute of People and the Environment — is the first to evaluate the impacts of these agreements, which are aimed at curbing the destruction of rain forests in Brazil.

The team found that these zero deforestation agreements prompted ranchers to swiftly register their properties in an environmental registry, led slaughterhouses to actively block purchases from ranches with recent deforestation, and saw lower deforestation rates among supplying ranches. “We show that concurrent public and private supply-chain pressures could be a game changer, and help to finally break the link between deforestation and beef production,” says Gibbs, a professor of geography and environmental studies in the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment.

However, the study also found that challenges remain to achieve zerodeforestation for beef production. Gibbs suggests that further investment by the beef industry and the Brazilian government to improve the agreements would pay high dividends for forest conservation. Historically, expansion of cattle pastures has driven deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon, where these pastures cover about two-thirds of all the deforested land. The state of Para, where the study was based, has the largest cattle herd in the Amazon biome.

Complete report:

http://imazon.org.br/imprensa/brazilian-beef-industry-moves-to-reduce-its-destruction-of-rain-forests/?lang=en

DEFORESTATION IN THE AMAZON TENDS TO DECREASE, BUT...

The Amazonian Network of Georeferenced Socio-Environmental Information (RAISG) reveals in a recent publication that the loss of original forest cover of the Amazon rainforest decelerated between 2000 and 2013 relative to the 1970-2000 period. Despite this deceleration, figures remain high within the entire region for the three periods analyzed (200-2005-2010-2013). The study estimates that 222,248 km 2 were deforested in the region between 2000 y 2013, an expanse equivalent to the territory of the United Kingdom.

http://site1378233601.provisorio.ws/wp/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Captura-de-Tela-2015-10-05-%C3%A0s-11.56.50.png