rainforest

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Report Details 'Enormous, Virtually Irreversible' Loss in Amazon

Region has lost 10% of its native vegetation since 1985, an area the size of Texas, per Raisg

(Newser) - The Amazon region has lost 10% of its native vegetation, mostly tropical rainforest, in almost four decades, an area roughly the size of Texas, a new report says. From 1985 to 2021, the deforested area surged from 190,000 square miles to 482,000 square miles, unprecedented destruction in the...

Scientists See Evidence of Troubling Shift in Amazon
Scientists See Evidence
of Troubling Shift in Amazon
new study
Jul 15, 2021 12:28 PM CDT

Scientists See Evidence of Troubling Shift in Amazon

Parts of the rainforest are now emitting more carbon dioxide than they absorb

(Newser) - Researchers have been warning about an imminent "tipping point" in the Amazon rainforest for a while now, and a new study suggests the moment has arrived for swaths of the region. The study in Nature finds that parts of the rainforest are now emitting more carbon dioxide than they...

It Killed the Dinosaurs, but Then It Gave Birth to Something Else

You can thank the Chicxulub impact for our modern rainforests: study

(Newser) - We owe a lot to the asteroid impact that killed the dinosaurs 66 million years ago. For one thing, it gave us the lush tropical rainforests that help keep our planet healthy. That's according to a first-of-its-kind study published Friday in Science that looks at the effects of the...

Ashley Judd Details an 'Incredibly Harrowing 55 Hours'

Actress is healing from 'catastrophic' fall while doing conservation work in Democratic Republic of Congo

(Newser) - New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof had an Instagram Live chat on Friday with Ashley Judd, who was propped up in an ICU bed in a South Africa hospital. How she got there: She explained she'd had a recent "catastrophic" fall while doing conservation work tracking endangered bonobos...

This Place Once Had a Rainforest
Antarctica Once
Had a Rainforest
NEW STUDY
Apr 2, 2020 12:25 PM CDT

Antarctica Once Had a Rainforest

Researchers find evidence of a much warmer era

(Newser) - Little else but ice, snow, and penguins likely pops into your head when you can spare a thought for Antarctic. But there's much more to the continent than meets the eye, as scientists describe in Nature . Analyzing a sediment core taken from the seafloor of West Antarctica's Amundsen...

Brazil Leader Targets A-List Actor Over Amazon Fires

Jair Bolsonaro points finger at Leonardo DiCaprio for rainforest blazes

(Newser) - Without offering proof, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on Friday said actor Leonardo DiCaprio had funded nonprofit groups that Bolsonaro claims are partly responsible for fires in the Amazon this year. Bolsonaro’s remarks about the actor were part of a wider government campaign against environmental nonprofit groups operating in Brazil....

Whistleblower: Brazil Is Aiding in Amazon's Destruction

About 2.5 acres of rainforest are destroyed every minute

(Newser) - "It feels like we are the enemies of the Amazon." That's according to a senior environmental official in Brazil, where satellite images show a chunk of Amazon rainforest the size of a soccer field is being destroyed every minute. Speaking anonymously to the BBC , the official describes...

'Chaos' in the Rainforest Over Madagascar's Precious Gems

Environmental group is calling for military intervention over sapphire rush

(Newser) - A sapphire rush has brought tens of thousands of people into the remote rainforests of eastern Madagascar, disfiguring a protected environmental area and prompting calls for military intervention, the AP reports. More high-quality sapphires have been found in the biodiverse area known as Corridor Ankeniheny-Zahamena in the past six months...

Monkeys Help Man Survive 9 Days Lost in Amazon

The tourist doesn't know how he got lost; locals blame a mischievous sprite

(Newser) - Maykool Acuña spent nine days lost in the rainforest—possibly due the machinations of an evil tree sprite—but was kept alive by a group of helpful monkeys. National Geographic , whose reporter was embedded with the team searching for Acuña, has the highly improbable story. Acuña was...

Old-School Training for US Soldiers: Jungle Warfare

Army post in Hawaii puts soldiers through paces in tough rainforest environment

(Newser) - The Army soldiers finished wading across a stream in a Hawaiian rainforest, their boots and socks waterlogged, their clothes, hair, and ears caked with mud. The soldiers were training at the first jungle school the US Army has established in decades, designed to train for exercises and potential combat on...

Video of Woman Birthing Child in Creek Viewed 52M Times

Simone Thurber had long dreamed of giving birth in nature

(Newser) - Simone Thurber gave birth to her fourth daughter in a remote Australian creek—and the birth has been viewed 52 million times. The 23-minute birthing video was posted to YouTube (warning: graphic) in 2013, but is now getting press. Thurber, a birth therapist and trained doula whose three previous births...

An Entire Country Just Banned Deforestation

Norway to stop buying products that contribute to clear-cutting

(Newser) - Norway just became the world's biggest tree-hugger. The Independent reports the European country is the first in the world to ban deforestation, following a pledge by its parliament. That means the Norwegian government won't purchase anything that contributes to the destruction of the world's rainforests, especially beef,...

Scientists Begin Digging for Honduras' 'Lost Civilization'

Ruins, carved stones suggest the remote 'White City' was more than legend

(Newser) - For centuries locals, travelers, and Spanish conquistadors alike have spoken of the legend of the "Lost City of the Monkey God," or "White City," in a remote section of the Mosquitia jungle of Honduras. Now President Juan Orlando Hernandez is announcing a joint partnership with Colorado...

Scientist Stumbles Upon Spider as Big as a Puppy

Goliath birdeater has 2-inch fangs

(Newser) - Strolling through a Guyana rainforest one night, a scientist heard some rustling and thought he'd encountered a furry mammal. Well, he was right about the furry part. The creature was actually a Goliath birdeater spider, LiveScience reports—the world's biggest type of spider, according to the Guinness Book ...

Woman Chased by Croc During 17 Days Lost in Bush

Shannon Leah Fraser recovering in hospital after amazing tale of survival

(Newser) - Shannon Leah Fraser and friends visited a pond in the Australian bush last month to "chill out" after a "bender," her partner Heath Cassady says, per the Courier-Mail . But the relaxing escape soon turned into a nightmare when the mother of three became separated from her mates....

Skyscraper Rising in Middle of the Amazon

Observatory is far from human settlement

(Newser) - At 1,066 feet, a tower rising in Brazil will be taller than New York City's Chrysler Building—or any skyscraper in South America—but it won't have any neighbors in sight. The Amazon Tall Tower Observatory, around 100 miles from the city of Manuas, is designed to...

'Lost Rainforest' Yields Bizarre Species

And remote Australian rainforest could hold even more

(Newser) - A rainforest sits atop Australia's Cape Melville mountain range, surrounded by granite boulders—some as big as cars or houses—piled in walls as tall as 300 feet, making it quite challenging to explore. Researchers from Queensland's James Cook University had to travel there via helicopter; once in,...

Ecuador to China Oil Barons: Amazon Rainforest for Sale

Indigenous groups not happy

(Newser) - Tree-huggers will be really displeased to hear this: Ecuador is planning to auction off more than 7 million acres of the Amazon ... to Chinese oil companies. Politicians pitched bidding contracts to oil company reps in Beijing on Monday, the Guardian reports. Needless to say, indigenous groups living on the land...

How Many Trees in the Rainforest? Brazil to Count

Census to inform policy decisions

(Newser) - Brazil doesn't know enough about its tropical forest, says its environmental minister—so it's going to take a census of its trillions of trees. Over the next four years, officials will travel the country, stopping at 20,000 locations, each about 12 miles from the next. There, they'...

Disney Dumps Rainforest-Killing Paper Makers

Environmental activists applaud the move

(Newser) - It took a lot of cajoling—including some activists chaining themselves to the gates of its corporate headquarters—but Disney has at last agreed to stop using paper from a pair of controversial Asian companies accused of depleting Indonesia's rainforests, the Guardian reports. "The Jungle Book will no...

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