Philip M. Fearnside

Philip M. Fearnside

About

Philip M. Fearnside is a research professor at the National Institute for Research in Amazonia (INPA), Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil.

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45 stories
Exploratory oil drilling in the Amazon. Image courtesy of Colin Dunlop.

Why Brazil should abandon its plans for oil and gas in Amazonia (commentary)

Philip M. Fearnside 5 Jun 2025
Drone view of flooded forest in the Amazon. Photo by Rhett A. Butler for Mongabay.

On Amazon destruction, will Brazil President Lula’s ‘disinformation space’ be penetrated? (commentary)

Philip M. Fearnside 22 May 2025
Scorched earth on the banks of the drought-stricken Xingu River on September 12th, 2024. Photo © Marizilda Cruppe / Greenpeace.

Will Brazil’s President Lula wake up to the climate crisis? (commentary)

Philip M. Fearnside 12 Mar 2025
The Cape Orange National Park on the Amazonian coast of the state of Amapá. Block 59 - the site where Petrobras wants to drill - is located offshore 160 kilometers (99 miles) away. Image © Victor Moriyama / Greenpeace.

Oil drilling in the mouth of the Amazon – Lula on a course to disaster (commentary)

Philip M. Fearnside 24 Feb 2025
Greenpeace Brazil conducted an aerial survey in southern Amazonas and northern Rondônia to monitor deforestation and fires in July 2024. Photo © Marizilda Cruppe / Greenpeace.

Brazil’s race to approve the end of the Amazon: The BR-319 highway needs a new environmental impact assessment (commentary)

Philip M. Fearnside 28 Sep 2024
NASA satellite image of BR-230 highway.

Brazil’s BR-319 highway disaster: Yet another maneuver (commentary)

Philip M. Fearnside 20 Sep 2024
Header image: Generated image suggestive of a bleak and burned-out patch of Amazon rainforest

“Game over” for the Amazon forest and global climate if Trump wins? (commentary)

Philip M. Fearnside 11 Jul 2024

Climate surprises: Amazonia and the lessons of Brazil’s catastrophic flood in Rio Grande do Sul (commentary)

Philip M. Fearnside, Rosimeire Araújo Silva 4 Jul 2024
A section of BR-316 in 2013.

Brazil’s BR-319 Highway: The latest maneuver to obtain approval for an environmental disaster (commentary)

Philip M. Fearnside 17 Jun 2024
Generated image showing a road through a deforested landscape.

Brazil’s BR-319 highway: The danger reaches a critical moment (commentary)

Philip M. Fearnside 17 Feb 2024

Brazil’s 2024-2027 “Transversal Environmental Agenda”: The elephants in the room (commentary)

Philip M. Fearnside 4 Feb 2024
Fire and deforestation in the Amacro region (the states of Amazonas, Acre and Rondônia) in the Brazilian Amazon in late August 2022. Photo © Nilmar Lage / Greenpeace

Amazonia in flames: Unlearned lessons from the 2023 Manaus smoke crisis (commentary)

Lucas Ferrante, Philip M. Fearnside 17 Jan 2024

Race to destroy the Amazon forest: Brazil’s National Congress set to force construction of Highway BR-319 (commentary)

Philip M. Fearnside 20 Dec 2023
Rendering of an oil derrick in the rainforest. AI-generated.

Brazil’s “End-of-the-World” auction for oil and gas drilling (commentary)

Philip M. Fearnside 16 Dec 2023
Planet satellite images of the drought-affected Rio Negro in October 2023. Photo courtesy of Planet Labs.

What Brazil should have said at COP28 but didn’t (commentary)

Philip M. Fearnside 4 Dec 2023

Amazon drought: Much damage still to come (commentary)

Philip M. Fearnside, Rosimeire Araújo Silva 1 Nov 2023
River in the Western Amazon. Photo credit: Rhett A. Butler / Mongabay

The deceptions of the Amazon Summit in Belém (commentary)

Philip M. Fearnside 17 Aug 2023
Deforestation frontier in Jaru, Brazil

Putin’s financial interest in Brazil’s Amazon highways (commentary)

Philip M. Fearnside 4 May 2022
NASA satellite image of the Rio Tapajos in March 2022.

Dams on Brazil’s Jamanxim River: The advancing assault on the environment and Indigenous peoples in the Tapajós basin (commentary)

Philip M. Fearnside 29 Mar 2022
Aerial view of Amazon rainforest landscape scarred by open pit gold mines

Brazil’s Amazon gold mining to be “stimulated” by Bolsonaro’s decree (commentary)

Philip M. Fearnside 22 Feb 2022

COP-26: Amazonia’s Indigenous peoples are vital to fighting global warming (commentary)

Philip M. Fearnside 2 Nov 2021

BR-319 highway hearings: An attack on Brazil’s interests and Amazonia’s future (commentary)

Philip M. Fearnside 26 Oct 2021
Prolonged dry conditions have caused the worst drought in central and southern Brazil in almost a century. The Operational Land Imager (OLI) on NASA's Landsat 8 captured an image of Lago das Brisas on the Paranaíba River on June 17, 2021.

Lessons from Brazil’s São Paulo droughts (commentary)

Philip M. Fearnside 30 Jul 2021

Lessons from the 2021 Amazon flood (commentary)

Philip M. Fearnside 23 Jul 2021
Construction of Belo Monte Dam, on the Xingu river, Belo Monte Site. Altamira, Pará, Brazil. Credit line: © Carol Quintanilha / Greenpeace

Brazil’s Belo Monte Dam: Struggle for the Volta Grande enters a new phase (Commentary)

Philip M. Fearnside 21 Jun 2021

‘Zero illegal deforestation’ – One more Bolsonaro distortion (commentary)

Philip M. Fearnside 3 May 2021
Construction of Belo Monte Dam, on the Xingu river, Belo Monte Site. Altamira, Pará, Brazil. Credit line: © Carol Quintanilha / Greenpeace

Brazil’s Belo Monte Dam: Greenwashing contested (commentary)

Philip M. Fearnside 1 Feb 2021

Brazil’s Bem Querer dam: An impending Amazon disaster (commentary)

Philip M. Fearnside 16 Nov 2020

BR-319: The beginning of the end for Brazil’s Amazon forest (commentary)

Philip M. Fearnside 3 Nov 2020

Brazil’s Amazon dam plans: Ominous warnings of future destruction (commentary)

Philip M. Fearnside 22 Oct 2020
Flooded forest in the Amazon. Photo by Rhett A. Butler for Mongabay

Brazil’s ‘land-grabbers law’ threatens Amazonia (commentary)

Philip M. Fearnside 25 May 2020
Red howler monkey in the Amazon. Photo by Rhett A. Butler for Mongabay.

Will the next coronavirus come from Amazonia? Deforestation and the risk of infectious diseases (commentary)

Philip M. Fearnside 8 Apr 2020

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