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		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/tipping-points/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
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	<url>https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/05/16160320/cropped-mongabay_icon-32x32.png</url>
	<title>News on Tipping points</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/tipping-points/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>Novel research finds unexpected climate resilience in up to 36% of Amazon forest</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/novel-research-finds-unexpected-climate-resilience-in-up-to-36-of-amazon-forest/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/novel-research-finds-unexpected-climate-resilience-in-up-to-36-of-amazon-forest/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Apr 2026 03:23:48 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Justin Catanoso]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/09222759/1-Palms-along-river-in-Manu-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317301</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, carbon, Climate, Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Drought, Ecosystems, Environment, Fires, Forest Fragmentation, Forests, Precipitation, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Research, Temperatures, Threats To Rainforests, Tipping points, Trees, Water, and Wetlands]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Reports on the health and vitality of the Amazon — often dubbed as Earth’s lungs — have been grim for years. Record drought has stressed large swaths of the world’s largest rainforest. Major Amazon River tributaries, including the Rio Negro and Madeira River, hit their lowest levels in more than a century of measurement in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Reports on the health and vitality of the Amazon — often dubbed as Earth’s lungs — have been grim for years. Record drought has stressed large swaths of the world’s largest rainforest. Major Amazon River tributaries, including the Rio Negro and Madeira River, hit their lowest levels in more than a century of measurement in 2024. And experts warn that deforestation and wildfires are tipping parts of the biome from carbon sink to source. Yet in Manaus, a city at the heart of the Brazilian Amazon, forest ecologist Flávia Costa is upbeat as she highlights what appears to be a previously underappreciated underlying Amazon reality: Her research finds that the region’s vast wetlands, or shallow water table areas, have proven to be stubbornly drought resistant through years of intensifying climate change. In fact, her long-term research reveals that palm species and other wetland trees are not just surviving drought seasons, they’re maintaining their health and even adding biomass. That could mean these areas could serve as valuable refugia, as other parts of Amazonia degrade. Significantly, these shallow water table areas compose 36% of Amazonia and have been a crucial part of the evolving rainforest ecosystem for millions of years. Sturdy, resilient palms account for one in five tree species across the Amazon, which includes parts of nine nations, and of which Brazil occupies 60%. These forested wetlands and Costa’s research represent one bright spot in the Amazon’s otherwise gloomy projected trajectory for the 21st century — forecasts built on decades&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/novel-research-finds-unexpected-climate-resilience-in-up-to-36-of-amazon-forest/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/novel-research-finds-unexpected-climate-resilience-in-up-to-36-of-amazon-forest/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317301</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Tipping points and ecosystem collapse are the real geopolitical risk (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/tipping-points-and-ecosystem-collapse-are-the-real-geopolitical-risk-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/tipping-points-and-ecosystem-collapse-are-the-real-geopolitical-risk-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Feb 2026 00:25:23 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Robert Muggah]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/02/08165418/AP26022466329076-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=313920</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Europe, Global, and United Kingdom]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate Change, Commentary, Environment, food security, Green, and Tipping points]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The focus of experts in global security tends to orbit familiar threats. War in Europe and the Middle East. Trade disruption and financial volatility. Technology shocks and threats to information integrity. But the most consequential driver of instability is unfolding under our feet and over our heads. The world&#8217;s climate system is edging toward tipping points and nature is [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The focus of experts in global security tends to orbit familiar threats. War in Europe and the Middle East. Trade disruption and financial volatility. Technology shocks and threats to information integrity. But the most consequential driver of instability is unfolding under our feet and over our heads. The world&#8217;s climate system is edging toward tipping points and nature is being degraded at scale. Together they present an existential threat to air, food, water, health, and the legitimacy of states in ways that do not respect borders. Nature on the security agenda A newly released UK government assessment, published in January 2026 after a freedom of information process, offers a rare view of how security professionals think about biodiversity loss.  It is a sanitized overview rather than a full exposure of the underlying analysis. Even so, the central finding is hard to ignore. Global ecosystem degradation and collapse threaten national security and prosperity, and without major intervention the trend is highly likely to continue to 2050 and beyond. Biodiversity Intactness Index (BII). Courtesy of the Natural History Museum What stands out is that this is a government security assessment, and that it also spells out the mechanics of collapse with unusual clarity. When ecosystems degrade, the services they provide start to fail. Water regulation weakens. Soil fertility declines. Pollination drops. Disease control erodes. These are not abstract ecological concepts. They are the quiet foundations of modern economies. As they weaken, practical consequences follow. Crops fail more often. Fisheries decline. Food prices rise. Supply chains become brittle.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/tipping-points-and-ecosystem-collapse-are-the-real-geopolitical-risk-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/tipping-points-and-ecosystem-collapse-are-the-real-geopolitical-risk-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-313920</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The fate of flying rivers could decide Amazon ‘tipping point,’ report says</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/the-fate-of-flying-rivers-could-decide-amazon-tipping-point-report-says/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/the-fate-of-flying-rivers-could-decide-amazon-tipping-point-report-says/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Sep 2025 16:12:07 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maxwell Radwin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/29160330/6dd22811-5a5d-4254-a6f9-7889f4a1d7cd-768x450.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=306665</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Bolivia, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Deforestation, Drought, Environment, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Forests, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Research, Threats To Rainforests, Tipping points, Tropical Forests, and Water]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Experts often warn about the “tipping point” for the Amazon, a scenario in which the rainforest collapses into a drier, less biodiverse savanna ecosystem. But the term “tipping point” is sometimes misunderstood or generalized, some experts say, suggesting that there will be an instant change to the biome from one day to the next. In [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Experts often warn about the “tipping point” for the Amazon, a scenario in which the rainforest collapses into a drier, less biodiverse savanna ecosystem. But the term “tipping point” is sometimes misunderstood or generalized, some experts say, suggesting that there will be an instant change to the biome from one day to the next. In reality, the transition from rainforest to savanna won’t be a single incident, but rather a gradual process happening at different rates across the region, multiple studies show. Some conservationists say there’s still a fundamental confusion within the general public about what the “tipping point” would look like, and what can be done about it. “For the most part, if you’re reading about the tipping point, you’re left with the impression that it’s like a single event, and that when the Amazon reaches that tipping point, it’s going to go from rainforest to savanna,” Matt Finer, director and senior research specialist of Amazon Conservation’s Monitoring of the Andes Amazon Project (MAAP), told Mongabay. “Very rarely do you get the nuance that it’s much more complicated than that.” The MAAP team wanted to clarify the way the Amazon tipping point works, and to explain the science to a general readership who might not have access to the latest research. The team combined numerous studies to create a series of maps, revealing that not all parts of the Amazon have the same risk level. One of the main factors influencing the tipping point is how water moves within the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/the-fate-of-flying-rivers-could-decide-amazon-tipping-point-report-says/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/the-fate-of-flying-rivers-could-decide-amazon-tipping-point-report-says/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-306665</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Dugong numbers plummet amid seagrass decline in Thailand’s Andaman Sea</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/dugong-numbers-plummet-amid-seagrass-decline-in-thailands-andaman-sea/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/dugong-numbers-plummet-amid-seagrass-decline-in-thailands-andaman-sea/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Apr 2025 09:04:43 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Carolyn Cowan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/04/10084148/1.-Banner-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=297376</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Southeast Asia, and Thailand]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Climate, Climate Change, Coastal Ecosystems, Conservation, Dredging, Dugong, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Environment, Extinction, Fisheries, Green, Habitat Degradation, Habitat Loss, Mammals, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Mammals, Marine Protected Areas, Oceans, Research, Restoration, Seagrass, Sedimentation, Tipping points, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Unprecedented numbers of emaciated dugongs have washed up dead along Thailand’s Andaman Sea coast over the past three years, prompting marine scientists to urgently investigate what’s driving their decline. Thailand’s Department of Marine and Coastal Resources (DMCR) recorded an average 42 dugong (Dugong dugon) fatalities in 2023 and 2024 — more than double the annual [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Unprecedented numbers of emaciated dugongs have washed up dead along Thailand’s Andaman Sea coast over the past three years, prompting marine scientists to urgently investigate what’s driving their decline. Thailand’s Department of Marine and Coastal Resources (DMCR) recorded an average 42 dugong (Dugong dugon) fatalities in 2023 and 2024 — more than double the annual losses recorded between 2019 and 2022. The increase seems to be continuing into 2025, with 12 fatalities recorded as of April 9. Autopsy data reported by the DMCR indicate at least 40% of the deaths in 2024 were likely due to starvation following the widespread depletion of seagrass, the species’ primary food source. In recent years, scientists have recorded concerning die-offs in key seagrass areas along the Andaman coast in provinces including Trang, Krabi and Phuket. Once flourishing habitats full of fish, crabs, turtles and dugongs, many seagrass meadows have deteriorated into barren stretches of sand. What’s more, cases of dugongs being killed by boat strikes and fishing bycatch have also increased as the animals leave depleted foraging grounds to venture into unfamiliar, riskier waters in search of sustenance. “When they move to other areas they’re not familiar [with], there are other threats like boat traffic,” Petch Manopawitr, a marine ecologist who’s advising government agencies on the dugong situation, told Mongabay. “Clearly, they’re going everywhere they can to try and find food.” A dugong photographed by drone in Thailand. Researchers use the marks on the animals&#8217; backs to identify individuals. Image courtesy of Theerasak Saksritawee.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/dugong-numbers-plummet-amid-seagrass-decline-in-thailands-andaman-sea/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/dugong-numbers-plummet-amid-seagrass-decline-in-thailands-andaman-sea/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-297376</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Will ‘Trump Part II&#8217; be the wakeup call needed toward more effective conservation? (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/will-trump-part-ii-be-the-wakeup-call-we-need-for-more-effective-conservation-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/will-trump-part-ii-be-the-wakeup-call-we-need-for-more-effective-conservation-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Nov 2024 15:28:03 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Bram BüscherRobert Fletcher]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/02/18070822/About_to_Launch_26075320352-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=289888</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Commentary, Conservation, Environment, Environmental Policy, Governance, and Tipping points]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[What a week. The global biodiversity conference in Cali, Colombia (COP16) had just concluded. And then Trump got re-elected as President of the United States. Clearly the latter puts an enormous damper on the former. That is, if one believes that the Cali conference actually made significant progress in terms of tackling the biodiversity crisis. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[What a week. The global biodiversity conference in Cali, Colombia (COP16) had just concluded. And then Trump got re-elected as President of the United States. Clearly the latter puts an enormous damper on the former. That is, if one believes that the Cali conference actually made significant progress in terms of tackling the biodiversity crisis. Surely, the conference produced some positive outcomes: Indigenous peoples have been granted permanent representation at the United Nations and companies need to pay more for ‘nature’s genetics’ to produce drugs. But overall, most agree that COP16 did not lay the groundwork for the dramatic action so urgently needed to address the biodiversity crisis. Unfortunately, this is nothing new. International environmental meetings consistently fail to halt the crises they are meant to address. And in the meantime, the biodiversity crisis keeps going from bad to worse. The massive, climate change-induced fires raging in the largest wetland on Earth, the Brazilian Pantanal, and their staggering impacts on biodiversity, are just one of the latest illustrations. Fires raged in the world&#8217;s largest wetland, Brazil&#8217;s Pantanal, this year. Image courtesy of Gustavo Figueiroa / Environmental Justice Foundation. This is why a growing group, of which we are part, have been pushing hard for a systemic alternative, a ‘convivial conservation’ that confronts the root causes of the crisis: an unjust capitalist economy bent on continual growth through land use change, resource extraction and worker exploitation. To some, this seems radical. And if radical is defined etymologically as ‘going to the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/will-trump-part-ii-be-the-wakeup-call-we-need-for-more-effective-conservation-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/will-trump-part-ii-be-the-wakeup-call-we-need-for-more-effective-conservation-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-289888</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>“Game over” for the Amazon forest and global climate if Trump wins? (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/game-over-for-the-amazon-forest-and-global-climate-if-trump-wins-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/game-over-for-the-amazon-forest-and-global-climate-if-trump-wins-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Jul 2024 17:18:49 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Philip M. Fearnside]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/07/13002819/generated-bleak-amazon-future-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=284248</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate Change, Commentary, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Governance, Green, Politics, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Tipping points, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Would another Trump presidency be “game over” for the Amazon forest and global climate? At least there is still a question mark at the end of that sentence! Global warming is very close to escaping from human control, and the chances of this happening would be significantly increased if Donald Trump wins a second term [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Would another Trump presidency be “game over” for the Amazon forest and global climate? At least there is still a question mark at the end of that sentence! Global warming is very close to escaping from human control, and the chances of this happening would be significantly increased if Donald Trump wins a second term as US president. In addition to a surge in US emissions, his presidency could result in a four-year delay for global action to contain climate change to reach an effective level. A runaway greenhouse would eliminate the Amazon forest. The reverse is also true and is part of the problem: if the Amazon forest collapses, global climate would be pushed past a tipping point and global warming would proceed irreversibly to a “hothouse Earth.” Trump denies the existence of anthropogenic global warming and withdrew the US from the Paris Agreement during his first term in office (see here and here). If he wins a second term, he has promised to revoke the greenhouse gas emissions reduction measures instituted under President Joe Biden, including those authorized under the Inflation Reduction Act (see here and here). He plans to open all federal lands to oil and gas extraction and he uses the slogan “drill, drill, drill” in his campaign rallies. Trump’s campaign says he would withdraw the US from the Paris Agreement again if elected. Project 2025, drafted by the Heritage Foundation, argues (p. 709) that the US should withdraw not only from the Paris Agreement but&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/game-over-for-the-amazon-forest-and-global-climate-if-trump-wins-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-284248</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Megafires are spreading in the Amazon — and they are here to stay</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/megafires-are-spreading-in-the-amazon-and-they-are-here-to-stay/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/megafires-are-spreading-in-the-amazon-and-they-are-here-to-stay/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Feb 2024 16:14:44 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Luís PatrianiSibélia Zanon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Xavier Bartaburu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/02/22160919/DJI_0475-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=279105</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Carbon Emissions, Climate Change, Conflict, Conservation, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Drought, Environment, Environmental Law, Fires, Forest Carbon, Forests, Governance, Green, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Reserves, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Rights, Politics, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Research, Threats To Rainforests, Tipping points, Trees, and Tropical Deforestation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[“When I see the rainforest burning, I know what I’m really seeing is Amazonia dying. I see that fire and, as a scientist, I know how much that hectare will lose in terms of individual lives, how much carbon will be emitted and how much the process accelerates climate changes,” states Erika Berenguer, a Brazilian [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[“When I see the rainforest burning, I know what I’m really seeing is Amazonia dying. I see that fire and, as a scientist, I know how much that hectare will lose in terms of individual lives, how much carbon will be emitted and how much the process accelerates climate changes,” states Erika Berenguer, a Brazilian researcher at the University of Oxford. “At the same time, I lose a part of myself — my identity as a human being, as a scientist, is very tied into it. It’s in the soil, in the rainforest, walking in the forest every day.” In October of 2023, Berenguer began seeing large forest fires in the region near the city of Santarém in western Pará state. It was a repeat of the scenario she witnessed in 2015 when the region suffered similar burns. According to her calculations in 2015, 2.5 billion trees died and the volume of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere was greater than the emissions from entire nations including France and the United Kingdom. “I’m seeing everything happen all over again,” states Berenguer, who had been diagnosed with pneumonia brought on by smoke inhalation. “And I’m looking into the future and thinking that this will happen more and more often. That megafires are not the exception. They will become the rule.” Smoke from a megafire in the municipality of Belterra, in the state of Pará. Image courtesy of Marizilda Cruppe/RAS. Technically defined as an enormous fire burning more than 100 square kilometers&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/megafires-are-spreading-in-the-amazon-and-they-are-here-to-stay/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/megafires-are-spreading-in-the-amazon-and-they-are-here-to-stay/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-279105</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Freeze on Russian collaboration disrupts urgently needed permafrost data flow</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/freeze-on-russian-collaboration-disrupts-urgently-needed-permafrost-data-flow/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/freeze-on-russian-collaboration-disrupts-urgently-needed-permafrost-data-flow/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Feb 2024 16:37:23 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elizabeth Devitt]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/02/20141748/polar-bear-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=279019</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Arctic, Arctic Ocean, and Russia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, carbon, Carbon Dioxide, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Sequestration, Climate Change, Conservation, Emission Reduction, Environment, Extinction, Extreme Weather, Global Environmental Crisis, Global Warming, Impact Of Climate Change, Permafrost, Planetary Boundaries, Research, Soil Carbon, and Tipping points]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[It’s been two years since Russia invaded Ukraine and since the Arctic scientific community was cut off from its Russian colleagues. But permafrost melt is quickening and renewed data flow is needed to track Russian carbon emissions.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Warming temperatures in the Arctic are accelerating the thaw of carbon-rich permafrost and threatening to add massive amounts of carbon dioxide and methane to an atmosphere already overheating from the buildup of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. More than half that permafrost lies beneath remote Russian soil, where scientists have long worked in an international research community that freely shared its field stations, climate sensors and data sets to better understand the rapidly changing polar region’s planetary impacts. Researchers are especially eager to know when a dangerous tipping point may be reached that would trigger the release of vast amounts of greenhouse gases stored in frozen soils. But then came the Russian invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, and all that cooperation came to a halt, part of the fallout of Western sanctions on Russia. Since then, international researchers outside Russia have applied creative workarounds in order to continue their research, but problems remain. “If you haven&#8217;t seen or touched or smelled permafrost, it’s challenging to talk with people about it,” says Guido Grosse, a geologist at Germany’s Alfred Wegener Institute. In fact, people living on permafrost don’t always know it, as it can be hidden below the soil surface. To make permafrost more “real,” Grosse often brings permafrost samples to presentations for people to touch. Image courtesy of bradosav via Flickr (CC by 2.0). A frigid world grudgingly gives up its secrets Sometimes called the “global freezer,” permafrost is a surface and subterranean mix of soils, rock, sediment, organic&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/freeze-on-russian-collaboration-disrupts-urgently-needed-permafrost-data-flow/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-279019</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The new Arctic: Amid record heat, ecosystems morph and wildlife struggle</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/the-new-arctic-amid-record-heat-ecosystems-morph-and-wildlife-struggle/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/the-new-arctic-amid-record-heat-ecosystems-morph-and-wildlife-struggle/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Feb 2024 15:02:39 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/02/14134109/POSSIBLE-BANNER-IMAGE_35A1906-Image-by-Sharon-Guynup-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=278847</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Alaska, Arctic, Arctic Ocean, and Greenland]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Climate Change, Conservation, Ecosystems, Environment, Extinction, Extreme Weather, Global Warming, Impact Of Climate Change, Mammals, Marine, Marine Animals, Ocean Warming, Oceans, Planetary Boundaries, Sea Ice, Sea Levels, Tipping points, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Over millennia, animals including walruses, seals, lemmings, muskox and migratory birds evolved to survive the polar north’s extreme cold. But on land and at sea, wildlife are struggling to adapt to a rapidly warming climate and altered ecosystems.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Walruses have traversed the Arctic for millennia, gregarious pinnipeds that rest en masse on drifting pack ice, diving to feed on crabs, clams and other seafloor delicacies. Icy platforms also serve as safe birthing and nursery grounds. But as the far north rapidly warms and sea ice disappears, some herds now huddle on overcrowded shorelines, with deadly consequences for young calves: Because more disturbances occur on shore than at sea, calves are regularly trampled during panicked stampedes by the 1-ton-plus adults. Climate-driven changes are affecting other wildlife across this land of snow and ice. On the Arctic tundra, lemmings now struggle to eat, nest and move during the eight winter months they live beneath the snow, as they endure “weather whiplash,” with ever more severe fluctuations in temperature, snow and rain, says ecologist Dorothee Ehrich, at the Climate Ecological Observatory for Arctic Tundra with Norway’s Arctic University. As warming escalates, animals are on the move, bringing new diseases north. In December, officials reported that H5N1 avian flu infected and killed a polar bear — a global first. This highly infectious strain has circulated internationally since 2021, jumping between species, and has reached the polar region. It’s just one example of new pathogens there, raising serious concern because isolated Arctic species have little immunity to disease. Walruses have a diverse diet, feeding on dozens of genera of marine organisms, but the species prefers bivalve mollusks for which it forages by diving and grazing along the shallow sea bottom. Image © Steve&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/the-new-arctic-amid-record-heat-ecosystems-morph-and-wildlife-struggle/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/the-new-arctic-amid-record-heat-ecosystems-morph-and-wildlife-struggle/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-278847</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Detailed NASA analysis finds Earth and Amazon in deep climate trouble</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/detailed-nasa-analysis-finds-earth-and-amazon-in-deep-climate-trouble/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/detailed-nasa-analysis-finds-earth-and-amazon-in-deep-climate-trouble/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Dec 2023 20:32:44 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jenny Gonzales]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/12/21184607/7-at-least-228-pink-dolphins-and-tucuxis-have-been-found-dead-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=276944</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Global, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate Change, Climate Science, Conservation, data, Deforestation, Drought, Environment, Environmental Law, Extreme Weather, Forests, Global Environmental Crisis, Global Warming, Governance, Impact Of Climate Change, Politics, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Saving Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, Tipping points, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Study finds Earth could reach 2° Celsius (3.6° Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels by 2040 and shows regional climate variables in fine detail. These findings, along with others, are very worrying for the Brazilian Amazon.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In view of the current nonstop rise in greenhouse gas emissions responsible for intensifying climate change, NASA researchers this year posed two key questions: When will the planet&#8217;s temperature likely reach an annual average of 2° Celsius (3.6° Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels? And what will the global climate look like in great detail all over the world at that temperature? Disturbingly, their findings indicate that a 2°C increase could be reached between 2041 and 2044 (under higher and lower emission scenarios, respectively) in comparison with the preindustrial period (1850-1900). The planet is currently at 1.15°C (2.07°F) above 19th century levels, with most of this warming occurring since 1975. A rise above 2°C could put Earth on track for catastrophic climate change impacts, according to the 2023 report by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Aerial view of fire in the Amazon Rainforest in the municipality of Porto Velho, Rondônia state in August 2019. The NASA study finds that climate change could bring higher temperatures, less rain and stronger winds to the Amazon, all of which could worsen wildfires in a rainforest that historically was far too wet to burn. Image © Victor Moriyama/Greenpeace. A fine-scaled portrait of Earth 2040 To investigate the potential multiple effects of a 2°C planet, scientists at the NASA Earth eXchange analyzed the projections of 35 of the world’s leading climate models with a very high resolution that gives results for areas of just 25 square kilometers (9.6 square miles). Many climate models currently use&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/detailed-nasa-analysis-finds-earth-and-amazon-in-deep-climate-trouble/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/detailed-nasa-analysis-finds-earth-and-amazon-in-deep-climate-trouble/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-276944</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Earth on ‘devastating trajectory’ to global tipping points. But there’s hope.</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/earth-on-devastating-trajectory-to-global-tipping-points-but-theres-hope/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/earth-on-devastating-trajectory-to-global-tipping-points-but-theres-hope/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Dec 2023 20:14:52 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elizabeth Claire Alberts]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/12/12145754/gian-reto-tarnutzer-d8ddeWAc4z4-unsplash-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=276619</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Covering the Commons and Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Carbon Emissions, Climate, Climate Change, Climate Science, Earth Science, Endangered Species, Energy Efficiency, Environment, Environmental Policy, Global Environmental Crisis, Global Warming, Impact Of Climate Change, Mitigation, Ocean Warming, Politics, Pollution, Research, and Tipping points]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A new report suggests that the rapid acceleration of climate change has pushed the Earth systems humanity relies upon to the brink of collapse, placing the world on a “devastating trajectory.” However, coordinated efforts to reduce humanity’s impacts on the planet, including the phasing out of fossil fuels, could still ensure a sustainable, livable future, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A new report suggests that the rapid acceleration of climate change has pushed the Earth systems humanity relies upon to the brink of collapse, placing the world on a “devastating trajectory.” However, coordinated efforts to reduce humanity’s impacts on the planet, including the phasing out of fossil fuels, could still ensure a sustainable, livable future, the report says. The Global Tipping Points report, produced by a team of more than 200 international researchers and released Dec. 6 during the COP28 climate summit in Dubai, suggests that current levels of warming will very likely push five major Earth systems to reach their “tipping points,&#8221; resulting in widespread impacts to humanity and nature. A tipping point, in the context of this report, refers to a moment when a small added change can make a big difference in a system, leading to abrupt, self-perpetuating or irreversible changes. The authors identify these five major tipping points as the melting of both the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets, the mass die-offs of warm-water reefs, the overturning of the North Atlantic subpolar gyre circulation and the thawing of permafrost. Tim Lenton, a professor of climate change and Earth system science at the University of Exeter and lead author of the new report, said the “grave risk” of crossing these five tipping points would lead to “serious if not almost unimaginable impacts” for humanity and nature. At the same time, he views these looming tipping points as “early opportunity signals” that, if heeded, can lead to&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/earth-on-devastating-trajectory-to-global-tipping-points-but-theres-hope/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-276619</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘What we need to protect and why’: 20-year Amazon research hints at fate of tropics</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/07/what-we-need-to-protect-and-why-20-year-amazon-research-hints-at-fate-of-tropics/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/07/what-we-need-to-protect-and-why-20-year-amazon-research-hints-at-fate-of-tropics/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Jul 2023 14:44:03 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Justin Catanoso]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/07/20142420/7.-Andean-motmot-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=271176</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Andes, Latin America, Peru, South America, and Tropics]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Birds, carbon, Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Extinction, Extreme Weather, Forest Carbon, forest degradation, Forests, Frogs, Migration, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Research, Snakes, Tipping points, Trees, Tropical Conservation Science, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Top tropical ecologists have spent two decades studying the impact of climate change on a single transect in the Peruvian Andes, an area unparalleled in its biodiversity. They find that every species studied there is struggling against warming temperatures.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[PILLCOPATA, Peru — The trail through the lowland rainforest was dark and muddy. A half-dozen headlamps provided darting pools of light. An occasional creek bisected the path. Excellent conditions for frog spotting. Alessandro Catenazzi, a conservation biologist at Florida International University and a leading herpetologist, was joined on this nighttime excursion by his graduate students and me. Seeing only leaf litter and underbrush where I shone my lamp, Catenazzi unfailingly spied tiny amphibians. Aside from a gorgeous poison dart frog, most were as yet unnamed species. But then … “This is a map frog,” Catenazzi said, gently placing it in my open palm; it tucked calmly there, barely the width of two fingers. “Its mottled skin resembles a map,” he added. The frog tensed and leapt from my hand into the darkness, a fitting metaphor for the scientist’s findings. Earlier in the day, Catenazzi had delivered a grim presentation on surging frog mortality to about 40 scientists at Manu Biological Stationwhere he’s been conducting research and observing changes to the southern Peruvian Amazon for decades. The group gathered in this remote jungle outpost had come from Europe, Canada, the U.S., U.K. and Latin America for the 20th anniversary meeting of the Andes Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research Group (ABERG). Alessandro Catenazzi, a leading herpetologist at Florida International University in Miami, hunts frogs with his graduate students in the lowland rainforest of the Manu Biological Station in early June. Regarding frogs at cloud forest elevations, he said, &#8220;We are witnessing a collapse&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/07/what-we-need-to-protect-and-why-20-year-amazon-research-hints-at-fate-of-tropics/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-271176</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>2021 tropical forest loss figures put zero-deforestation goal by 2030 out of reach</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/04/2021-tropical-forest-loss-figures-put-zero-deforestation-goal-by-2030-out-of-reach/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/04/2021-tropical-forest-loss-figures-put-zero-deforestation-goal-by-2030-out-of-reach/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Apr 2022 11:27:31 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hayat Indriyatno]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/04/28152446/siberia_GP1SU5IY_PressMedia-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=255219</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Amazon, Asia, Bolivia, Brazil, Congo Basin, Democratic Republic Of Congo, Gabon, Indonesia, Latin America, Republic of Congo, Russia, Southeast Asia, and Tropics]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, boreal forests, Climate, Climate Change, data, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Extreme Weather, Fires, Forest Carbon, forest degradation, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Forests, Palm Oil, Peatlands, Permafrost, Plantations, Primary Forests, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Saving Rainforests, Solutions, Threats To Rainforests, Tipping points, Tropical Deforestation, Tropical Forests, and Zero Deforestation Commitments]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Tropical forest loss remained consistently high in 2021 with no sign of slowing down, despite commitments by companies and governments to curb deforestation, according to new data from the University of Maryland. The data, available on the Global Forest Watch platform managed by the World Resources Institute (WRI), show that tropical countries lost [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Tropical forest loss remained consistently high in 2021 with no sign of slowing down, despite commitments by companies and governments to curb deforestation, according to new data from the University of Maryland. The data, available on the Global Forest Watch platform managed by the World Resources Institute (WRI), show that tropical countries lost 11.1 million hectares (27.5 million acres) of tree cover in 2021, an area the size of Cuba. Of this total tree loss, 3.75 million hectares (9.3 million acres) occurred in tropical primary forests, the world’s most biologically diverse ecosystems. This means the planet is not on its way to halting and reversing forest loss by 2030, as pledged by 141 countries during last year’s COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, experts say. A handful of countries, most notably Indonesia and Gabon, saw their rates of primary forest loss decline significantly in recent years. But this was offset by high deforestation rates in other tropical countries, such as Brazil and Bolivia. As a result, the tropics still lost 10 football pitches of primary forest per minute in 2021, in the process releasing 2.5 billion metric tons of greenhouse gases (GHG). That’s equivalent to the annual fossil fuel emissions from India. While the tropics lost 11% less primary forest in 2021 than in 2020, the figure was still almost the same as in 2019. This means that loss of primary tropical forests remains “stubbornly persistent throughout the years,” said Rod Taylor, the global director of WRI’s forests program.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/04/2021-tropical-forest-loss-figures-put-zero-deforestation-goal-by-2030-out-of-reach/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-255219</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘Join us for the Amazon,’ Indigenous leaders tell IUCN in push for protection</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/09/join-us-for-the-amazon-indigenous-leaders-tell-iucn-in-push-for-protection/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/09/join-us-for-the-amazon-indigenous-leaders-tell-iucn-in-push-for-protection/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Sep 2021 15:58:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elizabeth Claire Alberts]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Elizabethalberts]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/09/08155540/rp3-1-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=246882</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Biodiversity, Conservation, Culture, Deforestation, Drought, Environment, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Reserves, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights, Logging, Mining, Protected Areas, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Saving Rainforests, Social Justice, Threats To Rainforests, and Tipping points]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[UPDATE 09/10/2021: Today, members of the IUCN World Conservation Congress approved the motion that calls to protect 80% of the Amazon by 2025, a move that is being celebrated by Indigenous peoples, conservationists and scientists. Sixty-one governments and government agencies, and 600 NGOs and Indigenous peoples&#8217; organizations voted in favor of the motion. While there [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[UPDATE 09/10/2021: Today, members of the IUCN World Conservation Congress approved the motion that calls to protect 80% of the Amazon by 2025, a move that is being celebrated by Indigenous peoples, conservationists and scientists. Sixty-one governments and government agencies, and 600 NGOs and Indigenous peoples&#8217; organizations voted in favor of the motion. While there were some abstentions, no party voted against the motion.  MARSEILLE, France — Indigenous leaders and conservationists are asking for support in a critical effort to protect 80% of the Amazon Basin by 2025. According to scientists, the region is rapidly approaching, or has already reached, a tipping point that would push the rainforest into a savanna-like state that most likely cannot be reversed. Members of the Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon River Basin (COICA by its Spanish acronym) and numerous other bodies and organizations are asking for the support of the leaders and members of the IUCN, the global conservation authority, to vote in favor of a motion that would support area-based conservation targets with the view to protecting at least 80% of the Amazon by 2025, and to halt deforestation and land use change and restoring damaged forest areas. They are also asking for the IUCN to ensure that Indigenous leaders are permitted to govern and manage new protected areas, as set out in the Durban Accord that was adopted by the IUCN in 2003. At a press conference that took place Sept. 5 at the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Marseille,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/09/join-us-for-the-amazon-indigenous-leaders-tell-iucn-in-push-for-protection/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/09/join-us-for-the-amazon-indigenous-leaders-tell-iucn-in-push-for-protection/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-246882</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>As Arctic warms, scientists wrestle with its climate ‘tipping point’</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/07/as-arctic-warms-scientists-wrestle-with-its-climate-tipping-point/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/07/as-arctic-warms-scientists-wrestle-with-its-climate-tipping-point/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Jul 2021 16:13:22 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Conrad Fox]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/07/15071035/1-arctic-balloon_zieger-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=244842</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Covering the Commons and Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Arctic, Arctic Ocean, and Greenland]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Carbon Emissions, Climate, Climate Change, Climate Science, Conservation, data, Environment, Extreme Weather, Global Environmental Crisis, Global Warming, Green, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Ice Shelves, Impact Of Climate Change, Mitigation, Ocean Warming, Oceans, Remote Sensing, Research, Science, Sea Ice, Temperatures, Tipping points, and Weather]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Researchers are seeking to pinpoint climate change “tipping points,” but defining what that means exactly, when it will come, and what makes it happen, is unimaginably difficult when faced with the chaotic complexities of a vast Earth biome.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[For Arctic scientists, the summer of 2007 changed everything. That’s when, for the first time in history, record warmth melted the Northwest Passage, nearly opening it to shipping; turned a portion of the East Siberian Sea the size of Mexico into open ocean; and shrank the polar ice cap to a size never before reached so early in the March-to-September melt season, as documented by satellite since 1979. Walt Meier, a senior researcher at the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) in Colorado, was following the satellite images. “You’re watching and it’s neck and neck. Is it going to make it? Is it not going to make it? It’s like, we’re going to break this [annual low sea ice extent] record in August if it keeps up like this.” By mid-September, when the melting had halted and the Arctic Ocean had begun its annual refreeze, the ice cap was 22% smaller than it had historically ever been. “We had set a record in 2002, 2005 before that,” says Meier. “Every couple of years we&#8217;ve kind of been dropping just a little bit lower than anywhere we had been before. But 2007 just smashed things. He adds: “There was this thought that we have reached a tipping point.” Tipping point. The expression has become a foundational concept in climate change science discussions and a mainstay of media headlines. Just last month, a leaked version of the newest upcoming science report from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/07/as-arctic-warms-scientists-wrestle-with-its-climate-tipping-point/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/07/as-arctic-warms-scientists-wrestle-with-its-climate-tipping-point/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-244842</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Earth tipping points could destabilize each other in domino effect: Study</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/06/earth-tipping-points-could-destabilize-each-other-in-domino-effect-study/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/06/earth-tipping-points-could-destabilize-each-other-in-domino-effect-study/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Jun 2021 11:39:49 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elizabeth Claire Alberts]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Elizabethalberts]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/06/23112454/greenland_04_3x2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=244013</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Covering the Commons and Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate, Climate Change, Climate Science, Conservation, Ecosystems, Environment, Glaciers, Global Warming, Science, and Tipping points]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[When the first tile in a line of dominoes tips forward, it affects everything in front of it. One after another, lined-up dominoes knock into each other and topple. This is essentially what could happen to ice sheets, ocean currents and even the Amazon biome if critical tipping points are crossed, according to a new [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[When the first tile in a line of dominoes tips forward, it affects everything in front of it. One after another, lined-up dominoes knock into each other and topple. This is essentially what could happen to ice sheets, ocean currents and even the Amazon biome if critical tipping points are crossed, according to a new risk analysis. The destabilization of one element could impact the others, creating a domino effect of drastic changes that could move the Earth into an unfamiliar state — one potentially dangerous to the future of humanity and nature as we know it. The study, published this month in Earth System Dynamics, examines the interactions between five subsystems that are known to have vital thresholds, or tipping points, that could trigger irreversible changes. They include the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, the Greenland Ice Sheet, the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and the Amazon Rainforest. Scientists believe the AMOC could reach its critical threshold when warming temperatures weaken the current enough to substantially slow it, halt it, or redirect it, which could plunge parts of the northern hemisphere into a period of record cold, even as global warming continues elsewhere. Likewise, the Antarctic ice sheet may reach its irreversible threshold when warming temperatures trigger a state of constant ice loss, which could ultimately result in a 4-meter (13-foot) rise in global sea levels over the coming centuries. In fact, it’s suggested that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet may have already passed its critical&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/06/earth-tipping-points-could-destabilize-each-other-in-domino-effect-study/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/06/earth-tipping-points-could-destabilize-each-other-in-domino-effect-study/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-244013</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Reversing warming quickly could prevent worst climate change effects: Study</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/04/reversing-warming-quickly-could-prevent-worst-climate-change-effects-study/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/04/reversing-warming-quickly-could-prevent-worst-climate-change-effects-study/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Apr 2021 14:28:28 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Claire Asher]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/04/27183352/BANNER-IMAGE-EARTH-768x448.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=242060</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Covering the Commons and Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Antarctica, Arctic, Atlantic Ocean, and Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Carbon Emissions, Climate, Climate Change, Climate Science, Emission Reduction, Environment, Environmental Policy, Extinction, Forests, Global Environmental Crisis, Global Warming, Green, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Ice Shelves, Mitigation, Ocean Warming, Oceans, Politics, Rainforest Destruction, Research, and Tipping points]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Simple mathematical models suggest overshooting Paris climate accord emission targets for a short time won’t immediately trigger some environmental tipping points, allowing time to act.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Catastrophic irreversible environmental tipping points — such as the melting of polar icecaps — could be avoided even if we exceed global climate emissions reduction targets, provided we are able to reverse that overshoot quickly, according to a study published in the journal Nature last week. The 2009 Planetary Boundaries framework proposed nine key Earth System processes and described tipping points brought on by human exploitation beyond which the system could shift irreversibly into a new climatic state — one in which human civilizations would find it difficult to survive. In the present study, researchers at the University of Exeter and the U.K. Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, both in the United Kingdom, developed simple mathematical models of four environmental elements in the Earth System that are fairly well understood: melting of polar ice caps, disruption of the Atlantic Meridional Ocean Circulation (AMOC), Amazon forest dieback, and disruption of India’s summer monsoon cycle. Rice harvest in Asia. The melting of polar ice caps, disruption of the Atlantic Meridional Ocean Circulation (AMOC), Amazon forest dieback, and disruption of India’s summer monsoon cycle could all have catastrophic impacts on global food security and civilization. Photo credit: Santanu Sen on VisualHunt Scientists found that crossing a climate change threshold would not immediately trigger irreversible change, provided that the duration of the overshoot was relatively short compared to that tipping element&#8217;s recovery time. For example, models of icecap melt and the AMOC showed about a 50-year lag between the world passing the theoretical climate&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/04/reversing-warming-quickly-could-prevent-worst-climate-change-effects-study/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/04/reversing-warming-quickly-could-prevent-worst-climate-change-effects-study/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-242060</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>As Amazon forest-to-savanna tipping point looms, solutions remain elusive</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/02/as-amazon-forest-to-savanna-tipping-point-looms-solutions-remain-elusive/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/02/as-amazon-forest-to-savanna-tipping-point-looms-solutions-remain-elusive/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Feb 2021 17:48:12 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Shanna Hanbury]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/02/23163919/BANNER-IMAGE-RAB-768x449.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=239847</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Covering the Commons]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Agriculture, Climate Change, Conservation, Controversial, Deforestation, Drought, Energy, Environment, Environmental Policy, Extreme Weather, Farming, Forest Carbon, Forest Loss, Forests, Global Warming, Governance, Green, Impact Of Climate Change, Industrial Agriculture, Land Use Change, Politics, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Research, Rivers, Soy, Threats To Rainforests, Tipping points, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Scientists warn that we are approaching the Amazon biome tipping point, but proposed solutions in Brazil appear stillborn, politically impractical or lack sufficient scale and/or funding.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[When a swarm of bees attacked Acrísio dos Reis, something within him shifted. “Nature was lashing back at me,” he remembered, as he spoke by phone with Mongabay from his small rural farmstead in the Brazilian Amazon. The bee assault befell dos Reis as he drove a heavy-duty tractor through the rainforest, knocking down many dozens of trees — a field clearing process he’d carried out for 25 years. But that particular morning marked a sea change: the first time he realized the true harm of deforestation. Today, having given up bulldozing trees, dos Reis runs a sustainable family agroforestry business in his hometown of Canabrava do Norte, in Mato Grosso state. He detects with alarm the growing impacts of climate change on the region, as local water levels fall and tropical heat intensifies. Scientists back up his observation; the Amazon Basin climate is already in flux due to regional deforestation and fires, combined with planet-wide warming, resulting in much less rain, higher temperatures, and a longer dry season at the southern edges of the Amazon forest. Dos Reis and researchers believe they’re seeing the first signs of a climate and biome tipping point, as the Amazon becomes less like a rainforest and more like a degraded savanna. This news is bad for everyone: for crops and farmers like dos Reis, for forests and wildlife, and for faraway urban populations reliant on the Amazon for the rainfall that supplies São Paulo and other Brazilian mega cities with water. A bulldozer&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/02/as-amazon-forest-to-savanna-tipping-point-looms-solutions-remain-elusive/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/02/as-amazon-forest-to-savanna-tipping-point-looms-solutions-remain-elusive/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-239847</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>U.N. report lays out blueprint to end ‘suicidal war on nature’</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/02/u-n-report-lays-out-blueprint-to-end-suicidal-war-on-nature/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/02/u-n-report-lays-out-blueprint-to-end-suicidal-war-on-nature/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Feb 2021 14:08:01 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/02/19130639/costa_rica_siquirres_0350-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=239780</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Covering the Commons]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Carbon Emissions, Climate Change, Climate Science, Conservation, Deforestation, Earth Science, Endangered Species, Environment, Extinction, Fisheries, Forest Carbon, Forestry, Forests, Global Environmental Crisis, Global Warming, Green, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Illegal Fishing, Illegal Logging, Logging, Marine, Mitigation, Oceans, Overfishing, Poaching, Rainforests, Saving Rainforests, Solutions, Threats To Rainforests, Tipping points, Traditional People, Tropical Forests, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The world’s leaders, private companies and individuals must take a coordinated approach to address three environmental calamities facing the Earth at this moment, according to a report released Feb. 18 by the U.N. Environmental Programme (UNEP). Climate change, biodiversity loss, and air and water pollution have resulted from what U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said has [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The world’s leaders, private companies and individuals must take a coordinated approach to address three environmental calamities facing the Earth at this moment, according to a report released Feb. 18 by the U.N. Environmental Programme (UNEP). Climate change, biodiversity loss, and air and water pollution have resulted from what U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said has been “unsustainable production and consumption,” threatening human health and the global system underpinning our society. “Without nature’s help, we will not thrive or even survive, and for too long we have been waging a senseless and suicidal war on nature,” Guterres told reporters at the release of the report, “Making Peace with Nature.” “It’s time we learn to see nature as an ally that will help us achieve the Sustainable Development Goals,” referring to 17 targets that aim to reduce poverty by 2030. An aerial view of pollution from the Rio Huaypetue gold mine in Peru. Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay. The UNEP report notes that human innovation has brought a staggering surge in wealth in recent decades. The world’s economy is five times the size it was 50 years ago. In that time, humans have tripled both the extraction of natural resources and the output of lands under cultivation. But that prosperity has come at a cost, the brunt of which has been borne by the world&#8217;s 1.3 billion poorest. The average global temperature is currently on track to rise by 3° Celsius (5.4° Fahrenheit) over pre-industrial levels, owing mostly to the carbon that&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/02/u-n-report-lays-out-blueprint-to-end-suicidal-war-on-nature/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/02/u-n-report-lays-out-blueprint-to-end-suicidal-war-on-nature/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-239780</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>We&#8217;re approaching critical climate tipping points: Q&#038;A with Tim Lenton</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/01/were-approaching-critical-climate-tipping-points-qa-with-tim-lenton/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/01/were-approaching-critical-climate-tipping-points-qa-with-tim-lenton/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Jan 2021 00:08:01 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/01/05205856/penguins_in_antarctica_04-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=238473</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Nature conservation Influencers and Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Antarctica, Global, and Greenland]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Business, Carbon Emissions, Climate Change, Coral Reefs, Drought, Ecology, Energy, Environment, Fires, Forests, Glaciers, Green, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Impact Of Climate Change, Interviews, Interviews with conservation players, Oceans, Renewable Energy, Sea Ice, Tipping points, transforming conservation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Over the past twenty years the concept of &#8220;tipping points&#8221; has become more familiar to the public. Tipping points are critical thresholds at which small changes can lead to dramatic shifts in the state of the entire system. From a climate standpoint, the melting of Arctic sea ice is a simple example. As sea ice [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Over the past twenty years the concept of &#8220;tipping points&#8221; has become more familiar to the public. Tipping points are critical thresholds at which small changes can lead to dramatic shifts in the state of the entire system. From a climate standpoint, the melting of Arctic sea ice is a simple example. As sea ice melts, less sunlight is reflected into space and more heat is absorbed by the ocean, further hindering the formation of sea ice and thereby leading to more warming. The positive feedback loop is leading toward ice-free summers in the Arctic, which will have dramatic implications for the Arctic ecosystem and knock-on effects for ocean circulation and weather patterns. The effects are already being observed, with Arctic sea ice extent trending sharply downward since the 1970s. Glaciers and icebergs in Antarctica. Photo credit: Mongabay Awareness of climate tipping points has grown in policy circles in recent years in no small part thanks to the work of climate scientist Tim Lenton, who serves as the director of the Global Systems Institute at Britain&#8217;s University of Exeter. In 2008 Lenton was the lead author of an influential Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) paper that identified nine tipping points and ranked them by their near-term likelihood of occurring. These included: Arctic Sea-Ice; the Greenland Ice Sheet; the West Antarctic Ice Sheet; the Atlantic Thermohaline Circulation; the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO); the Indian Summer Monsoon; the Sahara/Sahel and West African Monsoon; the Amazon Rainforest; and the Boreal&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/01/were-approaching-critical-climate-tipping-points-qa-with-tim-lenton/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-238473</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>As 2020 Amazon fire season winds down, Brazil carbon emissions rise</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/11/as-2020-amazon-fire-season-winds-down-brazil-carbon-emissions-rise/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/11/as-2020-amazon-fire-season-winds-down-brazil-carbon-emissions-rise/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Nov 2020 15:04:24 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/09/01155347/GP0STURQN_AmazonFiresAug20_PressMedia-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=236896</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Carbon Emissions, Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Drought, Fires, Forest Carbon, Forests, Governance, Green, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Reserves, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Research, Threats To Rainforests, Tipping points, Trees, Tropical Deforestation, and Zero Deforestation Commitments]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[It was another intense year for fires in the Amazon. More than 2,500 major blazes burned across Brazil’s Legal Amazon between May 28 and November 3, according to a fire season summary released via the Amazon Conservation Association’s Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Project (MAAP). 2020 was also the most active fire year in the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[It was another intense year for fires in the Amazon. More than 2,500 major blazes burned across Brazil’s Legal Amazon between May 28 and November 3, according to a fire season summary released via the Amazon Conservation Association’s Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Project (MAAP). 2020 was also the most active fire year in the southern Amazon since 2012 all along the region’s so-called “Amazon Arc of Deforestation,” according to NASA. The majority (90%) of the major fires this year detected by MAAP occurred in the Brazilian Amazon. Here, fires aren’t natural but are mostly ignited by humans on deforested lands to clear existing agricultural fields of pests and weeds, or, of far greater concern, as a way for land grabbers to convert forested conserved public lands into private agricultural lands. In 2019, say analysts, most Amazon fires followed a pattern of intentional, often illegal, deforestation to make way for cattle and crops. However, this year a startling number of major fires (41%) burned in standing Amazon rainforest, where fires were not historically naturally occurring. For fire to burn inside the rainforest, it must be a particularly dry year — now likely the result of climate change — with human ignition sources typically on neighboring lands. MAAP estimates that nearly 5.4 million acres (2.2 million hectares) of the Brazilian Amazon’s standing rainforest burned this year, an area roughly the size of the country of Wales in the United Kingdom. Major fires in Brazil in 2020 MAAP&#8217;s Amazon Fire Monitoring App is updated&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/11/as-2020-amazon-fire-season-winds-down-brazil-carbon-emissions-rise/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-236896</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The Amazon savanna? Rainforest teeters on the brink as climate heats up</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/10/the-amazon-savanna-rainforest-teeters-on-the-brink-as-climate-heats-up/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/10/the-amazon-savanna-rainforest-teeters-on-the-brink-as-climate-heats-up/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Oct 2020 11:17:39 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/10/08110202/GP0STUPVC_AmazonFiresAug20_PressMedia-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=235670</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Congo Basin, Global, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Carbon Emissions, Climate Change, Climate Science, Conservation, Deforestation, Drought, Earth Science, Ecosystem Services, Environment, Extreme Weather, Fires, Forestry, Forests, Global Warming, Illegal Logging, Impact Of Climate Change, Logging, Payments For Ecosystem Services, Rainforests, Research, Saving Rainforests, Solutions, Threats To Rainforests, Tipping points, Traditional People, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Shifting rainfall patterns, especially those exacerbated by climate change, could drive large parts of the Amazon rainforest to become drier savanna, a new study has found. Rainfall acts like a buffer in rainforest ecosystems, allowing forests to adapt to changes and keep destructive forces like fire at bay. But if the amount of rain dips [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Shifting rainfall patterns, especially those exacerbated by climate change, could drive large parts of the Amazon rainforest to become drier savanna, a new study has found. Rainfall acts like a buffer in rainforest ecosystems, allowing forests to adapt to changes and keep destructive forces like fire at bay. But if the amount of rain dips below a certain level, rainforests could lose their ability to come back, instead turning into drier, savanna-like ecosystems. That’s an issue because the climate plays a big role in where it rains and how much, and if we continue to add climate-warming greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, that could radically change the makeup of the tropics. Heat spots in areas with Prodes (2017-2018) and Deter warnings, Novo Progresso, Para state. Image by Christian Braga/Greenpeace. Even now, large portions of the Amazon sit on the precipice of remaining rainforest or becoming savanna, according to Arie Staal, the lead author of the study and a former postdoctoral researcher at the Stockholm Resilience Centre and the Copernicus Institute of Utrecht University. &#8220;In around 40 percent of the Amazon, the rainfall is now at a level where the forest could exist in either state — rainforest or savanna, according to our findings,&#8221; Staal said in a statement. The switch would likely be jarring, with the result “probably not even close to savanna, which is a very highly diverse system,” said Paulo Brando, a fire ecologist at the University of California, Irvine, who was not involved in the current study.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/10/the-amazon-savanna-rainforest-teeters-on-the-brink-as-climate-heats-up/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-235670</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Forest degradation outpaces deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon: Study</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/10/forest-degradation-outpaces-deforestation-in-the-brazilian-amazon-study/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/10/forest-degradation-outpaces-deforestation-in-the-brazilian-amazon-study/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Oct 2020 13:02:02 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Claire Asher]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/10/05124543/6a-BANNER-IMAGE-Logged-forest-768x452.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=235549</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Carbon Emissions, Carbon Sequestration, Climate Change, Conservation, data, Deforestation, Environment, Fires, Forest Carbon, forest degradation, Forest Fragmentation, Fragmentation, Green, Illegal Logging, Logging, Monitoring, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Redd, Remote Sensing, Research, Satellite Imagery, Selective Logging, Threats To Rainforests, Timber, and Tipping points]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[337,427 square kilometers of Amazon forest were degraded between 1992 and 2014 ¬(mostly due to logging and understory fires), compared to 308,311 square kilometers completely cleared.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The recent study analysed over 1,200 satellite images to map forest degradation across the Brazilian Amazon. Image by the europeanspaceagency on Visualhunt / CC BY-SA. The total area of Brazilian Amazon forest that has been degraded — through selective logging, understory fire, forest edges and fragmentation — is larger than the total deforested area, according to a recent study published in the journal Science. During the 1992-2014 study period, 337,427 square kilometers (130,000 square miles) suffered a loss of vegetation, compared to 308,311 square kilometers (119,000 square miles) that was completely cleared for timber or pastures, a finding that has serious implications for global greenhouse gas emissions and biodiversity loss. Eraldo Matricardi of the University of Brasilia and David Skole of Michigan State University led an international team of researchers in analyzing 23-years of satellite data covering the entire Brazilian Amazon to map areas of deforestation and degradation. They analyzed the light spectra in each pixel of 1,200 Landsat satellite images, each representing a 30 meter (98 feet) square of forest, to determine the proportion of green vegetation and therefore the extent of degradation. “The reflected light at any pixel is the combination of light from bare soil, photosynthetic vegetation and non-photosynthetic vegetation [such as] the stems and branches of trees,” explained Skole. Estimating the fraction of green vegetation in each pixel allowed the team to visualize forest degradation over a large scale. The team mapped degradation caused as a direct consequence of deforestation (such as edge effects and fragmentation)&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/10/forest-degradation-outpaces-deforestation-in-the-brazilian-amazon-study/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-235549</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Deforestation in the Amazon is drying up the rest of Brazil: Report</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/08/deforestation-in-the-amazon-is-drying-up-the-rest-of-brazil-report/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/08/deforestation-in-the-amazon-is-drying-up-the-rest-of-brazil-report/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Aug 2020 11:06:56 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sibélia Zanon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Xavier Bartaburu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/08/07105646/MCJR_baixo-nivel-na-Usina-hidreletrica-de-Sobradinho-na-Bahia_09122015016-768x451.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=233518</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Amazon Illegal Deforestation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Agriculture, Climate Change, Conservation, Controversial, Dams, Deforestation, Drought, Energy, Environment, Extreme Weather, Farming, Forest Carbon, Forest Loss, Forests, Global Warming, Green, Hydroelectric Power, Impact Of Climate Change, Industrial Agriculture, Infrastructure, Land Use Change, Politics, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Rivers, Soy, Threats To Rainforests, and Tipping points]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[For two years, regions of Brazil that depend on precipitation fed by Amazonian vegetation have seen rainfall below historical averages, impacting crops and harvests. A recent bulletin from a federal agency points to agribusiness itself as one of the drivers of this pattern.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In northeastern Brazil&#8217;s biggest reservoir, Sobradinho, the water level reached the lowest point in almost 40 years of the dam&#8217;s existence. Image by Marcello Casal Jr/Agência Brasil. Over the past two years, drought has severely affected much of Brazil. According to a bulletin from the National Center for Monitoring and Alerts on Natural Disasters (Cemaden), an agency of the Ministry of Science, Technology, Innovations and Communications, rainfall has been below historical averages in the center-west, south and part of the southeast regions of the country, including in the state of São Paulo. The phenomenon became more evident in 2012. “Severe drought started in the northeast and lasted almost seven years,” says Cemaden researcher Adriana Cuartas. “Then, in 2014, water supply was in critical conditions in the Greater São Paulo area. Now the focus of concerns turns to the south, where rainfall has been below average for almost two years.” Scientist Antônio Donato Nobre, author of the report “The Future Climate of Amazonia,” is emphatic: “South America is drying up as a result of the combined effects of deforestation and climate change.” The SPI or standardized precipitation index is used to monitor rainfall. The maps show precipitation well below average over the past 12, 18 and 24 months. Negative values indicate drought. Image courtesy of Cemaden. Low precipitation has an immediate impact on agriculture. The next affected are water supply and power generation. Water levels in the reservoirs of several dams have been low, including Itaipu, the world’s second-largest hydroelectric power&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/08/deforestation-in-the-amazon-is-drying-up-the-rest-of-brazil-report/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/08/deforestation-in-the-amazon-is-drying-up-the-rest-of-brazil-report/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-233518</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Scientists launch ambitious conservation project to save the Amazon</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/07/scientists-launch-ambitious-conservation-project-to-save-the-amazon/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/07/scientists-launch-ambitious-conservation-project-to-save-the-amazon/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Jul 2020 12:17:21 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Shanna Hanbury]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/07/27115610/BANNER-IMAGE-Rhett-A-Butler-Mongaba-768x450.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=233051</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Climate Change, Climate Science, Conservation, Deforestation, Earth Science, Environment, Forest Destruction, Forests, Governance, Green, Indigenous Peoples, Politics, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Research, Saving Rainforests, Science, Tipping points, and Traditional People]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The new Science Panel for the Amazon — modeled on the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change — aims to consolidate knowledge on the Amazon rainforest and guide future public policies to conserve it.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Butterflies burst into the sky above an Amazonian river. Image © Fernando Lessa / The Nature Conservancy. With the Amazon rainforest predicted to be at, or very close to, its disastrous rainforest-to-savanna tipping point, deforestation escalating at a frightening pace, and governments often worsening the problem, the need for action to secure the future of the rainforest has never been more urgent. Now, a group of 150 leading scientific and economic experts on the Amazon basin have taken it upon themselves to launch an ambitious conservation project. The newly founded Science Panel for the Amazon (SPA) aims to consolidate scientific research on the Amazon and propose solutions that will secure the region’s future — including the social and economic well-being of its thirty-five-million inhabitants. “Never before has there been such a rigorous scientific evaluation on the Amazon,” said Carlos Nobre, the leading Amazon climatologist and one of the chairs of the Scientific Panel. The newly organized SPA, he adds, will model its work on the style of the authoritative reports produced by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in terms of academic diligence and the depth and breadth of analysis and recommendations. The Amazon Panel, is funded by the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Solutions Network and supported by prominent political leaders, such as former Colombian President, Juan Manuel Santos and the elected leader of the Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon River Basin, José Gregorio Díaz Mirabal. The SPA plans to publish its first report by April&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/07/scientists-launch-ambitious-conservation-project-to-save-the-amazon/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-233051</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Scientists measure Amazon drought and deforestation feedback loop: Study</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/07/scientists-measure-amazon-drought-and-deforestation-feedback-loop-study/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/07/scientists-measure-amazon-drought-and-deforestation-feedback-loop-study/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Jul 2020 11:23:38 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Shanna Hanbury]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/07/21180835/amazon_200339-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=232735</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate Change, Conservation, Controversial, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Drought, Environment, Extreme Weather, Fires, Forest Destruction, Forests, Governance, Green, Land Use Change, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Research, Threats To Rainforests, Tipping points, and Tropical Deforestation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In a step towards understanding the impending Amazon rainforest-to-savanna tipping point, scientists have quantified the knock-on effect that drought and deforestation have on each other for the first time.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Amazon has been a stable biome for many centuries. But scientists believe that dryer conditions could bring rapid change to the rainforest, and soon. Image by Rhett A. Butler / Mongabay. While it is now well accepted that Amazon rainforest deforestation directly contributes to worsening droughts in the region, and vice versa, a recent study published in Environmental Research Letters has attempted to calculate the exact percentages of this knock-on effect for the first time. A deadly trifecta of deforestation, drought, and escalating global climate change — each impacting the others — threatens to pull the plug on the region’s plentiful precipitation, possibly crashing the biome since the Amazon rainforest depends on its rain cycle to survive and thrive. It’s a phenomenon scientists call a positive feedback loop: deforestation causes drought, which in turn, worsens deforestation, and so on, intensifying the effect. The study concluded that deforestation causes 4% of drought, while drought accounts for 0.13% of deforestation per millimeter of rain in the Amazon biome. This means that if rainfall in the region decreases by 200 millimeters (7.9 inches), it would then trigger an additional 26% increase in deforestation, according to the findings. Amazon experts applauded the study’s novelty but also told Mongabay they believed the actual percentages are likely higher and also greatly depend on political decisions going forward. Climate feedback loops, such as the one illustrated in the recent study, may push the Amazon past its tipping point as deforestation advances, turning the region from wet rainforest into a&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/07/scientists-measure-amazon-drought-and-deforestation-feedback-loop-study/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-232735</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Climate tipping point ecosystem collapses may come faster than thought: Studies</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/05/climate-tipping-point-ecosystem-collapses-may-come-faster-than-thought-studies/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/05/climate-tipping-point-ecosystem-collapses-may-come-faster-than-thought-studies/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 May 2020 12:49:45 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Shanna Hanbury]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/05/11124319/Banner-Image-tp-768x456.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=230105</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Arctic, Global, and Sahel]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate Change, Conservation, Coral Reefs, Ecosystems, Evolution, Extinction, Forests, Global Warming, Habitat Loss, Marine, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Research, Species, Threats To Rainforests, Tipping points, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Large biomes, like the Amazon rainforest, have closely linked habitats and species, which could lead to a domino effect and a rapid ecosystem collapse; even small effects can cause a crash over time.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A coral reef in Indonesia. Coral reefs — especially Australia’s Great Barrier Reef — have proven to be very sensitive to climate change. Now scientists are trying to determine the mechanisms for climate ecosystem tipping points, and how fast they will occur around the world. Photo credit: HereIsTom on VisualHunt.com / CC BY-NC-ND. The world’s largest ecosystems may alter drastically faster than previously thought, according to a recent study published in Nature Communications, shedding new light on the behavior of climate tipping points. Real-life cases reveal a pattern: bigger ecosystems collapse at a faster rate than smaller ones. According to the findings, climate tipping points could happen in a matter of years or decades, not on the ecological timescale of hundreds, or even, thousands of years. Observing this trend, the authors — stressing high levels of uncertainty — forecast that, after a tipping point is passed, the Amazon rainforest could disappear in under 50 years, while Caribbean coral reefs could vanish in 15 years. “The Amazon could die before I do,” study co-author Simon Willcock, a senior lecturer at Bangor University, pondered upon seeing the results. “I had never sat down and thought it might be gone in my lifetime. It’s quite sobering.” Over a decade ago, a group of scientists published a groundbreaking paper on climate tipping points, widely regarded as an unlikely scenario at the time. But with evidence mounting, many scientists have more recently sounded the alarm on melting ice caps and tropical rainforest dieback nearing permanent&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/05/climate-tipping-point-ecosystem-collapses-may-come-faster-than-thought-studies/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-230105</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Amazon Tipping Point puts Brazil’s agribusiness, energy sector at risk: Top scientists</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/02/amazon-tipping-point-puts-brazils-agribusiness-energy-sector-at-risk-top-scientists/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/02/amazon-tipping-point-puts-brazils-agribusiness-energy-sector-at-risk-top-scientists/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Feb 2020 16:16:35 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Shanna Hanbury]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/02/24153214/BANNER-fires-2019-768x448.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=227338</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Cerrado, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Agriculture, Climate Change, Conservation, Controversial, Dams, Deforestation, Drought, Energy, Environment, Extreme Weather, Farming, Forest Carbon, Forest Loss, Forests, Global Warming, Green, Hydroelectric Power, Impact Of Climate Change, Industrial Agriculture, Infrastructure, Land Use Change, Politics, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Rivers, Soy, Threats To Rainforests, and Tipping points]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Climate change and deforestation are forcing a rainforest-to-savanna tipping point threatening agribusiness, hydropower, and the Brazilian economy; Bolsonaro is blind to the danger.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Amazon is a magnificent natural wonder, dependent on massive amounts of rainfall for its plenty. Now, that abundance is in danger as climate change and deforestation drive the biome toward drought. Image © Fernando Lessa / TNC. Overshooting an Amazon rainforest-to-savanna tipping point would be “catastrophic” to Brazil’s economic powerhouses, experts have told Mongabay — with especially far-reaching impacts for the nation’s agribusiness and energy sectors, and possibly with repercussions for international food security. As far back as colonization, water abundance in the Amazon biome was taken for granted, benefitting agriculture, commodities transport on Brazilian waterways, and electric power generation at numerous dams. But now, the hydrological cycle is under increasing threat. Water has always been the lifeblood of the rainforest — it percolates into soils and aquifers, flows down rivers, also up into trees, and east to west across the sky. The Amazon River, fed by its tributaries, pours an astounding 17 billion metric tons of water into the Atlantic Ocean daily. And on a typical sunny day, trees pump another 20 billion tons into the air — a flow of humidity nicknamed the flying rivers. So it is that the rainforest assures precipitation to large swathes of South America, including Brazil’s thirsty mega-cities. But, scientists warn, pass beyond a critical threshold — a tipping point forced by regional and global climate change, rampant deforestation and intensifying wildfires — and the forests could begin to self-destruct. Studies have found that up to 70% of the Amazon rainforest could&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/02/amazon-tipping-point-puts-brazils-agribusiness-energy-sector-at-risk-top-scientists/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/02/amazon-tipping-point-puts-brazils-agribusiness-energy-sector-at-risk-top-scientists/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-227338</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Impending Amazon tipping point puts biome and world at risk, scientists warn</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/01/impending-amazon-tipping-point-puts-biome-and-world-at-risk-scientists-warn/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/01/impending-amazon-tipping-point-puts-biome-and-world-at-risk-scientists-warn/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Jan 2020 10:52:29 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Shanna Hanbury]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/01/27102547/BANNER-IMAGE-tp2-768x448.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=226555</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon and Cerrado]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Cattle, Conservation, Controversial, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Drought, Environment, Forests, Green, Industrial Agriculture, Infrastructure, Land Use Change, Logging, Mining, Plants, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Ranching, Saving Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, Tipping points, Trees, and Tropical Deforestation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Models and real-world events indicate that, unless action is taken now, up to 70% of the Amazon rainforest could become savanna in under 50 years, with huge carbon releases, destabilizing global climate.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Amazon trees may not die immediately in a severe drought, but weakened trees can die off many years afterward, even after several years of regular rainfall. Image courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech/Fotos Públicas. “We’re on the edge of a cliff,” says top climate scientist Carlos Nobre, who published an editorial with renowned conservation biologist Thomas Lovejoy last month warning that “The Amazon tipping point is here.” Many scientists who study the Amazon rainforest are very worried. The tropical biome over recent decades has grown increasingly dryer, making the once nearly fireproof rainforest prone to raging wildfires. Extreme weather events, such as high heat, droughts and floods, are on the rise. The dry season is getting longer and hotter and trees are dying. Computer models show that all this could be a foreshadowing of far worse to come — potentially, a recipe for a tropical rainforest disaster. But what exactly is the Amazon tipping point? What might it look like, and when might it happen? And how might it occur: will the tipping point occur as a gradual downhill decline, or sudden freefall? Mongabay spoke to several leading scientists to find out. The Amazon rainforest, as its name suggests, is historically a rainy, humid, green place. In its natural state even lightning wasn’t enough to start a fire there — the vegetation was simply too wet for ignition. But today, this is no longer true over much of the region. Researchers say the very wet hydrological cycle that kept the rainforest thriving for&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/01/impending-amazon-tipping-point-puts-biome-and-world-at-risk-scientists-warn/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/01/impending-amazon-tipping-point-puts-biome-and-world-at-risk-scientists-warn/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-226555</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Catastrophic Amazon tipping point less than 30 years away: study</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/01/catastrophic-amazon-tipping-point-less-than-30-years-away-study/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/01/catastrophic-amazon-tipping-point-less-than-30-years-away-study/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Jan 2020 12:40:40 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Claire Asher]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/01/23120626/BANNER-tp-768x454.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=226463</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Conservation, Controversial, Dams, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Energy, Environment, Forests, Green, Hydroelectric Power, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Industrial Agriculture, Infrastructure, Land Use Change, Politics, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Roads, Saving Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, Tipping points, and Tropical Deforestation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Deforestation and climate change could convert Amazon rainforest to savanna by 2050. New infrastructure development would quicken process.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Amazon supplies half its own rainfall through evaporation and transpiration from trees, but scientists warn that this cycle may be changing, bringing dryer times. If deforestation continues, an altered climate could convert rainforest to savanna. Image courtesy of International Rivers. One of the most important questions Amazon scientists are asking today is, how much deforestation and global climate change can this tropical biome tolerate before rainfall is drastically reduced — forcing a rainforest-to-savanna conversion, and releasing huge amounts of stored forest carbon into the atmosphere in the process? A recent study tried to answer that question. The findings: the Amazon basin could be less than 30 years from a catastrophic collapse that would turn it into a dry savanna, according to a study published in the journal One Earth. For many centuries, vast amounts of evaporation and transpiration from Amazon trees generated around half of the biome’s own annual rainfall — a regional cycle that interacts with atmospheric circulation to sustain the Amazon’s characteristically moist climate. But as global climate change has intensified, conservationists and climatologists have expressed concerns that there may be a threshold of deforestation beyond which the cycle would not longer sustain itself. In this scenario, large parts of the drying basin may shift into a savanna biome, with knock-on consequences for climate and weather patterns across the South American continent and globally. Early estimates suggested that this “tipping point” might lie at around 40% deforestation. But in 2018, noted Amazon climatologist Carlos Nobre and conservation biologist&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/01/catastrophic-amazon-tipping-point-less-than-30-years-away-study/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-226463</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘The tipping point is here, it is now,’ top Amazon scientists warn</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/12/the-tipping-point-is-here-it-is-now-top-amazon-scientists-warn/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/12/the-tipping-point-is-here-it-is-now-top-amazon-scientists-warn/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Dec 2019 17:45:53 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Shanna Hanbury]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2019/12/20172659/Banner-image-tp-768x452.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=225636</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, carbon, Carbon Dioxide, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Sequestration, Climate, Climate Change, Climate Science, Conservation, Controversial, Deforestation, Drought, Environment, Extreme Weather, Forest Carbon, Forests, Global Environmental Crisis, Global Warming, Green, Impact Of Climate Change, Industrial Agriculture, Land Use Change, Mitigation, Politics, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Saving Rainforests, Temperatures, Threats To Rainforests, Tipping points, and Tropical Deforestation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The Amazon worst-case scenario has arrived, say leading researchers, as predicted signs of a shift from rainforest-to-savanna begin to be seen in real time on the ground.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A healthy intact portion of the Amazon rainforest in Pará state, Brazil. Image courtesy of Ideflor-Bio/Fotos Públicas. The Amazon Tipping Point is here, say leading climate scientist Carlos Nobre and renowned conservation biologist Thomas Lovejoy in a new science policy editorial published today, December 20. The tipping point’s arrival could mean a rapid rainforest die-off — releasing massive amounts of carbon to the atmosphere at a time when the world most needs carbon reductions. For more than a half century, write the researchers, scientists have known that the Amazon creates its own hydrological cycle: rainforest trees regulate the region’s evaporation, transpiration and rainfall. However, the more tree cover loss there is, the more droughts are intensified. And when the rainforest no longer receives enough rain to sustain itself, trees begin to die back into a form of degraded savanna or shrubland. It’s the Amazon on self-destruct mode, and an event whose arrival has been quickened not only by rising deforestation rates over recent years, but by global climate change as well. Researchers Nobre and Lovejoy have been alerting the scientific community about the Amazon tipping point for years, but now they’ve upgraded that warning: “Current deforestation is substantial and frightening: 17% across the entire Amazon basin and approaching 20% in the Brazilian Amazon,” they wrote in Science Advances. “We are scientists who have been studying the Amazon and all its wondrous assets for many decades. Today, we stand exactly in a moment of destiny: The tipping point is here, it&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/12/the-tipping-point-is-here-it-is-now-top-amazon-scientists-warn/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-225636</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Amazon forest to savannah tipping point could be far closer than thought (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/03/amazon-forest-to-savannah-tipping-point-could-be-far-closer-than-thought-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/03/amazon-forest-to-savannah-tipping-point-could-be-far-closer-than-thought-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Mar 2018 10:52:28 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Carlos NobreTom Lovejoy]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2018/03/05101900/FEATURED-lovejoy-nobre-768x451.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=204316</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Amazon Agribusiness]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, Biodiversity Hotspots, carbon, Carbon Dioxide, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Sequestration, Cattle, Climate Change, Climate Science, Commentary, Conservation, Controversial, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Drought, Environment, Environmental Law, Extreme Weather, Fires, Forest Carbon, forest degradation, Forest Destruction, Forest Fragmentation, Forest Loss, Forests, Global Environmental Crisis, Global Warming, Green, Impact Of Climate Change, Industrial Agriculture, Land Use Change, Law, Logging, Mining, Pasture, Politics, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Ranching, Regulations, Research, Saving Rainforests, Soy, Threats To Rainforests, Tipping points, and Tropical Deforestation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
											<grant>
							<![CDATA[TFAA2018]]>
						</grant>
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A 2007 study estimated that with 40% Amazon deforestation a tipping point could be reached, converting forest to savannah. New factors put that tipping point at 20-25%. Deforestation is now at 17%. ]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Amazon cloud factory. Photo by Rhett A. Butler / Mongabay In Brazil during the 1970s, when the first deforestation was spreading along the route of the Belém-Brasília highway, the Amazon forest seemed endless and eternal. It was mostly a place of resource extraction – rubber, Brazil nuts and more – and a place for science. In the middle of that decade, Brazilian Scientist Eneas Salati published some extraordinary results. By analyzing isotopic ratios of oxygen in rainwater collected from the estuary all the way to the Peruvian border, he was able to demonstrate unequivocally that the Amazon makes half of its own rainfall. The moisture recycles five to six times as the air mass moves from the Atlantic until reaching the Andes. There the uplift caused major rainfall, creating the greatest river system on Earth, holding 20 percent of all river water globally. These were paradigm shattering results. Hitherto the unquestionable dogma was that vegetation is simply the consequence of climate and that it had no influence on climate whatsoever. But that influence is actually visible when plumes of moisture rise from the forest after a rainstorm. It is the consequence of evaporation off the complex surfaces of the forest as well as the transpiration of the trees themselves. Moisture rising from the forest contributes more importantly in the central and eastern Amazon because large-scale factors for formation of rainfall are weaker there. Those results almost immediately raised the question of how much deforestation could cause this hydrological cycle&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2018/03/amazon-forest-to-savannah-tipping-point-could-be-far-closer-than-thought-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-204316</doi>				</item>
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