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		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/globalization/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
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	<title>News on Globalization</title>
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				<item>
					<title>Global pressure on ayahuasca threatens Amazonian plants and knowledge systems</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/global-pressure-on-ayahuasca-threatens-amazonian-plants-and-knowledge-systems/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/global-pressure-on-ayahuasca-threatens-amazonian-plants-and-knowledge-systems/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Jun 2026 20:38:06 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Carlos Minuano]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Xavier Bartaburu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/23203123/AP18157600830602-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=321692</guid>

					
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biocultural Diversity, Biodiversity Hotspots, Community Forests, Conservation, Consumption, Controversial, Culture, Globalization, Indigenous Peoples, International Trade, Medicinal Plants, Overconsumption, Overexploitation, Plants, Rainforests, Religions, Traditional Medicine, and Traditional People]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[“One of the world’s largest pharmacies is being destroyed,” says Benki Piyãko, a leader of the Ashaninka Indigenous people in the Brazilian state of Acre. The warning points to multiple threats advancing on the Amazon but also to growing debate surrounding one of the so-called forest medicines: ayahuasca. This Indigenous beverage with psychedelic properties is [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[“One of the world’s largest pharmacies is being destroyed,” says Benki Piyãko, a leader of the Ashaninka Indigenous people in the Brazilian state of Acre. The warning points to multiple threats advancing on the Amazon but also to growing debate surrounding one of the so-called forest medicines: ayahuasca. This Indigenous beverage with psychedelic properties is usually prepared from two native plants: the caapi vine or mariri (Banisteriopsis caapi) and the leaves of the chacrona plant (Psychotria viridis). According to Indigenous leaders and experts, these species are facing increasing pressure and signs of scarcity in some areas. Called kamarãpe by the Ashaninka people, ayahuasca has been used by Indigenous peoples across the Amazon for centuries. It has crossed borders for decades, ceasing to circulate exclusively in its original contexts. Today, it can be found in urban religious centers, therapeutic retreats, and international psychedelic tourism circuits. Scientists and pharmaceutical companies are also turning their attention to this ancestral beverage, which already shows evidence of therapeutic potential for different mental health disorders such as depression and substance addiction. But increasing global interest is also creating concerns. As demand grows, so has the ayahuasca supply chain, without a corresponding growth in management or oversight. In different parts of the Amazon, there are signs of pressure on the species used to prepare the beverage, often collected without planning. At the same time, increasing consumption in nontraditional contexts raises concerns about ancestral knowledge being commodified for the market. The main problem seems to lie in how&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/global-pressure-on-ayahuasca-threatens-amazonian-plants-and-knowledge-systems/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/global-pressure-on-ayahuasca-threatens-amazonian-plants-and-knowledge-systems/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321692</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Can two Amazons survive? Invisible e-waste is poisoning the world</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/can-two-amazons-survive-invisible-e-waste-is-poisoning-the-world/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/can-two-amazons-survive-invisible-e-waste-is-poisoning-the-world/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Dec 2025 21:18:32 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gerry McGovernSue Branford]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/03083255/10-Abogbloshie-dump-in-Ghana-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=310477</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Asia, Ghana, Global, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Air Pollution, Business, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Footprint, Climate Change, Consumption, E-waste, Emission Reduction, Energy, Environment, Environmental Policy, Global Environmental Crisis, Globalization, Health, Industry, Mining, Overconsumption, Planetary Health, Pollution, Public Health, Recycling, Research, Water, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[“I live in Accra, Ghana,” says Isaac Dinwe, who works for Closing the Loop, a Dutch company that works with the electronics industry to increase global recycling. “The e-waste problem in my country is so huge we are unable to manage it. Most of our e-waste ends up in city centres. Informal workers extract what [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[“I live in Accra, Ghana,” says Isaac Dinwe, who works for Closing the Loop, a Dutch company that works with the electronics industry to increase global recycling. “The e-waste problem in my country is so huge we are unable to manage it. Most of our e-waste ends up in city centres. Informal workers extract what they can sell and burn the rest. It causes a lot of pollution,” Dinwe writes in an email to Mongabay from the group. Dinwe is one of a handful of Ghanaians tackling a public health and environmental crisis brought on by the global consumer economy and a lack of legislation and infrastructure around the globe. Dinwe heads a team trained to properly handle e-waste and travels to repair shops, villages and churches to buy “dead” phones that would otherwise end up landfilled or burned. “We are careful not to pay too much, as we want the phones to be used right up to the end of their life,” explains Closing the Loop CEO Joost de Kluijver. Isaac Dinwe, a Ghanaian, heads a team of 16 people who buy &#8216;dead&#8217; phones cheaply from repair shops and elsewhere in Accra, Ghana, to prevent them from being tossed into landfills. But, despite the team&#8217;s work, a lot of e-waste ends up in waste dumps where scavengers extract salvageable bits, then burn the rest, causing pollution that threatens public health. Image courtesy of Closing the Loop. Closing the Loop has joined with phone makers and sellers in Europe to&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/can-two-amazons-survive-invisible-e-waste-is-poisoning-the-world/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/can-two-amazons-survive-invisible-e-waste-is-poisoning-the-world/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-310477</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘Alarming’ levels of toxins found in free-range eggs near dumpsites globally</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/alarming-levels-of-toxins-found-in-free-range-eggs-near-dumpsites-globally/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/alarming-levels-of-toxins-found-in-free-range-eggs-near-dumpsites-globally/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Oct 2025 14:20:04 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/15054508/Image_3_Kalasin_Thailand_J_Petrlik_Arnika_IMG_8236-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=307677</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Birds, Chemicals, Conservation, Diseases, E-waste, Environment, Food, food security, Globalization, Health, International Trade, Plastic, Pollution, Public Health, Regulations, Research, Toxicology, and Waste]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A recent study has found “alarming” levels of toxic chemicals in free-range eggs around the globe. The finding is based on more than a decade of analyses of eggs on five continents, which detected free-range eggs contaminated with globally banned flame retardants, and particularly brominated dioxins, which are toxic to human health and the environment. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A recent study has found “alarming” levels of toxic chemicals in free-range eggs around the globe. The finding is based on more than a decade of analyses of eggs on five continents, which detected free-range eggs contaminated with globally banned flame retardants, and particularly brominated dioxins, which are toxic to human health and the environment. E-waste sites, dumpsites and waste incinerators are key sources of these pollutants, with eggs tested in their vicinity found to be severely contaminated by chemicals released when plastic waste is burned. Eggs sampled near an e-waste site in Ghana in 2019, for example, had levels of brominated and chlorinated dioxins 200 times higher than the safety standard for food. Intentional production and use of dioxins has been eliminated or severely restricted worldwide under the U.N. Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs). The study, published in the journal Emerging Contaminants, was led by the International Pollutants Elimination Network (IPEN), along with the Czech nonprofit Arnika and an international team of scientists. The research was far-reaching, with free-range egg toxicology data gathered in many developing countries, and countries with economies in transition, in Africa, Asia, North and South America and Europe. The findings are extremely concerning, the study authors say, as eggs are an important source of protein in low- and middle-income countries, with the study indicating these toxic chemicals are entering the food chain. “We know from decades of studies that dioxins are some of the most toxic chemicals that we are aware of,” says&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/alarming-levels-of-toxins-found-in-free-range-eggs-near-dumpsites-globally/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/alarming-levels-of-toxins-found-in-free-range-eggs-near-dumpsites-globally/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-307677</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>EUDR implementation comes laden with potential unintended consequences</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/eudr-implementation-comes-laden-with-potential-unintended-consequences/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/eudr-implementation-comes-laden-with-potential-unintended-consequences/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Sep 2025 19:05:51 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/04150701/Image_7-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=305415</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Amazon, Asia, Brazil, Cerrado, East Africa, Ethiopia, Ghana, Global, Indonesia, South America, Southeast Asia, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agroforestry, Cacao, Coffee, Conservation, Crops, Deforestation, Ecosystems, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Farming, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Forests, Globalization, International Trade, Land Use Change, Palm Oil, Pasture, Politics, Regulations, Supply Chain, Timber, Timber Laws, timber trade, Trade, and Tropical Deforestation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Set to enter into force Dec. 30, 2025, the European Union’s deforestation-free products regulation (EUDR) aims to halt the bloc’s contribution to global forest loss. Experts Mongabay spoke to agree the EUDR promises to become a landmark legislative tool for curbing commodities supply chain-related deforestation at the international level. But those analysts also warn of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Set to enter into force Dec. 30, 2025, the European Union’s deforestation-free products regulation (EUDR) aims to halt the bloc’s contribution to global forest loss. Experts Mongabay spoke to agree the EUDR promises to become a landmark legislative tool for curbing commodities supply chain-related deforestation at the international level. But those analysts also warn of “unintended consequences” built into the law that could imperil the initiative’s objectives and effectiveness and in some cases raise the risk of further deforestation or land use change spreading to other ecosystems. Once it is implemented, the EUDR requires producers of a wide range of commodities — including cattle, cocoa, coffee, palm oil, rubber, soy and wood — prove their products are not being sourced from land deforested after Dec. 31, 2020. EUDR implementation was delayed in 2024 when transnational companies and commodity producing nations complained to the EU of being unprepared for the law. That hiatus raised widespread concerns the delay might be used for “watering down” the statute. But the postponement could also allow time for potential EUDR defects to be addressed. The Rainforest Alliance, for example, which has supported the law from its inception, “definitely saw the unintended consequences from the start,” says Fanny Gauttier, the NGO’s European public affairs lead. Prime among those unintended consequences, she says, is the possibility of the EUDR accidentally excluding many of the world’s smallholder farmers. Other experts point to the potential “leakage” of commodities once destined for EUDR nations being shipped to unregulated markets. Add&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/eudr-implementation-comes-laden-with-potential-unintended-consequences/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/eudr-implementation-comes-laden-with-potential-unintended-consequences/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-305415</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Commercial space race comes with multiple planetary health risks</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/commercial-space-race-comes-with-multiple-planetary-health-risks/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/commercial-space-race-comes-with-multiple-planetary-health-risks/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Jul 2025 13:27:46 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/22074720/Image_1-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=302922</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Business, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Footprint, Climate Change, Conservation, data, Deforestation, Development, E-waste, Environment, Globalization, Ozone Layer, Planetary Boundaries, Politics, Pollution, Remote Sensing, Research, Science, Space, Technology, and Waste]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The skies overhead are already teeming with satellites. But their orbiting numbers will skyrocket in the near future as the commercial and international space race takes off. Three projects alone — SpaceX’s Starlink, China’s Guowang megaconstellation, and Donald Trump’s proposed Golden Dome missile defense system — will launch tens of thousands of new satellites. Today’s [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The skies overhead are already teeming with satellites. But their orbiting numbers will skyrocket in the near future as the commercial and international space race takes off. Three projects alone — SpaceX’s Starlink, China’s Guowang megaconstellation, and Donald Trump’s proposed Golden Dome missile defense system — will launch tens of thousands of new satellites. Today’s 12,000 satellites could, according to some estimates, grow to 60,000, or even 100,000 total satellites by 2030, as a space industry already worth hundreds of billions of dollars sees rapid growth. This 21st-century space race, while a boon for communications and Earth monitoring, is sending up a red flag with experts, who warn that the tech advances satellite may bring are linked to a growing number of Earth environmental impacts stretching from the industry’s supply chain here on Earth, into the upper atmosphere and out into space itself. With countries initiating or expanding their space programs (including the U.S., EU, India, Japan, China, Russia, South Korea and the United Arab Emirates), and commercial efforts all in full swing, “we&#8217;re moving towards an industry that could cause a lot of damage to the environment if we don&#8217;t regulate it or understand it,” now, says Eloise Marais, an atmospheric chemist at University College London, U.K. The industry’s toll stretches from its ground-based, energy-guzzling data centers, to metal-shedding rocket launches, to tons of orbiting space junk and debris regularly plummeting back to Earth. Among the risks are poorly understood space age atmospheric pollutants that could harm the ozone&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/commercial-space-race-comes-with-multiple-planetary-health-risks/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-302922</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indonesian forests put at risk by South Korean and Japanese biomass subsidies</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/indonesian-forests-put-at-risk-by-south-korean-and-japanese-biomass-subsidies/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/indonesian-forests-put-at-risk-by-south-korean-and-japanese-biomass-subsidies/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Dec 2024 15:22:25 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Annelise Giseburt]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/12/12124920/INFIS_0481_0526-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=291498</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Circular economy and Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, East Asia, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Bioenergy, Climate Change, Coal, Conservation, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Energy, Environment, Forests, Global Warming, Globalization, Governance, Greenwashing, International Trade, Logging, Plantations, Politics, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Renewable Energy, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Biomass energy subsidies in South Korea and Japan are threatening Southeast Asia’s tropical forests, warns a new report by environmental NGOs. Of particular concern is the nascent but rapidly growing woody biomass industry in Indonesia, where rainforests are already being cleared to make wood pellets to be burned for electricity. The report, published in October [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Biomass energy subsidies in South Korea and Japan are threatening Southeast Asia’s tropical forests, warns a new report by environmental NGOs. Of particular concern is the nascent but rapidly growing woody biomass industry in Indonesia, where rainforests are already being cleared to make wood pellets to be burned for electricity. The report, published in October by Earth Insight, Auriga Nusantara, Forest Watch Indonesia, Solutions for Our Climate (SFOC), Trend Asia, and Mighty Earth, notes that South Korea received around 62% and Japan 38% of Indonesian wood pellet exports over 2021-2023. During that same period, Indonesian wood biomass export volumes grew by orders of magnitude, rising from a trickle of just over 100 metric tons annually to more than 1,000 times that. However, Indonesia’s biomass production isn’t only for export. Thanks to the support of Japanese businesses and government institutions, Indonesia has begun burning wood pellets alongside coal in many of its own power plants, a practice known as cofiring, in order to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions (at least on paper). Plans to further expand in-country biomass use are in the works. Meanwhile, deforestation for biomass projects has already arisen in the country’s Kalimantan, Sulawesi and Papua regions. Ipu Angit, a Dayak Punan from Indonesia&#8217;s North Kalimantan province, is struggling to protect the forest he calls home from a company that wants to clear it to make way for a wood pellet plantation. Image by Nanang Sujana for Mongabay. The forest in Ipu Angit&#8217;s village, Laban Nyarit, could be demolished&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/indonesian-forests-put-at-risk-by-south-korean-and-japanese-biomass-subsidies/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/indonesian-forests-put-at-risk-by-south-korean-and-japanese-biomass-subsidies/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-291498</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Biomass power grows in Japan despite new understanding of climate risks</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/biomass-power-grows-in-japan-despite-new-understanding-of-climate-risks/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/biomass-power-grows-in-japan-despite-new-understanding-of-climate-risks/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Jul 2024 20:55:37 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Annelise Giseburt]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/07/29162909/logs-wood-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=285289</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Circular economy]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, California, Canada, East Asia, Japan, and North America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Bioenergy, carbon, Carbon Dioxide, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Footprint, Carbon Sequestration, Climate, Climate Change, Climate Science, Conservation, Controversial, Emission Reduction, Energy, Energy Efficiency, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Forest Carbon, Forests, Global Environmental Crisis, Global Warming, Globalization, Green, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Impact Of Climate Change, International Trade, Law, Mitigation, Plantations, Politics, Pollution, Research, and Temperate Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Japan is at a crossroads in its controversial use of burning forest biomass to make electricity. While the government and private sector’s understanding of the fuel’s harmful environmental and climate impacts is growing, biomass power plants long in the pipeline continue to come online, requiring ever-greater volumes of imported wood pellets from primary forests in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Japan is at a crossroads in its controversial use of burning forest biomass to make electricity. While the government and private sector’s understanding of the fuel’s harmful environmental and climate impacts is growing, biomass power plants long in the pipeline continue to come online, requiring ever-greater volumes of imported wood pellets from primary forests in Canada or plantations in Vietnam. Biomass importers and users in Japan are being forced to reevaluate their supply chains after U.S. wood pellet producer Enviva declared bankruptcy in March and prominent ecologists visiting Japan from Canada warned of the pellets’ environmental risks. In addition, new biomass policies from Japan’s biggest banks emphasize the importance of sustainable sourcing, which forest advocates say they hope will encourage biomass users to improve their practices. But ultimately, forest advocates argue that, no matter which supply chain biomass users choose, burning wood to generate electricity is fundamentally untenable, as it puts significant amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere despite the global need to drastically reduce emissions. In 2022, burning biomass accounted for roughly 6% of Japan’s total CO2 emissions, according to a Japanese climate expert. Still, under international carbon accounting rules, Japan is able to count biomass emissions as zero because trees sequester CO2 throughout their lives. Many experts say this is a misguided policy. Using forest biomass for electricity generation took off in Japan in 2012, when the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry introduced a feed-in tariff (FIT) with 20-year fixed rates to support renewable energy projects. “Before the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/biomass-power-grows-in-japan-despite-new-understanding-of-climate-risks/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/biomass-power-grows-in-japan-despite-new-understanding-of-climate-risks/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-285289</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Circular solutions vital to curb enviro harm from cement and concrete</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/circular-solutions-vital-to-curb-enviro-harm-from-cement-and-concrete/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/circular-solutions-vital-to-curb-enviro-harm-from-cement-and-concrete/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Apr 2024 17:12:31 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/04/18133424/8-Workers-loading-cement-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=281085</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Circular economy and Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Air Pollution, carbon, Carbon Dioxide, Carbon Emissions, Circular Economy, Cities, Climate Change, Climate Science, Conservation, Consumption, Development, Environment, Globalization, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Infrastructure, Pollution, Recycling, Sustainability, and Sustainable Development]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The concrete industry is a major carbon emitter and polluter, with severe human health impacts. But circular solutions, including electrifying cement plants, making low-carbon cement, and bio-architecture could offer relief.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Concrete forms the backbone of modern economies and societies: Roads, runways, homes, hospitals, banks, skyscrapers, sewers — just about any infrastructure you can imagine — depend on it. And as the global population grows, with rural people rushing to mega-cities for work, much more will be produced and poured. Consequently, concrete is one of the most widely used materials on Earth, with its outdated linear “take-make-waste” production model making it one of the most environmentally harmful. Manufacturing fresh concrete requires huge sums of extracted material, sucks up colossal amounts of water, creates clouds of unhealthful air pollution, and requires massive amounts of energy — fueling climate change. Cement alone accounts today for as much as 8% of global CO2 emissions. Even more worrisome, scientists warn that concrete is significantly contributing to the destabilization of Earth’s planetary boundaries, helping promulgate a “triple crisistriple crisis” of climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss — with the transgression of even just one of these boundaries potentially posing an existential threat to life as we know it. It’s estimated that around 30 billion tons of concrete now gets used each year, already posing huge extraction, pollution and greenhouse gas emission risks, even as production surges in the Global South as the construction industry ramps up. &#8220;That starts looking like quite an enormous pressure on our planetary boundaries,” says Sophus zu Ermgassen, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oxford. With the bulk of future demand coming from developing countries to improve substandard infrastructure and help&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/circular-solutions-vital-to-curb-enviro-harm-from-cement-and-concrete/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/circular-solutions-vital-to-curb-enviro-harm-from-cement-and-concrete/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-281085</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Enviva bankruptcy fallout ripples through biomass industry, U.S. and EU</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/enviva-bankruptcy-fallout-ripples-through-biomass-industry-u-s-and-eu/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/enviva-bankruptcy-fallout-ripples-through-biomass-industry-u-s-and-eu/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Apr 2024 14:45:11 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Justin Catanoso]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/05/25141443/wood-pellets-burning-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=280563</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Bioenergy, Circular economy, and Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global, North America, North Carolina, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Bioenergy, Business, carbon, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Sequestration, Climate, Climate Change, Climate Science, Conservation, Controversial, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporations, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Emission Reduction, Energy, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Forest Carbon, Forest Loss, Forests, Global Environmental Crisis, Global Warming, Globalization, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Impact Of Climate Change, Industry, Law, Logging, Mitigation, Nature-based climate solutions, Politics, Pollution, Renewable Energy, Solutions, Timber, and Trees]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[With the bankruptcy of the world’s biggest wood pellet maker, Enviva and the forestry industry are reaching out to the Biden Administration for subsidies that could offer it a lifeline, but environmentalists are pushing back.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The bankruptcy filing in March by Maryland-based Enviva — the world’s largest maker of wood pellets from forest biomass — is rattling a European Union that relies heavily on biomass as a significant though contested renewable energy source. The bankruptcy is also invigorating U.S. forest advocates determined to keep the Biden Administration from using new renewable energy credits to bail out the flailing company. On March 21, officials from five federal agencies visited North and South Carolina to see an Enviva pellet-making plant firsthand and hear environmental justice complaints over the impacts it is having on low-income communities. But the company faces immediate threats to its ongoing viability that transcend its $2.6 billion debt and negative community impacts, according to a former maintenance manager at two Enviva pellet-making plants in North Carolina and Virgina between 2020 and 2022, and an exclusive Mongabay source. As many as eight of Enviva’s 10 pellet mills in the U.S. Southeast, he said, are in such poor condition that they are producing fewer pellets monthly at a much higher cost due to intractable and costly maintenance issues. “There’s no way Enviva is coming out of Chapter 11,” the former employee told Mongabay, referring to a court-ordered reorganization process by which the firm has a set time to restructure its debt and begin paying back creditors. “Their manufacturing equipment is not fit for the service it’s required to deliver. Only two of its 10 plants (one in Florida, one in Georgia, neither built by Enviva) are&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/enviva-bankruptcy-fallout-ripples-through-biomass-industry-u-s-and-eu/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/enviva-bankruptcy-fallout-ripples-through-biomass-industry-u-s-and-eu/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-280563</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Fertilizer management could reduce ammonia pollution from 3 staple crops: Study</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/fertilizer-management-could-reduce-ammonia-pollution-from-3-staple-crops-study/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/fertilizer-management-could-reduce-ammonia-pollution-from-3-staple-crops-study/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Mar 2024 14:11:31 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Claire Asher]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Food systems]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/03/15082334/pexels-photo-3658482-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=279877</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Agriculture, Agrochemicals, Air Pollution, Carbon Emissions, Chemicals, Climate Change, Climate Science, Consumption, Development, Economics, Environment, Farming, Fertilizers, Food, Global Environmental Crisis, Globalization, Industrial Agriculture, Nitrogen Cycle, Nitrous Oxide, Nutrient Pollution, Pollution, and Soil Carbon]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A machine learning model of ammonia emissions from the world’s rice, wheat and corn crops shows that optimal fertilizer management could slash ammonia air pollution from these crops by 38%.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[More effective management of nitrogen fertilizers could reduce emissions of a harmful air pollutant from the cultivation of three staple crops by up to 38%, according to a study published in the journal Nature and conducted by an international team of scientists led by Yi Zheng from China’s Southern University of Science and Technology. A model using a type of artificial intelligence known as machine learning helped researchers untangle the complex relationship between environment, climate and agricultural practices to generate the most detailed map to date of global ammonia emissions from rice, wheat and corn. Ammonia is a major air pollutant that drives the formation of smog, which is linked to a variety of health issues, including asthma, lung cancer and cardiovascular disease. Nitrogen fertilizers are applied to crops to increase yield, but some of that nitrogen is lost to the atmosphere in the form of ammonia. Globally, crop cultivation is responsible for around 50-60% of human-caused ammonia emissions. Ammonia is a major air pollutant that drives the formation of smog, which plagues cities like New Delhi and Beijing. Smog is linked to a variety of health issues, including asthma, lung cancer and cardiovascular disease. Image by Jim Fruchterman via Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0). The amount of ammonia emitted from cropland depends on two factors: how much nitrogen is applied and what proportion of that nitrogen is lost to the atmosphere as ammonia — a metric known as the ammonia emission factor. Emission factors are determined by a variety of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/fertilizer-management-could-reduce-ammonia-pollution-from-3-staple-crops-study/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/fertilizer-management-could-reduce-ammonia-pollution-from-3-staple-crops-study/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-279877</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>U.S. natural gas expansion would surrender world to fatal warming, experts say</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/u-s-natural-gas-expansion-would-surrender-world-to-fatal-warming-experts-say/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/u-s-natural-gas-expansion-would-surrender-world-to-fatal-warming-experts-say/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Feb 2024 14:46:22 +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/20/2024/02/27102502/The-LNG-carrier-Shahamah-in-Uraga-Channel-Japan-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=279218</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[European Union, Global, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Air Pollution, Carbon Emissions, Chemicals, Climate Change, Climate Science, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Energy Efficiency, Environment, Fossil Fuels, Global Warming, Globalization, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Impact Of Climate Change, Industry, Infrastructure, International Trade, Natural Gas, Oil, Politics, Pollution, and Soil Carbon]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[As the Biden administration pauses to ponder licenses for 12 new LNG export facilities, it is investing billions in natural gas infrastructure abroad. Critics warn U.S. gas expansion poses a direct threat to Earth’s ecosystems and people.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[As U.S. politicians, the oil industry and environmental activists debate the pros and cons of a massive expansion of the nation’s export infrastructure for liquified natural gas (LNG) — a fossil fuel made primarily of methane — the world’s climate teeters on the brink, with scientific experts the world over lining up against the expansion. In January, the Biden administration responded to concerns about climate impacts and domestic energy costs by temporarily halting licenses for new LNG export facilities. But the nation, which until 2016 had a ban on gas exports, is already on track to double its output by 2030 solely with the already-authorized and under-construction terminals. A U.S. natural gas fracking boom resulted in the country’s first export terminal in 2016; there are now seven active terminals, with five more under construction. If Biden ultimately approves licensing, 12 proposed LNG facilities could go ahead. Over a 20-year period, methane released to the atmosphere is 80 times more potent at warming than carbon dioxide. French climate activists protest the influx of U.S. LNG in September 2023. Experts say the move from Russian to American gas is not solving the region’s energy dependence, while worsening impacts of climate change on its citizens. Image © Jean Nicholas Guillo/Greenpeace. LNG could turbocharge the climate emergency Greenlighting licenses for more gas export infrastructure could mean up to a fourfold increase in export capacity and effectively locks in LNG dependence in Europe and other regions for decades, committing millions of tons of methane to&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/u-s-natural-gas-expansion-would-surrender-world-to-fatal-warming-experts-say/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/u-s-natural-gas-expansion-would-surrender-world-to-fatal-warming-experts-say/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-279218</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Lessons from Finland’s attempt to transition to a circular economy</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/lessons-from-finlands-attempt-to-transition-to-a-circular-economy/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/lessons-from-finlands-attempt-to-transition-to-a-circular-economy/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Jan 2024 17:02:09 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/01/23151236/7-Tracegrow-a-Finnish-company-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=277923</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Circular economy]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Europe, European Union, and Finland]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Carbon Emissions, Circular Economy, Consumption, Development, Economics, Environment, Global Environmental Crisis, Globalization, Industry, Infrastructure, Natural Resources, Nature-based climate solutions, Pollution, Recycling, Solutions, Sustainability, Sustainable Development, and Waste]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In 2016, Finland became the first country in the world to adopt a national circular economy road map, with the ambition to become a world leader in moving away from an unsustainable “take-make-waste” linear model. A circular economy stands in contrast to the linear and throwaway model prevalent around the world today. The Finnish Innovation [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In 2016, Finland became the first country in the world to adopt a national circular economy road map, with the ambition to become a world leader in moving away from an unsustainable “take-make-waste” linear model. A circular economy stands in contrast to the linear and throwaway model prevalent around the world today. The Finnish Innovation Fund (Sitra), which played an instrumental role in developing the road map, defines the circular economy as “not based on the continual production of more and more goods but on the use of services — sharing, renting and recycling — instead of owning things. Materials are not lost at the end of their useful life but are used to make new products over and over again.” With the world facing increasing pressure on multiple planetary boundaries deemed vital to maintaining Earth’s “safe operating space,” a circular economy is considered one pathway to reduce overconsumption, slash emissions, and move materials in closed loops. In Finland, pursuing circular solutions has the potential to both cut carbon emissions while also reducing pressure on biodiversity, experts say. “We are trying to promote an economy that would fit the limits of natural systems,” says Annukka Berg, a circular economy specialist and senior researcher at the Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE). “It would be an economy that consumes a sustainable amount of natural resources, is carbon neutral and is beneficial for nature.” Finland was the first country in the world to develop a circular economy roadmap in 2016. Since then, a government&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/lessons-from-finlands-attempt-to-transition-to-a-circular-economy/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/lessons-from-finlands-attempt-to-transition-to-a-circular-economy/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-277923</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Study: Burning wood pellets for energy endangers local communities’ health</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/study-burning-wood-pellets-for-energy-endangers-local-communities-health/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/study-burning-wood-pellets-for-energy-endangers-local-communities-health/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Jan 2024 16:27:20 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Justin Catanoso]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/01/18153235/wood-pellets-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=277821</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Bioenergy, Circular economy, and Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Bioenergy, Business, carbon, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Sequestration, Climate Change, Controversial, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporations, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Energy, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Finance, Forests, Global Environmental Crisis, Global Warming, Globalization, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Industry, Law, Logging, Politics, Renewable Energy, and Timber]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Forest and air quality advocates in the United States have long argued that manufacturing wood pellets from leveled forests and burning the compressed wood for energy is neither a green nor clean climate solution as biomass industry advocates have long claimed. Now, a recent study in Renewable Energy purports to put unique, broad and scientific [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Forest and air quality advocates in the United States have long argued that manufacturing wood pellets from leveled forests and burning the compressed wood for energy is neither a green nor clean climate solution as biomass industry advocates have long claimed. Now, a recent study in Renewable Energy purports to put unique, broad and scientific rigor behind arguments against the ongoing expansion of biomass production for energy. The researchers find, for the first time, that U.S. biomass facilities emit on average 2.8 times the amount of pollution as that emitted by traditional fossil fuel facilities like oil and coal.  A wide range of hazardous air pollutants are emitted from burning wood pellets for energy, including particulate matter and dioxins, that are harmful to human health, the study finds. The study finds that thousands of tons of toxic, health-harming air pollutants, from nitrogen oxide to volatile organic compounds, are also emitted in the pellet-making process, especially in the Southeast where most pellet plants are located. Researchers report that 55 hazardous pollutants collectively exceeded by two times the allowable pollution permitted by state air-quality agencies. Higher concentrations of this pollution, the study confirms, adversely impact social justice communities, or mainly poor, minority communities where the pellet plants are located. “Fourteen million people in the United States live within a few miles of bioenergy facilities and breathe potentially harmful toxins and pollutants,” says Edie Juno, co-author of the study and a forestry specialist with the National Wildlife Federation in Washington, D.C. “As the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/study-burning-wood-pellets-for-energy-endangers-local-communities-health/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/study-burning-wood-pellets-for-energy-endangers-local-communities-health/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-277821</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Agricultural nitrogen pollution is global threat, but circular solutions await</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/agricultural-nitrogen-pollution-is-global-threat-but-circular-solutions-await/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/agricultural-nitrogen-pollution-is-global-threat-but-circular-solutions-await/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Jan 2024 16:26:33 +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/20/2024/01/11123039/1-cows-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=277553</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Circular economy and Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Agriculture, Agrochemicals, Air Pollution, Biodiversity, Carbon Emissions, Chemicals, Climate Change, Climate Science, Consumption, Development, Economics, Environment, Fertilizers, Food, Global Environmental Crisis, Globalization, Industrial Agriculture, Nitrogen Cycle, Nitrous Oxide, Nutrient Pollution, Pollution, and Soil Carbon]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[As the world grapples with escalating climate change, policymakers remain laser-focused on CO2, with humanity striving to decarbonize energy systems, capture carbon, issue carbon credits, and plant millions of trees to absorb emissions. But carbon dioxide is just one of several powerful greenhouse gases destabilizing the global climate, and just one of the human-produced pollutants [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[As the world grapples with escalating climate change, policymakers remain laser-focused on CO2, with humanity striving to decarbonize energy systems, capture carbon, issue carbon credits, and plant millions of trees to absorb emissions. But carbon dioxide is just one of several powerful greenhouse gases destabilizing the global climate, and just one of the human-produced pollutants severely impacting the natural world and threatening to push Earth out of its current habitable state. Another substance that rarely enters the limelight, but arguably has an even greater impact on our planet’s life support systems, is nitrogen. “Nitrogen is everywhere and invisible,” and its influences are many, says Mark Sutton, an environmental physicist at the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology. Massive imbalances in Earth’s natural nitrogen cycle, brought about by humanity’s agri-food, industrial and transport systems, have caused scientists to sound multiple alarms — especially over the last two decades – warnings that have gone largely unheeded. But analysts say circular economy solutions await, though they’ll require sweeping agricultural and societal changes. Reducing the proportion of animal protein in diets, particularly in Europe and North America, could substantially reduce humanity’s reliance on synthetic fertilizer. Image by A C Moraes via Flickr (CC BY 2.0). Haber-Bosch: A double-edged sword Nitrogen is essential. “Without nitrogen, there is no life. It&#8217;s the building blocks of DNA, amino acids, and proteins. It&#8217;s in chlorophyll that fuels photosynthesis,” explains David Kanter, an environmental scientist at New York University. But although this element makes up nearly 80% of the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/agricultural-nitrogen-pollution-is-global-threat-but-circular-solutions-await/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/agricultural-nitrogen-pollution-is-global-threat-but-circular-solutions-await/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-277553</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Enviva, the world’s largest biomass energy company, is near collapse</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/enviva-the-worlds-largest-biomass-energy-company-is-near-collapse/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/enviva-the-worlds-largest-biomass-energy-company-is-near-collapse/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Nov 2023 18:09:00 +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/20/2023/11/20155604/enviva-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=275620</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Bioenergy, Covering the Commons, and Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[North America, North Carolina, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Bioenergy, Business, carbon, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Sequestration, Climate Change, Controversial, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporations, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Energy, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Finance, Forests, Global Environmental Crisis, Global Warming, Globalization, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Industry, Law, Logging, Politics, Renewable Energy, and Timber]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The company’s rapid downfall raises questions about how it can supply its annual 6 million metric tons of wood pellets to the UK, EU and Asia, and how nations relying on biomass to meet energy and climate commitments will cope.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This year has been a financial disaster for Enviva, the world’s largest producer of wood pellets for the biomass energy industry. With more than $250 million in losses to date and worsening results expected in the fourth quarter, the once high-flying company’s viability, by its own admission, is in grave doubt. Also in question is where Enviva’s European Union and Asian customers will source the pellets they burn in their converted coal power plants and — without those pellets — how nations will meet their energy needs and their pledged Paris Agreement carbon emission cuts. To many financial analysts who closely follow company performance, Enviva’s near collapse this month appears to have happened rapidly and suddenly. But did it? “The problems have been there for years. There are lots of issues, but they stem from fundamental challenges Enviva faces in wood costs and keeping its manufacturing plants operating at full capacity,” a former Enviva maintenance manager told Mongabay. “It’s all coming home to roost in a kind of cumulative way.” In exclusive interviews with Mongabay, the former Enviva employee detailed critical problems he witnessed and grappled with as a top operations manager at two of Enviva’s 10 Southeast U.S. plants between mid-2020 and mid-2022. His insights help explain why Enviva is now in dire financial straits. Small mountains of forest wood, chipped from whole trees and loaded into tractor-trailers for delivery, are piled up outside the Enviva wood pellet mill in Ahoskie, North Carolina. According to a former Enviva maintenance&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/enviva-the-worlds-largest-biomass-energy-company-is-near-collapse/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/enviva-the-worlds-largest-biomass-energy-company-is-near-collapse/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-275620</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>What’s old is new again: Bioarchitects plot route to circular economy</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/whats-old-is-new-again-bioarchitects-plot-route-to-circular-economy/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/whats-old-is-new-again-bioarchitects-plot-route-to-circular-economy/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Oct 2023 19:22:48 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sandra Weiss]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/10/26151741/ARG-E-BAM-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=274672</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Circular economy]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Global, Latin America, and Mexico]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Carbon Emissions, Circular Economy, Consumption, Development, Economics, Environment, Global Environmental Crisis, Globalization, Industry, Infrastructure, Natural Resources, Nature-based climate solutions, Pollution, Recycling, Solutions, Sustainability, Sustainable Development, and Waste]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The construction industry, with its intensive use of cement, is a climate killer. But an innovator in Mexico has found one solution: combining traditional adobe construction in a state-of-the art solar-powered public building.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Every morning, when Laura Alba arrives at her office in the Imagina cultural center on the outskirts of León in central Mexico, she feels good vibes — and that’s not only because she loves her job leading a nonprofit that educates the city’s poor children. “This is a beautiful place where I have a lot of magical moments,” she says of the building where she works, despite its being located in one of the most dangerous neighborhoods of León, a city of 1.7 million in Guanajuato state. Imagina is housed in a literally groundbreaking edifice: It’s a big, multistory facility, constructed mostly from locally dug clay adobe, and is the first modern public building in Mexico engineered using bioconstruction techniques. The Imagina cultural centre is located in a poor, high-crime neighborhood outside León, Mexico. The surrounding community was deeply involved in the construction process, and also benefits from the facility&#8217;s many programs. Image by Peter van Lengen. Harmony as a principle The spacious cultural center is an eye-catcher, with its pinkish adobe walls seeming to rise right out of the earth, its two red domes reaching gracefully skyward, and its roof partly covered in solar panels. Its big round windows, open pattern handmade brick walls, and soaring arched entryway all invite natural sunlight, reducing electricity use. It’s a feel-good space inside too, with excellent ventilation and pleasant temperatures maintained without air conditioning year-round. The center is flanked by a kitchen garden, flower garden, and an edible forest. The building also&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/whats-old-is-new-again-bioarchitects-plot-route-to-circular-economy/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/whats-old-is-new-again-bioarchitects-plot-route-to-circular-economy/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-274672</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>African NGOs seek more funds, trust, and autonomy in global partnerships</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/african-ngos-seek-more-funds-trust-and-autonomy-in-global-partnerships/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/african-ngos-seek-more-funds-trust-and-autonomy-in-global-partnerships/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Oct 2023 16:16:22 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Malavika Vyawahare]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/10/20075519/Photo-Credit-Ryan-Lash-%EF%80%A2-TED-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=274426</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Conservation Finance, Indigenous Peoples and Conservation, and Indigenous-led conservation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Colonialism, Community Development, Community Forests, Community-based Conservation, Conflict, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Conservation leadership, Ecosystem Services, Environment, Finance, Forests, Funding, Globalization, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, NGOs, Resource Conflict, Social Justice, and Traditional People]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the conservation world, partnerships between the big international NGOs, or BINGOs, and local grassroots organizations are often marriages of unequals. And as with any union, the biggest pain points appear to be money, trust, and autonomy. For organizations working in Africa, the relationship is further complicated by local organizations’ dependence on foreign funding — [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the conservation world, partnerships between the big international NGOs, or BINGOs, and local grassroots organizations are often marriages of unequals. And as with any union, the biggest pain points appear to be money, trust, and autonomy. For organizations working in Africa, the relationship is further complicated by local organizations’ dependence on foreign funding — about 80%, according to one estimate. Much of it is mediated through large NGOs present in multiple countries headquartered in the Global North, with better access to financial capital and global networks. A recent report from U.S. nonprofit Maliasili sought to scrutinize these partnerships between BINGOs and conservation-focused civil society organizations in Africa. The latter are entities “rooted in their communities or countries’ civil society,” seen as having great potential as change-makers because they tap into the knowledge and experience of the communities in which they’re embedded. “In the global context, there is a move to localize conservation funding and decision-making,” said Resson Kantai Duff, portfolio funding director at Maliasili. “Multilateral environmental agreements are recognizing the pivotal role Indigenous people and local communities are playing in addressing climate change and conservation challenges.” In December 2022, nearly 200 countries endorsed a global pact for nature and people, committing to protect 30% of the planet by 2030. For a rights-based, community-centered approach to be at the core of this expansion, local actors say they must be front and center. Conservation-focused civil society organizations in Africa are entities “rooted in their communities or countries’ civil society,” seen as&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/african-ngos-seek-more-funds-trust-and-autonomy-in-global-partnerships/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/african-ngos-seek-more-funds-trust-and-autonomy-in-global-partnerships/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-274426</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Meatpacking giant and Amazon deforester JBS bid for NYSE listing challenged</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/09/meatpacking-giant-and-amazon-deforester-jbs-bid-for-nyse-listing-challenged/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/09/meatpacking-giant-and-amazon-deforester-jbs-bid-for-nyse-listing-challenged/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Sep 2023 13:49:32 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Shanna Hanbury]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/09/20090724/cattle-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=273440</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Amazon Agribusiness and Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Global, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Beef, Business, Cattle, Climate Change, Conflict, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Finance, Globalization, Governance, Indigenous Reserves, Indigenous Rights, Industrial Agriculture, Industry, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Meat, Politics, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, and Threats To Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A bid by global beef-processing giant JBS for a listing on the New York Stock Exchange, giving it access to an influx of global investments, may be under threat following complaints lodged by environmental groups with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC decision currently remains in the balance, with JBS aiming to join [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A bid by global beef-processing giant JBS for a listing on the New York Stock Exchange, giving it access to an influx of global investments, may be under threat following complaints lodged by environmental groups with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC decision currently remains in the balance, with JBS aiming to join the NYSE by the end of the year. Several nonprofit organizations, including Mighty Earth and the Rainforest Action Network, submitted letters to the SEC in August asking for the Brazilian meatpacking company’s initial public offering to be investigated and possibly rejected due to its track record of corruption and Amazon deforestation. JBS, which already lists its shares on São Paulo’s B3 exchange, recently announced it was planning to list on the NYSE by the end of 2023 to “strengthen the conditions for growth and competition with global competitors.” But conservationists say an influx of investment could lead to an explosive expansion of the largest animal protein producer on Earth, leading to more deforestation in biomes in Brazil critical to protecting the global environment, including the Amazon. “This is probably the single most important IPO for the climate in history,” Glenn Hurowitz, founder of environmental NGO Mighty Earth, said after lodging the submission with SEC. “There are profound implications for the planet if JBS, the world’s worst Amazon deforester, is given the go-ahead to seek billions of dollars from Wall Street to continue tearing down rainforest, polluting on a vast scale, and driving land grabbing.” In&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/09/meatpacking-giant-and-amazon-deforester-jbs-bid-for-nyse-listing-challenged/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/09/meatpacking-giant-and-amazon-deforester-jbs-bid-for-nyse-listing-challenged/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-273440</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Muddied tropical rivers reveal magnitude of global gold mining boom: Study</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/09/muddied-tropical-rivers-reveal-magnitude-of-global-gold-mining-boom-study/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/09/muddied-tropical-rivers-reveal-magnitude-of-global-gold-mining-boom-study/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Sep 2023 13:44:13 +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/20/2023/09/05131139/gold-mine-river-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=272946</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Covering the Commons and Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global and Tropics]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Business, Ecosystems, Environment, Environmental Law, Freshwater, Globalization, Gold Mining, Governance, Industry, International Trade, Mining, Politics, Pollution, Rivers, Sedimentation, Trade, Tropical Forests, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Escalating geopolitical tensions, a weakening dollar, and growing distrust in financial markets has triggered a tropical rush for gold, diamonds and precious metals that’s doing serious ecological damage to Earth’s rivers.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Untold numbers of people go daily to tropical rivers worldwide to eke out livelihoods and seek their fortunes, as they dig up streambanks and pump riverbeds, creating swirling clouds of mud in a search mostly of gold, but also diamonds and other precious metals. These efforts range from small to large-scale. Some miners hack away at riverbanks to reach mineral-rich soil, felling trees and uprooting vegetation vital for healthy rivers and causing severe erosion and runoff. Floating dredgers, sometimes funded by criminal syndicates, use massive hoses to suck up mineral-rich silt and filter it for hidden treasure, before pumping the murky water back into streams. While conservationists on the ground have long warned of the surging amount of ecological harm being done, a new study quantifies the morphing problem. A satellite image survey spanning four decades and recently published in Nature is the first to illustrate the bigger, long-term picture. A satellite image of the Madre de Dios region shows two rivers coming together: one mined and the other unmined. The bright caramel color helped researchers identify mining activity on a global scale. Image courtesy of Miles Silman/Arizona State University GCDS/Planet Labs. Across the tropics, river mining exploded in the last 10-15 years at an unprecedented scale, the study finds. Debris from the predominately small-scale operations turned 173 large rivers in 49 countries a bright caramel color, making their heavy sediment flows clearly visible from space. Up to 7% of large tropical rivers, defined as those wider than 50 meters&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/09/muddied-tropical-rivers-reveal-magnitude-of-global-gold-mining-boom-study/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/09/muddied-tropical-rivers-reveal-magnitude-of-global-gold-mining-boom-study/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-272946</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Rolling car tires into the global circular economy</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/rolling-car-tires-into-the-global-circular-economy/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/rolling-car-tires-into-the-global-circular-economy/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Aug 2023 16:05:15 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/08/21131401/tires-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=272400</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Consumed, Planetary Boundaries, and Product Lifecycles]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Business, Carbon Emissions, Circular Economy, Climate Change, Consumption, Deforestation, Development, Economics, Environment, Global Environmental Crisis, Globalization, Industry, International Trade, Microplastics, Pollution, Recycling, Rubber, Supply Chain, Sustainability, Sustainable Development, Transportation, and Waste]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A billion tires enter landfills, are burned, or litter the landscape every year, and more will be dumped as auto use surges planetwide. Industry analysts and entrepreneurs are pressing for circular economy solutions.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Imagine a heap of a billion vehicle tires towering overhead, the total number humanity throws away in just one year — worn-out tires tossed into landfills, burned, or littering the landscape. While that’s a visually distressing image, the harm tires do starts where they’re sourced, with current and future car fleets leaving an environmental trail stretching from tropical rainforests to rubber plantations to global roadsides, along waterways, and even into the atmosphere — impacting global biodiversity and human health. Experts say that applying a circular economy model to tire production and disposal could limit massive resource demand, while simultaneously turning this globally vexing waste stream back into valuable materials. But no matter the solution, the complex composition of the average tire — containing more than 400 chemicals and compounds — means there’s no single silver-bullet solution to this persistent problem. As much as 75% of global waste tires — roughly 750,000 tires annually — currently end up in landfills, according to some estimates, while others place the figure at around 40%. Circular economy solutions, which view used tires as a valuable resource, are needed to reduce environmental impacts across the supply chain. Image by Jared Earle via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0). A toxic conundrum Tires typically start their life’s journey in the tropics, with rubber produced predominantly by smallholder farmers on monocrop plantations. Current production methods risk ongoing deforestation and harm to biodiversity, along with uncertain livelihoods for farmers. Some 70% of the world’s natural rubber ends up in car&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/rolling-car-tires-into-the-global-circular-economy/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-272400</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Funding circularity: Investing in Asia’s circular economy business models</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/funding-circularity-investing-in-asias-circular-economy-business-models/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/funding-circularity-investing-in-asias-circular-economy-business-models/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Aug 2023 15:25:58 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abhishyant Kidangoor]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/08/01151916/Tridi-Oasis-recycles-PET-bottles-to-produce-rPET-flakes-which-could-be-used-to-make-packing-materials-and-textiles_-Image-Courtesy-of-Circulate-Capital-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=271667</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Circular economy and Product Lifecycles]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Climate Change, Conservation Technology, Consumption, Development, Economics, Environment, Global Environmental Crisis, Globalization, Natural Resources, Plastic, Pollution, Recycling, Soil Carbon, Sustainability, Sustainable Development, Technology, Waste, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[SINGAPORE — For a while now, researchers and policy experts have touted the transition to a circular economy as a way to sustainably handle the world’s growing waste and pollution crisis. The objective is to rapidly replace the “take-make-waste” business model of the linear economy with the “reuse, repair, refurbish and recycle” model of a [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[SINGAPORE — For a while now, researchers and policy experts have touted the transition to a circular economy as a way to sustainably handle the world’s growing waste and pollution crisis. The objective is to rapidly replace the “take-make-waste” business model of the linear economy with the “reuse, repair, refurbish and recycle” model of a circular economy. The ultimate goal would be to achieve zero waste. But beyond the buzzwords now doing the rounds in the media, how do inventive entrepreneurs and companies make sense of the circular economy? How can businesses adopt this model to reduce resource extraction and increase reuse and recycling? And how can small businesses that are successfully exploring innovative circular models find the money to scale up, especially in emerging economies? To get answers to some of these questions, Mongabay sat down with Ellen Martin, the chief impact officer at Circulate Capital, an investment management firm based in Singapore that funds circular business models in emerging economies. Launched in 2018 with a $100 million fund, Circulate Capital invests in companies in South and Southeast Asia with the aim of scaling up their circular solutions. In essence, the circular economy business model helps companies rethink and revamp their supply chains — reinventing their relationships with raw materials and waste. A key part of the process is to reduce the reliance on new raw materials by deriving new products from waste. “It’s a whole way of creating value that decouples the extraction of resources from the environment&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/funding-circularity-investing-in-asias-circular-economy-business-models/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/funding-circularity-investing-in-asias-circular-economy-business-models/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-271667</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The circular economy: Sustainable solutions to solve planetary overshoot?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/07/the-circular-economy-sustainable-solutions-to-solve-planetary-overshoot/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/07/the-circular-economy-sustainable-solutions-to-solve-planetary-overshoot/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Jul 2023 18:05:41 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[agroecology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Food systems]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/07/27143823/21165960273_2257ef7622_o-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=271464</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Circular economy, Covering the Commons, and Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Agriculture, Air Pollution, Biodiversity, Carbon Emissions, Climate Change, Climate Science, Consumption, Deforestation, Development, Economics, Environment, Food, Global Environmental Crisis, Globalization, Industrial Agriculture, Mining, Natural Resources, Pollution, Recycling, Soil Carbon, Sustainability, Sustainable Development, and Waste]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The world’s linear economy, critically labeled as “take-make-waste,” is blamed for many global environmental problems, including climate change. The circular economy — focused on conserving resources and material reuse — is a proposed alternative.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Past and current economic models have largely been linear; resources are extracted, used and then discarded. This system — often described as “take-make-waste” — is a double-edged sword: It helped build modern society but is implicated in rampant overconsumption and ecological damage, driving climate change, biodiversity loss and the pollution of land, air and oceans. Turning the tide on this “triple crisis” is one of the core objectives of the circular economy, a concept that advocates argue is a route to creating sustainable production cycles that reduce resource use, waste and ecological harm. “We see that if we address the way in which we decide how we produce and consume, that is going to help us affect those three underlying problems,” Elisa Tonda, head of the consumption and production unit at the United Nations Environment Program explains. At its simplest, experts say the circular economy revolves around reducing, reusing and recycling materials (known as the three R’s) — turning the cradle-to-grave linear economic model of production and consumption into a never-ending closed circle of renewal. In doing so, the circular economy model aims to eliminate waste and pollution, recirculate products and materials and regenerate nature, according to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. The circular economy can take many forms, involving the redesign of products and supply chains, reducing primary material consumption and more. At its core, it revolves around the &#8220;three R&#8217;s&#8221;: reduce, reuse, recycle. But these can also be expanded to include “refuse,” “repair,” “refurbish,” “remanufacture,” and “repurpose,&#8220;; processes intended&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/07/the-circular-economy-sustainable-solutions-to-solve-planetary-overshoot/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/07/the-circular-economy-sustainable-solutions-to-solve-planetary-overshoot/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-271464</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Forests in the furnace: Cambodians risking life and liberty to fuel garment factories</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/07/forests-in-the-furnace-cambodians-risking-life-and-liberty-to-fuel-garment-factories/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/07/forests-in-the-furnace-cambodians-risking-life-and-liberty-to-fuel-garment-factories/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Jul 2023 03:17:10 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Andy BallGerald Flynn]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Gerryflynn]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/07/12040908/Header_Garment-Deforestation_Mongabay_Andy-Ball_Story-3-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=270820</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Forest Trackers]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Cambodia, Cardamom Mountains, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Corruption, Deforestation, Degraded Lands, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Ethics, Fires, Forest Carbon, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Forests, Globalization, Governance, Illegal Logging, Illegal Trade, Industrial Agriculture, International Trade, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Reform, Land Rights, Land Use Change, Logging, Mongabay investigation, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, timber trade, Trade, Tropical Deforestation, Wildlife Rangers, and Zero Deforestation Commitments]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[This story is the third article of a three-part Mongabay mini-series exploring the link between Cambodia&#8217;s garment factories and illegal logging. Read Part One and Part Two. KAMPONG SPEU, Cambodia — The lamp dangled precariously under the wooden stilted home. Hooked up to a car battery, it was all that illuminated Saroeun* as the fire [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This story is the third article of a three-part Mongabay mini-series exploring the link between Cambodia&#8217;s garment factories and illegal logging. Read Part One and Part Two. KAMPONG SPEU, Cambodia — The lamp dangled precariously under the wooden stilted home. Hooked up to a car battery, it was all that illuminated Saroeun* as the fire that his wife had used to cook a dinner of rice and chicken ebbed into embers one evening in December 2022. The gloom of twilight enveloped the village of Kteh early as a chilled breeze bit through the mountains. Saroeun’s village in Kampong Speu province straddles two protected forests — Aural Wildlife Sanctuary and Central Cardamoms National Park — so no streetlights illuminate the dirt road, and the residents of Kteh need to get an early night in preparation for another predawn departure into the forest in search of timber. Saroeun said he would gladly trade in his life as a logger for any other opportunity — if only there were one. His 2-hectare (5-acre) rice field is larger than many of his neighbors’, but it yields just 100 bags of rice per year. Each bag, at about 40 kilograms (88 pounds), sells for around $1. “I cannot earn enough from just selling rice. If the government established a garment factory here, at least 70% of people would stop logging and would start working there instead,” he said. The irony of wishing for a garment factory in Kteh is not lost on Saroeun, who, like&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/07/forests-in-the-furnace-cambodians-risking-life-and-liberty-to-fuel-garment-factories/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/07/forests-in-the-furnace-cambodians-risking-life-and-liberty-to-fuel-garment-factories/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-270820</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Forests in the furnace: Can fashion brands tackle illegal logging in their Cambodian supply chains?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/07/forests-in-the-furnace-can-fashion-brands-tackle-illegal-logging-in-their-cambodian-supply-chains/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/07/forests-in-the-furnace-can-fashion-brands-tackle-illegal-logging-in-their-cambodian-supply-chains/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Jul 2023 02:05:38 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Andy BallGerald Flynn]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Gerryflynn]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/07/11070912/Header_Garment-Deforestation_Mongabay_Andy-Ball_Story-2_1-scaled-768x512-1.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=270770</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Chasing Deforestation and Forest Trackers]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Cambodia, Cardamom Mountains, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Bioenergy, Biofuels, Clean Energy, Conservation, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporations, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Energy, Fashion industry, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Forests, Fuelwood, Globalization, Governance, Illegal Logging, Illegal Trade, International Trade, Logging, Mongabay investigation, Protected Areas, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, Timber, Timber Laws, timber trade, Transparency, Transportation, Tropical Deforestation, and Zero Deforestation Commitments]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[This story is the second article of a three-part Mongabay mini-series exploring the link between Cambodia&#8217;s garment factories and illegal logging. Read Part One and Part Three. KAMPONG SPEU, Cambodia — “Going into the forest is dangerous, some people die when trees fall on them, but they are desperate,” said Saroeun*, a logger who makes [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This story is the second article of a three-part Mongabay mini-series exploring the link between Cambodia&#8217;s garment factories and illegal logging. Read Part One and Part Three. KAMPONG SPEU, Cambodia — “Going into the forest is dangerous, some people die when trees fall on them, but they are desperate,” said Saroeun*, a logger who makes multiple trips each day into Central Cardamoms National Park in southwest Cambodia’s Kampong Speu province. “They don’t know what else to do: if we don’t go to cut trees, we don’t have money,” he added. “I go every day and risk my life. I struggle and have to persist with my life in the forest.” The timber that Saroeun illegally cuts and transports from the forest to his village of Kteh will change hands many times, being bought and sold until it comes to rest in a garment factory, possibly in Kampong Speu province, neighboring Kandal province or further afield in Phnom Penh. Whichever factory buys the wood, it will be incinerated to generate thermal energy used for steaming, washing, dyeing or ironing fabrics — likely as part of an international fashion brand’s supply chain. But Saroeun has no way of knowing this from his wooden stilted house on the outskirts of the forest, largely because he’s insulated — and isolated — by the seemingly deliberate opacity of garment factories’ supply chain. He risks life, limb and liberty each day to scrape by on the few dollars’ profit he can eke out of forest crimes.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/07/forests-in-the-furnace-can-fashion-brands-tackle-illegal-logging-in-their-cambodian-supply-chains/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/07/forests-in-the-furnace-can-fashion-brands-tackle-illegal-logging-in-their-cambodian-supply-chains/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-270770</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Financial downturn at Enviva could mean trouble for biomass energy</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/financial-downturn-at-enviva-could-mean-trouble-for-biomass-energy/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/financial-downturn-at-enviva-could-mean-trouble-for-biomass-energy/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 May 2023 14:19:15 +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/20/2023/05/25141443/wood-pellets-burning-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=268957</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Bioenergy, Covering the Commons, and Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[North America and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Bioenergy, Business, carbon, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Sequestration, Climate Change, Controversial, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporations, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Energy, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Finance, Global Environmental Crisis, Global Warming, Globalization, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Industry, Law, Logging, Politics, Renewable Energy, and Timber]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The world’s largest producer of biomass for energy, Enviva, has seen its stock price tumble, as operational, financial and legal problems pile up, with investors possibly also concerned about the company’s tarnished green image.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Enviva, the world’s largest maker of wood pellets for bioenergy, is struggling through its most significant financial downturn ever, a problem potentially compounded by a class-action lawsuit alleging the company has misrepresented its environmental sustainability and growth potential. Wall Street reacted harshly on May 3 when Enviva announced a first-quarter loss of $117 million, nearly three times worse than predicted. Enviva also eliminated its shareholder dividend, a red flag for a company in distress. The firm’s balance sheet also indicates trouble. In April, Enviva management had been buoyant with investors about its revenue prospects for 2023. But one month later, it projected an annual net loss of between $136 million and $186 million. Its original annual net-loss projection was far smaller; just $18 million to $48 million, associated largely with new plant construction in the U.S. Deep South. As a result, Enviva’s stock price, which has been sliding since late last year, plunged from $21 per share to less than $8, an all-time low since the company went public in 2015. In April of last year, Enviva’s stock peaked at $85 a share. Its shares have since dropped about 90%. “We know what the specific issues are,” CEO Thomas Meth said in a statement. “Contract labor is too high, discipline around [pellet mill] repairs and maintenance spend[ing] is insufficient, wood input costs need to come down further and stay there, and [production] rates at specific plants need to improve and stabilize at those improved levels.” Wood chips piled in mounds&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/financial-downturn-at-enviva-could-mean-trouble-for-biomass-energy/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/financial-downturn-at-enviva-could-mean-trouble-for-biomass-energy/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-268957</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The EU banned Russian wood pellet imports; South Korea took them all</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/01/the-eu-banned-russian-wood-pellet-imports-south-korea-took-them-all/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/01/the-eu-banned-russian-wood-pellet-imports-south-korea-took-them-all/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Jan 2023 22:27:44 +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/20/2023/01/24221907/30452172090_3fc11c6305_k-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=264936</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Covering the Commons]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[European Union, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, South Korea, Turkey, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Bioenergy, Business, carbon, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Sequestration, Climate, Climate Change, Climate Science, Conservation, Controversial, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Emission Reduction, Energy, Environment, Environmental Policy, Forest Carbon, Forest Loss, Forests, Global Environmental Crisis, Global Warming, Globalization, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Impact Of Climate Change, Logging, Mitigation, Nature-based climate solutions, Politics, Renewable Energy, Solutions, Timber, and Trees]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Last July, as the Ukraine war raged, the EU barred all Russian woody biomass imports; even as South Korea took in Russia’s supply. Illicit woody biomass may also still be flowing to the EU from Turkey, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Despite European countries becoming ever more reliant on woody biomass for energy generation, the European Union last July chose to ban the import of wood pellets from Russia during a fifth round of economic sanctions tied to the unprovoked war with Ukraine. As a result, South Korea — which is in the process of accelerating its energy transition from coal burning to wood pellets — found itself in a geopolitical quandary that also offered a domestic energy-making opportunity.  Not wanting to alienate either Russia or Western allies aligned with Ukraine, South Korea has reportedly opted to ignore the ongoing war and take advantage of the entire surplus of Russian wood pellets on the open market. Since late July 2022, South Korea has been the exclusive destination for Russian produced pellets, tripling its imports in November alone to 65,000 tons, according to a report in late December by LesProm, a European timber holding and wood-products conglomerate. Through November of last year, South Korea paid $69 million to Russia for 377,000 tons of wood pellets — double what it imported from Russia in 2021. Forest advocates in Asia, Europe and the United States are livid at South Korea’s actions, noting that Russian imports now make up 15% of South Korea’s total wood pellet supply. They also say that South Korea is paying little attention to third-party certification programs that would help ensure that wood pellet supplies are not contributing to net deforestation and biodiversity loss in Russia. “South Korea, taking advantage of market&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/01/the-eu-banned-russian-wood-pellet-imports-south-korea-took-them-all/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/01/the-eu-banned-russian-wood-pellet-imports-south-korea-took-them-all/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-264936</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Dammed, now mined: Indigenous Brazilians fight for the Xingu River’s future</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/01/dammed-now-mined-indigenous-brazilians-fight-for-the-xingu-rivers-future/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/01/dammed-now-mined-indigenous-brazilians-fight-for-the-xingu-rivers-future/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Jan 2023 07:58:33 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Andrew Johnson]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Xavier Bartaburu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/12/28192941/ACJ-20211008-Ressaca-01-e1671467098811-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=264170</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Damming the Xingu]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Conservation, Corruption, Crime, Dams, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Forests, Globalization, Gold Mining, Green, Illegal Mining, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Infrastructure, International Trade, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Land Use Change, Law, Mining, Murdered Activists, Politics, Poverty, Poverty Alleviation, Protected Areas, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Saving Rainforests, Social Justice, Sustainability, Sustainable Development, Threats To Rainforests, Traditional People, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Canadian mining company Belo Sun wants to build a huge gold mine in the Big Bend of the Xingu region, in Pará; project foresees the extraction of 74 tons of gold in 20 years of operation.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[On a humid July afternoon, just as the sun was beginning to set over the Xingu River in the Brazilian Amazon, a young mother was preparing afternoon coffee when her phone rang. When she answered, a female voice claimed to have important information to share. “Send an audio,” the mother replied, distracted by the boiling pots and the child playing on the concrete floor. “I can’t,” said the voice, sounding urgent through the weak connection. “I have to talk to you right now.” The woman reported that hired gunmen were in the area looking for a community member who had just left town. He had been an outspoken opponent of a local mining project and had already received threats. The mother became worried: she had known the man since he was a child, and now he may never be able to return home to his family. In this remote and tight-knit community, these families fear constantly for each other’s safety. According to a study by Global Witness, Brazil was the most dangerous country in the world for environmental defenders this past decade. Vila da Ressaca, a community of around 600 residents near the city of Altamira in the Amazonian state of Pará, is located in the middle of the so-called Big Bend of the Xingu, or Volta Grande in Portuguese. The river makes a peculiar S-turn here that’s significant and unique for both and ecological and anthropological reasons. The community’s few dozen mostly wooden shacks surrounded by forests, pasture and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/01/dammed-now-mined-indigenous-brazilians-fight-for-the-xingu-rivers-future/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/01/dammed-now-mined-indigenous-brazilians-fight-for-the-xingu-rivers-future/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-264170</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Weakening of agrarian reform program increases violence against settlers in Brazilian Amazon</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/01/weakening-of-agrarian-reform-program-increases-violence-against-settlers-in-brazilian-amazon/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/01/weakening-of-agrarian-reform-program-increases-violence-against-settlers-in-brazilian-amazon/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Jan 2023 19:57:31 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Andrew Johnson]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Xavier Bartaburu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/12/28184749/ACJ_Settlement-10-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=264168</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Agriculture, Conservation, Corruption, Crime, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, food security, Forests, Globalization, Gold Mining, Green, Illegal Mining, Infrastructure, International Trade, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Land Use Change, Law, Mining, Murdered Activists, Politics, Poverty, Poverty Alleviation, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Saving Rainforests, Social Justice, Sustainability, Sustainable Development, Threats To Rainforests, Traditional People, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Residents of a landless worker’s settlement in Anapu, Pará state in Brazil’s Amazon region, accuse the Federal Government of favoring large landowners, land grabbers and corporations at the expense of poor and landless peasants.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[They came at night, shadowy figures moving silently, flashlights scanning the dirt path between walls of grass. Arriving at a small wood shack covered by a thin sheet of metal, they emptied the contents of a plastic bottle and set it ablaze. At daybreak, the 43-year-old farmer José Garcia solemnly inspected what was left of his home for the past three years. Planks of charred wood smoldered on the concrete floor. The twisted metal springs of a mattress stretched outward as if to escape the flames. Hard to replace would be the small gas stove, along with dozens of saplings the farmer hoped to watch grow like his four children. It was the third attack this year. The 54 families of Lot 96 make up one-half of the Sister Dorothy Stang Settlement Project (PA), a farming community on the eastern bank of the Xingu River near Anapu in Brazil’s Pará state, named after the American nun murdered in 2005 for devoting herself to the cause of social and environmental justice in the lawless frontier of the Amazon. More than a decade later, the injustice which she fought against and took her life has only worsened under the right-wing administration of Jair Bolsonaro. Residents accuse the government of favoring large landowners and corporations at the expense of poor, landless peasants. “They don’t want us here,” says Garcia, remembering the history of the bloodstained region where he grew up. “Many have been killed over a piece of land.” Like those before him,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/01/weakening-of-agrarian-reform-program-increases-violence-against-settlers-in-brazilian-amazon/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/01/weakening-of-agrarian-reform-program-increases-violence-against-settlers-in-brazilian-amazon/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-264168</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The Netherlands to stop paying subsidies to &#8216;untruthful&#8217; biomass firms</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/the-netherlands-decides-to-stop-paying-subsidies-to-untruthful-biomass-firms/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/the-netherlands-decides-to-stop-paying-subsidies-to-untruthful-biomass-firms/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Dec 2022 17:52:31 +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/20/2022/12/23182000/10-Drone-shot-Enviva-Ahoskie-2a-768x479.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=264081</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Covering the Commons and Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Australia, Netherlands, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Bioenergy, Business, carbon, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Sequestration, Climate, Climate Change, Climate Science, Conservation, Controversial, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporations, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Emission Reduction, Energy, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Forest Carbon, Forest Loss, Forests, Global Environmental Crisis, Global Warming, Globalization, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Impact Of Climate Change, Industry, Law, Logging, Mitigation, Nature-based climate solutions, Politics, Pollution, Renewable Energy, Solutions, Timber, and Trees]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A Mongabay story featuring a whistleblower who debunked the green claims of Enviva — the world’s largest wood pellet maker — has prompted the Dutch to ban subsidies to biomass firms who make false sustainability claims.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Prompted by exclusive reporting from Mongabay, the House of Representatives in The Netherlands’s Parliament has approved a motion that compels its government to stop paying subsidies to wood-pellet manufacturers found to be untruthful in their wood-harvesting practices. On December 14, the Dutch House, by a 150-114 vote, approved a motion introduced by Rep. Lammert van Raan of Amsterdam, a member of the progressive Party for the Animals. In his motion, van Raan noted that up to €9.5 billion ($10 billion) have been reserved by the government through 2032 to subsidize the purchase of domestic and foreign-produced wood pellets for energy and heat generation. “The risk of fraud with sustainability certification of biomass is significant,” van Raan wrote. Then, in reference to a Mongabay story published December 5, he added: “A whistleblower who worked at Enviva, the biggest maker of wood pellets, has reported that all of Enviva’s green claims are incorrect [and] according to an important recent scientific study… Enviva contributes to deforestation in the southeastern U.S.” Van Raan concluded his motion by writing that the House “calls on the government to ensure that all subsidies do not end up at parties that cheat with sustainability certification.” The approved motion requires the Dutch government to seek a higher level of proof under the third-party Sustainable Biomass Program (SBP) certification process. Enviva already participates in the SBP, but critics note that the certification process is inherently weak and unreliable, especially regarding the climate and biodiversity impacts of tree harvesting. Van Raan&#8217;s&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/the-netherlands-decides-to-stop-paying-subsidies-to-untruthful-biomass-firms/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/the-netherlands-decides-to-stop-paying-subsidies-to-untruthful-biomass-firms/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-264081</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Australia rejects forest biomass in first blow to wood pellet industry</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/australia-rejects-forest-biomass-in-first-blow-to-wood-pellet-industry/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/australia-rejects-forest-biomass-in-first-blow-to-wood-pellet-industry/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Dec 2022 17:54:59 +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/20/2022/12/21175151/BANNER-IMAGE-wood-pellets-1-768x456.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=263978</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Australia and European Union]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Bioenergy, Business, carbon, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Sequestration, Climate, Climate Change, Climate Science, Conservation, Controversial, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Emission Reduction, Energy, Environment, Environmental Policy, Forest Carbon, Forest Loss, Forests, Global Environmental Crisis, Global Warming, Globalization, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Impact Of Climate Change, Logging, Mitigation, Nature-based climate solutions, Politics, Renewable Energy, Solutions, Timber, and Trees]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[An existing regulation designating the burning of forests to make energy as being renewable has been reversed in Australia. That decision seems unlikely to alter the EU’s heavy commitment to biomass burning.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Forest advocates in Australia — the world’s 13th largest economy — say they scored a major environmental victory on December 15 when the ruling Labor Party revised a key regulation, rejecting the renewable energy classification of wood harvested from native forests and burned to make energy. Previously, under the country’s renewable energy policy, woody biomass had been classified as a renewable energy source. The impact of this regulatory change is perhaps most significant for the setback it may pose to the biomass industry globally, hindering the multibillion-dollar wood pellet industry from getting started Down Under at a time when pellet production is rising in the U.S. Southeast and British Columbia in order to supply growing demand to the EU, UK and Asia. “The changes [in Australia] mean that native forest biomass is no longer considered an ‘eligible renewable energy source’ for the purposes of [the nation’s] Renewable Energy Target, and electricity it generates cannot be used to create tradable Large-scale Generation Certificates [for replacing coal],” Chris Bowen, Australia’s minister of climate change and energy, said in a statement. “We have listened to the community and acted to address their concerns.” Australia, by its decision, is taking a very different course than the European Union, where woody biomass — despite growing public opposition — remains defined as a renewable energy source, is heavily government subsidized as a result, and makes up 60% of the EU’s renewable energy mix. Australia is among the few G20 countries without a thriving biomass industry; at&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/australia-rejects-forest-biomass-in-first-blow-to-wood-pellet-industry/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/australia-rejects-forest-biomass-in-first-blow-to-wood-pellet-industry/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-263978</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>As EU finalizes renewable energy plan, forest advocates condemn biomass</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/as-eu-finalizes-renewable-energy-plan-forest-advocates-condemn-biomass/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/as-eu-finalizes-renewable-energy-plan-forest-advocates-condemn-biomass/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Dec 2022 21:05:50 +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/20/2022/12/07210054/FINAL-BANNER-IMAGE-768x447.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=263342</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Covering the Commons and Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Europe, European Union, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Bioenergy, Business, carbon, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Sequestration, Climate, Climate Change, Climate Science, Conservation, Controversial, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporations, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Emission Reduction, Energy, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Forest Carbon, Forest Loss, Forests, Global Environmental Crisis, Global Warming, Globalization, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Impact Of Climate Change, Law, Logging, Mitigation, Nature-based climate solutions, Politics, Renewable Energy, Solutions, Timber, and Trees]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Policymakers could finalize revisions to the EU’s Renewable Energy Directive by year end, even as forest activists offer new evidence denouncing wood pellets as an energy source, and calling for an end to subsidies.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[As European Union policymakers move to finalize revisions to the Renewable Energy Directive in coming weeks, forest advocates continue calling for tougher regulations that would reduce the amount of woody biomass for energy used and slash the billions in EU subsidies that encourage the transformation of native forests into wood pellets for burning. The advocates’ arguments have been given a boost by a recent commentary published in Nature arguing that the EU’s overarching goal of reducing emissions by 55% by 2030 is being thwarted by land-use policies that encourage the diversion of vast quantities of European cropland and forests to bioenergy, thus undermining habitat conservation and carbon storage in both Europe and overseas. Commentary co-author Tim Searchinger, an expert on bioenergy policy at Princeton University, wrote that the EU’s “own modeling predicts that yearly use of bioenergy will more than double between 2015 and 2050, from 152 million to 336 million tonnes of oil equivalent. That requires a quantity of biomass each year that is twice Europe’s present annual wood harvest.” A section of the Kurgjia forest in Estonia after clearcutting by a wood pellet maker, as documented by environmentalists commissioned by Greenpeace Netherlands. The currently proposed RED biomass amendments offer no indication as to how the EU will monitor or enforce its biomass policies with the forestry industry. Image by Karl Adami. The majority of that wood for bioenergy now comes from forests being cut in Eastern Europe and Scandinavia, with the rest coming from U.S. Southeast forestlands. As&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/as-eu-finalizes-renewable-energy-plan-forest-advocates-condemn-biomass/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/as-eu-finalizes-renewable-energy-plan-forest-advocates-condemn-biomass/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-263342</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Whistleblower: Enviva claim of ‘being good for the planet… all nonsense’</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/envivas-biomass-lies-whistleblower-account/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/envivas-biomass-lies-whistleblower-account/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Dec 2022 18:05:03 +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/20/2022/12/01092121/2-Edenton-clear-cut-by-Tom-Brennan-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=263148</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Bioenergy, Covering the Commons, and Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global, North America, North Carolina, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Bioenergy, Business, carbon, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Sequestration, Climate, Climate Change, Climate Science, Conservation, Controversial, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporations, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Emission Reduction, Energy, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Forest Carbon, Forest Loss, Forests, Global Environmental Crisis, Global Warming, Globalization, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Impact Of Climate Change, Industry, Law, Logging, Mitigation, Nature-based climate solutions, Politics, Pollution, Renewable Energy, Solutions, Timber, and Trees]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A biomass industry insider tells Mongabay in exclusive interviews that Enviva, the world’s largest maker of wood pellets for energy, is disingenuous in its green, eco-friendly claims to the public and stockholders.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[EDENTON, North Carolina — The operator of a Tigercat tractor used its claw-like arm to skillfully scoop up what just days before had been a sizable old oak, as the clear-cut of a thickly wooded 52-acre (21-hectare) site in this coastal Southeastern U.S. town neared completion. The Tigercat operator fed the big oak, along with several skinnier trees, into a 4-ton whole-tree drum chipper. With a roar, it instantaneously ground the long trees into a torrent of small wood chips that flew out a chute into a tractor-trailer. In less than 30 minutes, the trailer was filled with 40 tons of chips. Then another tractor-trailer backed up to take the first one’s place. The chipping and loading process continued — another forest patch cleared. What I observed here while reporting for Mongabay on Nov. 3, 2022, corroborated what a biomass industry whistleblower had told me: “We take giant, whole trees. We don’t care where they come from. The notion of sustainably managed forests is nonsense. We can’t get wood into the mills fast enough.” The whistleblower had contacted me in early 2022, while still a wood pellet plant management official with the company Enviva. Since then, he had left the company, the world’s largest wood-pellet producer. But in every interview he offered a first-person exposé of the company’s practices: a revealing, first-of-its-kind account from inside the biomass-for-energy industry. Enviva’s green image: A company-constructed fabrication An onsite driver for the Mudd Trucking company confirmed to Mongabay that he was taking the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/envivas-biomass-lies-whistleblower-account/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/envivas-biomass-lies-whistleblower-account/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-263148</doi>				</item>
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