A cornfield stretches as far as the eye can see. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. Corn and soybean cultivation soared in the late 2000s, as U.S. agribusiness rushed to respond…
Oil palm fruit, which can be used for biofuel. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. A new report from the World Resources Institute finds that dedicating land to the production of…
Crude palm oil and palm fruit. Photos by Rhett A. Butler Instead of wisely investing the windfall generated by cutting petrol subsidies, Indonesia is poised to squander funds by increasing…
Scientists call for a 'non-prejudiced' judgment on nuclear power Nuclear power at times faces antagonism from the environmental community, with opponents arguing that it produces harmful radioactive waste, leads to…
Less than 10 percent of Ecuadorian Chocó forest remains, many endemic species under threat from development, logging A strip of rainforest running along the northwestern Ecuadorian coast and up through…
Oil palm fruit. Photo by Rhett A. Butler Indonesia's national airline, Garuda Indonesia, says it will start mixing palm oil-based biofuel with its jet fuel as part of an initiative…
Biomass burning takes many forms: wildfires, slash-and-burn agriculture, clearing forests and other vegetation, and even industrialized burning for energy production. Yet this burning—mostly manmade but also natural—takes a massive toll…
Sugar cane in the tropics. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. If Brazil wants to respect its commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions it should target low productivity cattle pasture rather…
Trends in commodity certification markets Market share for certified commodities. All figures courtesy of IISD's report The volume of commodities produced under various social and environmental certification standards jumped 41…
The monarch butterfly population overwintering in Mexico this year has hit its lowest numbers ever, according to WWF-Mexico. Monarch butterflies covered just 0.67 hectares in Mexico's forest, a drop of…
On Thursday, 17 October 2013 Mongabay.com and the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) co-hosted a discussion on environmental issues related to palm oil. The discussion involved representatives from WWF,…
Deforestation for palm oil production in Borneo. Photo by Rhett A. Butler Palm oil imports into Europe for use as car fuel increased by more than three-fold since 2006, raising…
Logging in temperate zones may release more greenhouse gases than previously thought by destabilizing carbon stored in forest soils, argues a new paper published in the journal Global Change Biology-Bioenergy.…
In coming weeks Brazil will vote on a bill that would lift a ban on sugar cane mills across a large extent of the Amazon region, sparking fears that ethanol…
In order to meet the European Union's goal of 20% renewables by 2020, some European utility companies are moving away from coal and replacing it with wood pellet fuel. The…
Intensification of Brazil's sugarcane industry in response to rising demand for sugar-based ethanol could have impacts on the regional climate reports a new study by researchers from Arizona State University,…
Indonesian palm oil companies would support land swaps as a means to reduce carbon emissions from deforestation while simultaneously expanding production, representatives from the country's largest association of palm oil…
Neste Oil, a Finnish energy giant, has announced a new "no deforestation" policy [PDF] for sourcing palm oil. The company, which is one of the world's largest buyers of palm…
Though Obama has frequently spoken of the need for more “green jobs,” he has failed to acknowledge the inherent environmental advantages associated with a curious plant called hemp. One of…
Researchers have taken a step closer to using atmospheric carbon dioxide as a biofuel, potentially helping mitigate climate change while at the same time meeting rising energy demand, according to…
Deforestation in Borneo for palm oil production. British Parliament has approved new government subsidies for biofuel use in U.K. power stations. In a vote held yesterday, Parliament approved a Department…
Clearing of elephant habitat at the edge of Yala National Park in Sri Lanka. Photo courtesy of the Environmental Foundation Limited (EFL). A biofuel plantation near Yala National Park has…
Not long ago biofuels were seen as one of the major tools to combat climate change, but a large number of studies in recent years have shown that many first…
Palm fruit. Photo by Rhett Butler. The European Commission has approved palm oil-based biodiesel for the renewable fuels standard provided it is certified under the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil…
Girl in village in Madagascar. One of the world's poorest countries, it has been estimated that about 70 percent of Malagasy people suffer from malnutrition. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler.…
The palm oil industry has been lobbying Europe to allow palm oil-based biofuels to qualify as a low carbon fuel. But environmentalists say substantial amounts of palm oil production occurs…
Palm oil facility in Sumatra, Indonesia. The palm oil industry has hired lobbying powerhouse Holland & Knight to help overturn the Environmental Protection Agency’s finding that palm oil-based biodiesel fails…
Carbon remaining in storage 30 years after land clearance as a fraction of initial above-ground biomass. Courtesy of Earles et al 2012. Click image to enlarge. Carbon emissions from deforestation…
Deforestation for oil palm, which is used to produce palm oil, in Sumatra. PHoto by Rhett A. Butler Wilmar International, the world's largest palm oil processor and trader, has hired…
Clearing for soy in the Brazilian Amazon Surging demand for vegetable oil has emerged as an important driver of tropical deforestation over the past two decades and is threatening biodiversity,…
