WHAT IS DEFORESTATION? Deforestation Deforestation, clearance or clearing is the removal of a forest or stand of trees where the land is thereafter converted to a non-forest use.[1] Examples of deforestation include conversion of forestland to farms, ranches, or urban use. Deforestation occurs for many reasons: trees are cut down to be used or sold as fuel (sometimes in the form of charcoal) or timber, while cleared land is used as pasture for livestock, plantations of commodities and settlements. The removal of trees without sufficient reforestation has resulted in damage to habitat, biodiversity loss and aridity. Disregard of ascribed value, lax forest management and deficient environmental laws are some of the factors that allow deforestation to occur on a large scale. Causes According to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) secretariat, the overwhelming direct cause of deforestation is agriculture. Environmental problems Atmospheric Illegal slash and burn practice in Madagascar, 2010 Soil Notes
SO WHAT'S BEEN IN THE MEDIA? Pristine Continent, Messy Problem john blackstone, journey to the bottom of the earth, garbage, antarctica, trash CBS This is the thirt part of a series on the effects of global warming in Antarctica. Antarctica is a land of towering mountains and vast emptiness - a pristine continent with a big garbage problem. CBS News correspondent John Blackstone asked Mark Furnish, who is in charge of picking up at McMurdo Station, America's main Antarctic science base: "You're the garbage man of Antarctica?" "Yeah, I'm the biggest trash man on the continent," Furnish said. His challenge: None of the trash produced in Antarctica can be left there because it would be there forever. "If you go down to Scott's Hut, down there on the point, you'll see ... still see seal carcasses that haven't decomposed yet," he said. One of the beauties of Antarctica, and one of its problems, is that nothing goes away. This is the hut explorer Robert Scott built in 1901. Inside the hut, it's an amazing scene of the past preserved. In Antarctica?
Australia's east coast named as 'deforestation front' in WWF Living Planet report | Environment Australia’s east coast has been compared to the Amazon as a “deforestation front” in a new global report by the World Wide Fund for Nature that underscores the threat to populations of koalas and other native species. The Living Planet report, produced by WWF every second year for the past 20 years, says global populations of vertebrate species have declined 60% since 1970. But koala numbers have disappeared at a much faster rate – more than 20% a decade – to the extent they could disappear from the wild in New South Wales by 2050. The report assessed 11 deforestation hotspots, where broadscale clearing had occurred at problematic levels since 2010, and where deforestation was expected to continue in the next decade. Eastern Australia was the only location in the developed world to make the list. “The plight of koalas is matched by alarming declines for many other uniquely Australian species who are losing their forest homes.”
Should Everest be closed? | World news | The Observer It has been described as the highest junkyard in the world. Covered in discarded mountaineering detritus and suffering under thousands of tourists' boots every year, environmental groups are to launch a push for a radical solution - the temporary closure of the world's highest mountain. Warnings that an ecological disaster is imminent in the area around the mountain have largely been ignored amid years of turmoil in Nepal. Maoist rebels declared a ceasefire with Nepal's government in April after a decade-long insurgency and are negotiating to join an interim government with the country's mainstream political parties. PT Sherpa, a spokesman for Keep, said: 'The Maoist insurgency presented conservation organisations in Nepal with serious challenges - constraining programmes, damaging infrastructure and threatening the security of staff. Campaigners warn that the price of tourism is discarded rubbish and medical waste and the colonisation of the area by restaurants and internet cafes.
Websites: Press Freedom Index 2013 Download the reportDownload the 2013 world press freedom mapRead in Arabic (بالعربية)Read in Turkish (Türkçe)Read in Italian (Italiano)Read in German (Deutsch)Read in Chinese (看中文) After the “Arab springs” and other protest movements that prompted many rises and falls in last year’s index, the 2013 Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index marks a return to a more usual configuration. The ranking of most countries is no longer attributable to dramatic political developments. This year’s index is a better reflection of the attitudes and intentions of governments towards media freedom in the medium or long term. Although many criteria are considered, ranging from legislation to violence against journalists, democratic countries occupy the top of the index while dictatorial countries occupy the last three positions. From top to bottom The Nordic countries have again demonstrated their ability to maintain an optimal environment for news providers. Big rises... ...and big falls
IMPACTS OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH ISSUE: Press Freedom Index 2002 Surprises among Western democracies: US below Costa Rica and Italy below Benin Reporters Without Borders is publishing for the first time a worldwide index of countries according to their respect for press freedom. It also shows that such freedom is under threat everywhere, with the 20 bottom-ranked countries drawn from Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe. The situation in especially bad in Asia, which contains the five worst offenders - North Korea, China, Burma, Turkmenistan and Bhutan. The top end of the list shows that rich countries have no monopoly of press freedom. Costa Rica and Benin are examples of how growth of a free press does not just depend on a country’s material prosperity. In the worst-ranked countries, press freedom is a dead letter and independent newspapers do not exist. Right at the top of the list four countries share first place - Finland, Iceland, Norway and the Netherlands. Costa Rica better placed than the United States Italy gets bad marks in Europe
RECOMMENDATIONS(to improve the issue) Adam Kingsmith: The Slow and Painful Death of Freedom in Canada Less than a generation ago, Canada was a world leader when it came to the fundamental democratic freedoms of assembly, speech and information. In 1982, Canada adopted the Access to Information Act -- making it one of the first countries to pass legislation recognizing the right of citizens to access information held by government, and as recently as 2002, Canada ranked among the top 5 most open and transparent countries when it came to respect for freedom of the press. Fast-forward a decade, and we've become a true north suppressed and disparate -- where unregistered civic demonstrations are inhibited and repressed, rebellious Internet activities are scrutinised and supervised, government scientists are hushed and muzzled, and public information is stalled and mired by bureaucratic firewalls. Loading Slideshow So what the devil is going on? But don't worry -- it's for our protection. But the undemocratic stifling doesn't stop here either. But then again, this is Canada.
Deforestation Facts, Deforestation Information, Effects of Deforestation Modern-Day Plague Deforestation is clearing Earth's forests on a massive scale, often resulting in damage to the quality of the land. Forests still cover about 30 percent of the world’s land area, but swaths the size of Panama are lost each and every year. The world’s rain forests could completely vanish in a hundred years at the current rate of deforestation. Forests are cut down for many reasons, but most of them are related to money or to people’s need to provide for their families.The biggest driver of deforestation is agriculture. Logging operations, which provide the world’s wood and paper products, also cut countless trees each year. Not all deforestation is intentional. Deforestation has many negative effects on the environment. Deforestation also drives climate change. Removing trees deprives the forest of portions of its canopy, which blocks the sun’s rays during the day and holds in heat at night.
Boat filled with protected species hits coral reef MANILA, Philippines (AP) -- A Chinese vessel that ran into a protected coral reef in the southwestern Philippines held evidence of even more environmental destruction inside: more than 10,000 kilograms (22,000 pounds) of meat from a protected species, the pangolin or scaly anteater. The steel-hulled vessel hit an atoll on April 8 at the Tubbataha National Marine Park, a UNESCO-designated World Heritage Site on Palawan island. Coast guard spokesman Lt. Cmdr. The World Wide Fund for Nature Philippines said the Chinese vessel F/N Min Long Yu could have been carrying up to 2,000 of the toothless, insect-eating animals rolled up in the boxes, with their scales already removed. "It is bad enough that the Chinese have illegally entered our seas, navigated without boat papers and crashed recklessly into a national marine park and World Heritage Site," said WWF-Philippines chief executive officer Jose Ma. It is not yet clear which of the four Asian pangolin species the meat comes from.