Forests

"A new groundbreaking survey highlights the human toll from pollution and other quality of life impacts connected to those living near the forest biomass industry’s wood pellet mills in the U.S Southeast. Door-to-door interviews were conducted by a coalition of NGOs, with 312 households surveyed in five mostly poor, rural and minority communities located near pellet mills"

"More than a third of the world’s tree species are threatened with extinction, according to the first comprehensive assessment of trees by the world’s leading scientific authority on the status of species."

"Enormous swathes of pristine forest are being cut down across Indonesia to supply the rapidly rising international demand for biomass material seen as critical to many countries’ transitions to cleaner forms of energy."

"A federal agency proposed an expansion of the Okefenokee Swamp’s vast wildlife refuge on Friday, which could lead to a buyout offer for land intended for a private company’s mining project that conservationists have fought for years."

"The world in 2022 reached its most ambitious deal ever to halt the destruction of nature by decade's end. Two years later, countries are already behind on meeting their goals."

"World leaders, environmental activists and prominent researchers have begun to arrive in Cali, Colombia, for a biodiversity summit that experts say will be decisive for the fate of the world’s rapidly declining wildlife populations."

"Carbon emissions from forest fires increased more than 60 percent globally over the past two decades, according to a new study."

"The Kalunga people have mastered wildfires in the Cerrado for generations. Now they fight blazes from the Amazon to the Pantanal"

"The destruction of global forests increased in 2023, and is higher than when 140 countries promised three years ago to halt deforestation by the end of the decade, an analysis shows."

"The country’s most-visited national park site, the Blue Ridge Parkway, will remain closed indefinitely, the National Park Service (NPS) said Wednesday. The closure affects the entire length of the Blue Ridge Parkway, though some parts were hit harder than others by storm damage. It comes right as the region and scenic road typically see a boom in tourism, as weather cools and the leaves change colors."