wolfyvegan

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.vg/post/2782808

2025 marks 10 years since the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), 17 goals and 169 targets to achieve global prosperity.

archived (Wayback Machine)

archived (Wayback Machine)

Five years on from the publication of the climate fiction book, The Ministry for the Future, author Kim Stanley Robinson finds little he would change in his sweeping speculative novel —aside from a regrettable mention of blockchain.

archived (Wayback Machine)

archived (Wayback Machine)

• Río San Juan Wildlife Refuge in southeastern Nicaragua has suffered a wave of deforestation in recent years, fueled by land deals that allow settlers to clear the rainforest for farming, mining and cattle ranching.
• Without government support, Indigenous and Afro-descendant communities have patrolled the forests on their own but are overwhelmed by the number of people settling in the area.
• Some residents have crossed the border into Costa Rica due to security concerns.
• Recently, the government also authorized more dredging on the San Juan River, despite losing a previous case about dredging at the International Court of Justice.

archived (Wayback Machine)

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/32029789

All Amazonian countries are trying to reduce deforestation. That is wonderful, but then what to do to combat organised crime? They control a $280bn business – drug trafficking, wildlife trafficking, people trafficking, illegal logging, illegal gold mining, illegal land grabbing. It is all connected. And these gangs are at war with the governments. That’s one of the main reasons I’m becoming concerned because I know reducing deforestation is doable, so is forestry restoration. But how to combat organised crime?

archived (Wayback Machine)

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/32029789

All Amazonian countries are trying to reduce deforestation. That is wonderful, but then what to do to combat organised crime? They control a $280bn business – drug trafficking, wildlife trafficking, people trafficking, illegal logging, illegal gold mining, illegal land grabbing. It is all connected. And these gangs are at war with the governments. That’s one of the main reasons I’m becoming concerned because I know reducing deforestation is doable, so is forestry restoration. But how to combat organised crime?

archived (Wayback Machine)

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Dozens of Colombian waste pickers inundated Bogota’s iconic Bolivar Square with about 15 tons of recyclable goods Tuesday to protest decreasing income and tougher conditions for scavengers. They collect trash from homes, factories and office buildings and sell it to local recycling plants.

archived (Wayback Machine)

• A resolution issued by Peru’s Ministry of Agrarian Development and Irrigation (MIDAGRI) aims to boost the sustainable development of palm oil production in the country.
• Critics argue that it will lead to increased deforestation and that Indigenous organizations were excluded from the regulation’s drafting process.
• Oil palm is cultivated to obtain palm oil, which is used as a raw material in beauty products, toiletries, food and biodiesel.
• The regulation adds to at least two other recent measures by the Peruvian government with potential environmental impacts.

archived (Wayback Machine)

Nigeria recently proposed a ban on importing solar panels to boost local manufacturing, but some climate and renewable energy experts worry this move may impede the country’s transition to cleaner energy sources.

archived (Wayback Machine)

archived (Wayback Machine)

Reforestation is critically necessary more than ever before, and it is worth doing right. It is important to exercise caution when introducing foreign species to an area and to prioritise native species as much as reasonably possible. That said, this article is overly negative, and I'd like to give a more balanced perspective.

The downsides of introducing Neltuma juliflora to Kenya:

• It grows into waterways and slows their flow, creating breeding grounds for mosquitoes (parasites).
• It occupies land where native tree species could have otherwise been planted, and it is difficult to replace with native species once it is established.
• It makes life even more unpleasant for large domesticated herbivores due to its sharp thorns and its tasty fruits which are not suitable for their physiology.*

The benefits of introducing Neltuma juliflora to Kenya:

• It grows into waterways and slows their flow, giving water more time to penetrate into the soil which its deep roots help to loosen.
• It forms a symbiotic relationship with nitrogen-fixing microbes, enriching the soil with its fallen nitrogen-rich leaves, which it sheds throughout the dry season.
• It provides canopy cover and moisture retention in what was "a treeless land" where "grass covered every inch" prior to its introduction, thereby helping to protect a vulnerable landscape from desertification.
• It provides a nutritious food for local humans and other animals in times of scarcity. The fruit is not something for a frugivorous primate to eat out of hand in large quantity, but some animals can and do eat it as-is. For humans, it can be processed into a flour (without the toxic seeds) that can then be added to meals.
• It makes life more difficult for the herders and ranchers who exploit other beings and degrade the landscape for profit, thereby reducing the incentive to commit such violence.

Overall, the plant's introduction was a blunder, but the results are mixed, not entirely a "nightmare" as the article claims. Trees native to the region, or at least to eastern Africa's dry lands more broadly, would have made much more sense to plant instead. Introducing non-native species when reforesting an area can be beneficial (especially in an era of unprecedented climate change, with conditions in some areas shifting out of the range that native species can tolerate), but it's important to select species with low invasive potential and which do not pose a threat to the native animals. In most cases, it would be a safe strategy to plant a combination of native species and carefully-selected non-native trees that produce fruit for human consumption, as cultivated fruit trees mostly have a low potential for becoming invasive in most areas, and they can sustainably feed the people who live in and around the forest. This is important, as there must be people living in the area in order to protect it from cattle ranchers, and without tree-based food sources, the people stewarding the land would need to rely on agricultural practices destructive to the forest for their sustenance.

Neltuma juliflora and its close relative Neltuma pallida are very important species in their native ranges in Ecuador and Peru. They are some of the most abundant trees in these tropical dry forest ecosystems (including much of the Tumbes-Piura dry forest which is a biodiversity hotspot on the brink), and they serve as vital pioneer species in reforestation efforts in the region, providing much-needed shade for other plants and food for native animals (at a time of year when little else is available), as well as stabilising the soil and reducing erosion from coastal wind and torrential rain and seasonally-flooding rivers. This article was an exemplary case of "right plant, wrong place."

* The article seems to imply that sugar inherently causes tooth decay, but that obviously isn't true; plenty of animals eat sugary fruits without dental problems. The pulp of mesquite fruits is dry and sticky, so when eaten by cows who are not at all adapted to such food, it probably coats their teeth, dries out their mouth, and alters their oral microbiome, with dehydration and unfriendly bacteria leading to tooth decay.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.nz/post/24710049

The collapse of a crucial network of Atlantic Ocean currents could push parts of the world into a deep freeze, with winter temperatures plunging to around minus 55 degrees Fahrenheit in some cities, bringing “profound climate and societal impacts,” according to a new study.

There is increasing concern about the future of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation — known as the AMOC — a system of currents that works like a giant conveyor belt, pulling warm water from the Southern Hemisphere and tropics to the Northern Hemisphere, where it cools, sinks and flows back south.

Multiple studies suggest the AMOC is weakening with some projecting it could even collapse this century as global warming disrupts the balance of heat and salinity that keeps it moving. This would usher in huge global weather and climate shifts — including plunging temperatures in Europe, which relies on the AMOC for its mild climate.

“What if the AMOC collapses and we have climate change? Does the cooling win or does the warming win?” asked René van Westen, a marine and atmospheric researcher at Utrecht University in the Netherlands and co-author of the paper published Wednesday in the Geophysical Research Letters journal.

This new study is the first to use a modern, complex climate model to answer the question, he told CNN.

The researchers looked at a scenario where the AMOC weakens by 80% and the Earth is around 2 degrees Celsius warmer than the period before humans began burning large amounts of fossil fuels. The planet is currently at 1.2 degrees of warming.

They focused on what would happen as the climate stabilized post-collapse, multiple decades into the future.

Even in this hotter world, they found “substantial cooling” over Europe with sharp drops in average winter temperatures and more intense cold extremes — a very different picture than the United States, where the study found temperatures would continue to increase even with an AMOC collapse.

Sea ice would spread southward as far as Scandinavia, parts of the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, the research found. This would have a huge impact on cold extremes as the white surface of the ice reflects the sun’s energy back into space, amplifying cooling.

The scientists have created an interactive map to visualize the impacts of an AMOC collapse across the globe.

AMOC Scenario Visualization

Archive : https://archive.ph/kZXcu