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Mega-dams doing drastic harm to tropical biodiversity: study
Posted by Mongabay: Tiffany Roufs on July 13th, 2015
Mongabay: Researchers with the University of East Anglia say the full extent of impacts to biodiversity of large hydroelectric dams in lowland tropical forest regions have been "severely overlooked." Mega-dams are being proposed the world over as sustainable development projects, even though there have been plenty of studies calling attention to the fact that the emissions savings from hydroelectric dams are drastically overstated. But this is one of the first times that such an extensive study has been done...
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Proposed Andean headwater dams an ecological calamity for Amazon Basin
Posted by Mongabay: Tiffany Roufs on June 4th, 2015
Mongabay: Most "run-of-river" hydroelectric dams in the Amazon Basin are used to divert all of the flow away from the natural river channel to generate electricity in a powerhouse located downstream. Such dams disrupt ecological connectivity and eliminate any flow-dependent uses in the affected section of river. Photo credit: Ecuadorian Rivers Institute.
High in the Andes Mountains, countless minor streams begin their pilgrimage downward, joining forces with the rain to form the tributaries of the Amazon...
Brazilian firm’s mega-dam plans in Peru spark major social conflict
Posted by Mongabay: Tiffany Roufs on May 11th, 2015
Mongabay: "I don't want to sell my land because I've lived here since I was 17," declared 82 year old María Araujo Silva. "This was where my children were born. I want to die here. That's why I'm not in agreement. I'm not in agreement with the dam." Araujo Silva is outraged at plans by Peru's government and Brazilian company Odebrecht to build a hydroelectric dam just downriver from her village, Huarac, on the Marañón River. She says it would flood her home, her neighbors and the land where she grows coconuts,...
Facing Future Storms: Poor Honduran Communities Unite to Protect Watersheds and Nature
Posted by Mongabay: Tiffany Roufs on May 5th, 2015
Mongabay: There hasn't been much good news out of Honduras recently. One of the poorest Latin American nations, it has been afflicted by a series of natural and political calamities. In 1998, Hurricane Mitch killed over 14,000 people, impacted a third of the population and did $3.8 billion in damage -- three-quarters of the nation's total GDP. Droughts followed, reducing corn and bean production by 50 to 70 percent in some years. In 2009, an elected President was overthrown by the military. And in 2014, hard...
Funai confirms land threatened dam projects belongs indigenous tribe
Posted by Mongabay: Tiffany Roufs on February 19th, 2015
Mongabay: The Brazilian government opposes granting traditional land to the Munduruku people since it would jeopardize seven proposed hydroelectric dams on the Tapajós River. For this reason, a year-old report by Funai that supports the Munduruku claim has not been officially published, but a copy of this report was obtained by Brazilian news outlet Pública.
Considered a historic territory by the Munduruku, the land of Sawré Muybu in the Amazon state of Pará has never been officially recognized as an Indigenous...
World population could surpass THIRTEEN billion by the end of century
Posted by Mongabay: Tiffany Roufs on September 18th, 2014
Mongabay: By 2100, over 13 billion people could be walking the planet. That's the conclusion of a new study published today in Science, which employed UN data to explore the probability of various population scenarios. The new study further demolishes the long-held theory that human population growth will quit growing by mid-century and then fall. "Analysis of these data reveals that, contrary to previous literature, world population is unlikely to stop growing this century," reads the paper. It's worth...
Satellites reveal browning mountain forests
Posted by Mongabay: Tiffany Roufs on November 22nd, 2013
Mongabay: In a dramatic response to global warming, tropical forests in the high elevation areas of five continents have been "browning" since the 1990s. They have been steadily losing foliage, and showing less photosynthetic activity.
Scientists analyzed the forest cover by using satellites to measure sunlight bouncing off the surface of the earth, then determining the different surface types via reflection patterns. Areas with lush foliage where photosynthetic rates are high appear green, and areas with...
Not just bats & frogs: snake fungal disease hits US
Posted by Mongabay: Tiffany Roufs on September 6th, 2013
Mongabay: A fungal outbreak in the eastern and Midwestern United States is infecting some populations of wild snakes. Snake Fungal Disease (SFD), a fungal dermatitis consistently associated with the fungus Ophidiomyces ophiodiicola, is showing recent spikes in occurrence according to the U.S. Geological Survey's National Wildlife Health Center (NWHC) and other diagnostic laboratories.
So far, the diseased snakes submitted by Wildlife Monitors to the NWHC are attributed to wild populations from nine states,...