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NewSecurityBeat

The blog of the Wilson Center's Environmental Change and Security Program
Showing posts from category biodiversity.
  • Climate Change Front and Center in U.S. and Brazil Relations in Biden-Bolsonaro Era

    ›
    Guest Contributor  //  January 19, 2021  //  By John J. Loomis
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    As the warm relationship between U.S. President Donald Trump and Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro comes to an end with the former’s electoral defeat in November 2020, the next two years (Bolsonaro is up for reelection in 2022) could prove to be strenuous for the bilateral relations of the two largest economies in the Western Hemisphere. President-elect Biden has signaled that combatting climate change will be a priority in his administration. Now, without the cover of a U.S. administration that denies climate change, Brazil could become further isolated in international environmental politics. All of this complicates the political realities for President Bolsonaro, whose political survival depends on maintaining his coalition of fanatical supporters, the agricultural sector, and former and current members of the military. Still, given U.S. concerns about Chinese influence in the region, the Biden-Bolsonaro relationship could prove to be low-key and practical.

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  • Sharon Guynup, Mongabay

    Landed by the thousands: Overfished Congo waters put endangered sharks at risk

    ›
    October 27, 2020  //  By Wilson Center Staff
    2-h

    The original version of this article, by Sharon Guynup, appeared on Mongabay.

    In a video clip, seven fishermen climb into a wooden “Popo” boat that’s beached on the Republic of the Congo’s sandy shoreline. They start up the motor of the 40-foot, limo-length motorized canoe and head out into the Atlantic. The men aboard the weathered craft — its blue paint chipped and faded by years of salt and sun — could be out for a week.

    MORE
  • The Environmental Collateral Damage of the South China Sea Conflict

    ›
    Guest Contributor  //  October 13, 2020  //  By Ryan McNamara

    shutterstock_1503568094

    Tensions in the South China Sea increased last April when a Chinese coast guard ship sank a Vietnamese fishing boat near the Paracel Islands—a fiercely disputed territory in the South China Sea. Disputes over island territories in the region have endured for decades, with China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei all making overlapping territorial claims. The region is rich in natural resources and biodiversity, holding vast fish stocks and an estimated 11 billion barrels of oil and 190 cubic feet of natural gas.

    MORE
  • Protecting Brazil’s Forests Could Boost Economic Development

    ›
    From the Wilson Center  //  September 21, 2020  //  By Amy Erica Smith & Anya Prusa
    shutterstock_1486225025

    The dry season returned to Brazil’s Amazon region in late July—and with it, forest fires, largely human-made. After making substantial progress in reducing deforestation in the 2000s and early 2010s, Brazil has reversed course and deforestation is rising. In the Amazon, this season has been the worst in more than a decade in number of fires, and second worst in terms of total deforestation, according to satellite data from Brazil’s National Institute of Space Research (INPE), which monitors the situation.

    MORE
  • President Bolsonaro Fiddles While the Brazilian Amazon Goes Up in Smoke

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    Guest Contributor  //  September 18, 2020  //  By Jackie Berkowitz
    shutterstock_1433151824

    On August 11, 2020, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro dismissed the raging fires in the Amazon, calling their existence a “lie.” However, his own government has reported more than 10,000 fires currently burning in the Amazon, a 17 percent increase from the same time last year, when the number of wildfires reached a nine-year high. The international community has condemned the Brazilian government’s response to the raging Amazon fires. Bolsonaro’s denial about these fires blocks effective domestic, international, government, and non-governmental responses. And it risks exacerbating the conditions contributing to global climate change.

    MORE
  • How Biodiversity Conservation Promotes Economic Growth in Latin America

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    From the Wilson Center  //  August 20, 2020  //  By Leah Emanuel
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    What happens to economic output if we expand protected areas to 30 percent of land and sea worldwide? Anthony Waldron, the lead author of a new study about the economic benefits of land conservation, posed this question at a recent Wilson Center virtual event on the role of Latin America in global biodiversity conservation.

    MORE
  • Preventing the Next Pandemic: Zoonotic Diseases and Future Outbreaks

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    Covid-19  //  Reading Radar  //  July 7, 2020  //  By Amanda King

    Report-CoverTo recover from the devastating impacts of COVID-19, we will need to understand the risks and environmental factors that caused the novel coronavirus and other zoonotic diseases to emerge in the first place, according to a new report by the United Nations Environment Programme and the International Livestock Research Institute. The report, Preventing the Next Pandemic – Zoonotic Diseases and How to Break the Chain of Transmission, examines the root causes of the COVID-19 pandemic and other zoonotic diseases. It also explores the complex linkages between biological and non-living factors that impact our global ecosystem and spread diseases.

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  • Cobalt is Critical to the Renewable Energy Transition. How Can We Minimize its Social And Environmental Cost?

    ›
    Guest Contributor  //  June 17, 2020  //  By Bianca Nogrady

    This is a Gecamines owned artisanal cobalt mining site

    This article was originally published on Ensia.

    Its name conjures an image of vivid deep blues. But when cobalt is dug out of the ground in ore form, there’s barely a hint of the rich hue it lends its name to. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which produces more than half of the world’s supply, it takes the form of heterogenite, a dull brownish mineral that could easily be mistaken for small clods of dirt.

    But people die for this mineral. Children suffer for it. Livelihoods, educations, neighborhoods, environments and personal safety are sacrificed for it.

    MORE
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