Expansive deforestation in Central Vietnam is being driven by the global demand for wood pellets—a supposedly green alternative to fossil fuels. This is part one of a two-part series on the wood pellet industry in Vietnam. For part two, please click here. Vietnam has supplied wood pellets to Japan and South Korea in their quest to...
Tag: environment
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Chopping down trees in India, then compensating for them—but at whose cost?
India’s Jharkhand state led the country in reversing deforestation from 2022 to 2023, but cases from two districts show that these supposedly sustainable tree plantations come at a cost to forest rights. Here’s an FAQ to help you follow along with this story—especially helpful for readers who may not be as familiar with India. Walking in the...
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Clearing the air: Questioning Singapore’s carbon credits decisions
For some time now, Singapore has been relentlessly transforming itself into a global carbon trading hub. What does this entail? In Singapore, a company that directly releases 25,000 tons or more of carbon dioxide equivalents (tCO2e) per year is considered a large emitter. A carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) is a metric that converts other emitted gases, such as nitrogen...
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Carbon ambitions: Inside Cambodia’s REDD+ boom
Despite ongoing controversy in its flagship Southern Cardamom REDD+ project, Cambodia is driving forward with plans to greatly expand climate finance schemes across its officially protected areas. When Cambodia’s rainy season turns dirt roads into rutted mud, the villages tucked into rugged folds of the western Cardamom Mountains can feel far from just about everything....
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Blueprint for disaster: Singapore’s carbon hub threatens global climate targets
An ambitious plan to re-engineer the carbon market in Singapore could play havoc with net zero goals and raises questions about human rights in places like Cambodia. The wedding was just ending when the motorbike chase began. Rangers had arrested Meng Sotear, a 62-year-old rice and cashew farmer, ordered her aboard a motorbike and raced...
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The fear of a gold rush looms large along Peru’s Nanay River
The upper basin of the Nanay River in Loreto provides drinking water to the population of Iquitos. It is also rich in 24 carat gold and threatened by mining activities. It is an ordinary Sunday in the area surrounding the Nanay River in Loreto, Peru. A man named Nicolas plays a soccer match that will...
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‘Get Out of Jail Free’: How plastics offsetting is giving industry a license to pollute
Unwanted plastic is clogging seas and rivers. A ‘green’ scheme involves burning it to make cement. (Editor’s Note: This story was produced with support from Internews’ Earth Journalism Network for the “It’s a Wash” special report. SourceMaterial, a nonprofit investigative journalism organization, was a partner in the story’s production.) After a gruelling day paddling along...
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10 years after ‘Yolanda’: When need met generosity through the Star of Samar
“There was no electricity, no fuel, no internet, or any other way to communicate. There was a severe shortage of all kinds of commodities.” This was how the lawyer Byron Bocar, who was in Eastern Samar when Supertyphoon “Yolanda” (international name: Haiyan) made first landfall in Guiuan in the early hours of Nov. 8, 2013,...
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Environmental concerns stall wind farm expansion in Panay natural park
Had the rain still poured last Sept. 3 when volunteer inspectors arrived at a rugged hilly portion of Panay’s northwestern mountain range, a government-declared protected area, the road being carved out would have become messy swathes of uprooted grasses and shrubs, fallen trees, mud pools and protruding rocks. The earth-moving activities pushed on despite the...
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Family and Fossils: Million-year-old gifts from my wife and sisters
(Third of three parts) Family and fossils: My cousin Isko and my first precious find, Family and fossils: My grandchild Meg and a treasure trove I have in my hand a fossil—the remains of an ancient creature called a trilobite. This animal-looking rock resulted when the trilobite was buried and minerals replaced its body parts....