#thomas lovejoy

[evilhorse]

Then the Crusaders have carried out their first mission…

[rjzimmerman]

Opinion | The Road to Climate Recovery Goes Through the Wild Woods

World leaders have pledged again to end deforestation. This time, they need to actually do it.

This Op-Ed was published by the New York Times on November 2, 2021. One of the co-authors, Thomas Lovejoy, recently died at age 80. He was an ecologist and conservation biologist who brought international attention to the deforestation of the world's tropical rainforests, particularly the Brazilian Amazon. He dedicated much of his career to understanding and protecting these ecosystems. Excerpt from his last Op-Ed:

In one of their first major actions this week, delegates at the global climate conference in Glasgow pledged to end deforestation, committing $12 billion to the effort, with an additional $7 billion from the private sector. But this is not the first time such a promise has been made, and yet deforestation has continued.

There are steps the world can take now to stop it. Territorial rights of Indigenous peoples must be recognized, protected forest areas expanded and roads and industry avoided in still intact forests. These steps can set the stage for more sustainable forest economies.

Here’s a snapshot of the crisis: Last year the loss of primary old-growth tropical forest rose by 12 percent over 2019, according to the World Resources Institute. That loss added about twice as much carbon dioxide to the atmosphere as what’s emitted by cars in the United States every year, the institute estimated.

More ominous, the often overlooked northern boreal forests grow in soils that hold carbon equal to 190 times the global carbon emissions of last year and are being relentlessly diced and burned. This is accelerating the thawing of permafrost as the planet warms, releasing greenhouse gases in the process.

We’re losing a battle we can win, but only by keeping trees on our side.

It’s a matter of simple biology. Through photosynthesis, trees and plants absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and the carbon becomes part of the plants and soil. Large forests tend to be ecologically healthy, and this healthy biology results in carbon storage on a gargantuan scale.

Intact forests around the world absorbed around 28 percent of all carbon dioxide emissions from 2007 to 2016, a huge reduction in the accumulation of the planet-warming gas in the atmosphere. In the tropics, intact forests store an average of twice the carbon held in forests bisected by roads or otherwise disturbed by development.

That’s why we must let the big forests stand.

[noosphe-re]

If you take care of birds, you take care of most of the environmental problems in the world.

Thomas Lovejoy

[jasposeyblog]

Next of my commissions for The Crusaders is... Tommy Lightning by Erik Fidel

[rjzimmerman]

Thomas Lovejoy, Wide-Ranging Ecologist and Amazon Rescuer, Dies at 80

His ambitious, long-running project in Brazil explored the impact of deforestation on animals and plants — and how to deal with it.

Excerpt from this story from the New York Times:

Thomas Lovejoy, a prominent biologist for major conservation groups who spent decades on an expansive, ongoing project in Brazil to preserve the Amazon rain forest, died on Saturday at his home in McLean, Va. He was 80.

The cause was pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors, his daughter Elizabeth Lovejoy said.

Dr. Lovejoy “was a historic figure,” said Russell Mittermeier, the chief conservation officer of Re:wild, a conservation organization.

“He really put the Amazon, and in particular Amazonia, on the international conservation map,” Dr. Mittermeier added, referring to the vast area of rain forests on South America. “When the whole conservation business started in the ’60s and ’70s, there was little focus on South America. But Tom changed that.”

Dr. Lovejoy’s field research in the Amazon was the centerpiece of a broad career dedicated to ecology. He invented “debt for nature” swaps, which let countries trade forgiveness of a portion of their foreign debt for their investments in conservation. He published an early projection of extinction rates, was a creator of the public television series “Nature” and popularized the term “biological diversity,” later shortened to biodiversity.

Dr. Lovejoy long ago called for the preservation of biologically diverse ecosystems that store carbon to help fight climate change, but deforestation has continued to erode Amazonian rain forests. In an essay last month in The New York Times, he and John Reid, an economist who helps Indigenous peoples protect their territories, wrote: “Forests continue to disappear — cut and burned into ever smaller patches. This failure challenges all of our climate efforts because unless forests remain standing, the world will never contain global warming.”

[notwiselybuttoowell]

Building a green economy could stop ‘nightmare’ degradation of Amazon

US scientist Thomas Lovejoy says the rainforest’s rich biodiversity has been undervalued compared to economic activities such as farming and

[gilberthbolanos]

Nature is in its worst shape in human history

Nature is in its worst shape in human history

Nature is in more trouble now than at any other time in human history, with extinction looming over one million species of plants and animals, scientists said Monday in the UN’s first comprehensive report on biodiversity.

It’s all because of humans, but it’s not too late to fix the problem, the report by the United Nations says.

Nature is in its worst shape in human history

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[barborelli-blog]

Please excuse me while I brag about myself.

Did my professor nominate me to do a private seminar with the Thomas Lovejoy, he who introduced the concept of biodiversity??!!!?! Fuck yes he did. It'll be a small group  in the school sitting around talking about CONSERVATION, and I am one of them. QUELLE HONOR!!!