Good news on rain forests: they bounce back strong, storing more carbon than thought

When you cut and burn a tropical forest, you’re left with a barren plain of cracked red mud, incapable of supporting life – the opposite of the teeming, hyperdiverse array of life that was destroyed. Once the trees are gone, the nutrients wash away and the soil degrades into a dense, brick-like layer so hardened that plant roots can’t get …

Eliott Negin – Starbucks’ Deforestation-Free Pledge Not Worth Beans

Starbucks has a bigger problem than the controversy over its new red holiday cup. It’s still buying palm oil and other agricultural products that might be linked to tropical forest destruction, and a coalition of science, environmental and labor organizations isn’t happy about it. Today that coalition sent a letter to Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz (above) urging him to strengthen …

World’s diet worsening with globalization, major study finds

ROME (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – The world’s diet has deteriorated substantially in the last two decades, a leading nutrition expert said on Monday, citing one of the largest studies available on international eating habits. Poor countries in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia are seeing the fastest increases in unhealthy food consumption, while the situation has improved slightly in Western Europe and …