Posts tagged with 'forests'
25 Countries, Housing One-quarter of the Population, Face Extremely High Water Stress
25 Countries, Housing One-quarter of the Population, Face Extremely High Water Stress
New data from WRI’s Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas show that 25 countries — housing one-quarter of the global population — face extremely high water stress each year, regularly using up almost their entire available water supply. And at least 50% of the ...
Poor Air Quality Isn’t the Only Way Wildfires Affect Cities
Poor Air Quality Isn’t the Only Way Wildfires Affect Cities
Thousands of people in Quebec, Canada evacuated their homes this month due to raging wildfires. More than 400 miles away, New York City experienced its worst air quality in history, and briefly had the worst air quality of any city in the ...
Restoring Kigali’s Wetlands to Accelerate Climate Resilience
Restoring Kigali’s Wetlands to Accelerate Climate Resilience
Over the past two decades, Rwanda – the land of a thousand hills – has made remarkable strides: poverty has significantly declined and quality of life has improved. The service, industrial and agricultural sectors have flourished. Even in the aftermath ...
Trees for Cities: Implementing Nature-Based Solutions in India
Trees for Cities: Implementing Nature-Based Solutions in India
Whether one seeks an escape from Delhi’s scorching summer heat or a winter afternoon basking in the sun, Sanjay Van National Park, one of the city’s few surviving urban forests, comes to mind. Mangalavanam in Kochi or Shalimar Bagh in ...
Restoring Degraded Forests Could Bring Back Lost Rainfall, Cooler Temperatures
Restoring Degraded Forests Could Bring Back Lost Rainfall, Cooler Temperatures
Many people point to forest restoration as a way to curb climate change, where replanted forests sequester carbon in trees and soils. But emerging evidence shows that restoration can provide non-carbon climate benefits, too — in particular, reducing heat and regulating rainfall. Here’s what ...
4 Environment and Development Stories to Watch in 2023
4 Environment and Development Stories to Watch in 2023
What will 2023 hold for the environment and development? The end of 2022 certainly left us in an interesting — and concerning — place. The world’s three-year-old pandemic proved it was far from over, sickening millions and affecting economies. Global ...
How Forests Near and Far Benefit People in Cities
How Forests Near and Far Benefit People in Cities
A New Yorker may not think about the forested Catskills Mountain Range upstate as she pours a glass of water. Londoners probably don’t consider the Amazon rainforest as they watch the rain falling on city parks. And folks in Addis ...
Map of tree cover loss in Brazil
How Forests Affect the Fate of Cities in Eastern Brazil
Global forest loss remains high. In 2021, the tropics lost 11.1 million hectares of tree cover, according to WRI’s latest analysis. This annual figure included 3.75 million hectares of loss within tropical primary rainforests, resulting in 2.5 gigatons of CO2 ...
How to Scale Up Nature-based Solutions for Adaptation
How to Scale Up Nature-based Solutions for Adaptation
The new Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report highlights the enormous potential of nature to reduce the risks of climate change and build resilience. Political momentum is building for this approach. For example, 137 countries committed in 2021 to collectively end forest loss and land ...
Cities Are Surprising Leaders in Forest Conservation
Cities Are Surprising Leaders in Forest Conservation
The world’s forests face a dire threat. Each year, 6 to 9 million hectares (15 to 22 million acres, an area roughly the size of Denmark) of forests are permanently cleared and many millions more are degraded. But many decisions affecting forests ...
Climate Action Must Progress Far Faster to Achieve 1.5 C Goal
Climate Action Must Progress Far Faster to Achieve 1.5 C Goal
Countries agreed to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees C (3.6 degrees F) and ideally 1.5 degrees C (2.7 degrees F) as part of the 2015 Paris Agreement. The latest science shows that emissions will need to drop ...
4 Priorities for Climate Action and Social Equity in the COVID-19 Recovery
4 Priorities for Climate Action and Social Equity in the COVID-19 Recovery
The COVID-19 crisis has shown how deep inequalities make society as a whole more vulnerable – providing important lessons for building resilience in an era of climate change. The people most exposed to the coronavirus pandemic and the resulting economic ...
Brooklyn Bridge Could Be a Landmark for Forest Conservation
Brooklyn Bridge Could Be a Landmark for Forest Conservation
*Editor’s note: On August 7, 2020, our Brooklyn Bridge Forest Proposal won the Reimagining Brooklyn Bridge contest. The text below was updated accordingly. * The Brooklyn Bridge, with its distinctive gothic towers and cable-bound span, is one of the most recognizable landmarks ...
The Cities4Forests Toolbox: Connecting Cities With Tools to Understand and Manage Forests
The Cities4Forests Toolbox: Connecting Cities With Tools to Understand and Manage Forests
Mérida, a city in Mexico’s lush Yucatán Peninsula, is home to 2.3 million trees, which cover more than 20% of the metropolitan area. Mérida’s officials know that these trees provide benefits to the residents, but until recently they didn’t know how ...
How and Where to Plant 60 Billion Trees in the US
How and Where to Plant 60 Billion Trees in the US
The Trillion Trees Initiative has garnered support from business and political leaders around the world. U.S. President Trump highlighted the initiative as the cornerstone of his plan to protect the environment, a rare shift for an administration that has moved to withdraw ...
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