Brazilian farmers are lobbying to roll back deforestation restrictions in order to sell more soybeans to the huge Chinese market.

What happened is kind of like what happened to the cotton market in the Civil War — back then the South decided to threaten to withhold cotton destined for British mills in order to force the British to intervene on their side. Instead, the mill owners set up a cotton industry in Egypt, and stopped needing to buy from the US anymore. This meant that the high profits from cotton never returned. In the same way, Chinese pig farmers have switched their sourcing of soy, and no longer buy from the US

Trump’s Tariffs Should Force a Reckoning With America’s Soy Industry

The industry became the world’s second-largest not because of human demand for soy, but to feed China’s pigs.

^{The New Republic}

cross-posted from: lemmy.sdf.org/post/44101271

Archived

• Brazil’s government has signed a 30-year contract to privatize a section of the BR-364 highway, a key part of its plan to create an overland corridor to Peru to streamline commodity exports to China.
• Critics warn that expanding the highway into well-preserved rainforest risks repeating its history by attracting illegal loggers and land grabbers, a pattern that previously cleared vast areas for agriculture.

[...]

Fueled by soybean, corn and beef production, [the Brazilian state of] Rondônia is now one of Brazil’s leading agribusiness states, where a pro-deforestation mindset prevails, rooted in a population largely disconnected from the forest, rivers and traditional Amazonian culture. This view gained renewed momentum under Jair Bolsonaro, the far-right president from 2019-2022, who won all 52 of Rondônia’s municipalities in both the 2018 and 2022 elections.

Cutting across Rondônia, BR-364 has become a key route for moving grain, beef and minerals to ports on the Madeira River in Porto Velho. From there, commodities from Brazil’s central-west region are shipped downriver to foreign markets via the Atlantic Ocean.

Brazil's first private Amazon road paves new trade route to China

A road that once opened the Amazon to destruction is being expanded, and critics fear history will repeat itself.

^{Alexandre de Santi (Conservation news)}

While it’s difficult to draw a connection between any specific downpour and climate change in real time, studies suggest that, as global temperatures rise, storms produce more extreme rain because warm air holds more moisture than cool air.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/13/world/americas/mexico-torrential-rain-deaths.html?unlocked_article_code=1.tU8.rgd6.vcNFHlhElnbz

As President Trump tries to revive the United States coal industry, research has found that closing a coal facility can improve local health.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/14/climate/coal-plants-health-effects.html?unlocked_article_code=1.tU8.-ahb.30iDUhI8kNCq

In December 1989, the United Nations declared Oct. 13 International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction. At the time, the aim was to make disaster-risk reduction part of everyday thinking worldwide.

Today, this mission is more urgent than ever as disasters strike more often and with greater force.

And although substantial progress has been made, there is still much to achieve in reducing disaster risks and their impacts.

One of the main culprits for overlooking certain disasters is the way we talk about them. We tend to focus more on the narratives surrounding rapid-onset events — wildfires, earthquakes, hurricanes — versus long-term crises like climate change.

The disasters we talk about shape our priorities and determine our preparedness

From drought to soil degradation and environmental pollution, why does society overlook the most impactful disasters?

^{The Conversation}

cross-posted from: lemmy.sdf.org/post/44071783

Archived

A recent study published in Nature Communications by Pengjun Zhao, Yunlin Li, Caixia Zhang and co-authors examines how the opening of Arctic shipping routes is set to reshape not just the global shipping traffic, but global carbon emissions. The research points to possible environmental advantages from shorter routes, but also reveals hidden risks that complicate the promise of this new era in maritime trade.

Here is the study published in Nature

Key points:

• A Shorter Route Doesn’t Guarantee a Cleaner Route: The Arctic shipping route can cut some journeys by up to 40%, particularly between Northern Europe and Northeast Asia, but efficiency gains may be offset by induced shipping demand and shifts in global fleet patterns.
• Arctic Emissions Could Surge: Maritime emissions within the Arctic could rise sharply, from 0.22% to as much as 2.72% of global shipping emissions, creating a new climate hotspot.
• Heavy Emitters Set to Dominate: Oil, gas, and chemical tankers are expected to make up the bulk of NSR traffic, amplifying the carbon footprint of rerouted shipping flows.
• Policy Matters More Than Distance Saved: The study finds that relying on current IMO targets or Green Corridors only modestly reduces emissions. Only a robust Net-Zero strategy with cleaner fuels, caps, and regional implementation could fully offset added Arctic emissions.
• Risks of Carbon Inequality: Route shifts may concentrate emissions in specific areas while reducing them elsewhere, creating localized “hot spots” of pollution exposure.
• Technological & Environmental Constraints: Short-term fuel savings may be undermined by Arctic-specific challenges such as extreme weather, heavy fuel oils, spill risks, inadequate infrastructure, and regulatory gaps.

The findings in the study do support claims that the Northern Sea Route is a shorter and cheaper alternative to existing shipping routes. However, the study is only the latest to sound the alarm over the potential environmental and safety risks inherent to the route.

In recent weeks, the Bellona research group presented their findings from years of analysis into the dangers posed by the Northern Sea Route. You'll find a video on the linked site for some of the main findings.

Russia’s Arctic route sells speed, at the planet's expense - ArcticToday

Researchers are sounding the alarm that the Northern Sea Route is not the climate boon its advocates promise

^{Mary McAuliffe (ArcticToday)}

A recent Department of Energy report falsely states that rising carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere will boost agricultural yields. In fact, climate change is much more likely to make food scarcer and more expensive.

Fact-checking a Trump administration claim about climate change and crops

^{Dana Nuccitelli (Yale Climate Connections)}

More than €37 billion in public money available and €28 billion of private investments committed – with added risks to climate and health

A new report from the Methane Matters coalition – a consortium of civil society organisations – finds that The EU has handed the biogas industry billions of euros of public money to expand, without ensuring adequate environmental controls.

Exposed: Uncontrolled biogas expansion funded by public purse

More than €37 billion in public money available and €28 billion of private investments committed - with added risks to climate and health A new report from the Methane Matters coalition - a consortium of civil society organisations – finds that The E…

^{EEB - The European Environmental Bureau}

For decades, the military treated climate crisis as a threat. Now it’s backing away from plans to protect people and bases from extreme weather

Pentagon retreats from climate fight even as heat and storms slam US troops

For decades, the military treated the climate crisis as a threat. Now it’s backing away from plans to protect people and bases from extreme weather

^{Guardian staff reporter (The Guardian)}

cross-posted from: lemmy.sdf.org/post/44051179

Archived

• US banks earned the most globally, making $5.4 billion, with Vanguard, JPMorgan Chase and BlackRock topping the list. In the US, the SEC’s climate-related financial disclosure rules remain suspended, and attempts to pass the FOREST Act, an import regulation like the UK’s law banning imports grown on illegally deforested land, have stalled.
• EU banks generated $3.5 billion, led by BNP Paribas and Rabobank, while UK banks made $1.2 billion, with HSBC, aberdeen Group and Schroders at the top. The EU’s flagship deforestation law, due to enter into application at the end of 2025 has already been delayed by 12-months [...] and remains at risk of additional delays.
• Chinese financial institutions made $1.2 billion, almost entirely from credit-related deals and fees – despite the country’s green finance policy requiring banks to restrict lending for companies with ESG concerns. In China, Green Finance Guidelines introduced in 2022 could be utilised to outline how banks should identify, monitor, prevent and control their environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks. However, China remains the biggest international financier of companies that trade and produce goods linked to deforestation.
• Together, banks in all other countries including Indonesia and Brazil earned $15.9 billion.
• The UK passed a law in 2021 prohibiting the use of products linked to illegally deforested land, but it has yet to come into fully force. Once it does, the Treasury must conduct a review of the UK’s role in financing global deforestation.

Global banks earn billions from deforestation

New Global Witness research exposes glaring contradiction at the heart of forest finance, as Brazil prepares to launch flagship tropical forest fund at COP30

^{Global Witness}

Offsets are tradable credits from projects that claim to reduce emissions, either by avoiding them or by removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Businesses and countries trade these credits — each representing the equivalent of one tonne of CO2 — to ‘neutralize’ their own emissions.

Although conceptually appealing, this reliance on offsets has fatal flaws. In practice, it’s difficult to ensure that they represent real emissions reductions rather than ‘hot air’, with the claimed climate benefits existing only on paper. Equally challenging is ensuring that emission reductions are ‘additional’, meaning that they would not have occurred without the incentive provided by the sale of carbon credits. (...)

This results in more emissions, delays the phase-out of fossil fuels and diverts scarce resources to false solutions.

archive link

Carbon credits are failing to help with climate change — here’s why

The idea that emissions can be offset through projects that claim to avoid releases or to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere is fatally flawed.

^{Rockström, Johan}

Australia's Queensland state government said on Friday it would run coal power plants at least into the 2040s, reversing a previous plan to pivot rapidly to renewables

https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boards-policy-regulation/australias-queensland-reverses-policy-pledges-keep-using-coal-power-2025-10-10/

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2025-10-13/oil-and-gas-industry-takeover-of-the-white-house-will-backfire?accessToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzb3VyY2UiOiJTdWJzY3JpYmVyR2lmdGVkQXJ0aWNsZSIsImlhdCI6MTc2MDM1ODA2OSwiZXhwIjoxNzYwOTYyODY5LCJhcnRpY2xlSWQiOiJUNDJJTTdHUFdDWFUwMCIsImJjb25uZWN0SWQiOiIxMkE1QzVFRUNERDg0NUJEQjVFOTM1MUE0Mzk4QTAxNCJ9.GFB6x6-d4-vp5j8uJxHXiyQ4hBLJkc5RRg3UKkGN6Sg

Mary Lawlor, UN special rapporteur for human rights defenders, accuses US, UK and other governments of paying lip service to climate goals while criminalizing activists

‘It’s a road to destruction’: climate defenders facing surge in reprisals, says UN expert

^{Nina Lakhani (The Guardian)}

cross-posted from: lemmy.zip/post/50664646

VW boss Blume: EU's ban on new petrol cars by 2035 'unrealistic'

^{dpa (Deutsche Presse-Agentur)}