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<ul class="summary-list"><li>The husband of a Brazilian beauty-pageant contestant threw a wild tantrum after his wife lost.</li><li>The man rushed on stage after the winner was announced and smashed her crown to the floor.</li></ul><p>The husband of a beauty-pageant runner-up in Brazil threw a wild tantrum when his wife failed to clinch the first prize.</p><p>Videos posted on social media show Emannuelly Belini and Nathally Becker, the two frontrunners for the Miss Gay Mato Grosso 2023 pageant, holding hands before Belini was declared the winner of the competition on Saturday.</p><p>Just as an officiator was placing the crown on Belini's head, Becker's husband stormed up on stage and grabbed the crown, <a href="https://www.tmz.com/2023/05/29/beauty-pageant-contestant-husband-smash-crown-wife-second-place-brazil/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">TMZ reported</a>.</p><p>The man — seen in the video wearing tight jeans and a black shirt — threw the crown to the floor, grabbed Becker by her hair briefly, and tried to drag her off the stage.</p><p>He briefly paused to pick the crown up and slam it on the floor again, prompting screams from the audience. Security guards then rushed to remove him from the stage.</p><p>The pageant organizers <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Csy2Nf_Ouup/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;ig_rid=dd1b621b-0eb2-49cd-8ce2-fdaca0363bd4" target="_blank" rel="noopener">issued a statement on Instagram on Monday</a>, saying that they condemned the actions of the man who "invaded the stage and aggressively destroyed the crown."</p><p>They said that they would be taking "appropriate legal measures" against him.</p><p>The organizers did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent outside regular business hours.</p>

The husband of a beauty pageant runner-up ran on stage and smashed the crown in a massive tantrum over his wife's loss

<ul class="summary-list"><li>A Brazilian couple has come under online fire for dyeing a waterfall blue in a gender reveal.</li><li>The video appears to show the Queima Pé river, which is located in drought-stricken region of Brazil.</li></ul><p>A Brazilian couple has enraged the internet — and reportedly the Brazilian government — after a video of them turning a waterfall into an unnatural, electric blue on September 25 for a gender reveal party circulated.</p><p>The video was reportedly posted to their social media accounts before later being deleted, and shows the waterfall rushing Gatorade-"Frost"-blue and a crowd of people celebrating among blue and pink balloons, a giant balloon, and a canister emitting blue smoke. </p><p>The unidentified couple reportedly deleted the original video but it has since been uploaded onto multiple social media platforms.  </p><p>The river, identified as the Queima Pé river, is a popular tourist destination in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso and a primary water source for the nearby central-west town of Tangará da Serra. </p><p>The video garnered thousands of views across multiple Reddit threads. Commenters expressed outrage and disbelief. "What happened to cutting into a cake," wrote <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/sadcringe/comments/xopw3o/a_couple_in_brazil_painted_a_waterfall_for_their/ipzzxj4/?utm_source=share&amp;utm_medium=ios_app&amp;utm_name=iossmf&amp;context=3">Redditor @devil1fish</a>, "Why does nature keep getting damaged because these people think they're special?"</p><p>The Secretary of State for the Environment of Mato Grosso (SEMA) released a statement saying that it would be investigating the couple to determine what products were used to dye the waterfall and if there is any environmental damage. The statement, published by <a href="https://g1.globo.com/mt/mato-grosso/noticia/2022/09/26/sema-apura-cha-revelacao-que-tingiu-cachoeira-em-tangara-da-serra-mt.ghtml" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Brazilian news site G1</a>, noted that six officials — two from SEMA and four from the municipality of Tangará da Serra — were on-site investigating the incident. </p><div type="image" title="Screenshot of a video uploaded to Reddit showing two people embracing next to a question mark made of blue and pink balloons" height="1056" width="739" msid="94503737" hostid="261" sizebytes="27540"></div><p>Gender reveal parties have come under fire in recent years not just for their <a href="https://www.vogue.in/culture-and-living/content/gender-reveal-parties-need-to-end-with-2020-heres-why" target="_blank" rel="noopener">outdated notions about gender,</a> but also because so many seem to go horribly wrong. A 2020 gender reveal <a href="https://www.insider.com/california-fires-show-gender-reveal-parties-need-to-end-2020-9" target="_blank" rel="noopener">started a 10,000-acre fire</a> in California, and in 2019, a woman was killed after her family "inadvertently" set off a pipe bomb during a gender reveal video. </p><p>Surprisingly, the unidentified Brazilians aren't the only people dyeing natural bodies of water as part of a gender reveal celebration. A quick search on TikTok will show you videos of waterfalls <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@countrygal2525/video/6913013409244024069?is_copy_url=1&amp;is_from_webapp=v1&amp;item_id=6913013409244024069&amp;q=gender%20reveal%20waterfall&amp;t=1664287214727" target="_blank" rel="noopener">rushing bubblegum pink</a> and babbling <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@countrygal2525/video/6913013409244024069?is_copy_url=1&amp;is_from_webapp=v1&amp;item_id=6913013409244024069&amp;q=gender%20reveal%20waterfall&amp;t=1664287214727" target="_blank" rel="noopener">electric blue streams</a>.</p> <p><a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2018/03/17/594440438/for-st-patricks-day-a-true-tale-of-8-sailors-saved-by-guinness"></a></p>

A couple in Brazil turned a waterfall blue for their gender reveal party. Now they're reportedly under investigation for environmental damage.

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Maxar Technologies</span></p><p class="caption">A NASA satellite image of the fires raging across Brazil and the Amazon basin on August 21, 2019.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul class="summary-list"><li>The<span> </span><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-help-amazon-rainforest-what-charities-to-donate-to-2019">"lungs of the planet" are burning</a><span> </span>at a record rate: The Brazilian Amazon has experienced more than 74,000 fires this year, whereas last year's total was around 40,000.</li><li>About 10,000 of the 2019 fires have<span> </span><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-rainforest-experiencing-record-number-of-wildfires-this-year-2019-8">started in the past couple of weeks</a>.</li><li>Some of these fires were started by farmers and loggers<span> </span><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-rainforest-experiencing-record-breaking-deforestation-2019-7">seeking to use Amazon</a><span> </span>land for industrial or agricultural purposes.</li><li>But once blazes start, hot temperatures and dry conditions because of climate change<span> </span><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/arctic-on-fire-satellite-images-from-space-2019-8?r=US&amp;IR=T">enable the flames to spread farther and faster</a>.</li><li>These satellite images, along with a map of the fires, show the scale of the burning. </li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories</a>.</li></ul><p>In the last couple of weeks, thousands of fiery infernos have sparked across the Amazon rainforest, razing tropical vegetation, trees, and the fauna they house.</p><p>Since August 15, more than 9,500 new forest fires have started across Brazil, primarily in the Amazon basin. The blazes - <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-fires-eclipse-sun-above-sao-paulo-brazil-2019-8">and the choking smoke clouds they create</a> - are visible from space. The NASA satellite image above shows how far the smoke has traveled over the continent.</p><p><a href="https://www.globalforestwatch.org/">Global Forest Watch</a>, an organization sponsored by the World Resources Institute to <span>monitor forests</span> and track fires using satellite data, <a href="https://fires.globalforestwatch.org/report/index.html#aoitype=GLOBAL&amp;reporttype=globalcountryreport&amp;country=Brazil&amp;dates=fYear-2019!fMonth-8!fDay-13!tYear-2019!tMonth-8!tDay-21">reported more than 109,000 fire alerts</a> in Brazil between August 13 and yesterday.</p><p>Those blazes are mapped below.</p><h2><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Courtesy of Global Forest Watch</span></p><p class="caption">A map showing every fire that's started across Brazil since August 13, 2019.</p></div><p></p></div></div></h2><h2>This is a record-breaking year of fires in Brazil</h2><p><span>Already, 2019 has the highest number of fires observed in Brazil in any year since researchers began keeping track in 2013 - and there are still four months to go.</span></p><p><span>So far, scientists have recorded more than <a href="http://queimadas.dgi.inpe.br/queimadas/portal/situacao-atual">74,000 fires</a> in Brazil in 2019. That's nearly double 2018's total of about 40,000 fires. The surge marks an 83% increase in wildfires over the same period of 2018, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-rainforest-experiencing-record-number-of-wildfires-this-year-2019-8">Brazil's National Institute for Space Research reported</a>. </span></p><p><span>The largest state in Brazil, Amazonas, declared a state of emergency on Monday.</span></p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Maxar Technologies</span></p><p class="caption">A satellite images capture of three fires burning in the Amazon southwest of Port Velho, Brazil on August 15, 2019.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p><span>The smoke plumes from blazes in the Amazon have spread from the state of Amazonas to the nearby states of Pará and Mato Grosso, and even <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-fires-eclipse-sun-above-sao-paulo-brazil-2019-8">blotted out the sun in São Paulo</a> - a city more than 2,000 miles away.</span></p><p><span>In total, the blazes have created <a href="https://www.windy.com/pt/-Concentra%C3%A7%C3%A3o-de-CO-cosc?cosc,-15.982,-59.359,6">a layer of smoke</a> estimated to be <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/brazils-bolsonaro-dismisses-outcry-over-record-number-forest-fires-i-used-called-captain-1455415">1.2 million square miles</a> wide. This image from the European Union's Copernicus Satellite shows the smoke slicing north to south through Brazil.</span></p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts</span></p><p class="caption">Imagery from European Union satellites shows smoke from fires in the Amazon rainforest stretching across Brazil and into other countries.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><h2>Deforestation could spell disaster for the world's largest rainforest</h2><p><span>This week of fires comes on the heels of another worrisome milestone for the world's largest rainforest. July set a new record for the most deforestation ever in the Amazon in a single month, </span><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jul/25/amazonian-rainforest-near-unrecoverable-tipping-point">The Guardian reported</a><span>. The Amazon shrunk by 519 square miles (1,345 square kilometers). That's an area about 23 times the size of Manhattan.</span></p><p><span>Data <a href="http://terrabrasilis.dpi.inpe.br/app/dashboard/alerts/legal/amazon/aggregated/#">from Brazilian satellites</a> indicated that about three football fields' worth of Amazonian trees fell every minute last month.</span></p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>NOAA</span></p><p class="caption">A satellite image from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) shows parts of the western Amazon rainforest on fire, August 12, 2019.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p><span>The deforestation is directly linked to fires in the Amazon, since farmers sometimes set the forest ablaze to make room for livestock pastures and crop fields. These purposeful burns can then get out of control.</span></p><p><span>Warmer conditions because of climate change can allow blazes that crop up during the Amazon's dry season to grow bigger than they otherwise might have. Global warming also increases the likelihood and frequency of wildfires around the world.</span></p><p><span><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Maxar Technologies/AP</span></p><p class="caption">A satellite image from Maxar Technologies shows a close-up view of a fire southwest of Porto Velho, Brazil, August 15, 2019.</p></div><p></p></div></div></span></p><p>In the past 50 years, roughly 20% of the Amazon - about 300,000 square miles - has been cut down in Brazil,<span> </span><a href="https://theintercept.com/2019/07/06/brazil-amazon-rainforest-indigenous-conservation-agribusiness-ranching/">according to the Intercept</a>.</p><p>If another 20% of the Amazon were to disappear, that could trigger a feedback loop known as a dieback, in which the rainforest would turn into an African savannah-type landscape.</p><p><em><strong>Read More:</strong> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-rainforest-experiencing-record-breaking-deforestation-2019-7">The 'lungs of the planet' are burning at a record rate. If too much of the Amazon disappears, that 'dieback' could turn the land into a savannah.</a></em></p><p>In that situation, the tropical trees - and the fauna they support - would disappear, releasing<span> </span><a href="https://www.rainforesttrust.org/climate-change-series-part-1-rainforests-absorb-store-large-quantities-carbon-dioxide/">up to 140 billion tons</a><span> </span>of stored carbon into the atmosphere and causing an uptick in already rising global temperatures.</p><p><span>Once a dieback starts, the Amazon would be "beyond the reach of any subsequent human intervention or regret," the Intercept reported.</span></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/california-researchers-predict-wildfires-san-diego-state-university-sdsu-2015-7">This technological breakthrough may change everything about how we fight wildfires</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

The blazes in the Amazon are so big they can be seen from space. One map shows the alarming scale of the fires.

<p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><ul class="summary-list"><li>The <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-help-amazon-rainforest-what-charities-to-donate-to-2019">Amazon rainforest is burning</a> at a record rate: The Brazilian Amazon has experienced more than <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-rainforest-fires-breaking-records-2019-8">74,000 fires this year</a>, whereas last year's total was around 40,000.</li><li>About 10,000 of the 2019 fires have <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-rainforest-experiencing-record-number-of-wildfires-this-year-2019-8">started in the past couple of weeks</a>.</li><li>On Monday, the smoke plume from the fires darkened the sky above São Paulo, one of Brazil's coastal cities, which is more than 2,000 miles away from the blazes.</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories</a>.</li></ul><p><span>Starting around 3:00 p.m. local time on Monday, the skies above Brazil's largest city went dark.&#xa0;</span></p><p><span>The sun in São Paulo had been eclipsed not by the moon, but by a vast cloud of smoke that choked the coastal city.</span></p><p><span>The duvet of daytime darkness was a result of the</span><span> nearly 10,000 new forest fires that started across Brazil, primarily in the Amazon basin, in the past week. M</span>any of the blazes are more than 2,000 miles away from S<span>ã</span>o Paulo, but strong winds and a mass of cold air moved the<span>&#xa0;grey plume of smoke</span> across the country.</p><p><span>This year so far, scientists have recorded more than&#xa0;</span><a href="http://queimadas.dgi.inpe.br/queimadas/portal/situacao-atual">74,000 fires</a> in Brazil. That's<span> nearly double 2018's total of about 40,000 fires. The surge marks an 83% increase in wildfires over the same period in 2018, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-rainforest-experiencing-record-number-of-wildfires-this-year-2019-8">Brazil's National Institute for Space Research reported</a>. The largest state in Brazil, Amazonas, declared a state of emergency on Monday.</span></p><p><span><em><strong>Read More:</strong>&#xa0;<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-rainforest-fires-breaking-records-2019-8">The Amazon is burning at a rate not seen since we started keeping track. The smoke is reaching cities 2,000 miles away.</a></em>&#xa0;</span></p><p><span>Already, 2019 has the highest number of fires observed in Brazil in a single year since researchers began keeping track in 2013 - and there are still four months to go.</span></p><p><span><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div></span></p><h2>'It just kept getting darker and darker'</h2><p><span>The smoke plumes from the fires raging in the Amazon initially spread from the state of Amazonas to the nearby states of Pará and Mato Grosso. Then, pushed by weather, the smoke clouds converged and drifted towards the Atlantic coast, arriving in São Paulo on Monday afternoon.</span></p><p>"I thought we were about to get hit with a heavy storm, but instead of raining it just kept getting darker and darker," Marcus Mendes, a Sao Paulo resident who videoed the event, <a href="https://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/darkness-blanketed-sao-paulo-midday-monday-and-shed-light-on-widespread-environmental-issues/70009133">told AccuWeather</a>.</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p>The video that Mendes <a href="https://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/darkness-blanketed-sao-paulo-midday-monday-and-shed-light-on-widespread-environmental-issues/70009133?jwsource=cl">shared with Accuweather</a> showed various parts of <span>São Paulo</span> under the cover of darkness. After about 40 minutes, Mendes said, rain started falling and light started filtering through the gloom.</p><p><span>"When I posted the video online, people asked me if there had been an eclipse," he added.&#xa0;</span></p><p><span>Other people in São Paulo took to social media to share their photos of the skies.</span></p><p>&#xa0;</p><p>One tweet from Beyond the Shadows, a democracy advocacy group in Brazil, showed cars stuck in city traffic with their headlights on. It looked like it could be 9:00 p.m. in the evening, but the image was posted at 3:37 p.m.</p><p>&#xa0;</p><p><a href="https://www.climatempo.com.br/noticia/2019/08/19/por-que-o-ceu-escureceu-em-sao-paulo--7543">Climatempo, a local news outlet,</a> <span>reported that winds pushed the smoke plumes to the southeast. The smoke then joined an existing band of fog and low-lying clouds that a mass of cold air had suspended above São Paulo.</span></p><h2>1.2 million square miles of smoke</h2><p><span>In total, the blazes in the Brazilian Amazon</span><span>&#xa0;have created <a href="https://www.windy.com/pt/-Concentra%C3%A7%C3%A3o-de-CO-cosc?cosc,-15.982,-59.359,6">a layer of smoke</a> estimated to be </span><a href="https://www.newsweek.com/brazils-bolsonaro-dismisses-outcry-over-record-number-forest-fires-i-used-called-captain-1455415">1.2 million square miles</a><span> wide. </span>This image from the European Union's Copernicus Satellite shows the smoke slicing north to south through the rest of the country like a knife.</p><p>&#xa0;</p><p>This isn't the first time the Amazon has experienced thousands of fires simultaneously. <span>Typically, the dry season in the rainforest runs from July to October, during which blazes can spark from natural sources like lightning. But summer is also the time of year when Brazilian farmers and loggers purposefully set fires </span><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-rainforest-experiencing-record-breaking-deforestation-2019-7">to clear swaths of trees</a><span>&#xa0;for industrial or agricultural use.</span></p><p>This year, however, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/arctic-on-fire-satellite-images-from-space-2019-8?r=US&amp;IR=T">w</a><span><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/arctic-on-fire-satellite-images-from-space-2019-8?r=US&amp;IR=T">armer temperatures and drier conditions</a> - due, in part, to climate change - have allowed both deliberate burns and blazes that crop up naturally to grow bigger than they otherwise might have. </span><span></span></p><p>"There are always fires this time of the year," Santiago Gassó, a NASA researcher, told <keyword id="6355005" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="news">news</keyword> outlet <a href="https://noticias.uol.com.br/meio-ambiente/ultimas-noticias/redacao/2019/08/20/queimadas-na-amazonia-provocam-corredor-de-fumaca-na-america-do-sul.htm" target="_blank" rel="external noopener" data-wpel-link="external">UOL Noticias</a>. "But the smoke corridor doesn't form every year."</p><div></div><div></div><div></div>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-rainforest-mysterious-geoglyphs-2017-2">These designs in the Amazon rainforest were created 2,000 years ago - and archaeologists are still baffled by them</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

Amazon fires created a smoke eclipse in the skies above Brazil's largest city, 2,000 miles away

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>REUTERS/Paulo Whitaker</span></p><p class="caption">The Amazon rain forest (R), bordered by deforested land prepared for the planting of soybeans, is pictured in this aerial photo taken over Mato Grosso state in western Brazil, October 4, 2015.</p></div><p></p></div></div>Good morning! Here's what you need to know on Wednesday.</p><p><strong>1. </strong><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-heavy-russian-strikes-hit-western-syria-monitor-2015-10"><strong>Heavy Russian air strikes hit the Syrian province of Hama on Wednesday</strong></a>, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, continuing a bombing campaign that started last week.</p><p><strong>2</strong><strong>. <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/a-massive-volkswagen-recall-is-coming-in-january-2015-10">Volkswagen's new CEO Matthias Mueller said in an interview with a German magazine that the company will launch a recall of cars fitted with emissions-cheating software in January</a></strong>, and all the cars should be fixed by the end of 2016.</p><p><strong>3. <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/07/business/dealbook/trial-opens-for-6-brokers-accused-of-rigging-libor.html?module=WatchingPortal&amp;region=c-column-middle-span-region&amp;pgType=Homepage&amp;action=click&amp;mediaId=wide&amp;state=standard&amp;contentPlacement=6&amp;version=internal&amp;contentCollection=www.nytimes.com&amp;contentId=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2015%2F10%2F07%2Fbusiness%2Fdealbook%2Ftrial-opens-for-6-brokers-accused-of-rigging-libor.html&amp;eventName=Watching-article-click&amp;_r=0">The criminal trial began for six former brokers accused of helping </a></strong><span><strong><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/07/business/dealbook/trial-opens-for-6-brokers-accused-of-rigging-libor.html?module=WatchingPortal&amp;region=c-column-middle-span-region&amp;pgType=Homepage&amp;action=click&amp;mediaId=wide&amp;state=standard&amp;contentPlacement=6&amp;version=internal&amp;contentCollection=www.nytimes.com&amp;contentId=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2015%2F10%2F07%2Fbusiness%2Fdealbook%2Ftrial-opens-for-6-brokers-accused-of-rigging-libor.html&amp;eventName=Watching-article-click&amp;_r=0">a former trader at UBS and Citigroup to rig an interest-rate benchmark rate</a></strong> known as Libor.</span></p><p><strong>4. <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/r-mexico-army-boss-will-not-allow-questioning-of-troops-in-student-massacre-2015-10">The leader of the Mexican army won't allow his troops to be interrogated</a><span> </span></strong>over allegations they may have been involved in the apparent massacre of 43 students last year.</p><p><strong>5. <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-death-toll-from-china-typhoon-rises-to-19-xinhua-2015-10">Nineteen people were killed and four people are still missing following a typhoon</a></strong> that struck China's <span>southern province of Guangdong on Sunday.</span></p><p><strong>6. <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/us-official-describes-nightmare-manpad-scenario-in-syria-2015-10">CIA-backed </a><span><a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/us-official-describes-nightmare-manpad-scenario-in-syria-2015-10">rebel groups in Syria are requesting antiaircraft missiles</a></span></strong> to shoot down Russian planes that are bombing them, according to the Washington Post.</p><p><strong>7. <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/microsoft-surface-book-2015-10">Microsoft unveiled its first laptop</a></strong><span> - the 13-inch Microsoft Surface Book - which it says is twice as fast as a Macbook Pro.</span></p><p><strong>8. <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/r-us-to-release-6000-federal-prisoners-washington-post-2015-10">America will release 6,000 prison inmates early at the end of October</a></strong> in an unprecedented move to reduce overcrowding and lighten sentences for nonviolent drug offenders.</p><p><strong>9. <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/r-maldives-boat-blast-was-attempt-on-presidents-life-minister-2015-10">Two military officials have been arrested in connection with an assassination attempt on <span class="highlight">Maldives </span></a><span><a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/r-maldives-boat-blast-was-attempt-on-presidents-life-minister-2015-10">President Abudullah Yameen,</a> </span></strong>following an explosion on a speed boat that was carrying him.</p><p><a href="http://t.sidekickopen20.com/e1t/c/5/f18dQhb0S7lC8dDMPbW2n0x6l2B9nMJW7t5XZs7fZy2gW63BfQ83N1NX4W2z8P1C56dNsrf5XTFjs02?t=http%3A%2F%2Flink.uk.businessinsider.com%2Fclick%2F5204152.3862%2FaHR0cDovL3d3dy5idXNpbmVzc2luc2lkZXIuY29tL3ItcHV0aW4tcGxhbnMtYWlyLXN0cmlrZXMtaW4tc3lyaWEtaWYtbm8tdXMtZGVhbC1yZWFjaGVkLWJsb29tYmVyZy0yMDE1LTk_dXRtX2NvbnRlbnQ9MTBUaGluZ3NXb3JsZCZ1dG1fbWVkaXVtPWVtYWlsJnV0bV9zb3VyY2U9U2FpbHRocnUmbnJfZW1haWxfcmVmZXJlcj0x%2F545cd31709c5c5841b8b4bd5B6c87d8d1&amp;si=5355050416734208&amp;pi=5e8a1b40-071b-4ffb-a420-790a82978120" target="_blank"></a><strong>10. <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/afp-former-un-general-assembly-head-arrested-for-bribery-2015-10">Former United Nations General Assembly President John Ashe has been accused of taking over $1 million in bribes</a></strong><span> from a Chinese billionaire to support his real estate interests. </span></p><p><strong>And finally...</strong></p><p><strong><a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/top-five-instagram-accounts-with-the-most-followers-in-the-world-2015-10">Instagram finally revealed who has the most followers in the world - here are the top 5.</a></strong></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/1998-mclaren-f1-auction-15-million-dollars-2015-6">This 1998 supercar could auction for $15 million</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="Rsc3hodTqM0OE0pn7eL8MJ-yolA-SZHN" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

The 10 most important things in the world right now

<p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><ul class="summary-list"><li>The <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-help-amazon-rainforest-what-charities-to-donate-to-2019">Amazon rainforest is burning</a> at a record rate: The Brazilian Amazon has experienced more than 74,000 fires this year, whereas last year's total was around 40,000.</li><li>About 10,000 of the 2019 fires have <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-rainforest-experiencing-record-number-of-wildfires-this-year-2019-8">started in the last couple of weeks</a>.</li><li>On Monday, the collective smoke plume from the fires darkened the sky more than 2,000 miles away.</li><li>Some of these fires were started by farmers and loggers who <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-rainforest-experiencing-record-breaking-deforestation-2019-7">seek to use Amazonian</a> for industrial or agricultural purposes.</li><li>But once blazes start, hot temperatures and dry conditions due to climate change <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/arctic-on-fire-satellite-images-from-space-2019-8?r=US&amp;IR=T">enable the flames to spread farther and faster</a>.</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories</a>.</li></ul><p>The "lungs of the planet" are burning.</p><p>As thousands of fiery infernos rage across the Amazon rainforest, tropical vegetation, trees, and the fauna they house are being razed. <span>Since August 15, more than 9,500 new forest fires have started across Brazil, primarily in the Amazon basin.</span></p><p><span>This year so far, scientists have recorded more than&#xa0;</span><a href="http://queimadas.dgi.inpe.br/queimadas/portal/situacao-atual">74,000 fires</a> in Brazil. That's<span> nearly double 2018's total of about 40,000 fires. The current surge marks an 83% increase in wildfires over the same period of 2018, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-rainforest-experiencing-record-number-of-wildfires-this-year-2019-8">Brazil's National Institute for Space Research reported</a>. The largest state in Brazil, Amazonas, declared a state of emergency on Monday.&#xa0;</span></p><p><span>Already, 2019 has the highest number of fires observed in a single year since researchers began keeping track in 2013 - and there are still four months to go.</span></p><h2>'The sky randomly turned dark'</h2><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p>As the world's largest rainforest, the Amazon plays a crucial role in keeping our planet's carbon-dioxide levels in check. Plants and trees take in carbon dioxide and release oxygen back into the air in their process of photosynthesis. This is why the Amazon, which covers 2.1 million square miles,<span>&#xa0;</span><a href="http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20130226-amazon-lungs-of-the-planet">is often referred to as the "lungs of the planet"</a>: The forest produces<span> 20% of the oxygen in our planet's atmosphere.</span>&#xa0;</p><p><span>Typically, the Amazonian dry season runs from July to October, peaking in late September. Wetter weather during the rest of the year minimizes the risk of fires at other times. But during the dry season, blazes can spark from natural sources, like lightning strikes. Farmers and loggers also purposefully set fire to the rainforest</span> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-rainforest-experiencing-record-breaking-deforestation-2019-7">to clear swaths of the Amazon</a> for industrial or agricultural use.</p><p><span>The fires raging in the Amazon now have widespread impacts on the rest of Brazil. The smoke plumes from the blazes spread from the state of Amazonas to the nearby states of Pará and Mato Grosso, and even </span><span>blotted out the sun in São Paolo - a city more than 2,000 miles away.</span></p><p>&#xa0;</p><p><span>On Monday, people in São Paolo reported on social media that the sky had gone dark between 3 and 4 p.m. local time.&#xa0;</span></p><p>&#xa0;</p><p><span>In total, the blazes</span><span>&#xa0;have created <a href="https://www.windy.com/pt/-Concentra%C3%A7%C3%A3o-de-CO-cosc?cosc,-15.982,-59.359,6">a layer of smoke</a> estimated to be </span><a href="https://www.newsweek.com/brazils-bolsonaro-dismisses-outcry-over-record-number-forest-fires-i-used-called-captain-1455415">1.2 million square miles</a><span> wide. </span>This image from the European Union's Copernicus Satellite shows the smoke slicing north to south through Brazil like a knife.</p><p>&#xa0;</p><h2><span>'Setting the Amazon aflame'</span></h2><p>This week of fires comes on the heels of another worrisome milestone for the world's largest rainforest. The month of July set a new record for the most deforestation ever in the Amazon in a single month,<span>&#xa0;</span><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jul/25/amazonian-rainforest-near-unrecoverable-tipping-point">The Guardian reported</a>. The Amazon shrunk by 519 square miles (1,345 square kilometers). That's more than twice the area of Tokyo.</p><p>Data<span>&#xa0;</span><a href="http://terrabrasilis.dpi.inpe.br/app/dashboard/alerts/legal/amazon/aggregated/#">from Brazilian satellites</a> indicated that about three football fields' worth of Amazonian trees fell every minute last month. The total deforested area in July 2019 was<span>&#xa0;</span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/28/world/americas/brazil-deforestation-amazon-bolsonaro.html">up 39%</a> from July of last year.</p><p>The deforestation is directly linked to fires in the Amazon, since farmers sometimes set the forest ablaze to make room for livestock pastures and crop fields. These purposeful burns can then get out of control.&#xa0;</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p><span><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-rainforest-experiencing-record-breaking-deforestation-2019-7">Brazil controls a lion's share of the Amazon</a>. However, its president, Jair Bolsonaro, has indicated that protecting the rainforest is&#xa0;<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/brazil-president-bolsonaro-destroy-the-amazon-2018-10">not one of his top priorities</a> - Bolsonaro supports development projects like a highway and hydroelectric dam in the Amazon.</span></p><p><span>His administration has also cut down on the seizing of illegally harvested timber. In 2018 (u</span><span>nder the previous administration), 883,000 cubic feet of illegal timber was seized. As of May 15, Bolsonaro's government agencies had only seized 1,410 cubic feet, <a href="https://psmag.com/environment/brazils-government-is-gutting-environmental-protections-from-the-inside">Pacific Standard reported</a>.</span></p><p>What's more, between January and May of this year, Bolsonaro's government lowered the number of fines it levied for<span>&#xa0;</span><a href="https://psmag.com/environment/brazils-government-is-gutting-environmental-protections-from-the-inside">illegal deforestation and mining</a><span>&#xa0;</span>(down 34% from the same period in 2018) and decreased its monitoring of illegal activity in the rainforest.</p><p>On Tuesday, when <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-brazil-politics/brazils-bolsonaro-says-ngos-may-be-setting-fires-in-amazon-rainforest-idUSKCN1VB1BY">Reuters reporters asked</a> Bolsonaro about the record rate of uncontrolled fires in Brazil, he pointed to the fact that it's a time of year when farmers purposefully use fire to clear land - a seasonal cycle called "queimada."&#xa0;</p><p><span>"I used to be called Captain Chainsaw. Now I am Nero, setting the Amazon aflame," Bolsonaro <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-rainforest-experiencing-record-number-of-wildfires-this-year-2019-8">said</a>. "But it is the season of the queimada."</span></p><h2>Warmer, drier conditions make it easier for flames to spread</h2><p>Warmer conditions due to climate change can allow blazes that crop up during the dry season to grow bigger than they otherwise might have. Global warming also<span> increases the likelihood and frequency of wildfires around the world.</span></p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p><span>Overall, this year is on pace to be the third hottest on record globally,&#xa0;<a href="https://medialibrary.climatecentral.org/resources/half-year-checkup-global-heat-and-national-rain-2019">according to Climate Central</a>. Last year was the fourth warmest,&#xa0;<a href="https://www.noaa.gov/news/2018-was-4th-hottest-year-on-record-for-globe">behind 2016 (the warmest), 2015, and 2017</a>.&#xa0;</span></p><p><span><em><strong>Read More:</strong> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/arctic-on-fire-satellite-images-from-space-2019-8?r=US&amp;IR=T" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" data-qa="message_attachment_title_link">The northernmost reaches of the Earth are on fire. Here's what this record-breaking hot summer looks like from space.</a></em></span></p><p>Hot and dry conditions in the Northern Hemisphere are a consequence of this unprecedented warming. That's because warming leads winter snow cover to melt earlier, and hotter air sucks away the moisture from trees and soil. Decreased rainfall also makes for parched forests that are prone to burning.</p><p>Combined, that has created ideal conditions for wildfires in Brazil and elsewhere around the world.</p><p><span>As of today, parts of&#xa0;</span><a href="https://cwfis.cfs.nrcan.gc.ca/report">British Columbia, Canada</a><span>&#xa0;and&#xa0;</span><a href="https://fire.ak.blm.gov/content/aicc/sitreport/AICC%20Situation%20Report.pdf">Alaska</a><span> are also burning, while more than </span><a href="https://www.rferl.org/a/siberian-wildfires-set-to-break-land-area-record/30106388.html">13.5 million acres of Siberia</a><span> are ablaze, too.</span></p><div></div><div></div><div></div>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-rainforest-mysterious-geoglyphs-2017-2">These designs in the Amazon rainforest were created 2,000 years ago - and archaeologists are still baffled by them</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

The Amazon is burning at a rate not seen since we started keeping track. The smoke is reaching cities 2,000 miles away.

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Bolivia-Daily-Life/8f8007c74e5a4d5591aeb924df92dac4/60/0">AP Photo/Juan Karita</a></span></p><p class="caption">A monkey carries her cub in Machia Park in Villa Tunari, Bolivia.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul class="summary-list"><li>Forest <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/animals-disappearing-extinction-by-the-numbers-2019-5">animal populations worldwide</a> have declined 53% since 1970, according to a recent analysis from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/us-forests-facts-2019-4">Forests</a> are our "greatest natural ally in the fight against global warming," Susanne Winter, a program director at the WWF, told EcoWatch. But forests can't function without animals.</li><li>The rapid decline of forest animal populations is yet another sign that the planet is <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/biological-annihilation-sixth-mass-extinction-2017-7">in the midst</a> of <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/signs-of-6th-mass-extinction-2019-3">a sixth mass extinction</a>.</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.</a></li></ul><p>Earth's forests are emptying.</p><p>Half of their inhabitants have disappeared in the last 40 years, according to a new report from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).</p><p>The <a href="https://www.worldwildlife.org/publications/below-the-canopy">report</a> tracked populations of 268 species of forest-dwelling birds, mammals, amphibians, and reptiles worldwide between 1970 and 2014 (the most recent year for which data is available). The results showed that forest animal populations have declined by 53% worldwide, and humans are to blame. </p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Supri/Reuters</span></p><p class="caption">Ratu, an 8-year-old female Sumatran rhinoceros, at the Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary in the Way Kambas National Park on May 20, 2010. Sumatran rhinos once roamed the forests of Southeast Asia, but today only about 80 remain.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>More than 80% of all terrestrial animal, plant, and insect species call forests home. However, a combination of habitat destruction, hunting, the spread of invasive species, climate change, and disease are killing off forest animals, the researchers said. </p><p>Without those animals, forests can't perform the functions we rely on, since animals pollinate forest plants, disperse seeds, and nourish the soil with their waste.</p><p>"Forests depend on an intact animal world to perform functions essential to life," Susanne Winter, a program director at the WWF, told <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/forest-biodiversity-wwf-report-2639837210.html">EcoWatch</a>.</p><h2>Forests help us fight climate change</h2><p>One of the most critical roles forests play is in mitigating climate change. Trees suck enormous amounts of carbon dioxide out of the air and embed the carbon in their wood and the soil. A <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/planting-trees-to-address-climate-crisis-2019-7">recent study</a> found that planting new trees over an area the size of the US could suck away two-thirds of all the carbon dioxide emissions that humans have pumped into the atmosphere.</p><p>"Without animals, it is harder for forests to absorb carbon, as tree species important for protecting the climate could be lost without animals," Winter said.</p><p>In South America and Africa, for example, many of the tree species that absorb the most carbon rely on large birds and primates to eat their fruits and spread their large seeds, according to the report. Without them, those trees would have difficulty reproducing and forests would lose their best carbon-storing trees. </p><p>"Forests are our greatest natural ally in the fight against global warming," Winter said. "If we want to reverse the worldwide decline in biodiversity and prevent the climate crisis, we need to protect the forests and the species living there."</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?id=tag%3Areuters.com%2C2019%3Anewsml_KCN1UQ1P3&amp;share=true">REUTERS/Zainal Abd Halim</a></span></p><p class="caption">A man from the Batek tribe hunts in a jungle near the Kuala Koh National Park in the Malaysian state of Kelantan, October 21, 2009.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Forests also filter water - as water makes its way to reservoirs or groundwater reserves, the roots and soil in forests separate it from sediment and pollution that it collects along the way. What's more, forests regulate the global water cycle, since trees' leaves, branches, and roots store or release water vapor.</p><p><a href="https://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/full/10.1175/JHM406.1">Climate models</a> show that deforestation in Central Africa could lead to a 15% drop in rainfall in the US Midwest, and Amazon deforestation could cut Texas rainfall by 25%.</p><p>Humans also get food, wood, and medicine from the abundance of plants and animals in forests. Worldwide, 1.6 billion people rely on forests for their livelihoods, including 70 million indigenous people, according to the <a href="https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/biodiversity/">United Nations</a>. About 300 million people live in forests, according to <a href="https://wwf.panda.org/our_work/forests/importance_forests/">WWF</a>.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/detail?id=tag%3Areuters.com%2C2011%3Anewsml_GM1E7780WQE01%3A2113148620">REUTERS/Carlos Jasso</a></span></p><p class="caption">A resplendent quetzal at the El Nido aviary park in Ixtapaluca, on the outskirts of Mexico City, July 7, 2011. Many species of quetzals are endangered.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><h2>The Earth's 6th mass extinction</h2><p>A growing body of evidence suggests that <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/signs-of-6th-mass-extinction-2019-3">the Earth is in the middle of a mass extinction</a> event - the sixth of its kind in the planet's history. </p><p>More than 27% of all assessed species on the planet are threatened with extinction, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature <a href="https://www.iucnredlist.org/">Red List</a>. Currently, 40% of the planet's amphibians, 25% of its mammals, 14% of its birds, and 33% of its coral reefs are threatened. A February study found that <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/insects-dying-off-sign-of-6th-mass-extinction-2019-2">40% of the world's insect species are in decline</a>.</p><p>Human activity, specifically deforestation and greenhouse-gas emissions, are to blame: Overall, extinction rates are 1,000 times higher than they would be if humans weren't around, according to a <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/344/6187/1246752">2014 study</a>.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Thomson Reuters</span></p><p class="caption">Logged trees at one of the last primeval forests in Europe, the Bialowieza forest in Poland.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>The new WWF report highlights the impacts of human activity on forests specifically. According to the research, the disappearance or degradation of forests accounts for 60% of the threats to forest animals. Animal populations have suffered the most in tropical forests, which are home to 75% of the declining species analyzed in the report. Those forests support over half of the species on all of Earth's land.</p><p>Worldwide, humans have cleared 30% of all forest cover, according to the <a href="https://www.wri.org/our-work/topics/forests">World Resources Institute</a>. The planet has <a href="https://www.globalforestwatch.org/dashboards/global">lost 9% of its tree cover</a> since 2000.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Reuters</span></p><p class="caption">The Amazon rain forest, bordered by deforested land prepared for the planting of soybeans, in Brazil's Mato Grosso state.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Hunting, too, is a major culprit for declining animal populations - more than half of the species threatened by over-hunting, according to the report, are African primates, since they're hunted in the bushmeat trade. In total, the researchers found that 40 of the 112 primate species analyzed were threatened by over-hunting.</p><p>Climate change poses the third big <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/rainforest-animals-endangered-climate-change-2018-11#bengal-tigers-are-being-threatened-by-rising-sea-levels-8">threat to forest animals</a>. Many forest species are struggling to adapt to rising temperatures and more extreme weather. For example, more frequent droughts threaten <a href="https://www.worldwildlife.org/pages/asian-elephants-and-climate-change">Asian elephants</a>, which rely on daily access to fresh water. And rising sea levels destroy coastal habitat, adding stress to already threatened species like the <a href="https://www.worldwildlife.org/press-releases/climate-change-threatens-to-wipe-out-one-of-world-s-largest-tiger-populations-this-century">Bengal tiger</a>.</p><p>Meanwhile, bird populations in the western Amazon have dwindled since 2001, likely because of the area's unusually high rainfall, the WWF researchers suspect. Dry conditions in other parts of the Amazon have increased the risk of severe wildfires. </p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Getty Images/Justin Sullivan</span></p><p class="caption">Bengal tigers are endangered - about 2,500 remain in the wild. They face threats from poaching and sea-level rise in the mangrove forests in which they live.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Humans also move invasive species across the globe, and the newcomers can take over ecosystems and gobble up resources that sustain native animals. Invasive species are the second biggest driver of extinction worldwide, according to the <a href="https://www.iucn.org/theme/species/our-work/invasive-species/honolulu-challenge-invasive-alien-species/why-honolulu-challenge">IUCN</a>. They're the primary cause of island extinctions, since many rare species are only found on one island or archipelago.</p><p>Most forest animals face multiple threats from this list, the report found. </p><h2>The report doesn't capture the full extent of the problem - but there is still hope</h2><p>The WWF analysis isn't comprehensive: It took the most thorough look at bird and mammal populations in Europe and North America. Over half of the species in the report are from the Americas, while less than 10% of known species in other forest regions were represented. Africa had the fewest species analyzed in the report.</p><p>According to the authors, these gaps are due to a lack of data, so they called for more efforts to monitor wildlife populations in underrepresented forests.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Associated-Press-International-News-Kenya-KENYA-/06f6cc0a54e4da11af9f0014c2589dfb/15/0">AP Photo/Sayyid Azim</a></span></p><p class="caption">A black and white colobus monkey takes a nap in Naivasha, Kenya, April 11, 2004. In Tanzania, colobus monkeys declined rapidly between 2004 and 2012 due to hunting and habitat degradation.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>"The first step towards protecting threatened wildlife is understanding trends in their populations and what drives their decline," Louise McRae, a conservation scientist and a co-author of the report, said in a release. </p><p>The team also suggested that animal populations should be considered an important measure of a forest's health</p><p>Helping forest animals avoid extinction is not as simple as planting more trees, the report added, since it can take decades for animal populations to recover even after tree cover gets replaced. Additionally, since most animals face more than one threat, efforts to save them require more than one approach.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?id=tag%3Areuters.com%2C2000%3Anewsml_RP2DRIBGJJAA%3A621401111&amp;search=all%3Ajungle%20bird%20endangered">Reuters</a></span></p><p class="caption">An endangered giant monitor lizard pops out of its hideout in Bangladesh, May 21, 2000.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Mountain gorilla numbers, for example, are finally on the rise due to decades of conservation work in Rwanda, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. That's thanks to a multi-faceted strategy that involves "engagement with the local community, daily anti-poaching and anti-snare patrols, veterinary care, regulated eco-tourism and effective law enforcement," the report authors wrote.</p><p>Scientists once thought the mountain gorillas would be extinct by 2000, but the most recent estimates suggest there are over 1,000 of them worldwide.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Edith Honan/Reuters</span></p><p class="caption">A mountain gorilla in Virunga National Park, located in the Democratic Republic of Congo, on April 4, 2014.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>"In order to reverse the decline of forest biodiversity, it is crucial to address the multiple pressures on forest species," the report authors wrote. But with the right strategies, they said, "the recovery of forest species populations is possible."</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tropical-forests-emit-more-co2-us-cars-trucks-combined-2017-10">The world's tropical forests now emit more CO2 than all US cars and trucks combined</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

We've killed off more than 50% of forest animals on Earth, a new report found - even more evidence of a 6th mass extinction

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Thomson Reuters</span></p><p class="caption">Brazilian Federal Police officers escort one of the 10 people they arrested on suspicions of ties to Islamic State in Sao Paulo</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Brazil has now captured 12 ISIS sympathizers accused of trying to mount attacks on the Olympic Games slated to begin on August 5 in Rio de Janeiro.</p><p>The suspects were apprehended in an operation that not only involved assistance from US authorities, but the help of Facebook and Twitter.</p><p>Last week, Brazilian police <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-fbi-led-brazil-to-suspected-militants-mulling-olympic-attack-prosecutor-2016-7" target="_blank">rounded up 10 suspects</a> in different locations around the country.</p><p>On Friday, an 11th suspect turned himself, and the 12th and final member of what Brazil's justice minister called a group of <span>"<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-fbi-led-brazil-to-suspected-militants-mulling-olympic-attack-prosecutor-2016-7" target="_blank">absolutely amateur</a>" plotters was <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/afp-police-arrest-last-suspect-from-rio-olympics-attack-group-2016-7" target="_blank">caught</a> <span>by military police in the city of Comodoro, in the western state of Mato Grosso, officials said.</span></span></p><p><span><span><span>Justice Minister Alexandre de Moraes said some of the men had pledged allegiance to the ISIS without having any personal contact with members of the terrorism group. The suspects had never received any training nor been to Iraq or Syria. </span></span></span></p><p><span>"They were complete amateurs and ill-prepared" to mount an attack, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ap-brazil-police-order-arrest-of-men-pleading-isis-allegiance-2016-7" target="_blank">Moraes said last week</a>. "A few days ago they said they should start practicing martial arts, for example." </span></p><p>The group, which Moraes called a "cell," never met in person, did not have any bomb materials or funding, and had tried to buy an AK-47 from Paraguay online, <a href="http://www.univision.com/univision-news/latin-america/brazil-police-arrest-suspects-planning-terror-attacks-ahead-of-rio-olympics">according to Univision</a>. The suspects also didn't know each other and only communicated via messaging apps WhatsApp and Telegram.</p><p><span><span><span><span>The group <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/afp-police-arrest-last-suspect-from-rio-olympics-attack-group-2016-7" target="_blank">allegedly attempted to form</a> an extremist cell called Defenders of Sharia, but they </span><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-fbi-led-brazil-to-suspected-militants-mulling-olympic-attack-prosecutor-2016-7" target="_blank">didn't have formal ties</a> to ISIS.</span></span></span></p><h2><span><span><span>Operation Hashtag</span></span></span></h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>REUTERS/Roosevelt Cassio</span></p><p class="caption">Sao Paulo state police take part in a simulated hostage situation during a security exercise ahead of the 2016 Rio Olympics, in the airport of Sao Jose dos Campos, Brazil, July 21, 2016.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p><span><span><span>Brazilian authorities revealed the antiterrorism operation when they announced the arrests on Thursday. Brazilian federal police <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-fbi-led-brazil-to-suspected-militants-mulling-olympic-attack-prosecutor-2016-7" target="_blank">said in a statement</a> that Operation Hashtag, as it was known, had started in April and involved phone taps and monitoring the suspects' postings on social media.</span></span></span></p><p><span><span><span>After the initial arrests, a Brazilian prosecutor <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-fbi-led-brazil-to-suspected-militants-mulling-olympic-attack-prosecutor-2016-7" target="_blank">revealed</a> that the US FBI had also aided the investigation, providing tips on six individuals in May.</span></span></span></p><p><span><span><span><span>"The information came from the FBI," <span>Rafael Brum Miron, the federal prosecutor handling the case in the southern state of Parana,</span> <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-fbi-led-brazil-to-suspected-militants-mulling-olympic-attack-prosecutor-2016-7" target="_blank">told the Estado de S. Paulo newspaper</a>. "They sent a succinct report: These people merit investigating."</span></span></span></span></p><p><span><span><span><span>In an interview broadcast late on Sunday, a Brazilian judge <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-facebook-twitter-co-operated-with-brazil-probe-of-alleged-militants-2016-7" target="_blank">said</a> that Facebook and Twitter had both assisted the investigation, as well.</span></span></span></span></p><p><span><span><span><span><span>Judge Marcos Josegrei da Silva, who is <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ap-brazil-police-arrest-last-suspect-in-olympics-terror-case-2016-7" target="_blank">overseeing</a> the case, said cooperation by both social-media companies, after a judicial order tied to the investigation, was vital to understanding the nature of discussions the suspects had. </span></span></span></span></span></p><p><span><span><span><span><span><span>"The companies began to provide data related to the content of the conversations and data about where those conversations were posted," the judge said, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-facebook-twitter-co-operated-with-brazil-probe-of-alleged-militants-2016-7" target="_blank">according to Reuters</a>, but without offering more details. </span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p><span><span><span><span><span><span><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch</span></p><p class="caption">Brazilian Public Safety National Force, left, and military-police soldiers guard an entrance at the security fence outside the 2016 Rio Olympics Park in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, July 21, 2016.</p></div><p></p></div></div></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p><span><span><span><span><span><span>The arrests not only come just days before the opening of the 2016 Rio games. They also take place amid <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/whatsapp-gets-blocked-and-unblocked-in-brazil-before-olympics-2016-7" target="_blank">an ongoing debate</a> about<span> the needs of law enforcement in a country dealing with high crime rates and the public's right to communicate without interference.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p><span><span><span><span><span><span>Brazil and WhatsApp have <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/whatsapp-gets-blocked-and-unblocked-in-brazil-before-olympics-2016-7" target="_blank">clashed several times in recent months</a>, with authorities implementing several nationwide bans on the app for its failure to provide information on suspected criminal activities to Brazilian authorities. (Brazilian courts have overturned each ban relatively quickly.)</span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p><span><span><span><span><span><span>WhatsApp, which is owned by Facebook, offers encrypted communications, and the company says that even it cannot access the conversations Brazilian authorities have requested to see. (Vincent Bevins, the LA Times correspondent in Brazil, says police likely monitored the suspected ISIS militants by <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-fbi-led-brazil-to-suspected-militants-mulling-olympic-attack-prosecutor-2016-7" target="_blank">infiltrating the WhatsApp groups they used</a>.)</span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p><span><span><span><span><span><span>Da Silva, the judge managing the case, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ap-brazil-police-arrest-last-suspect-in-olympics-terror-case-2016-7" target="_blank">also said</a> others beyond the 12 in custody could be involved. Brazil plans to deploy <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/brazil-arrest-isis-terrorism-olympic-games-threats-2016-7" target="_blank">85,000 armed police and soldiers</a> to the streets of Rio to provide security, though the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/brazil-arrest-isis-terrorism-olympic-games-threats-2016-7" target="_blank">threat of street crime and crimes of opportunity remain</a>.</span></span></span></span></span></span></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/gold-medals-rio-2016-olympics-brazil-paralympics-2016-7">Here's how gold medals are made for the Rio Olympics</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="pvYXB2NDE66yJrdnS48EYdgwyWSk1koZ" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

Brazil captured 12 ISIS sympathizers days before the Olympics, with some help from major tech companies

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>AP Photo/Andre Penner</span></p><p class="caption">A deforested area near Novo Progresso in Brazil's northern state of Para, Sept. 15, 2009.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul class="summary-list"><li>Brazilian president <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/brazil-president-bolsonaro-destroy-the-amazon-2018-10">Jair Bolsonaro's axe</a> is finally starting to fall on the Amazon rainforest.</li><li>In a <a href="http://redenacionalderadio.com.br/programas/materias-da-voz/21-01-19-graziella-mendonca-entrevista-general-santa-rosa.mp3/view">January radio interview,</a> special secretary for strategic projects Maynard Marques de Santa Rosa announced the administration's plans for three major projects that will impact the Amazon.</li><li>These include constructing a hydroelectric dam, building a bridge over the Amazon River, and extending an existing highway through 300 miles of rainforest, which would threaten isolated <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-forest-indigenous-sacred-corridor-of-life-2018-11">indigenous peoples</a>.</li><li>Santa Rosa's rhetoric referred to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/brazilian-reforestation-device-bolsonaro-endangers-amazon-2018-10">the Amazon</a> as an "unproductive <em><span>latifúndio</span></em>" - a large, unfarmed estate - and stressed the need to integrate this "desert-like" region into the national economy, <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/01/bolsonaro-government-reveals-plan-to-develop-the-unproductive-amazon/">Mongabay reported</a>.</li></ul><p>Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro has quietly started to make good on his campaign promises to develop swaths of the Amazon.</p><p>Bolsonaro's special secretary for strategic projects, Maynard Marques de Santa Rosa, announced <a href="http://redenacionalderadio.com.br/programas/materias-da-voz/21-01-19-graziella-mendonca-entrevista-general-santa-rosa.mp3/view">during a radio interview</a> that the administration is kicking off three major infrastructure projects - a hydroelectric dam, a bridge, and a highway extension - that will impact the rainforest and its indigenous peoples.</p><p>The message is clear: Bolsonaro plans to develop the Amazon, opening up areas of untouched rainforest to mining, farming, and logging. </p><p><span>The Amazon has <a href="https://rainforests.mongabay.com/amazon/deforestation_calculations.html">lost more than 300,000 square miles of forest since 1970</a>. That's an area larger than the state of Texas. While the rate of deforestation has slowed since 2004, these infrastructure projects may signal an end to that decline. </span></p><h2>'Bolsonaro is the worst thing that could happen for the environment'</h2><p>Bolsonaro, who won Brazil's recent presidential election with a "tough on crime" platform that promised to jumpstart the country's stagnating economy, is also a climate <keyword id="41551" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="100" keywordseo="science">science</keyword> skeptic.</p><p><span>"There is no point sugarcoating it. Bolsonaro is the worst thing that could happen for the environment," Paulo Artaxo, a climate change researcher at the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil, <a href="https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/10/we-are-headed-very-dark-period-brazil-s-researchers-fear-election-far-right" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told Science just prior to the election</a>.</span></p><p>Brazil's highest political office comes with control over a lion's share of the world's largest tropical rainforest - what some experts <a href="http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20130226-amazon-lungs-of-the-planet">call "the lungs of the planet"</a> because Amazonian flora performs the critical function of storing carbon dioxide, preventing it from returning to the atmosphere to further warm the Earth. This is a crucial check on greenhouse gas-fueled<span> climate change.</span><span></span></p><p><span>Brazil's commander-in-chief has made it clear that he thinks <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/brazil-president-bolsonaro-destroy-the-amazon-2018-10">an excess of environmentally-protected areas</a> has hampered the country's economic development. </span></p><p><span>During the election, Bolsonaro promised to pave a highway through the Amazon and open up indigenous lands to industry. He also made plans to scrap the Ministry of Environment and dilute existing environmental protections.</span></p><p><span>He's following through on the first of those promises with an umbrella project called Barão do Rio Branco, named after a 19th century Brazilian diplomat who resolved border issues with neighboring regions.</span></p><h2>The Amazon project includes a dam, a bridge, and an extended highway</h2><p>First, the administration plans to construct a hydroelectric dam and power facility on the Trombetas River, which flows into the Amazon, and abuts a nearby biological reserve more than 1500 square miles in size.</p><p>Building the dam is an attempt to cut down on frequent power outages in nearby cities, according to Santa Rosa.</p><p>Bolsonaro also wants to build a nearly mile-long bridge over the Amazon River in the city of óbidos, located northwest of Santarém in the heart of the rainforest. </p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Wikimedia Commons</span></p><p class="caption">Bolsonaro revealed plans to build a hydroelectric dam on the Trombetas River (in pink), a bridge at Óbidos, and a highway north to Suriname.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Finally, Santa Rosa confirmed the government will extend an existing<span> </span>highway named BR-163, which cuts through the heart of Brazil, connecting graineries in the central valley to the Amazon River some 2,700 miles north.</p><p>BR-163 is already a <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/amazon-rainforest-deforestation-crisis/article37722932/">critical roadway for Brazilian exports</a>. Agricultural producers <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/amazon-rainforest-deforestation-crisis/article37722932/">use BR-163 to transport soy</a> and other grains to major ports on the Amazon River, where the soy is then transferred to ships and sent down the river for export to Europe, <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/01/bolsonaro-government-reveals-plan-to-develop-the-unproductive-amazon/">according to Mongabay</a>.</p><p><span style="background-color: #ffffff;">It's unclear how an extension north through the rainforest from the highway's current terminus will further contribute to increased soy exports, however. </span></p><p><span>Though Santa Rosa didn't indicate the precise route, the BR-163 extension will likely cut through five protected areas in the Amazon. This could include the 16,400 square-mile Grão-Pará Ecological Station, one of the largest fully-protected tropical forest conservation units in the world.</span></p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Kim Schandorff/Getty Images</span></p><p class="caption">The three projects will likely impact not only environmentally protected areas of the rainforest, but also the indigenous tribes who live there.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Santa Rosa sidestepped queries about the project's timeline and implementation, stating the president first had to issue a bill that instituted Barão do Rio Branco as an official project. He also didn't mention how to foot the likely billion-dollar bill.</p><div><h2>Bolsonaro thinks the Amazon is a 'vast unfarmed tract of land' to develop</h2><p>Santa Rosa said the proposed projects are intended to benefit local Brazilians. <span style="color: #000000;">He added that integrating Brazil's somewhat isolated </span><span style="color: #000000;">Calha Norte region - everything north of the Amazon River to the Suriname and Guyanese borders - with the rest of country via these projects will create employment and economic opportunities.</span></p><p>"The Amazon population has 10 million people living below the poverty line and it is not acceptable to close our eyes to this region and treat it as an unproductive <em>latifúndio</em>," he said in the radio interview. <em>Latifúndio</em><span style="color: #000000;"> means a "vast unfarmed tract of land."</span></p></div><div><p>Robert Walker, professor at the University of Florida and the Federal University of Pará in Brazil, told Business Insider that this new project is designed to reactivate an earlier, unfinished plan from the 1980s called <a href="https://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/calha-norte-project-multinationals-mining-and">Calha Norte</a>. The plan aimed to incorporate the region into the national economy and forcibly integrate indigneous<span> groups into Brazilian society.</span></p><p><strong><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>GLP/Wikimedia Commons</span></p><p class="caption">The BR-163 highway extension is meant to integrate the somewhat isolated Calle Norte region with the rest of Brazil.</p></div><p></p></div></div></strong></p><p><span>Walker also noted that three projects will be built in areas rich with natural resources. The Trombetas River, where the hydroelectric dam will be built, passes through a region with abundant reserves of bauxite, he said. Bauxite is used in the production of aluminum. </span></p><p><span>The bridge and highway are being built in the state of Pará, Walker said, and meant to better integrate the isolated state of Amapa with the national economy.</span></p><p><span>Until now, "Amapa has remained undeveloped, a vast reservoir of biodiversity," he said. </span></p><p><span>But the Amapa-Pará border is home to the National Reserve of Copper and Associates (RENCA), a 17,760 square-mile piece of land rich in copper and other mineral resources. Former Brazilian president Michel Temer <a href="https://ejatlas.org/conflict/commercial-mining-protected-areas-of-renca-para-amapa-brazil">opened the once-protected area to commercial mining</a> in 2017. A highway leading to and from RENCA could enable Brazil to more effectively mine those resources.</span></p><p><span>By extending the highway an additional 300 miles northward, BR-163 would effectively connect Amapa and Brazil's northern border with the country's central grain-producing region. </span></p><p><span>One of the other benefits of the highway, according to Santa Rosa, "is integrating this region that was desertic so far."</span></p><p>Walker thinks that the location of the proposed infrastructure provides circumstantial evidence that Bolsonaro is prepared to surrender large tracts of the Amazon to mining interests.</p></div><h2><span>'The attack on the Amazon' has begun</span></h2><p>The project announcement came just days before Bolsonaro took the stage at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on January 22.</p><p>"Brazil is a paradise, he said at Davos, according to <a href="https://qz.com/1530219/brazils-bolsonaro-tells-davos-he-wants-to-protect-the-amazon/">Quartz</a>. <span>"We are the one country that most preserves the environment."</span></p><p><span>Bolsonaro said his goal is to balance environment and biodiversity with economic opportunities. But Walker was quick to point out that the Barão do Rio Branco plan is far more </span>consistent with the statements Bolsonaro made during his campaign - t<span>hat he would open the Amazon to development despite environmental laws and commitments to indigenous peoples - </span>than his statements at the World Economic Forum.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Thomson Reuters</span></p><p class="caption">An aerial view of a tract of Amazon jungle recently cleared by loggers and farmers near the city of Novo Progresso</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>The three projects will impact local Amazonian tribes in addition to the rainforest itself. <span>The Trombetas dam would impact <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-forest-indigenous-sacred-corridor-of-life-2018-11">four indigenous reserves</a> and eight <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/10/brazil-quilombos_n_5572236.html">quilombos</a> (communities founded by runaway slaves), Mongabay reported.</span> </p><p>The location of the road project on BR-163 also signals a continued assault on the homeland of the Munduruku Tribe, Walker said. The Munduruku number less than 5,000 and have <a href="https://pib.socioambiental.org/en/Povo:Munduruku">claim to land in the States of </a><span><a href="https://pib.socioambiental.org/en/Povo:Munduruku">Pará and Mato Grosso</a>.</span></p><p><span>"I think we are headed for a very dark period in the history of Brazil," the University of Sao Paulo's Artaxo <a href="https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/10/we-are-headed-very-dark-period-brazil-s-researchers-fear-election-far-right" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told Science</a>.</span></p><p><span>"The attack on the Amazon anticipated with Bolsonaro's election has begun," Walker said.<br /></span></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/your-body-when-you-stop-exercising-workout-health-fitness-2017-7">What happens to your body if you stop exercising</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

Brazil's new president has started taking steps towards damaging the 'lungs of the planet'

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>On January 26, the outcome of a Costa Rican murder trial sparked outrage among environmentalists around the world.</p>
<p>Seven men, tried for the 2013 <a href="http://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/nature/Blood-in-the-Sand-Costa-Rica-Hunting-Sea-Turtles.html">murder of 26-year-old Jairo Mora</a><a href="http://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/nature/Blood-in-the-Sand-Costa-Rica-Hunting-Sea-Turtles.html"> Sandoval</a>, were acquitted following a botched prosecution complete with mishandled evidence, <a href="http://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/nature/Jairo-Mora-Sandoval-Murder-Trial-Ends-in-Acquittals.html">Outside Magazine reported</a>.</p>
<p>At the time of his death, Mora was an environmentalist working with an organization called <a href="http://www.widecast.org/">WIDECAST</a>, which focuses on sea turtle conservation. When Mora's battered body showed up on the beach the morning after a late-night sea turtle patrol, many believed he'd been murdered by egg poachers, who steal sea turtle eggs and sell them on the black market for up to $1 a piece. The seven men tried for his murder were allegedly part of a known poaching ring, Outside reported.</p>
<p>Mora's tragic story, unfortunately, is not unique. His case is a symbol of a problem that's happening around the globe.</p>
<h2>A global problem</h2>
<p>Each year, dozens of environmentalists are murdered. In the majority of these cases, no information ever comes to light about the killers. In other cases, like Mora's, suspects are eventually identified, but no one is ever convicted and held accountable.</p>
<p>A <a href="http://www.globalwitness.org/deadlyenvironment/">2014 report</a> published by <a href="http://new.globalwitness.org/">Global Witness</a>, an international organization that works to expose the systems that enable corruption, conflict, and environmental destruction, cataloged environmental killings around the world between 2002 and 2013.</p>
<p><strong>The victims are often people on the front lines of environmental struggles. Some are killed during protests gone wrong, but others are murdered in cold blood, their bodies turning up after a mysterious disappearance.</strong></p>
<p>In June 2012, <a href="http://www.frontlinedefenders.org/node/18768">Almir Nogueira de Amorim and João Luiz Telles Penetra were murdered</a> while leading the efforts of a group called the Association of Sea Men, which was fighting to protect the rights of fishermen in Rio de Janeiro. The group was fighting in particular against the construction of gas pipelines in the area, and had reportedly received numerous threats from people with interests in the pipelines. Both leaders disappeared on June 23, and their bodies were found separately in the days following.</p>
<p>And in 2011, a man named <a href="http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/news/Blogs/makingwaves/conflicts-and-logging-in-congos-rainforests-t/blog/37687/">Frédéric Moloma Tuka died in the Democratic Republic of the Congo</a> during a violent crackdown on protests. The Yasilika community, which Tuka belonged to, had been working to stop the Danzer group, a timber company which was logging in the area without fairly compensating the people in the area. The company asked national authorities to intervene, and in May 2011, members of the military and the police arrived in the village and began beating and raping its inhabitants, <a href="http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/news/Blogs/makingwaves/conflicts-and-logging-in-congos-rainforests-t/blog/37687/">Greenpeace reported</a>. Tuka died from injuries sustained during the event.</p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table full"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>These types of killings have only increased in the past decade. In 2012, the deadliest year reported, 147 environmentalists died - nearly three times as many as 2002. Altogether, between 2002 and 2013, 908 people were killed in 35 different countries for their work in environmental issues.</p>
<p>Brazil is by far the most dangerous country, according to the Global Witness report, accounting for 448 of those 908 murders. It's not altogether surprising, either. Farmers, ranchers, and large-scale agricultural groups are cutting down large swaths of the rainforest to plant crops and raise cattle, which has put environmentalists in the way of their making money.</p>
<p>Honduras, the Phillipines, Peru, and Colombia round out the top five deadliest countries in the report. Various other nations in Central and South America, Africa, Asia, and Oceania account for the other incidents.</p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table full"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div></p>
<h2>Causes for tension</h2>
<p>According to Global Witness, two-thirds of the recorded murders were spurred by conflicts over land - who owns it and what they can do with it. The authors of the report write:</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">Unlike most other commodity trades, the agribusiness industry is not regulated. Voluntary commitments to end land grabbing...have not been met, so laws are needed to protect the environment and local people, and they must be enforced. This research shows that in the absence of such measures, citizens are increasingly left to defend these basic rights themselves, often with lethal consequences.</p>
<p>"Land grabbing," which is when companies buy or lease large tracts of land in developing countries, can be a major problem for native communities who depend on the local environment to survive. This means the people who are defending the environment in these cases are often also defending the rights of local inhabitants.</p>
<p>Indigenous groups are often at the center of environmental tensions, Global Witness reports. When agribusiness threatens the land they depend on for survival, indigenous groups have a high interest in protecting the local environment. Their efforts mean they face a disproportionate level of violence: Global Witness reports that 115 of the reported victims belonged to an indigenous group.</p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table full"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>Mining and other extractive industries, as well as illegal logging and deforestation, are also listed as main drivers of the kinds of conflicts that result in lethal encounters. Almir Nogueira de Amorim and João Luiz Telles Penetra, the two murdered men who fought against pipelines in Rio de Janeiro, are examples of what can happen to people who get in the way of these kinds of industries.</p>
<p>Another well-known story was the <a href="http://www.edlc.org/cases/individuals/dorothy-stang/">case of Sister Dorothy Stang</a>, who was killed in Brazil in 2005 after spending years championing the rights of indigenous groups in the Amazon and working to stop logging in the area. She was shot to death in February 2005, apparently on orders from a Brazilian rancher.</p>
<h2>Closure</h2>
<p>Because there's no protection against double jeopardy in Costa Rica, <a href="http://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/nature/Jairo-Mora-Sandoval-Murder-Trial-Ends-in-Acquittals.html">Outside Magazine reports</a> that Jairo Mora Sandoval's accused killers could be retried. For many others, though, there's no trial in the first place. Global Witness reports that <strong>in 656 of the 908 killings it identified, there is no information available about any suspected killers.</strong> In fact, the organization only identifies six cases in which a killer was tried, convicted, and punished for the crime.</p>
<p>The statistics highlight what appears to be a growing problem in a world that is increasingly aware of - and concerned about - its environmental health. The Global Witness report ominously concludes that if governments and other international bodies don't improve the economic models currently placing so much strain on the environment, "more killings will take place, and perpetrators will continue their violence, secure in the knowledge it will go unnoticed and unpunished."</p>

Dozens of environmental activists are murdered every year

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source">REUTERS/Ueslei Marcelino</p><p class="caption"><keyword id="6355226" type="COUNTRY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Brazil">Brazil</keyword>'s President Dilma Rousseff reacts during the presentation of the new Portal Brazil, a government site with information and services for the people, at the Planalto Palace in Brasilia September 27, 2013. </p></div><p></p></div></div>FOUR years ago this newspaper put on its cover a picture of the statue of Christ the Redeemer ascending like a rocket from Rio de Janeiro's Corcovado mountain, under the rubric "<a href="http://www.economist.com/node/21521493">Brazil takes off</a>".</p>
<p>The economy, having stabilised under Fernando Henrique Cardoso in the mid-1990s, accelerated under Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in the early 2000s. It barely stumbled after the Lehman collapse in 2008 and in 2010 grew by 7.5%, its strongest performance in a quarter-century.</p>
<p>To add to the magic, Brazil was awarded both next year's football World Cup and the summer 2016 Olympics. On the strength of all that, Lula persuaded voters in the same year to choose as president his technocratic protégée, Dilma Rousseff.</p>
<p>Since then the country has come back down to earth with a bump. In 2012 the economy grew by 0.9%. Hundreds of thousands took to the streets in June in the biggest protests for a generation, complaining of high living costs, poor public services and the greed and corruption of politicians.</p>
<p>Many have now lost faith in the idea that their country was headed for orbit and diagnosed just another <em class="Italic">voo de galinha </em>(chicken flight), as they dubbed previous short-lived economic spurts.</p>
<p>There are excuses for the deceleration. All emerging economies have slowed. Some of the impulses behind Brazil's previous boom-the pay-off from ending runaway inflation and opening up to trade, commodity price rises, big increases in credit and consumption-have played themselves out. And many of Lula's policies, notably the Bolsa Família that helped lift 25m people out of poverty, were admirable.</p>
<h3 class="xhead">The world's most burdensome tax code</h3>
<p>But Brazil has done far too little to reform its government in the boom years. It is not alone in this: India had a similar chance, and missed it. But Brazil's public sector imposes a particularly heavy burden on its private sector, as our <a href="http://www.economist.com/news/special-report/21586667-having-come-tantalisingly-close-taking-brazil-has-stalled-helen-joyce-explains">special report</a> explains. Companies face the world's most burdensome tax code, payroll taxes add 58% to salaries and the government has got its spending priorities upside down.</p>
<p>Compare pensions and infrastructure. The former are absurdly generous. The average Brazilian can look forward to a pension of 70% of final pay at 54. Despite being a young country, Brazil spends as big a share of national income on pensions as southern Europe, where the proportion of old people is three times as big.</p>
<p>By contrast, despite the country's continental dimensions and lousy transport links, its spending on infrastructure is as skimpy as a string bikini. <span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">It spends just 1.5% of GDP on infrastructure, compared with a global average of 3.8%, even though its stock of infrastructure is valued at just 16% of GDP, compared with 71% in other big economies. Rotten infrastructure loads unnecessary costs on businesses. In Mato Grosso a soyabean farmer spends 25% of the value of his product getting it to a port; the proportion in Iowa is 9%.</span></p>
<p>These problems have accumulated over generations. But Ms Rousseff has been unwilling or unable to tackle them, and has created new problems by interfering far more than the pragmatic Lula. She has scared investors away from infrastructure projects and undermined Brazil's hard-won reputation for macroeconomic rectitude by publicly chivvying the Central Bank chief into slashing interest rates.</p>
<p>As a result, rates are now having to rise more than they otherwise might to curb persistent inflation. Rather than admit to missing its fiscal targets, the government has resorted to creative accounting. Gross public debt has climbed to 60-70% of GDP, depending on the definition-and the markets do not trust Ms Rousseff.</p>
<p>Fortunately, Brazil has great strengths. Thanks to its efficient and entrepreneurial farmers, it is the world's third-biggest food exporter. Even if the government has made the process slower and costlier than it needed to be, Brazil will be a big oil exporter by 2020. It has several manufacturing jewels, and is developing a world-class research base in biotechnology, genetic sciences and deep-sea oil and gas technology.</p>
<p>The consumer brands that have grown along with the country's expanding middle class are ready to go abroad. Despite the recent protests, it does not have the social or ethnic divisions that blight other emerging economies, such as India or Turkey.</p>
<h3 class="xhead">An own goal for Dilma Fernández?</h3>
<p>But if Brazil is to recover its vim, it needs to rediscover an appetite for reform. With taxes already taking 36% of GDP-the biggest proportion in the emerging world alongside Cristina Fernández's chaotic Argentina-the government cannot look to taxpayers for the extra money it must spend on health care, schools and transport to satisfy the protesters. Instead, it needs to reshape public spending, especially pensions.</p>
<p>Second, it must make Brazilian business more competitive and encourage it to invest. The way to do that is not, as the government believes, to protect firms, but to expose them to more foreign competition while moving far more swiftly to eliminate the self-inflicted obstacles they face at home.</p>
<p>Brazil's import tariffs remain high and its customs procedures are a catalogue of bloody-minded obstructionism. More dynamic Latin American economies have forged networks of bilateral trade deals. Brazil has hidden behind Mercosur, a regional block that has dwindled into a leftist talking-shop, and the moribund Doha round of world-trade talks. It needs to open up.</p>
<p>Third, Brazil urgently needs political reform. The proliferation of parties, whose only interest is pork and patronage, builds in huge waste at every level of government. One result is a cabinet with 39 ministries.</p>
<p>On paper, the solution is easy: a threshold for seats in Congress and other changes to make legislators more accountable to voters. But getting those who benefit from the current system to agree to change it requires more political skill than Ms Rousseff has shown.</p>
<p>In a year's time Ms Rousseff faces an election in which she will seek a second four-year term. On her record so far, Brazil's voters have little reason to give her one. But she has time to make a start on the reforms needed, by trimming red tape, merging ministries and curbing public spending. Brazil is not doomed to flop: if Ms Rousseff puts her hand on the throttle there is still a chance that it could take off again.</p>

Has Brazil Blown It?

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source">REUTERS/Rogan Ward</p><p class="caption"><keyword id="6355226" type="COUNTRY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Brazil">Brazil</keyword>ian Minister of Finance Guido Mantega (L) and Chinese Minister of Finance Lou Jiwei sign a memorandum of understanding between the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Brazil and Ministry of Finance of the People's Republic of <keyword id="1334" type="COUNTRY" weightage="60" keywordseo="China">China</keyword> on Bilateral Cooperation in Macroeconomic, Fiscal and Financial Policies at the 5th BRICS Summit in Durban March 26, 2013. </p></div><p></p></div></div>SAO PAULO (<keyword id="76338" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Reuters">Reuters</keyword>) - For Chinese investors, Brazil is no longer the promised land.</p>
<p>After making a big push into the South American giant in search of raw materials such as iron ore, as well as a promising market for their consumer goods, Chinese executives have grown frustrated with stagnant economic growth, heavy costs and what they see as a political and popular backlash against their presence.</p>
<p>As a result, Chinese investment is falling, and as much as two-thirds of the roughly $70 billion in projects announced since 2007 is either on hold or has been canceled, according to recent studies and interviews with Chinese and Brazilian officials.</p>
<p>The unexpected decline, which investors and analysts say has little hope of reversing itself anytime soon, will deprive Brazil's struggling economy of what once seemed like a sure-fire source of growth for years to come.</p>
<p>"The ardor for investment in Brazil is fading. Operating in Brazil is a huge challenge," said Zhang Dongxiang, chief executive of the Brazilian unit of Bank of China Ltd &lt;601988.SS&gt;, one of China's four largest state-owned commercial banks.</p>
<p>In a rare interview in his Sao Paulo office that included some of the sharpest criticism of Brazil by any Chinese business leader to date, Zhang complained of growing hostility from the Brazilian public as well as "protectionist" policies passed by President Dilma Rousseff's left-leaning government.</p>
<p>"Public opinion sometimes seems to be against foreign investment ... as if it makes local industry less competitive," he said. "There are some antiquated ideas."</p>
<p>While some Chinese companies are succeeding in Brazil, he said, "many are having doubts."</p>
<h3>BIG ANNOUNCEMENTS, SMALLER RESULTS</h3>
<p>The shrinking investment flows between two of the world's biggest emerging markets raises questions about the strength of the so-called "south-south" capital movement, and comes as China undergoes a broad shift away from investment-focused policies and toward a more consumer-based economy.</p>
<p>To be sure, Chinese investment in Brazil remains well above what it was last decade. Companies such as CNOOC Ltd &lt;0883.HK&gt; and China National Petroleum Corp, which last week bought rights to drill for oil in Brazil's huge Libra offshore area, continue to see opportunities in Brazil.</p>
<p>Others with an eye on expansion include China Construction Bank Corp &lt;0939.HK&gt; &lt;601939.SS&gt;, which reached an agreement this week to buy 72 percent of Brazil's mid-sized lender Banco Industrial e Comercial SA <BICB4.SA> for 1.62 billion reais ($726 million).</BICB4.SA></p>
<p>Also, China remains Brazil's largest trading partner, thanks to demand for its commodities, and exports have been steady.</p>
<p>But the euphoria of three or four years ago, when politicians hoped Chinese investment would fundamentally reshape Brazil's trade flows and generate billions of dollars' worth of badly needed new infrastructure, has clearly faded.</p>
<p>And while investors from all over the world have become less bullish on Brazil in recent years, evidence suggests the rise and fall in Chinese interest has been particularly abrupt.</p>
<p>The outcome is especially disappointing for Brazil's farming sector, which until recently saw China as its most likely savior for a dilapidated network of roads, railways and ports that make it very challenging to export crops.</p>
<p>"I don't know of a single Chinese infrastructure project that has gotten off the drawing board," said Edeon Vaz, who monitors logistics for Aprosoja, the country's largest cooperative of soybean growers.</p>
<h3>HARDLY AN ASIAN TIGER</h3>
<p>The recent Chinese experience in Brazil seems to be one of high expectations, followed by second thoughts.</p>
<p>After years of sending trade missions to Brazil but mostly keeping their wallets closed, Chinese companies abruptly announced a flurry of billion-dollar bets in 2010. That was the year Brazil's economy grew a torrid 7.5 percent, and seemed to have entered a new era of Asian tiger-style growth.</p>
<p>The investments went beyond the extraction of commodities, traditionally China's focus in Latin America.</p>
<p>Companies such as automaker Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Co &lt;600418.SS&gt;, otherwise known as JAC Motors, and telecoms supplier Huawei Technologies Co Ltd <HWT.UL> announced big investments focused on selling toBrazil's rapidly growing middle class.</HWT.UL></p>
<p>Most analysts agree that the sudden spurt, which was led by state-owned companies, was part of a strategic decision by Beijing to diversify its consumer markets abroad following the 2008-09 financial crisis and the ensuing stagnation in the United States and much of Europe.</p>
<p>Since then, though, little has gone right.</p>
<p>Brazil's economy cooled sharply, growing just 0.9 percent last year, and its consumers are burdened with debt. Meanwhile, the government has taken several steps that have made many Chinese investors feel unwelcome.</p>
<p>Some measures, such as a tax increase on foreign-made cars in 2011 that led JAC Motors to threaten to suspend construction of a new factory in Brazil, were part of a broad protectionist drive that targeted all countries equally.</p>
<p>But others, including a 2010 law that restricted land purchases by foreigners, were the specific result of worries that the Chinese were snapping up too many of Brazil's natural resources, legislators said at the time.</p>
<p>In private, Brazilian government officials express concerns that China is primarily interested in securing raw materials in a way that barely benefits Brazilians, while also flooding the country with low-cost manufactured goods.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, trade data shows that just three commodities - iron ore, oil and soy - and their derivatives - still account for 80 percent of Brazil's exports to China.</p>
<p>That has angered officials in Rousseff's government who had hoped that Brazilian manufacturers like aircraft maker Embraer SA <EMBR3.SA> would have made greater inroads by now. Chinese officials have countered that Brazilian industry needs to become more competitive to sell in China.</EMBR3.SA></p>
<p>Derek Scissors, an expert on Chinese outward investment at the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington think tank, said the sudden spurt in investment, followed by a backlash and then a withdrawal, was "absolutely classic Chinese behavior" that also occurred in sub-Saharan Africa in recent years.</p>
<p>"What happens," Scissors said, "is you start getting people saying 'Wait a minute, we are running a huge trade deficit with China. They are investing $20 billion and grabbing up all our resources. Are we a colony?'"</p>
<h3>XENOPHOBIA</h3>
<p>It's not just the government that has lashed out in Brazil.</p>
<p>Unions and industry groups regularly target China. At an international textiles fair in Sao Paulo last week, hundreds of protesters gathered to denounce what they called unfair Chinese trade practices.</p>
<p>Hundreds also demonstrated against foreign involvement in last week's Libra oil sale, which saw European and Chinese companies successfully bid for the right to drill in Brazil's biggest-ever oil field. The protests prompted Rousseff to warn against "xenophobia" that could scare away foreign capital.</p>
<p>Chinese companies have noticed. For various reasons, many investments announced to huge fanfare in recent years now seem to be up in the air.</p>
<p>Reuters followed up on several of those projects, including a $5 billion railroad line in western Brazil that Chinese companies declared interest in building in 2011. The line has not yet secured financing from Chinese development banks and may be taken up by South Korean or European investors, said Francisco Vuolo, logistics secretary for Mato Grosso state.</p>
<p>The Chongqing Grain Group Corp's plan to build a $2 billion soy processing complex in Bahia state, announced in March 2011, has so far yielded just 15 percent of the planned investment, officials there say.</p>
<p>"The Chinese delay a lot in doing things," said Josalto Alves, a spokesman for Bahia's agriculture department. "They're very set on negotiating." Attempts to reach Chongqing executives were unsuccessful.</p>
<p>Huawei, the telecoms supplier, recently moved its regional headquarters from Brazil to Argentina. A Huawei spokesman said the move occurred because Brazil's market is "growing mature."</p>
<p>All told, of the Chinese investments announced between 2007 and mid-2012, only a third of them as measured by value were finished or in the process of being implemented, according to a study published in June by the China-Brazil Business Council, a Rio de Janeiro-based group.</p>
<p>The remainder - worth some $44 billion - were "still under negotiation or being evaluated," the CBBC said.</p>
<h3>SALAD DAYS MAY BE OVER</h3>
<p>Other countries have not turned on Brazil in the same fashion. Despite the economic struggles, foreign direct investment has remained relatively steady since 2010, with strong flows from the United States, Japan and others.</p>
<p>Scissors said Brazil remains a relatively attractive market for the Chinese. But, he said, Beijing seems to have shifted its priorities once again - focusing its investments on the United States and Canada, in particular, since late 2011.</p>
<p>"You aren't going to have another rush (in Brazil) for another few years at least," he said.</p>
<p>That jibes with the view of Zhang, the CEO of Bank of China in Brazil.</p>
<p>He said his bank, whose clients include Chinese companies operating here as well as big Brazilian concerns such as Petroleo Brasileiro SA <PETR4.SA>, seeks to increase its capital by some $100 million in coming months. He called that a "good stimulus" for future growth in Brazil.</PETR4.SA></p>
<p>Yet, when asked if investment would recover in the next five years, Zhang was guarded.</p>
<p>"It depends on policies from the government," he said, tapping his desk for emphasis. "Brazil is at a crossroads. Will it grow, or will it cool down?"</p>
<p>(Editing by Todd Benson, Kieran Murray and Ken Wills)</p>

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