Currents

The total area deforested in Brazil between 2003 and 2004 totaled 10,000 square miles, an area the size of Massachusetts and the second-highest figure in history. The pace of deforestation has increased every year for the last decade. The situation actually got worse—at least six percent worse—during the young presidency of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Lula, as he is widely known, took office in 2003 as Brazil’s first left-leaning president in nearly four decades.

Sinking a gigantic, smelly whale carcass to the bottom of the ocean is an adventure that most of us would not even contemplate undertaking, but it’s one that has been casting a fascinating light on a hitherto unimagined world beneath the waves. For scientific studies are showing that, in death, whales give life, their giant, slowly decaying carcasses supporting communities of fauna that make so-called "whale falls" among the most diverse habitats in the deep sea.

Never learned the difference between mitochondria and monotremes? No matter—you may still have a shot at a side career in science. These days, conservation organizations and government agencies are increasingly turning to average citizens to help monitor water quality in local streams, track bird migrations, and restore habitats.

The U.S. auto industry has its own peculiar logic. The thinking goes like this: Big SUVs have sold really well for us in the past. They’re really cheap to make, but we can charge a lot for them. By relying on mammoth land yachts we don’t have to worry about making cars that can compete with what’s coming out of Europe and Japan.

After a speech last month in San Francisco, an audience member asked Collapse author Jared Diamond if the threat of global warming augured a renewed role for nuclear power–as has been suggested recently by such environmental luminaries as Stewart Brand and James Lovelock. To the surprise of the audience, Diamond said he agreed: "To deal with our energy problems we need everything available to us, including nuclear power." Echoing the concerns of others, Diamond added that it should be done carefully "like they do in France" so as to avoid accidents.

With high-grade marijuana now bringing in even higher profits than methamphetamine, and post-9/11 border security tighter than ever, Mexican marijuana cartels are digging their heels deep into American soil, most notably in wilderness areas on public lands in California, according to Joe Robinson of the Los Angeles Times. "Parts of Sequoia [National Park]
are no-go zones for visitors and park rangers during the April-to-October growing season, when drug lords cultivate pot on an agribusiness-scale," writes Robinson.

Laurie Garrett, the only reporter to win all three of journalism’s big "P" awards (the Peabody, the Polk and the Pulitzer) is extraordinarily well positioned to tell the frightening and emerging story of avian flu. The author of two major public health books, Betrayal of Trust and The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World out of Balance, she was a science correspondent at National Public Radio before joining the science-writing staff of Newsday in 1988.

"Biofuels" such as ethanol and biodiesel account for only about three percent of all transportation fuel sold in the U.S., but they are coming on strong, with domestic consumption doubling just since 2001. With a little extra help from Congress in the form of strong biofuel incentives in the new omnibus energy bill, ethanol and biodiesel could eventually emerge as key players in the high-stakes fuel wars.

As analysts continue to pore over the details of the new omnibus energy bill Congress approved and President Bush signed last week, many are questioning the wisdom of providing numerous fossil fuel subsidies to industries that are making windfall profits. Indeed, Congress has asked for tens of billions of dollars to help nuclear, oil and coal companies that are hardly ailing as surging fuel prices throughout the U.S. and abroad generate record earnings.