U.S. car makers such as General Motors, Ford, and Nissan are purchasing steel made from pig iron that is smelted using large amounts of illegally logged timber from the Amazon rainforest, according to a two-year investigation by Greenpeace.

The environmental group also said that the pig iron (more…)

Google last week expanded its popular Street View feature to the forests of the Amazon basin, posting more than 50,000 photos that allow online users a virtual tour of the world’s largest tropical region.

The photos, taken last summer in the Rio Negro Reserve, provide a panoramic view of tropical forest (more…)

A drought that affected large areas of the Amazon rainforest in 2010 triggered the release of about 1.8 million tons of carbon dioxide, more than the total annual CO2 emissions of India, according to a new study.

After combining a NASA carbon cycle simulation (more…)

After years of fierce opposition and heated debates, the Brazilian government won the arm wrestling contest and is pushing ahead with the building of the Belo Monte Dam. The dam is expected to generate 11,200 MW of hydroelectric power when it’s completed in 2019 and will cost US$11 billion. (more…)

Belo Monte, the $10bn mega dam the Brazilian government wants to build in the Amazon, continues on its controversial path, including legal suits and protests against it.

The idea for Belo Monte goes back 30 years when the country was still under a military dictatorship, but local resistance so (more…)