ENVIRONMENT

EcoWatch -   The most recent Global Carbon Budget report has found that the world’s carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels reached a record high in 2024, pushing the planet further off track from avoiding the most destructive impacts of global heating. The 2024 Global Carbon Budget — produced by the Global Carbon Project team of 120-plus scientists from around the world — projects that emissions from fossil carbon dioxide will reach 37.4 billion tonnes in 2024, an increase of 0.8 percent over the previous year, according to a press release from the Global Carbon Project.

Nice News -  Just as many wounds heal on their own, so can rainforests, according to a recent study. An international team of scientists found that over 800,000 square miles of deforested lands could recover naturally with minimal human involvement.
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“A rainforest can spring up in one to three years — it can be brushy and hard to walk through,” Matthew Fagan, a conservation scientist and co-author of the paper, told Grist. “In five years, you can have a completely closed canopy that’s 20 feet high.”
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Five countries (Brazil, Indonesia, China, Mexico, and Colombia) accounted for the majority of the estimated potential regrowth. The study noted that when forests bounce back on their own, they can sequester significant amounts of atmospheric carbon and improve water quality in the process. In this sense, instead of voraciously planting the same species of tree (“à la Johnny Appleseed,” the outlet writes), the better approach may be to do less.