Today’s Solutions: December 12, 2024

This chef uses food waste to f

This chef uses food waste to feed and empower her community

After moving from a small town to Rio de Janeiro to become a chef, Regina Tchelly wanted to incorporate food waste reduction into her recipes to help give a second life to ingredients that would otherwise be thrown away.  Pumpkin rinds, banana peels, and seeds are just some of the ingredients Read More...

Pilot program uses e-bikes to

Pilot program uses e-bikes to remove emissions from delivery in Brazil

The city of São Paulo in Brazil is full of hills, making it not the most bike-friendly city. That’s why when you order food there, it’s probably going to arrive via motorcycle, which is one of the main contributors to the city’s serious air pollution problem. A new pilot from iFood Read More...

DNA study reveals rare frog sp

DNA study reveals rare frog species not documented since 1968

We recently wrote an article about five species that were rediscovered after being thought to be extinct. Thanks to a DNA study in Brazil, we have another species to add to the list: the Megaelosia bocainensis frog.  Frogs are a notoriously elusive species with impressive camouflaging Read More...

A sustainable farming movement

A sustainable farming movement in Brazil looks to save the Amazon

In the Amazon, more land is cleared for cattle than anything else. It’s easy enough to clear – chop down a few trees, light a few fires. But restoring the forest? Bringing back life and the greenness? That is far, far harder. But that’s exactly what scientists at the Experimental Active Read More...

To save the Amazon rainforest,

To save the Amazon rainforest, scientists turn to reverse-engineering

With software, taking something apart and putting it back together again can help engineers improve their understanding of the underlying source code of their software. In structural engineering, the same methods can determine the cause of potentially fatal design flaws. This is known as Read More...

Brazil is now taking swift act

Brazil is now taking swift action to protect Amazon rainforest from loggers

Brazil is home to the largest swath of the mesmerizing Amazon rainforest, but unfortunately, its government has allowed mass deforestation to occur under its watch. The good news—we say with an air of caution—is that the Brazilian government seems to be finally taking the issue seriously after Read More...

A wild tapir gave birth in Bra

A wild tapir gave birth in Brazil for the first time in more than a century

The Atlantic Forest, which once covered more than a million square kilometers along the eastern coast of Brazil and Argentina, has been steadily sliced and diced by loggers, plantation owners, and economic development. Trees now cover just 7% to 15% of the forest’s former area, mostly in Read More...

How cacao trees are helping to

How cacao trees are helping to stop illegal gold mining in the Amazon

Located in the far north of the Brazilian Amazon, Yanomami is Brazil’s biggest indigenous reserve, spread over 9.6 million hectares (23.7m acres). But its wild, mountainous forests are overrun by an estimated 20,000 wildcat gold miners, called garimpeiros. For the people of the Yanomami, this Read More...

This code for heavy machinery

This code for heavy machinery makes it impossible to cut down protected trees

It can be extremely difficult for law enforcement to ensure the protection of large swaths of the forest from loggers. In a new, unique approach to protecting trees, developers are creating code that could be added to heavy machinery in order to prevent deforestation in areas that struggle with Read More...

This rare Brazilian bird has r

This rare Brazilian bird has returned to the Amazon after 3 decade absence

For an environmentalist, few things are as satisfying as when carefully planned conservation works out as intended. In Brazil, a special bird called the Alagoas curassow is now back in the jungle after three decades of being preserved in a scientific-breeding facility in the state of Rio de Read More...