National Cerrado Day, new platform against deforestation and the future of electric cars

🌱 National Cerrado Day

O National Day of the Cerrado was celebrated this Sunday (11) and the Curto Verde gathered some information about it, seeking to promote greater reflection on the importance of its preservation.

O Cerrado is second largest biome in South America and Brazil, second only to the Amazon Rainforest. He is considered the cradle of Brazilian waters, housing the sources of important rivers such as the São Francisco and Tocantins. Its characteristic is a vegetation pothole, mostly composed of small trees, shrubs and grasses.

The biome is responsible for supplying water and energy to a large part of Brazil, in addition to being an important natural carbon deposit. 

• What is the Cerrado biome (((the echo)))

Unfortunately, the Cerrado is also the Brazilian biome which has suffered most from the growing and accelerated deforestation.

How does deforestation in the Amazon contribute to climate change?

The role played by the planet's forests in absorbing carbon has been a key factor in preventing faster rates of climate change. In this sense, the Amazon – the largest tropical forest in the world – has a fundamental role to play. O Curto explains why protecting the Amazon from rampant deforestation is a matter of survival.

In the last 10 years, the advance of the agricultural frontier towards the production of commodities (primary commodities produced on a large scale that provide raw materials for different sectors of global industrial production), such as soybeans, cattle, corn and cotton, was mainly responsible for the its devastation. Throughout history, the Cerrado has already lost half of its original vegetationsystem. (WWF-Brazil)

Learn more:

• Cerrado is neglected in candidate government plans (((the echo)))
• Soy advances and now occupies 10% of the cerrado, shows MapBiomas survey (FSP)
• Deforestation caused warming of up to 3,5 °C in the Cerrado (DW)

Get informed and help preserve our Cerrado!

Cerrado deforestation has entered the radar of European supermarkets, says British newspaper

With great emphasis, the Financial Times newspaper questionthis Tuesday, the 16th, whether the deforestation process in the Brazilian Cerrado has not gone too far. According to the newspaper, the region is very important for stopping global warming.

🍃 IPAM launches new Cerrado Deforestation Alert System

With advanced algorithms for deforestation detection, the Cerrado Deforestation Alert System (SAD Cerrado) will be launched on an open virtual platform this Monday (12) by the Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM), in partnership with the MapBiomas network and the Image Processing and Geoprocessing Laboratory (Lapig), at the Federal University of Goiás ( UFG).

SAD Cerrado detected more than 50 thousand alerts in 2022, totaling 472,8 thousand hectares deforested until July 31st. In the last quarter alone, there was a 15% increase in the deforested area in the biome compared to the same period last year: 291,2 thousand hectares were felled, between May and July 2022, against 253,4 thousand hectares deforested in those same months 2021.

“Due to the heterogeneity of landscapes and the seasonality of vegetation, monitoring deforestation in the Cerrado has always been very challenging. Areas of lush native vegetation during the rainy season can lose all their vigor during the dry season, resembling deforested areas. Furthermore, areas affected by frequent fires in the biome can be confused with deforestation. In this context, the use of artificial intelligence and high-resolution satellite images makes it possible to detect deforested areas with greater detail and accuracy”, explains Juan Doblas, researcher at IPAM responsible for SAD Cerrado.

The intention is for the system to provide alerts for deforestation greater than 1 hectare, updated month by month, considering all types of native vegetation in the Cerrado.

Researchers understand that SAD Cerrado can be a complementary tool to other deforestation warning systems in the biome, such as DETER Cerrado, from the National Institute for Space Research (INPE), optimizing the detection process in visually complex contexts in the biome.

Access the SAD Cerrado virtual platform and learn more.

🚘 The future of electric cars

German car industry bosses say high energy costs are affecting the production and sales of electric vehicles. In addition to the increase in the price of electricity, they also cite the availability of raw materials, the shortage of parts and the general reduction in income as factors having a major impact on the production and sale of electric cars. (The Guardian*)

It is worth remembering that electric cars are a big bet to make the transport sector more sustainable, with vehicle options with low carbon emissions.

Until then, electric cars were attractive as the cost of gasoline rose. However, with recent increases in electricity prices, this difference has narrowed. Owners of these vehicles saw a 10% increase in the cost of charging their cars – either at home or through contracts with operators that provide this service.

Further price rises are expected as the price of electricity is linked to that of gas – which has become increasingly scarce since Russia stopped its supply to Germany almost two weeks ago.

“If electric cars become more expensive to use, the rise of electric mobility risks collapsing because almost no one will buy an electric car,” automotive economist Stefan Bratzel told The Guardian.

O Curto Verde is a daily summary of what you need to know about the environment, sustainability and other topics linked to our survival and that of the planet.

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