Rainforests, Lula, Maskless Guidelines
March 9, 2021
Yesterday’s Newsletter / March 9, 2021
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Two-thirds of world’s original tropical rainforest cover degraded or destroyed by people, report finds
Summary: According to a report published by the Rainforest Foundation Norway—a rainforest-focused NGO—about 34% of the world’s original old-growth rainforests have been destroyed by humans, and another 30% have been degraded in some way.
Context: This report isn’t terribly surprising, but it is alarming to confirm the extent of the damage, as rainforests are key greenhouse gas-absorbing ecosystems, and when they’re burned—as when they’re cleared for agriculture—there’s a doubly harmful process at play, as the carbon previously soaked up by the rainforest plant-matter is put back into the atmosphere when it’s burned, and these gas-absorbing regions are then depleted; no longer able to soak up such gases in the future.
—The Independent
Brazil’s Lula has convictions quashed, leaving him free to challenge Bolsonaro
Summary: The former president of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has had a collection of criminal convictions against him cleared by a supreme court judge, opening him up to challenge current president Jair Bolsonaro in the country’s 2022 presidential election.
Context: This conviction-clearing is being seen as both shocking and timely by analysts, who consider Lula’s candidacy a near-certainty and his chances of winning far higher now than would have been the case a year ago, due to Bolsonaro’s steeply dropping approval ratings; though some also think Lula’s presence in the race could boost Bolsonaro’s flagging popularity, as Lula has long served as a Leftist bogeyman for the country’s more conservative politicians.
—The Guardian
Fully vaccinated people can gather without masks, CDC says
Summary: US federal health officials have announced new guidelines for the ongoing COVID pandemic, saying that it should be okay for people who have received a full round of vaccine to meet with other people who have done the same—and to do so without masks.
Context: This is being seen as an almost hard-to-imagine light on the horizon for some, though there are plenty of caveats: including an advisory that even folks who have received both doses of a vaccine should continue to wear masks in public and when around other people who have not been likewise fully vaccinated.
Also: Variant’s spread in Florida shows threat to US COVID recovery
—The Associated Press, Bloomberg
Visual
1 million bolívars
Face-value of the largest of three new official banknotes introduced by the Venezuelan government last week: the other two are worth 200,000 and 500,000 bolívars.
These high denomination bills are being introduced in response to the hyper-inflationary spiral Venezuelan has fallen into—that new 1 million bolívar bill is only worth about $0.52 US dollars.
—Deutsche Welle
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Yesterday’s Newsletter is published by analytic journalist and host of the Let’s Know Things podcast, Colin Wright.