European shepherds (牧羊人) and ranchers (大牧场主) are taking the lead in forest fire prevention, by leading their animals to clear away underbrush that allows fires to grow too big, a new study shows.

In thinner forested areas, large herbivores (食草动物) were found in a study to be greatly effective in reducing forest fire risk. “In general terms, it is clear that wild and semi-wild herbivores like horses can reduce wildfire risk through their eating grass,” says Julia Rouet-Leduc, lead author of the study. “Such herbivores can be particularly effective in remote areas, where careful management can prevent wildfire and benefit wild nature in other ways.”

Smaller animals like goats and sheep are ideal for areas that lack natural predators (捕食者). There are no large predators in all of Italy, and without the risk of losing an expensive animal, the eating habits of these smaller animals kept on a farm make them perfect for clearing underbrush and things which larger herbivores can’t stomach.

But there were laws that prevent goats and sheep from entering woods in order to protect them. Since natural numbers of red deer, and other native herbivores have long since disappeared from European forests, the loss of sheep and goats meant that nothing prevented grass from spreading in forests, turning brushfires into dangerous disasters.

That’s why shepherds on Sardinia have written a letter to the Italian Ministry of Agriculture, asking not only to allow their animals to eat grass within the woods, but to create a restoration project of rural areas in Montiferru, where Italy’s worst wildfire in 40 years recently burned its way from the mountain tops to the sea.

Their plan is to bring in more shepherds to better control the fires, and encourage eco-tourism in the area, to incentivize the shepherds to stay. This is already seeing success through both private and public inspiring measures in Catalunya, Spain.

Record fires sweeping across the Amazon this month have been catching global headlines as scientists and environmental groups are worried that they will worsen climate change and do damage to biodiversity (生物多样性).

As the largest rainforest in the world, the Amazon is often called “the lungs of the world”. It is also home to about 3 million species of plants and animals, and 1 million local people. The huge lands of rainforest play an important role in the world’s ecosystem because they take in heat instead of it being reflected back into the atmosphere (大气层). They also store carbon dioxide (二氧化碳) and produce oxygen, making sure that less carbon is given off, mitigating the effects of climate change.

“Any forest destruction is a harm to biodiversity and the people who use that biodiversity.” Thomas Lovejoy, an ecologist at George Mason University told National Geographic. The shocking result is that a lot of carbon goes into the atmosphere.” he stressed. “Facing the global climate change, we cannot afford more damage to a major source of oxygen and biodiversity. The Amazon must be protected,” UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said.

Data from the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) show that the number of forest fires in Brazil quickly increased by 82 percent from January to August this year from a year ago. A total of 71,497 forest fires were recorded in the country in the first eight months of 2019, up from 39,194 in the same period in 2018. INPE said. “It’s reported that the forest areas in the Brazilian Amazon have decreased something between 20 and 30 percent compared to the last 12 months,” Carlos Nobre, a researcher at the University of Sao Paulo, told German broadcaster Deutsche Welle.

Brazil owns about 60 percent of the Amazon rainforest, whose drop could have severe results for global climate and rainfall. The size of the area ruined by fires has yet to be determined. but the emergency has spread over Brazil’s borders, reaching Peruvian, Paraguayan and Bolivian areas.

Around the world, rivers seem to be raging. While catastrophic flooding of Pakistan’s rivers has left tens of millions without homes, a drought unseen for 500 years has squeezed Europe’s major waterways almost dry. There is little disagreement about what’s going on: climate change is causing both rainfall and droughts to intensify. The question now is how to manage those climate-changed waterways and, specifically, what role dams should play in mitigating(缓和) against the kinds of disasters.

Advocates say water storage dams will become more essential as buffers(缓冲物) against extreme water flows by absorbing water during flooding and releasing it in times of drought. Dams, they say, can help combat climate change by producing renewable hydropower(水力发电) that is cleaner than fossil fuel energy.

However, criticisms have long centered on the negative impact most dams have on biodiversity and river ecosystems. Not only do the vast amounts of concrete used to build large dams leave huge carbon footprints, there is also much evidence that greenhouse gas emissions from dams are often far greater than previously thought. Increasingly a scientific case is also being made that dams actually worsen both floods and droughts.

Now, more dam developers are turning to “run-of-river” technology, in which the river’s water flows continuously through a hydropower station without a reservoir to store it. Such projects are generally considered more environmentally friendly, but they do not allow for water to be managed according to weather conditions.

Then there are those who say we should stay away from dams, and look for ways using nature-based solutions. Many ecologists say that protecting wetlands, for example, should be a priority, since those ecosystems act as natural sponges(海绵) for floodwaters within a river basin. “We have turned river basins into economic machines that only serve people and not nature, and this creates more problems, like droughts and flooding,” says Herman Wanningen, the founder of the advocacy group Dam Removal Europe. “We have to learn to cooperate with nature and not against it anymore.”