tagged w/ Amazon
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Following years of intense pressure from the agribusiness sector, Brazil's parliament has approved destructive reforms to the country's forest protection. President Dilma has just 9 remaining days to veto this hatchet job before it becomes law. With the world watching, which side of history will she choose to be on? Will her legacy be Amazon ruin? Or, will she demonstrate courage and act on behalf of future generations?
This article appeared in the New York Times today.
YOU can urge President Dilma to do the right thing for Brazil, the Amazon and the planet.
Take action now by signing this petition, tell her to veto the new Forest Code!
More at the linkFollowing years of intense pressure from the agribusiness sector, Brazil's... more
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191,000 people are homeless or have have suffered "significant" damage due to flooding in the Amazon region of eastern Peru, reports the Associated Press.
The flooding is considered the worst in 30 years, inundating croplands and communities along the Amazon River and its tributaries. Last month the Peruvian government declared a state of emergency in Loreto, a region that borders Ecuador, Colombia, and Brazil. Now there are reports of a leptospirosis outbreak, which has already killed three people. Hundreds of others have been hospitalized with skin, intestinal, and respiratory problems.
Damage has been exacerbated by new developments in floodplain areas as well as higher than usual rainfall.
Scientists have warned that Peru is likely to experience increased incidence of flooding and drought as a result of climate change. Last week the country adopted a resolution to reduce its own greenhouse gas emissions.
"If we don't do something we will have problems with water supplies along the coasts, we know there will be more droughts, more rains ... we are already seeing temperature changes," Mariano Felipe Soldan, head of the government's strategic planning office, told Reuters.
Read more: http://news.mongabay.com/2012/0502-peru-amazon-flooding.html#ixzz1tmAjDCeI
More at the link:
http://lh6.ggpht.com/-kZe8MuFoyps/T5R-Ru-HV1I/AAAAAAAAGXI/NkqP3AfAHro/image%25255B5%25255D.png?imgmax=800191,000 people are homeless or have have suffered "significant" damage due... more
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From Siberia to the Amazon, you can now get your sushi fix in some of the most remote regions of the world. What was once one nation's cuisine has, in a matter of 20 years, gone global. But the worlds' insatiable appetite for sushi comes at cost.
In this Vanguard hour, Adam, a ravenous sushi consumer since childhood, goes on the journey of the Bluefin tuna from the deep waters of the ocean to a sushi bar in downtown Los Angeles. He then travels to Japan, where the populace is nervously bracing for what could be a world without Bluefin tuna. Adam visits the famous Tsukiji fish market, where the world's best fish is bought and sold to the world -- and asks the question: will our taste buds spell chaos for the world's oceans? A recent study by the UN warns that the world's oceans may be completely depleted of fish in 40 years. Already, ninety percent of the large fish in the world's oceans have disappeared. And one of the most endangered fish today is the Bluefin tuna--also know as the king of sushi.From Siberia to the Amazon, you can now get your sushi fix in some of the most remote... more
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"General Counsel Michelle Wilson announced at a shareholder meeting in Seattle this morning that Amazon has decided not to renew its membership in the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) this year. Dave Johnson, a Fellow at Campaign for America's Future, is reporting from the shareholder meeting and confirmed to the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) that he heard the announcement.
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See, letting them hear you is helping. Worth noting, there are other groups joining legislators to corporations too closely, and we need to pay attention. I love it when people here at Current post information so we can all get involved where needed. It really is worth working at."General Counsel Michelle Wilson announced at a shareholder meeting in Seattle... more
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Doug Freeman, a music critic for the Austin Chronicle, says that Sean Adams, the founder of Drowned In Sound, may be correct about music blogs losing their influence.
Freeman explains that if blogs were simply gateways to new music discovery, then the streaming playlister is the new music blogger. New influencers and kingmakers will emerge in a shifting editorial landscape.Doug Freeman, a music critic for the Austin Chronicle, says that Sean Adams, the... more
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Talisman Energy and other corporations have set their sights on the Achuar cultural lands in Peru. This video made by the Achuar shows their life in pursuit of living with nature and their resistance to the oil companies looking to drill there. This is part of a global assault being waged upon indigenous people by oil and mining companies intent on stealing their resources and their cultures while totally ignoring their imput. Below will be a link to a petition you can sign to show support for the Achuar and other ways you can become involved in standing with them to preserve this beautiful land.Talisman Energy and other corporations have set their sights on the Achuar cultural... more
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Fires increased dramatically in Amazonian lowlands after the arrival of Columbus in the New World.
Pre-Columbian farming techniques were more productive and more sustainable than current methods.
Indigenous people practiced very different ways of farming in forests and in coastal savannas.
Fire-intensive techniques are common today and a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions.
Farming without fire in tropical regions, like indigenous populations did in Pre-Columbian times, may be the key to both feeding people and managing land more sustainably.
For hundreds of years before Columbus arrived in Central America, indigenous people converted vast swaths of tropical savannas into agricultural fields with raised beds for growing crops -- all without the use of slash-and-burn or other fire-intensive techniques, which are common today and a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions.
But soon after 1492, there came a sharp surge in uncontrolled burns throughout the Amazon’s coastal landscapes, found a new study that dug into more than 2,000 years worth of soil. Those carbon-emitting burning practices, which continue today, contribute significantly to global warming.
The results -- which were exactly opposite of what scientists expected to find -- reveal an unexpected picture of pre-Columbian agricultural practices in an often overlooked and endangered landscape. In turn, the findings suggest that the secret to a sustainable future may lie in the past.
NEWS: Pre-Columbian Star Wars Stories Emerge
“In a time of climate change, we need an alternative way of managing these savannas that is fire-free, and this is a lesson we can learn from the past,” said José Iriarte, an archaeobotanist at the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom. “They were managing the savannas in what we can say today was a sustainable way.”
In forested regions of the Amazon, which have received the bulk of scientists’ attention, studies have shown that burning was common in pre-Columbian times. But the massive collapse of indigenous populations after European diseases arrived allowed the forest to take over, and burning quickly subsided.
Scientists have long assumed that the same pattern occurred in the coastal savannas of Central and South America, which make up 20 percent of lowland areas in the region. To find out for sure, Iriarte and colleagues visited coastal wetlands in French Guiana. There, previous archaeological studies have revealed extensive pre-Columbian agricultural systems, including raised fields, canals and ponds that took advantage of seasonal flooding to irrigate crops.
The researchers began by digging up cores of sediment dating back 2,150 years. It was the perfect environment for sampling because wetland soil is oxygen-deprived, allowing pollen and other identifiable plant materials to survive for centuries without threat from bacteria.
Between about 1,000 and 1,200 years ago, the researchers report today in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, plant remains documented the arrival of raised-field farmers in the area. At the same time, to everyone’s surprise, a near absence of charcoal in those early layers showed that there were very few fires during this time.
NEWS: What Future Farmers Will Drive
Then, just after the 1492 arrival of Columbus, a sharp rise in charcoal particles in the soil revealed a 100-fold increase in fire frequency compared to pre-Columbian times. It is the exact opposite of what happened in forested areas with the colonial transition.
The reason pre-Columbian farmers kept their savanna-dominated landscapes mostly fire-free, Iriarte said, was likely to prevent the loss of nitrogen and phosphorous form the soil and to keep the ground more fertile. Instead of burning, they opted for more labor-intensive practices to battle weeds and grow maize and other crops.
“They understood how to micromanage their environment for greater productivity,” said William Woods, an geographer at the University of Kansas in Lawrence...
More at the linkFires increased dramatically in Amazonian lowlands after the arrival of Columbus in... more
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Karina Pinasco watched in dismay as flames on a hillside at the edge of town lit up the sky one night in October 2010. A farmer had intended to clear a few hectares of land to plant coffee bushes, but the fire – set during an unusually hot, dry spell – quickly got out of hand.
Propelled by winds and high temperatures, it burned for 10 days, charring more than 250 acres of land.
"We realized we weren't prepared," says Pinasco, a biologist who heads Amazónicos por la Amazonía, a local environmental organization. "The firefighters weren't trained. It was the rain that finally put it out."
Scientists used to think the rainforest, especially in the western Amazon, was too wet to burn. But major fire seasons in 2005 and 2010 made them reconsider.
Fires are a major source of carbon emissions in the Amazon, and scientists are beginning to worry that the region could become a net emitter, instead of a carbon sink. New findings link rising ocean temperatures off the northern coast of Brazil to changing weather patterns: As the Atlantic warms, it draws moisture away from the forest, priming the region for bigger fires.
"We are reaching a tipping point in terms of drought, beyond which these forests can catch fire," says Daniel Nepstad, international program director at the Amazon Environmental Research Institute in Brasília, Brazil.
Once-a-century no more
The 2005 drought – considered a once-in-a-century event – resulted in unprecedented wildfires in Acre, the western Brazilian state bordering Peru. Flames scorched the tree canopy, and at one point the front face of the fire stretched nearly seven miles. As many as 1.2 million acres of forests were affected in Acre and the neighboring regions of Pando in Bolivia and Madre de Dios in Peru. Officials estimated upwards of $100 million in economic damages.
But the forest loss wasn't the only concern for the Acre state government, said Foster Brown, a senior scientist at the Woods Hole Research Center and a professor at the Federal University of Acre in Rio Branco, the state capital. Choking smoke spiked respiratory ailments in the region and canceled flights.
Just five years later, another once-a-century drought struck, and fires spread out of control, especially in Acre, Bolivia's Pando region and Brazil's Mato Grosso state. Acre was better prepared, but in Bolivia, smoke from more than 20,000 fires reduced visibility and shut airports in several towns. The Bolivian government declared a state of emergency as more than 3.5 million acres of forest burned. In Mato Grosso, fires destroyed at least 100 homes.
Gigatons of carbon
The 2005 fires added 1.6 gigatons of carbon to the atmosphere, according to a study by Simon Lewis of the University of Leeds, who put emissions from the more widespread 2010 fires at 2.2 gigatons.
In a normal year, the Amazon forests store 0.4 gigatons of carbon a year in the trees and soil, meaning that two bad seasons like 2005 and 2010 could wipe out a decade of gain, according to Lewis' calculations.
And as humans push further into an increasingly drier Amazon, the problem could worsen.
In the western Amazon, humans are the chief source of sparks. With new roads being built and paved through once-inaccessible areas, Peru's Amazonian regions now have some of the country's highest population growth rates. Many of the newcomers clear a little land to farm, and where there are farms, there is fire.
Fire risks
In the Amazon, where weeds and insects run rampant, burning is the most cost-effective way for small farmers to control ticks in cattle pastures and unwanted plants in cassava fields, says Miguel Pinedo-Vásquez, director of international programs for the Columbia University Center for Environmental Research and Conservation, who also works with the Center for International Forestry Research.
More at the linkKarina Pinasco watched in dismay as flames on a hillside at the edge of town lit up... more
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(NaturalNews) What if it was possible to eliminate much of the world's otherwise very-slowly-biodegrading plastic waste using a natural Amazonian fungus? Well, it just might be, thanks to research conducted by Jonathan Russell and colleagues from Yale University's Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, who recently discovered that Pestalotiopsis microspora effectively eats away polyurethane (PUR) plastics, and is capable of using plastic as its sole food source in both aerobic and anaerobic environments.
Entitled Biodegradation of Polyester Polyurethane by Endophytic Fungi, the study aimed to find new potential plant sources of bioremediation, also known as the use of microorganisms to biodegrade and eliminate pollutants that otherwise persist in the environment. Several students attending Yale's annual Rainforest Expedition and Laboratory course collected various samples from the Yasuni National Forest in the Amazon basin, and took them home for testing.
Of all the microorganisms tested, nine of the most active came from the Pestalotiopsis genus, which represents the first time endophytic fungi have been identified as having bioremediation properties. It was discovered that a key enzyme in this fungal genus known as taxol is responsible for eating away PUR, and that this "extracellular, secreted and diffusible" substance diffuses to "a significant distance," which means it has huge potential for large-scale PUR cleanup efforts.
"This is the first study that demonstrates PUR degradation by endophytic fungi," wrote the authors in their discussion. "The broad distribution of activity suggests that endophytes might be a promising source of biodiversity in which to test for activities important for bioremediation."
Taxol, which is also derived from the bark of Pacific Yew trees, happens to be the same enzyme used in conventional medicine to treat cancer patients. Though it is now administered to patients in synthetic, patented forms created by drug companies that now produce it using genetically-modified (GM) bacterium, taxol in its natural form has demonstrable anti-cancer properties, and has been used in native cultures by herbalists to treat disease naturally.
As interesting as this new discovery about taxol's PUR bioremediation properties may be, it is more than likely that, should this substance ever be used to eat plastics on an industrial scale, it will likely be derived from synthetic, patented sources rather than from natural sources. But as it currently stands, the Pestalotiopsis genus of endophytic fungi appear to be nature's built-in remedy for helping to keep the environment clean and toxin-free, as it already appears to be performing this function in rainforests around the world.
Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/035077_fungus_plastic_bioremediation.html#ixzz1ndPKmW1R(NaturalNews) What if it was possible to eliminate much of the world's otherwise... more
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(NaturalNews) What if it was possible to eliminate much of the world's otherwise very-slowly-biodegrading plastic waste using a natural Amazonian fungus? Well, it just might be, thanks to research conducted by Jonathan Russell and colleagues from Yale University's Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, who recently discovered that Pestalotiopsis microspora effectively eats away polyurethane (PUR) plastics, and is capable of using plastic as its sole food source in both aerobic and anaerobic environments.
Entitled Biodegradation of Polyester Polyurethane by Endophytic Fungi, the study aimed to find new potential plant sources of bioremediation, also known as the use of microorganisms to biodegrade and eliminate pollutants that otherwise persist in the environment. Several students attending Yale's annual Rainforest Expedition and Laboratory course collected various samples from the Yasuni National Forest in the Amazon basin, and took them home for testing.
Of all the microorganisms tested, nine of the most active came from the Pestalotiopsis genus, which represents the first time endophytic fungi have been identified as having bioremediation properties. It was discovered that a key enzyme in this fungal genus known as taxol is responsible for eating away PUR, and that this "extracellular, secreted and diffusible" substance diffuses to "a significant distance," which means it has huge potential for large-scale PUR cleanup efforts.
"This is the first study that demonstrates PUR degradation by endophytic fungi," wrote the authors in their discussion. "The broad distribution of activity suggests that endophytes might be a promising source of biodiversity in which to test for activities important for bioremediation."
Taxol, which is also derived from the bark of Pacific Yew trees, happens to be the same enzyme used in conventional medicine to treat cancer patients. Though it is now administered to patients in synthetic, patented forms created by drug companies that now produce it using genetically-modified (GM) bacterium, taxol in its natural form has demonstrable anti-cancer properties, and has been used in native cultures by herbalists to treat disease naturally.
As interesting as this new discovery about taxol's PUR bioremediation properties may be, it is more than likely that, should this substance ever be used to eat plastics on an industrial scale, it will likely be derived from synthetic, patented sources rather than from natural sources. But as it currently stands, the Pestalotiopsis genus of endophytic fungi appear to be nature's built-in remedy for helping to keep the environment clean and toxin-free, as it already appears to be performing this function in rainforests around the world.
Sources for this article include:
http://www.activistpost.com
http://www.herbcyclopedia.com
http://www.thepracticalherbalist.com
Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/035077_fungus_plastic_bioremediation.html#ixzz1ndNFrcfG(NaturalNews) What if it was possible to eliminate much of the world's otherwise... more
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A review suggests that the Amazon rainforest may be changing, courtesy of human impacts on the region's weather
The Amazon rainforest is in flux, thanks to agricultural expansion and climate change. In other words, humans have "become important agents of disturbance in the Amazon Basin," as an international consortium of scientists wrote in a review of the state of the science on the world's largest rainforest published in Nature on January 19. (Scientific American is part of Nature Publishing Group.) The dry season is growing longer in areas where humans have been clearing the trees—as has water discharge from Amazon River tributaries in those regions. Multiyear and more frequent severe droughts, like those in 2005 and 2010, are killing trees that humans don't cut down as well as increasing the risks of more common fires (both man-made and otherwise).
The trees are also growing fast—faster than expected for a "mature" rainforest—according to a network of measurements.
The exact cause or causes of this accelerated growth—which means the Amazon's 5 million square kilometers of trees are now sucking in and sequestering some 400 million metric tons of carbon per year, or enough to offset the annual greenhouse gas emissions of Japan—"remains unknown," the researchers wrote in the review.
"When we measure that a particular stand of mature forest is accumulating carbon, it is difficult to say whether that might be due to recovery from some unrecognized disturbance long ago or whether it is due to more recent changes in climate and CO2," explained Woods Hole Research Center Senior Scientist and Executive Director Eric Davidson, lead author of the review, in an e-mail. Candidates include recovery from the potential wide-scale disturbance by pre-Columbian human societies now beginning to be uncovered or the increasing availability of some formerly limiting factor, such as atmospheric carbon dioxide.
In fact, increasing levels of CO2 in the atmosphere—now roughly 392 parts per million and rising—may be fertilizing the rainforest and preventing even greater impacts from reduced rainfall, although this question, Davidson and his colleagues wrote in the review, "may be one of the largest unknowns for the future of the Amazon forests."
What is known is that the forest clearing that has already gone on is decreasing forest rainfall. The Amazon produces roughly a third of its own precipitation—trees release moist air that then falls back as rain to nourish other trees (the rest comes from the Atlantic Ocean). But the air above cleared land warms faster and therefore rises more quickly, drawing the moist air from surrounding forested areas away. In fact, the conjunction of cleared and forested lands actually creates wind known as a vegetation breeze. But that breeze tends to blow rainfall away from the forest and over the surrounding pastures instead. It also weakens the continental-scale low-pressure system that draws rainfall over the Amazon.
The southern and eastern portions of the Amazon are the most affected, according to this review. For example, the southeastern Amazon around one of the local tributary rivers—the Tocantins—has seen pasture and cropland increase from 30 percent to 50 percent of the land between 1955 and 1995. As a result, that river now carries 25 percent more water. Another southeastern tributary, the Araguaia, now carries 28 percent more sediment—precious soil lost during downpours from surrounding, expanded agricultural fields.
Agroforestry and other techniques for better environmental management of such agriculture remain rare, despite their proven ability to help balance increased food production with ecosystem services like carbon sequestration. On the whole, cutting down trees so that the Amazon covers only roughly 80 percent of the land it once did seems to have tipped the rainforest from being a sink for global CO2 emissions to a net source, although this calculation remains highly uncertain, the scientists noted. In addition, the entire rainforest may be transitioning from a relatively undisturbed ecosystem to what scientists like to call a "disturbance-dominated regime," or a biome that has become an "anthrome"—a landscape dominated by human impact.
The good news is that Brazil has in recent years begun to restrain such deforestation: annual rates fell from 28,000 square kilometers in 2004 to less than 7,000 in 2011. "Brazil is poised to become one of the few countries to achieve the transition to major economic power without destroying most of its forests," the researchers wrote in their conclusion. New laws currently under consideration may put that potential in peril, however, by allowing a return of previously banned forest-clearing practices. "There is considerable progress toward improved management of the impacts of development in the region," Davidson noted in his e-mail, "but there is still much work to be done."A review suggests that the Amazon rainforest may be changing, courtesy of human... more
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Face it: you’ve forgotten uncle Ned’s gift. Crap, now what are you going to do? Luckily you have us to look out for you. Plenty of last-minute deals abound today all over the web and in stores, so thank us later with that bottle of Bailey’s you brought to the office in an unmarked lunch bag. This is the ULTIMATE last-minute video game deals guide.Face it: you’ve forgotten uncle Ned’s gift. Crap, now what are you going... more
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"The presence of Talisman here is causing divisions between those who have accepted the company and those who won't... We are on the verge of genocide."
In Achuar territory in the remote Peruvian Amazon, an already tense situation has taken a turn for the worse over recent months. According to the urgent testimony of two Catholic priests, who have been living in the region for more than 60 years combined, Canadian-based oil company Talisman Energy is fomenting severe divisions between indigenous communities, heightening the risk of imminent bloodshed between neighboring families.
Talisman is drilling exploratory oil wells in Oil Block 64 in a remote area of the Peruvian Amazon near the Ecuador border. The oil block overlaps the territory of the Achuar people, and wells are being drilled in the heart of Achuar ancestral territory, in the middle of critical hunting and fishing grounds in a flooded wetlands ecosystem that drains into Lake Rimachi, the largest lake in the Peruvian Amazon, and the Pastaza River Wetland Complex, a site acknowledged under the Ramsar Convention as one of the most productive aquatic ecosystems in the Amazon rainforest.
Achuar leader Peas Peas Ayui, President of the National Achuar Federation of Peru (FENAP) has just returned from Calgary, Canada where he met with Talisman CEO John Manzoni to demand that the company respect the Achuar people, withdraw from their territory and cease insistent attempts to convince communities to sign agreements. The Achuar previously delivered the same message to Mr. Manzoni in 2008 and 2010, but despite the Achuar people's steadfast opposition to oil drilling, Talisman Energy continues its relentless search for oil, resorting to dangerous industry practices: divided and conquer.
Recent testimony from Padre Diego and Padre Bola highlights signs of oil company bribery, ecological disruption, threats of bloodshed between indigenous communities, and even the first cases of sexually transmitted diseases are part and parcel of a deteriorating situation along the Pastaza and Morona rivers, where Talisman is currently exploring for oil.
The Peruvian government first created Block 64 in 1995 during the Fujimori dictatorship without consultation or consent from the Achuar people who live there. The oil block and Talisman's operations span two river basins: the Pastaza and the Morona. The block directly affects Achuar territory; Shuar-Wampisa and Shapra people downriver on the Morona are also affected.
The Achuar were united and opposed to oil operations since the creation of the oil block and forced successive companies to leave, but since Talisman's arrival in the region in 2004, two new Achuar organizations representing a minority group of eight out of the 50 Achuar communities have broken off and signed agreements with Talisman. The Achuar accuse Talisman of ignoring communities who oppose their operations and creating divisions and conflict through offering high financial incentives to any community or family who signs up with the company.
The testimony from Father Diego underlines the seriousness of this situation, and calls attention to the spread of this conflict downriver in Shuar-Wampisa communities where a peaceful protest in September 2011 almost ended in bloodshed after a group of pro-Talisman Achuar confronted protestors with guns. This was almost an exact repeat of a similar incident in May 2009 when 300-400 Achuar marched in protest to a Talisman well and were confronted by armed pro-Talisman Achuar standing with the company. Talisman is subject to ongoing litigation in Peru over its involvement in provoking this dangerous conflict.
More at the link
Click on double bars to stop video if you wish."The presence of Talisman here is causing divisions between those who have... more
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Amazon sale includes massive discounts on Dead Rising, Demon's Souls, Monster Hunter Tri bundlesAmazon sale includes massive discounts on Dead Rising, Demon's Souls, Monster... more
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The Brazilian Senate voted 59-7 Tuesday to approve new environmental legislation that would loosen restrictions on deforestation in the Amazon and give amnesty to those who illegally cleared land before July 2008.
At least 70 amendments were tacked onto the bill and must still be voted on. But sponsors of the legislation swore to knock down anything that changes the text's main points, and they have the support to make good on the threat.
The bill now goes back to the lower house, which already passed one version of the measure.
President Dilma Rousseff must also sign any legislation approved by the Congress. She pledged during her campaign for the presidency last year to veto any portion of an environmental bill that provides amnesty for those who illegally cleared land in the past. She now faces a tough political battle dealing with a strong agriculture lobby.
Brazil is the world's second-largest agricultural producer behind the U.S., and farmers say Brazil could easily be first if it weren't for the legal hurdles imposed by environmental legislation.
"This is the first time we're ending the monopoly, that we're ending the environmental dictatorship, where half a dozen (non-governmental organizations) controlled the Environmental Ministry," said Sen. Katia Abreu, who is also president of Brazil's National Agriculture and Livestock Federation.
But Marcio Astrini, a spokesman for Greenpeace's Amazon campaign, said the measure would "reduce the area required for conservation, and actually allow new deforestation."
"It's based on the concept that the forest gets in the way, on the argument that developed countries cut their forests, so we need to do the same. That thinking is centuries old now," he said.
The Senate vote comes a day after Brazil's government reported its lowest recorded annual level of Amazon deforestation. From August 2010 through July 2011, about 2,410 square miles (6,240 square kilometers) were destroyed, according to the National Institute for Space Research.
The government credited stepped-up enforcement against illegal cutting for the success. But some environmentalists warn it was likely due less to the government's crackdown and more to the global economic downturn, as demand lessened for products linked to deforestation, such as soy, timber and beef.
Environmentalists and agricultural interests have both pushed for a refurbishing of Brazil's current environmental law, initially passed in 1965 and toughened in the 1990s.
The law requires landowners to keep a certain percentage of their land forested, an amount that varies between 20 percent in some areas to 80 percent for states within the Amazon.
Farmers have long argued the current law's gradual tightening pushed them out of compliance and hobbled production. Staying on top of the law proved expensive, farmers say, and the government has offered no incentives to comply.
Environmental advocates agreed with the need for a new, updated law, but say the code as approved by the Senate sends a message that deforestation will be forgiven, and encourages further flouting of the law by illegal loggers and land grabbers. They argue the bill as it stands would lead to cutting down virgin forests, erosion of hillsides and riverbeds, and extensive, irreversible environmental damage to the rain forest, an area the size of the U.S. west of the Mississippi River that absorbs the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide.
About 20 percent of the Brazilian rain forest already has been cut down. Burning and rotting trees account for 75 percent of Brazil's greenhouse gas emissions.
The base text approved by the Senate would reduce the preservation requirement to 50 percent in states where 65 percent of the land is already included in indigenous reservations or conservation units. Just one state, Amapa, falls under that category. Two others, Amazonia and Roraima, are close to reaching it.
The new law would also allow agriculture and cattle grazing closer to environmentally fragile areas: riversides, the tops and flanks of hills, and the land around springs. Currently, hillsides can't be cleared to prevent erosion, and a minimum of 98 feet (30 meters) must be kept forested around rivers.
The new code allows logging on slopes of up to 45 degrees, and reduces the preservation area around rivers by half.
It also redefines riverbeds as areas covered by water most of the year, instead of during peak flow times, shrinking the amount of protected area around them. In vast, flat forests like the Amazon, the water level of a river can rise 32 feet (10 meters) during the wet season. Each year, flooding covers 154,441 square miles (400,000 square kilometers) in the Amazon, said Maria Tereza Piedade, head of the ecology, monitoring and sustainable use group within the National Institute for Amazon Research.
This new definition would open vast untouched tracts of forest to deforestation, she said.
More at the linkThe Brazilian Senate voted 59-7 Tuesday to approve new environmental legislation that... more
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A bill proposing a complete overhaul of the current Forest Code in Brazil was approved by the lower House of Congress last May. The text has now been sent back for a final vote - to be completed in the coming days - and then it will go to Dilma for presidential signature before final approval.
The changes in the forest code would open the Amazon up for dangerous deforestation.
If confirmed by Dilma, the new law will also compromise the international agreements Lula signed during the Climate Conference in Copenhagen, in December of 2009, committing Brazil to ambitious CO2 emissions reduction targets.A bill proposing a complete overhaul of the current Forest Code in Brazil was approved... more
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The iconic SugarHill Recording Studios, also known as the ‘Abbey Road of the South’, celebrates is 70th year in business with a release of a tribute CD unlike other compilation available. ZenHill has teamed with the studio to bring release the project, lovingly recorded and produced by SugarHill Senior Engineer and resident historian Andy Bradley.
The two-volume set is packed with classic hit songs from the 50′s to the 2000′s that were originally recorded in the historic studio. SugarHill drew upon it’s long list of current artists and studio alumni to honor, reinterpret, and in some cases faithfully cover songs that defined the sounds coming through radios all over the world for the last seven decades. From Destiny’s Child to Freddie Fender, from The Moving Sidewalks, to The Sir Douglas Quintet you will hear familiar smash hits alongside songs that will reignite old memories, making you take to Wikipedia to find out more about the original release.
Roy Head returned to Studio A at SugarHill to record the new version of “Treat Her Right” nearly 40 years after the original session. On this CD he turns in, if possible, an even more energetic and possibly less inhibited version of the original. Johnny Bush, Glenna Bell, Moses Guest, Anita Kruse, John Evans, Southern Backtones, Jesse Dayton, El Orbits, Clouseaux, Drop Trio, Champion Sisters, Deniz Tek, Kenny Cordray, Bert Wills, Love Street, Row Zero, Kelly Schoppa, Vatos Locos, Classical Grass, Sleepy Labeef, Don Sanders, Johnny Falstaff, Jeff Chance and Randy Cornor and many more turn in brilliant performances, some faithful to the original, some radically reinterpreted. It is a great listen.
http://www.zenhillrecords.com/70-years-of-sugarhill-hits-on-cdThe iconic SugarHill Recording Studios, also known as the ‘Abbey Road of the... more
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"We're going to show [Chevron] that they can't come here and create
whatever environmental mess they want."
Those were the words of Carlos Minc, Rio de Janeiro state's environment secretary, in response to Chevron's oil spill off the Atlantic coast of Brazil. Judging from his statements to the press, Minc has grown increasingly frustrated with Chevron's actions following the spill.
Anyone familiar with the ongoing battle to bring Chevron to justice in Ecuador knows that the company will do everything it can to protect its profits even at the expense of the planet and human health. Brazilian officials are determined to make Chevron pay for the impacts of its reckless business operations. Send key environmental officials in Brazil a message now to let them know you've got their back.
It isn't just Chevron's response to the spill that has been criticized. Before and after the spill occurred, Chevron showed shockingly little concern about the risks involved. The company reportedly drilled deeper than it was licensed to, and had to borrow sonar equipment to even locate where the leak was occurring. Chevron was completely unprepared for an oil spill – or perhaps I should say, completely unconcerned. Production and profits are all that really matter to Chevron.
No wonder Carlos Minc has also been quoted saying: "We believe the accident could've been avoided. There was an environmental crime. [Chevron] hid information and their emergency team took almost 10 days to start acting."
Brazil's National Petroleum Agency says more than 110,000 gallons of oil have spilled into the Atlantic Ocean. Write to Carlos Minc and other key Brazilian environmental officials now and urge them to hold Chevron accountable for every last drop.
For a cleaner future,
Mitch Anderson
Corporate Campaigns Director
P.S. AlterNet recently named Chevron the #1 "Most Toxic Energy Company," a label the company richly deserves. Even while it refuses to pay to clean up its messes in Ecuador and around the world, Chevron is spending huge sums of money to influence public policy in a preemptive bid to never be held accountable for the damage it does to the planet. Share this story to help expose Chevron and other energy companies that are polluting our political process.
More at the link"We're going to show [Chevron] that they can't come here and create... more
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