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It's tempting to assume all explorers now actually just stay at home and idly browse Google Earth on the off chance they'll spot a country that nobody knew existed but apparently they still get out there, travel the world and punch the odd snake in the throat. Do snakes have throats? Are they one long throat?
I digress.
Google Earth *does* play a part in helping scientists and archeologists find out more about far-off places that remain relatively unmapped. Recently a small team of scientists have used the service to explore what they think is El Dorado, an ancient city that people have been trying to find for over 500 years.
The Times reports:
"Three scientists have now come close to doing just that. The journal Antiquity has published a report showing more than 200 massive earthworks in the upper Amazon basin near Brazil’s border with Bolivia. From the sky it looks as if a series of geometric figures has been carved into the earth, but the archeologists and historians who published the report believe these shapes are the remains of roads, bridges, moats, avenues and squares that formed the basis for a sophisticated civilisation spanning 155 miles, which could have supported a population of 60,000. The remains date from AD200 to 1283."
While Google Earth wasn't behind the discovery, it's been crucial in building on the information and finding out more about the area in a way that would have previously involved cost, man power and a fair amount of risk.
If you want to see one of the structures in Google Earth: S 08 50’ 38”, W 67 15’ 11”
or S 08 52’ 32”, W 67 14’ 42”
or S 8 43’ 13”, W 67 10’ 34”
"Fencing Flamingos" follows the work of Marita Davison, a PhD student in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Cornell University, and her collaborator Jennifer Moslemi as they study flamingos in the rugged high-Andes of Bolivia."Fencing Flamingos" follows the work of Marita Davison, a PhD student in... more
Bolivia: The Economy During the Morales Administration
December 2009, Mark Weisbrot, Rebecca Ray and Jake Johnston
This paper examines the Bolivian economy since President Evo Morales took office in 2006. It finds that Bolivia’s economic growth in the last four years has been higher than at any time in the last 30 years, averaging 4.9 percent annually since the current administration took office in 2006. Projected GDP growth for 2009 is the highest in the hemisphere and follows its peak growth rate in 2008.
The paper looks at how Bolivia’s economy has been able to progress despite a number of significant shocks, including falling remittances, declining foreign investment, the United States’ revocation of trade preferences, serious bouts of political instability as a result of separatist political opposition movements, and recent declines in export prices and markets, along with other impacts of the global recession.
Key to the Bolivian economy’s relative success has been expansionary fiscal policy and control over national resources, especially the hydrocarbons sector – a relatively recent development.
In the last three years the government has begun several programs targeted at the poorest Bolivians. These include payments to poor families to increase school enrollment; an expansion of public pensions to relive extreme poverty among the elderly; and most recently, payments for uninsured mothers to expand prenatal and post-natal care, to reduce infant and child mortality. Although the last two years of new programs will probably show some improvement when data is available, Bolivia still has some of the highest extreme poverty rates and infant and child mortality rates in the hemisphere.
Fears are growing for the future of water supplies in one of Latin America's fastest-growing urban areas - Bolivia's sprawling capital of La Paz and its twin El Alto.
Scientists monitoring the glaciers high in the Andes mountains - a key source of water - say the ice is showing signs of shrinking faster than previously forecast.
Faced with a booming population and a combination of glacial retreat and reduced rainfall, the governor of the La Paz region is even contemplating moving people to other parts of Bolivia.
Water is already in short supply among the poorest communities and has become a cause of tension.
It's a problem that begins now but will become more serious as other, much larger glaciers melt as well
Dr Edson Ramirez
In pictures: Bolivia glaciers
In El Alto's District 8, I watched 13-year-old Christian Muraga fill a bucket from a communal tap shared with 80 families.
I asked if the tap always produces water.
"No, there isn't water every day from this tap, sometimes nothing."
The nearest alternative is nearly one kilometre away. Campaign groups say as many as one quarter of the city's population do not have ready access to water.
Sergio Criales of Oxfam told me: "The problem is getting worse because of climate change and because they don't have enough water to cover all their demands."
Water battle
The tap was established illegally and draws water from the scarce mains supply running in a neighbouring district.
Christian's father Macario said that there are often disputes over access to water and that fights occasionally break out.
Water has become so precious that we even found a group of women cleaning plastic bags in a heavily contaminated stream that stank of raw sewage.
When I asked why they were doing this, one replied that she had no alternative.
La Paz (BBC)
Much of the city's water supply comes from glaciers
"There is no other water to use. I know it is dirty and I am worried about my children. But what can I do?"
The shortage of fresh water is partly the result of the influx of tens of thousands of people to El Alto every year leaving the authorities unable to cope.
But another factor is a rise in temperature that's faster than the global average and its effect on the snow-capped peaks that dominate the skyline.
Click Picture to see video.Fears are growing for the future of water supplies in one of Latin America's... more
For people in Bolivia, the debate about the reality of climate change is over. Disappearing glaciers are taking city water supplies with them.For people in Bolivia, the debate about the reality of climate change is over.... more
One day, Ahmadinejad announce that Iran will build 10 nuclear power plants and will enrich uranium as he pleases, the day after other government officials say that the dialogue is still possible.The theater will go on like this for who knows how long. Meanwhile, in reality, the Iranians have yet to complete a nuclear power plant, and the Russians that are building it will complete it, perhaps, only in the course of next year. http://www.inaltreparole.net/en/world/irannucleare301109.htmlOne day, Ahmadinejad announce that Iran will build 10 nuclear power plants and will... more
Un giorno Ahmadinejad annuncia che l'Iran costruirà 10 centrali nucleari e arricchirà l'uranio come gli pare e piace, il giorno dopo altri esponenti del governo dichiarano che il dialogo è ancora possibile. Il teatrino andrà avanti in questo modo chissà per quanto ancora. Intanto in realtà gli iraniani non hanno ancora una centrale nucleare completa, e i russi che la stanno costruendo la finiranno, forse, solo nel corso del prossimo anno. http://www.inaltreparole.net/it/esteri/irannucleare301109.htmlUn giorno Ahmadinejad annuncia che l'Iran costruirà 10 centrali nucleari e... more
The United States is massively building up its potential for nuclear and non-nuclear strikes in Latin America and the Caribbean by acquiring unprecedented freedom of action in seven new military, naval and air bases in Colombia.The United States is massively building up its potential for nuclear and non-nuclear... more
Bolivian police have tracked down and arrested a man they're accusing of murdering a taxi driver, all with the help of a crudely-drawn pencil sketch made by a female witness.
The scribble has become a bit of a web hit after video of a newsreader commentating on the picture was uploaded to YouTube. Officers had paraded the suspect in handcuffs in front of news cameras but since laws in the country prohibit the suspect's identity being revealed, several websites have cunningly superimposed the sketch over his face as a nifty workaround.
Water evaporation due to climate change is responsible for Lake Titicaca dropping an inch a week. Over two million people depend on this lake fed by glaciers rapidly melting. This is the canary in the coal mine of global warming.
I would also like to know why my picture was removed and why I can now not replace it.Water evaporation due to climate change is responsible for Lake Titicaca dropping an... more
Whether you’re concerned about national security or have green motivations as well, you might be eagerly awaiting electric cars and plug-ins in hopes of escaping your reliance on OPEC and foreign oil, but as of late there’s been plenty of coverage suggesting that future battery supply could be limited by control of lithium stores.
“The Saudi Arabia of lithium,” Bolivia, has about 50 percent of the world’s lithium deposits in its salt flats and now plans to produce its own batteries by 2016, reports the BBC, provided the demand is there.
What’s more, Bolivia’s mining minister, Luis Echazu, told the BBC that the South American country has been negotiating directly with Sumitomo and Mitsubishi, among other companies. In any agreement with a company, the Bolivian state will have the majority stake.
Those are among the pieces of information discussed in this week’s episode of Peter Day’s World of Business, on BBC Radio, which over a half-hour report goes into some depth on Bolivia’s plan to capitalize on its vast stores of lithium—necessary to produce the lithium-ion batteries that will permit satisfactory performance, range, and packaging.
The study will examine how plug-in hybrids are recharged and how this will affect marketing of these vehicles
The study will examine how plug-in hybrids are recharged and how this will affect marketing of these vehicles
Lithium-ion batteries are essential for both full electric vehicles (EVs), like the upcoming 2012 Nissan Leaf, or plug-ins like the 2011 Chevrolet Volt.Whether you’re concerned about national security or have green motivations as... more
Approximately 2.5 billion people in this world do not have adequate access to sanitation, with waterborne diseases being the number one killer of children in the developing world. This was a project performed to test the effects of solar disinfection of water to reduce childhood diarrhoea in rural Bolivia. It is studies like this that hopefully will bring better health to developing rural communities where sanitation and access to potable safe water is a daily life and death struggle.Approximately 2.5 billion people in this world do not have adequate access to... more
President Evo Morales
Bolivian president Evo Morales gets the last laugh after discussing everything from agrarian reform to global warming.President Evo Morales
Bolivian president Evo Morales gets the last laugh after... more
Drinking water is an abundant resource on the planet, but not equally. In temperate countries, water almost never lacks, while in those hotter happens quite often. And with global warming, the situation could deteriorate quickly in the coming years. The WWF has published a study showing that even those countries that have abundant water, in this case Germany, depend greatly on the availability of water in other countries.Drinking water is an abundant resource on the planet, but not equally. In temperate... more
L'acqua potabile è una risorsa teoricamente abbondante sul pianeta, ma non in ugual misura. Nei paesi temperati l'acqua non manca quasi mai, in quelli caldi può mancare anche molto spesso. E con il riscaldamento globale la situazione potrebbe peggiorare molto nei prossimi anni. Il Wwf ha pubblicato uno studio che mostra come anche i paesi che abbondano d'acqua, in questo caso la Germania, dipendano moltissimo dalla disponibilità d'acqua in altri paesi.L'acqua potabile è una risorsa teoricamente abbondante sul pianeta, ma non... more
Anyone who grew up on The Cat In The Hat and Green Eggs and Ham remembers the illustrations of one Mr. Theodor Geisel, aka Dr. Seuss. Trees with elongated trucks or with improbable collections of limbs, stark and scraggily landscapes with oddly balanced rocks and unlikely geometric shapes, buildings with unusual protrusions, awkward angles and with no two windows exactly the same—these were some of the hallmarks of world Dr. Seuss illustrated in his 60 children’s books.
Here’s a look at some places on Planet Earth—places you can visit on your next vacation—that resemble scenes from a Dr. Seuss illustration . . .Anyone who grew up on The Cat In The Hat and Green Eggs and Ham remembers the... more
