tagged w/ Amazon Rainforest
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SHOCKING NEW NASA DATA / NEW PREDICTION = "3 TO 5 YEARS NO ICE IN ARCTIC"
THE PERMAFROST = IS NOW THAWING....
3-5 years All Arctic Ice will be gone. Five years after that... no ice on either pole!
Watch Video as prehistoric methane gas is released under the ice from the thawing permafrost below is ignited.
NEW DATA: The original time to reach the permafrost thawing tipping point wasn't predicted to happen until 2050.
We need to understand what is happening and how the effects of what is now taking place... will change all our lives in the "months and few years ahead".SHOCKING NEW NASA DATA / NEW PREDICTION = "3 TO 5 YEARS NO ICE IN ARCTIC"
THE... more
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Global warming... is much worse that you think.
PLEASE SELECT: "WATCH FULL PROGRAM"
Summary:
Dan Miller's presentation focuses on why the UN IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) reports are actually best case scenarios. For example, IPCC climate models do not include the effect of melting permafrost releasing greenhouse gases, even though the permafrost is melting now and it holds more greenhouse gases than all that mankind has ever released.
Another example is that IPCC predictions of sea level rise only take into account thermal expansion of the oceans and melting of glaciers; the largest factor, disintegration of glaciers, was not included because it is hard to model. The result is that sea level rise will likely be substantially higher this century than the IPCC predicts.
Miller discusses several other potential catastrophes that are not included in IPCC predictions and also discusses tipping points that could put climate change solutions out of our reach in years or decades, the psychology of climate change, and why it is difficult for people to respond to the threat posed by a warming earth.
His talk concludes with a discussion of ways to address climate change and the risks and opportunities that companies face due to the climate crisis.
More Information:
The Climate Project
http://www.theclimateproject.org/aboutus.php
NASA | Earth Observatory
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=6632
NASA | Science for a Hungry World: Part 6
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=6632
HOME PROJECT: A Visual Global Tour /current effects of global warming.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqxENMKaeCU
.Global warming... is much worse that you think.
PLEASE SELECT: "WATCH FULL... more
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We used to hear so much about the destruction of the Amazon rainforest, but lately not a word. So what happened—did we save it or not?
We didn't save it, but we haven't stopped trying. Environmentalists fret over the fate of the Amazon for good reason: It contains more than half of the planet's remaining tropical rainforest, one-fifth of our global freshwater, and as much as one-third of the world's biodiversity. Saving all this was once a rallying cry for green activists, and a few early triumphs made that goal seem likely. But attention soon shifted away from the rainforest to issues like climate change and organic agriculture, and now the Amazon is disappearing at about the same rate it was in the 1980s.
The good news is that interest in the Amazon has begun to take off again in recent years. That's mainly because of the role that forests play in staving off climate change: Scientists estimate that the Amazon itself has between 85 billion and 100 billion tons of CO2 stored in its trees and shrubs, or about 11 years' worth of U.S. carbon emissions. The dangers aren't limited to Brazil, of course—deforestation rates in Asia and parts of Africa now rival those seen the Americas. In 2009, the Guinness World Records named Indonesia as the country with the most rapidly disappearing forests—it's losing about 2 percent per year—although Brazil remains the leader in absolute terms.
http://www.slate.com/id/2234319/We used to hear so much about the destruction of the Amazon rainforest, but lately not... more
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This is the weekly feature of the Sustainable Agriculture Group http://current.com/groups/sustainable-agriculture that seeks to bring us back to the Earth and to reflect on its beauty. This video shows footage of the Amazon Rainforest. It is without gas flares, oil drums, GMOs, cattle grazing, slash and burn, and all of the ways in which man is totally disrespecting this diverse and wonderful place that is the lungs of our planet.
Please watch and reflect and then work to support sustainable agricultural methods and environmental respect for those places which provide nature with all it needs to thrive.
Thank you.This is the weekly feature of the Sustainable Agriculture Group... more
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A Brazilian federal prosecutor is leading an investigation into charges that illegal timber from the state of Pará is being laundered as "eco-certified" wood and exported to markets in the United States, Europe, and Asia, reports Sunday's edition of O Globo.
Prosecutor Bruno Valente Soares has found evidence to suggest that timber companies are doctoring paperwork and using other methods to disguise timber that is being illegally cut from reserves and indigenous lands. International buyers pay a premium for certified timber, which they can market as being more sustainable than other wood. The timber goes to furniture makers and construction companies abroad.
The scheme allegedly involves up to 3,000 companies across Pará's timber sector, writes Liana Mello.
In recent years Pará has emerged as a major timber supplier and producer of agricultural products. It has had the highest deforestation rate of any state in the Brazilian Amazon since 2006, account for 43 percent of total forest loss.A Brazilian federal prosecutor is leading an investigation into charges that illegal... more
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RAN is building a grassroots challenge to global corporate power from the ground up.
There’s work to be done in your high school, university or local community. We have the resources you need to make a difference.
Things you can do now: Take action onlineRAN is building a grassroots challenge to global corporate power from the ground up.... more
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URGENT: Peru Is Murdering Amazon Protesters!
In the past several days the Peruvian government murdered dozens of Indigenous protesters who tried to unite in peaceful protest against oil expansion in their forests.
Peru's President, Alan Garcia, says that in order to meet its Free Trade Agreement responsibilities to the United States Peru must prioritize the demands of international resource exploitation even as they undermine the land rights of Peru's Indigenous peoples.
And so far the US has been silent.
Act now and tell Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that the US needs take a stand and formally demand that Peru end the violence now.
Your message will be sent as an electronic fax to Secretary Clinton in order to maximize your impact!URGENT: Peru Is Murdering Amazon Protesters!
In the past several days the Peruvian... more
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Drought in the Amazon is imperiling the rainforest ecosystem and global climate, reports new research published in Science.
Analyzing the impact of the severe Amazon drought of 2005, a team of 68 researchers across 13 countries and 40 institutions found evidence that rainfall-starved tropical forests lose massive amounts of carbon due to reduced plant growth and dying trees. The 2005 drought — triggered by warming in the tropical North Atlantic rather than el Niño — resulted in a net flux of 5 billion tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere — more than the combined annual emissions of Japan and Europe — relative to normal years when the Amazon is a net sink for 2 billion tons of CO2.
The findings suggest that in the face of warming climate, relying on tropical forests as a massive carbon sink is a perilous proposition, raising questions about the effectiveness of schemes to offset industrial emissions by protecting rainforests without also curbing fossil fuel use. Should droughts worsen on a global scale, forests could become a net source of emissions, exacerbating climate change.
"For years the Amazon forest has been helping to slow down climate change. But relying on this subsidy from nature is extremely dangerous", said lead author Oliver Phillips, referencing newly published research indicating that tropical forests have absorbed as much as a fifth of fossil fuel emissions in recent decades.
"If the earth's carbon sinks slow or go into reverse, as our results show is possible, carbon dioxide levels will rise even faster," Phillips, a professor at the University of Leeds, added. "Deeper cuts in emissions will be required to stabilize our climate."
The researchers estimate that old growth forests in the Amazon store roughly 120 billion tons of carbon in their vegetation and process — through photosynthesis and respiration — 18 billion tons of carbon annually, or more than twice the emissions from fossil fuel use. Given this massive scale of carbon cycling, "relatively small changes in Amazon forest dynamics therefore have the potential to substantially affect the concentration of atmospheric CO2 and thus the rate of climate change itself," they note.
Overall the study found that a 100-millimeter (4 inch) increase in water deficit triggers the loss of 2.7 tons of aboveground forest carbon per hectare. However the impact of drought may be even worse — dry conditions greatly increase the risk of forest fire, including small surface fires that can inflict serious harm in even old-growth rainforest.
Drought also affects the species composition of the forest. Some species, especially fast-growing, light-wooded trees, are particularly vulnerable to reduced rainfall.
"Amazon drought kills selectively and therefore may also alter species composition, pointing to potential consequences of future drought events on the biodiversity in the Amazon region," the authors write.
"Drought threatens biodiversity too," said co-author Abel Monteagudo, a Peruvian botanist with the Missouri Botanical Gardens.
Unlikely other research that has relied primarily on satellite imagery to measure drought stress (including one that suggested dry conditions enhance growth in the Amazon), the study was conducted under RAINFOR, a research network that monitors death rates and growth among more than 100,000 trees in 100 forest plots across the Amazon's 600 million hectares. The granularity of the study allowed scientists to directly measure changes that would not be otherwise readily apparent but may have big impacts.Drought in the Amazon is imperiling the rainforest ecosystem and global climate,... more
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The Amazon Defense Coalition reports that oil is still visible to the naked eye in places where Chevron claimed it was remediated. Their plea to delay the trial was denied. I can only hope the next step is to see them pay, although no amount of money can make up for the environmental devastation they have caused and the lives they have ruined. However, this is good news to go forward with.The Amazon Defense Coalition reports that oil is still visible to the naked eye in... more
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While the other guys had there annual party in Davos, the World Social Forum (WSF) returned to Brazil during the last week of January 2009. More than 100,000 people descended on the city of Belem at the mouth of the mighty Amazon river to debate proposals and plan strategies for making a new and better world.
here is an excerpt from the post-WSF press release by COICA (amazon basin indigenous peoples organization)
COICA, with our worldview, diversity of languages, history, cultures, spirituality, territory, economy, have existed since before recorded time. We have adopted different forms of organization and identity under the framework of the nation states which have established laws and regulations according to their own interests, not recognizing the ancestral rights of the first inhabitants of the amazon region.
Attempting to arrive at a consensus between 390 ethnic groups, representing a population of 2,779,478 people in the 10,268,471 square kilometer Amazon basin, we gathered in Belem do Para, Brazil from Jan. 27th through Feb. 1st for the World Social Forum. While at the forum we held intense meetings and in-depth debate and analysis about the reality of the indigenous peoples living in the Amazon and those from other biomes, offering our support and leadership in the process of the World Social Forum.
We affirm the rights of Indigenous peoples, considering the principles of the declaration by the U.N. in regards to the rights of indigenous peoples (UNDRIP) and the good faith and follow through on the obligations by the nation states that have adopted said declaration, to be considered different, and to be respected as different, and that we contribute to the richness and diversity of civilizations and cultures that make up humanity.
We condemn all doctrines, policies and practices based in the superiority of a determined people or nationality, and the persons whom perpetuate said doctrines, policies and practices through use of rationality based on national origin and racial, religious, ethnic, or cultural differences which are socially unjust, scientifically false, morally condemnable, judicially invalid and otherwise racist. We affirm that indigenous peoples have the right to self determination over their political condition and must freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.
Therefore, we demand the immediate demarcation and title over our ancestral territory, which has been used as alway by its legitimate inhabitants. We denounce and condemn the violent intimidation through the murders of our leaders for the defense of our territories and rights as indigenous peoples.
We denounce the advance of the agricultural border and agricultural development (agro-industry) responsible for the violation of our rights in reference to discrimination, the plundering of our territories, deforestation, burning of the forest and grasslands, the contamination of soils and rivers, the use of transgenetics and agrochemicals, the expansion of monoculture, bio-piracy, illegal timber traffic, industrial residues and waste, all factors that put at risk our food sovereignty, the lost of ecosystems, and finally the the lost of our cultural values and identity.
Furthermore, these impacts deepen the vulnerability of our sister indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation, living without outside contact or in the early phase of outside contact- we demand, on there behalf, the integral guarantee of there territories by the part of the nation states concerned.
We denounce to the world the genocide of indigenous peoples and the depredation of the amazonian forests by mega-projects of South American Regional Infrastructure Integration Initiative (IIRSA) and PAC, which are operated by the nation states and governments. We demand abolition of these mega-projects.While the other guys had there annual party in Davos, the World Social Forum (WSF)... more
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As oil executives ring in the new year by counting their record shattering profits, we need to remember what they did to get there. This is just one of the more glaring examples ...
"Bolivar Cevallos walks around the farm where his family once lived amid the oil fields of Ecuador’s Amazon rain forest. His boots sink ankle deep in tar. Everywhere he steps, oily muck seeps from the ground.
A gasolinelike smell hangs in the sweltering jungle air. The mess is a remnant of oil drilling in a 120-mile-long swath of the tropical jungle in northeastern Ecuador where Texaco Inc. and Ecuador’s state-run oil company, PetroEcuador, have pumped billions of barrels of crude from the ground during the past 40 years.
Cevallos, 51, whose face is tanned and creased from a life working in the tropical sun, plunges a shovel into a ditch. Grease oozes out and drains into a river his family used for drinking and bathing for more than 25 years.
About 230,000 people live in Ecuador’s northeastern rain forest side by side with oil wells and pools of drilling waste. Cevallos is no longer one of them.
Four years ago, a doctor diagnosed his daughter, Diana, with histiocytosis X, a rare blood disease that caused tumors that punched holes in her skull.
“The doctor told us to get out because the pollution would make her sicker, maybe kill her,” says Cevallos, who used to tend patches of cacao on his farm and now works as a laborer on a construction site for $6 a day. His daughter, now 5, is thin and still ailing."
(Click link to complete the article)As oil executives ring in the new year by counting their record shattering profits, we... more
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Frogs are the telling animal in any eco-systems health.
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Satellite imagery released earlier this week provided further evidence that deforestation in Brazil's Amazon region accelerated dramatically this year.
Between August 2007 and July 2008, 8,147 square kilometers of the Brazilian Amazon were cleared, according to the country's National Institute for Space Research (INPE). This is an area more than twice the size of the U.S. state of Rhode Island.
The expanse of deforested land is about 69 percent greater than last year, when 4,820 square kilometers were removed. "We're not content," Brazilian Environment Minister Carlos Minc told The Associated Press. "Deforestation has to fall more and the conditions for sustainable development have to improve."
Last year's deforestation numbers, however, were the lowest since recording began in the 1970s. The amount of forest cleared this year, while still substantial, is also less than previous years.
The diverse Amazon forest contains one in ten of the world's known species and enough vegetation to absorb an estimated 10 percent of atmospheric carbon dioxide, not including oceanic carbon sinks. Since the 1970s, about 20 percent of the Amazon forest has been cut, leaving mainly open fields with little diversity in its place.
Illegal deforestation reached its peak this year between August 2007 and April, when satellite images observed about 84 percent of the year's deforestation.
Landowners often cut deeper into the forest to make room for cattle ranches and soybean farms. Both products are experiencing a boom in demand, as Brazilian beef surges in global popularity and soybean prices rise due to global meat consumption and biofuels production.Satellite imagery released earlier this week provided further evidence that... more
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While she was studying in Brazil during college, the one thing Stephanie Gerson longed to do before leaving was spend time in the thick of the Amazon rain forest. Unfortunately, she couldn't find a tour that would take her past the forest's edge.
Survey at college finds 27 percent of men and 14 percent of women willing to trade favors or gifts for sex.
Survey at college finds 27 percent of men and 14 percent of women willing to trade favors or gifts for sex.
So, when a college-aged busboy at a resort she was visiting began flirting with her, she asked him if he thought a tourist could survive alone in the jungle.
"He laughed and told me I was nuts," says Gerson, 27, who works part-time in online marketing for a chocolate company in San Francisco.
Then he told her that he'd grown up in the jungle in a nearby indigenous community. That was all Gerson needed to hear. Although she wasn't attracted to the guy, Gerson flirted right back in the hopes that he would be her jungle tour guide. It worked. The busboy wormed his way out of work, and the two headed into the rain forest.
"It was amazing," Gerson says of her adventure in 2000. "We built our homes out of palm leaves, I saw animals I'd never seen before, he taught me the medicinal properties of all the plants, we picked fruit off the trees, we swam with and ate piranhas. And, of course, we had sex ... for almost two weeks."
Gerson never felt sleazy or uncomfortable with her unspoken arrangement with the busboy.
"It was a good barter both ways," she says. "I got to stay in the jungle, and he got to have sex with a cute, young American girl."While she was studying in Brazil during college, the one thing Stephanie Gerson longed... more
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World-renowned ethnobotanist, Jim Duke, measures herbs against pharmaceuticals and reflects on a lifetime of plant medicine research, including his work with the U.S.D.A. and traditional healers of the Amazon.World-renowned ethnobotanist, Jim Duke, measures herbs against pharmaceuticals and... more
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Traditional Amazonian healers or curanderos, claim the spirits of the plants communicate with them through lullabies, called Icaros. Every being in the rainforest has an Icaro and its melody alone is believed to possess curative powers. These songs have been described as the "quintessence of shamanic power."
While there has been little research conducted on Icaros, we do know that the songs are used to call defenders (arkana icaros), cure specific illnesses, reinforce the effect of medicinal plants, attract the love of another (huarmi icaros), call the spirits of the deceased, cause rain, wind or thunder, for bewitching, for hunting or fishing certain animals, and for curing snake bites.
We are grateful to the Boras of Pevas, Peru and all of the healers who shared their songs to make this possible.
Learn how to support, "Icaros: Spirit Songs of the Amazon,"
at:
http://www.der.org/donateTraditional Amazonian healers or curanderos, claim the spirits of the plants... more
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What Chevron does with the it's.. 'human energy'.
The largest environmental class action lawsuit has been filed against Chevron, formerly Texaco, for the dumping of over 18 billion gallons of toxic waste water directly upon the Ecuadorian Amazon rain-forest floor..
Since the court's environmental remediation estimate came in at a whopping $8-16 Billion dollars, Chevron has been shaking in their penny loafers and employing a few old tricks
(Chevron has hired former Republican Senator Trent Lott to lobby the Bush Administration to pull Ecuador’s special trade preferences unless Ecuador dismisses the $16 billion lawsuit against the company." -Amazon Watch)
Luckily for the 'little indians', they just might have Obama on their side..What Chevron does with the it's.. 'human energy'.
The largest environmental class... more
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(NaturalNews) Due to the effects of global warming and deforestation, more than half of the Amazon rainforest may be destroyed or severely damaged by the year 2030, according to a report released by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).
The report, "Amazon's Vicious Cycles: Drought and Fire," concludes that 55 percent of the world's largest rainforest stands to be severely damaged from agriculture, drought, fire, logging and livestock ranching in the next 22 years. Another 4 percent may be damaged by reduced rainfall caused by global warming. This is anticipated to destroy up to 80 percent of wildlife habitat in the region.
... (continues) ...
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By 2100, the report adds, global warming may cause rainfall in the Amazon to drop by 20 percent and temperatures to increase by 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit). This combination will increase the occurrence of forest fires, further accelerating the pace of deforestation.
The Amazon contains more than half of the planet's surviving rainforest and is a key stabilizer of global climate. The report notes that losing 60 percent of it would accelerate the pace of global warming, affecting rainfall as far away as India.
WWF warned that the "point of no return" for the Amazon rainforest, from which ecological recovery will be impossible, is only 15-25 years in the future, much sooner than has previously been supposed.
"The Amazon is on a knife-edge," said WWF-UK forests head Beatrix Richards, "due to the dual threats of deforestation and climate change."
She called for the countries discussing global climate change at an international conference in Bali to take the importance of forests into account.
"At the international negotiations currently underway in Bali, governments must agree a process which results in ambitious global emission reduction targets beyond the current phase of Kyoto," she said. "Crucially, this must include a strategy to reduce emissions from forests and help break the cycle of deforestation."(NaturalNews) Due to the effects of global warming and deforestation, more than half... more
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Brazil has unveiled its plan to encourage farmers in the Amazon region to develop sustainable sources of income and turn their backs on the illegal logging that is ravaging the rainforest.
The Sustainable Amazon Plan includes £300m in low-interest loans that will be made available to farmers.Some 40,000 families who were formerly involved in logging will also get social security and unemployment benefits.The loans will be offered at 4% annual interest, well below Brazil's benchmark 11.75% rate, said the environment minister, Marina SilvaBrazil has unveiled its plan to encourage farmers in the Amazon region to develop... more
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The Amazon was the chic eco-cause of the 1990s, revered as an incomparable storehouse of biodiversity. It's been overshadowed lately by global warming, but the Amazon rain forest happens also to be an incomparable storehouse of carbon, the very carbon that heats up the planet when it's released into the atmosphere. Brazil now ranks fourth in the world in carbon emissions, and most of its emissions come from deforestation.
This land rush is being accelerated by an unlikely source: biofuels. An explosion in demand for farm-grown fuels has raised global crop prices to record highs, which is spurring a dramatic expansion of Brazilian agriculture, which is invading the Amazon at an increasingly alarming rate.
The U.S. quintupled its production of ethanol--ethyl alcohol, a fuel distilled from plant matter--in the past decade, and Washington has just mandated another fivefold increase in renewable fuels over the next decade. Europe has similarly aggressive biofuel mandates and subsidies, and Brazil's filling stations no longer even offer plain gasoline. Worldwide investment in biofuels rose from $5 billion in 1995 to $38 billion in 2005 and is expected to top $100 billion by 2010, thanks to investors like Richard Branson and George Soros, GE and BP, Ford and Shell, Cargill and the Carlyle Group.
But several new studies show the biofuel boom is doing exactly the opposite of what its proponents intended: it's dramatically accelerating global warming, imperiling the planet in the name of saving it. Corn ethanol, always environmentally suspect, turns out to be environmentally disastrous. Even cellulosic ethanol made from switchgrass, which has been promoted by eco-activists and eco-investors as well as by President Bush as the fuel of the future, looks less green than oil-derived gasoline.
Meanwhile, by diverting grain and oilseed crops from dinner plates to fuel tanks, biofuels are jacking up world food prices and endangering the hungry. The grain it takes to fill an SUV tank with ethanol could feed a person for a year. Harvests are being plucked to fuel our cars instead of ourselves. The U.N.'s World Food Program says it needs $500 million in additional funding and supplies, calling the rising costs for food nothing less than a global emergency.
Biofuels do slightly reduce dependence on imported oil, and the ethanol boom has created rural jobs while enriching some farmers and agribusinesses. But the basic problem with most biofuels is amazingly simple, given that researchers have ignored it until now: using land to grow fuel leads to the destruction of forests, wetlands and grasslands that store enormous amounts of carbon.
Deforestation accounts for 20% of all current carbon emissions. So unless the world can eliminate emissions from all other sources--cars, power plants, factories, even flatulent cows--it needs to reduce deforestation or risk an environmental catastrophe. That means limiting the expansion of agriculture, a daunting task as the world's population keeps expanding. And saving forests is probably an impossibility so long as vast expanses of cropland are used to grow modest amounts of fuel. The biofuels boom, in short, is one that could haunt the planet for generations--and it's only getting started.
The Amazon was the chic eco-cause of the 1990s, revered as an incomparable storehouse... more
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