tagged w/ Amazon Rainforest
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Agent Orange is one of the most devastating weapons of modern warfare, a chemical which killed or injured an estimated 400,000 people during the Vietnam War -- and now it's being used against the Amazon rainforest. According to officials, ranchers in Brazil have begun spraying the highly toxic herbicide over patches of forest as a covert method to illegally clear foliage, more difficult to detect that chainsaws and tractors. In recent weeks, an aerial survey detected some 440 acres of rainforest that had been sprayed with the compound -- poisoning thousands of trees and an untold number of animals, potentially for generations.
Officials from Brazil's environmental agency IBAMA were first tipped to the illegal clearing by satellite images of the forest in Amazonia; a helicopter flyover in the region later revealed thousands of trees left ash-colored and defoliated by toxic chemicals. IBAMA says that Agent Orange was likely dispersed by aircraft by a yet unidentified rancher to clear the land for pasture because it is more difficult to detect than traditional operations that require chainsaws and tractors.
Last week, in another part of the Amazon, an investigation conducted by the agency uncovered approximately four tons of the highly toxic herbal pesticides hidden in the forest awaiting dispension. If released, the chemicals could have potentially decimated some 7,500 acres of rainforest, killing all the wildlife that resides there and contaminating groundwater. In this case, the individual responsible was identified and now faces fines nearing $1.3 million.
According to a report from Folha de São Paulo, the last time such chemicals were recorded in use by deforesters was in 1999, but officials say dispensing the devastating herbicide may become more common as officials crack down on the most flagrant types of environmental crime.
"They [deforesters] have changed their strategy because, in a short time, more areas of forest can be destroyed with herbicides. Thus, they don't need to mobilize tree-cutting teams and can therefore bypass the supervision of IBAMA," says Jerfferson Lobato of IBAMA.
While Agent Orange was originally designed to clear forest coverage in combat situations, its use became a subject of controversy due to its impact on humans and wildlife. During the Vietnam War, the United States military dispersed 12 million gallons of herbicide, impacting the health of some 3 million, mostly peasant, Vietnamese citizens, and causing birth defects in around 500 thousand children. Additionally, the chemical's effect on the environment have been profound and lasting.
More at the linkAgent Orange is one of the most devastating weapons of modern warfare, a chemical... more
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Government researchers in Brazil say they have found one of the world's last uncontacted tribes in a remote corner of the Amazon rainforest.
Aerial pictures revealed by the Brazilian government's agency of indigenous affairs (Funai) showed four large thatched huts fully surrounded by various crops in the Vale do Javari region.
Aloysio Guapindaia, a Funai director, also said they would work to keep the tribe isolated and safe. The tribe is thought to belong to the Pano linguistic group that straddles the border between Brazil, Peru and Bolivia.
Gabriel Elizondo reports from Sao Paulo in Brazil.
Source:
Al JazeeraGovernment researchers in Brazil say they have found one of the world's last... more
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punman
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Native Amazonians attribute great magical powers to the Amazon River or "pink" dolphin, including the ability to appear to be an extraordinarily beautiful human at night, especially to humans whom the dolphins have become infatuated with. A portion of the proceeds goes to programs to protect river dolphin's worldwide. http://appshopper.com/books/a-dolphins-tale
http://appshopper.com/books/a-dolphins-taleNative Amazonians attribute great magical powers to the Amazon River or... more
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At noon on Sunday, October 24, thousands of people took oil giant abuse matters in their own hands after years of continual leaking crude oil affecting their health and safety. They closed the passage of vessels for the important Amazon River, at height of the Puerto Orlando community.
http://www.examiner.com/human-rights-in-national/5000-people-block-oil-vesselsAt noon on Sunday, October 24, thousands of people took oil giant abuse matters in... more
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Meet 14-year-old Jesse. Like the other "riberinhos," or river dwellers, he learned to swim and paddle before he could walk. Alongside other children as young as five, he rows for hours a day on the Tajaparu River, risking death trying to fasten his tiny canoe onto fast moving tourist boats and freight barges. The children hope to earn a few pennies for their families, selling jungle delicacies to the passengers and crew. But what happens when Jesse pushes his luck too far?Meet 14-year-old Jesse. Like the other "riberinhos," or river dwellers, he... more
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Authorities have long alleged that De Moura, now 39, plotted Stang's murder because she blocked him and other ranchers from taking over land that had been set aside for the poor for sustainable development. Stang also is said to have denounced De Moura for illegal deforestation of his land.
De Moura's initial conviction in 2007 was reversed in a second trial in 2008, after convicted gunman Rayfran das Neves Sales recanted his testimony. The acquittal raised an international outcry among critics, who said it exemplified the immunity enjoyed by wealthy Brazilian landowners and loggers. Supreme Court Justice Celso de Mello also said that justice had "fallen short of its responsibility."
The acquittal was overturned last year on a technicality, and a third trial was ordered.
Dozens of activists, friends and colleagues of Stang camped out and prayed near the courthouse in the steamy Amazon River port city of Belem.
"The defendant, who showed a violent personality, was also wicked and cowardly in ordering the destruction of an elderly woman who helplessly had no chance to escape the attack of her executioner," Judge Raimundo Moises Flexa said after the verdict was read in the courtroom.
De Moura's attorneys told jurors their client was the victim of "an American conspiracy" and that God would punish them if they returned a guilty verdict. De Moura did not testify.
Two gunmen and a middleman have been convicted in Stang's murder and are serving lengthy prison sentences. De Moura's partner, Regivaldo Galvao, will be tried this month for allegedly helping plan the crime.
A native of Dayton, Ohio, Stang worked in Brazil for almost 40 years, becoming a naturalized citizen and helping set up schools, medical clinics and churches for landless peasants. She is one of an estimated 700 environmentalists and rights workers who have been killed in the Amazon basin in the last decade.
http://articles.latimes.com/2010/apr/13/world/la-fg-brazil-stang14-2010apr14Authorities have long alleged that De Moura, now 39, plotted Stang's murder... more
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Brazil's government has granted an environmental licence for the construction of a controversial hydro-electric dam in the Amazon rainforest.
Environmental groups say the Belo Monte dam will cause devastation in a large area of the rainforest and threaten the survival of indigenous groups.
However, the government says whoever is awarded the project will have to pay $800m to protect the environment.
The initial approval was a key step before investors could submit bids.
Resignations
The proposal to build a hydro-electric dam on the Xingu river, a tributary of the Amazon in the northern state of Para, has long been a source of controversy.
The initial project was abandoned in the 1990s amid widespread protests both in Brazil and around the world.
The government says the scheme has been modified to take account of fears that it would threaten the way of life of the indigenous peoples who live in the area.
Brazilian Environment Minister Carlos Minc revealed that those who win the bidding process to build and operate Belo Monte will have to pay millions of dollars to protect the environment and meet 40 other conditions.
However, critics say diverting the flow of the Xingu river will still lead to devastation in a large area of the rainforest and damage fish stocks.
They say the lives of up to 40,000 people could be affected as 500 sq km of land would be flooded.
When it is completed, Belo Monte would be third largest hydro-electric dam in the world, after the Three Gorges in China and Itaipu, which is jointly run by Brazil and Paraguay. It is expected to provide electricity to 23 million Brazilian homes.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8492577.stmBrazil's government has granted an environmental licence for the construction of... more
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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"... 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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