TreeHugger Picks: Best of Brazil and Argentina
by Collin Dunn, Corvallis, OR, USA on 05.24.06
TreeHugging takes place all over the world, every day, and each different locale has it's unique and fabulous take on living the modern, green lifestyle that we write about each day. Today, we train the spotlight on South America, highlighting some of our favorites from Brazil and Argentina.
1) Curitiba, Brazil, thanks to the visionary urban planning and leadership of Jaime Lerner, is one of the most TreeHugger cities in the world.
2) Guayaki Yerba Mate tastes great and combines the best of South American tradition with a progressive, responsible business model that insures the rest of the world will enjoy it for generations to come.
3) The extensive use and production of biofuels (especially ethanol) and Compressed Natural Gas make Brazil and Argentina two of the best in the world in fostering sustainable transportation.
4) With tourism having taken off, northern Argentina's solar towns are increasingly popular destinations for eco-travel.
5) An Argentinian town has even gone off the energy grid, providing clean power to everyone lucky enough to live there.
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I was born and raised in Argentina, moved to the US only 2 years ago. Its true we ave some very good conservational tendecies, and most of them are no teven done with that in mind. We don't grass feed animals because its the right things to do, but because its the way to do it for us. As a country that is mostly farming, there are some rather unique conservationist approaches. The town going off the grid is nothing compared to the hundreds of towns that still live in ancient homes and cook with fire. Its a whole different ordeal down there.
I'll ask the ignorant question...
How much land is Brazil clearing to grow the sugar cane for ethanol?
Wouldn't it be better to switch from cattle grazing to sugar cane (given that cattle consume more energy per acre to produce than agriculture)?
Well, I'm not sure about that since we don't do sugar cane in Argentina. There is very little land for us to do that, besides the fact that cattle is also our main export, its unrealistic to see it change.
As mentioned above we do have a lot of natural gas powering cars, which is inmensely cheaper than gas, even though the initial investment is expensive.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002339093_brazilfuel17.html
I am asking one question and I am getting many different answers. Why is that? I do hear many stories but I cannot get any other information. Here is again my question: Is there any Greeks in Curitiba,Brazil. I would like to know if any. Thank you very much. Sincerely, Toe Vittore