Tag: Amazonia - Page 5
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TreeHugger Reports From the Heart of the Amazon
Perhaps the most striking thing about flying over the Amazon rainforest is how untouched it looks; there's no checkered quilt of farmland or veins of highway. From horizon to horizon it's nothing but an impossibly vast sea of green, inspiring the same
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Amazon Storm Killed Half a Billion Trees in Two Days
If you thought unscrupulous logging practices were the only threat to the world's largest rainforest, then think again. According to a new study, one extremely powerful storm in 2005 resulted in the deaths of an estimated 441 million
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Wade Davis on What it Means to be Human and Alive
Photo credit: Ryan Hill Wade Davis might have the most amazing job on the planet. Trained as an anthropologist and ethnobotonist, he's lived among some of the most remarkable cultures of the world and been witness to (and participant in) many moments
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Brazil's Lula Slams "Gringo" Protests of Amazon Dam
Brazil's proposed construction of what would be the third largest hydroelectric dam on the planet has drawn ire from environmental groups the world over. The planned dam at Belo Monte, protestors say, will flood and destroy much of
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REDD Forest Protection Program Could Threaten Rights of 350 Million People
Though support, both political and financial, for the UN REDD forest protection scheme has been growing, there's also a growing opposition voice expressing the concern that, though keeping forests standing is a good
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Hidden From Satellites, Amazon Burning Continues Even As Deforestation Slows
Here's an interesting wrinkle on the ongoing effort to slow Amazon deforestation: Reuters reports that even though tree-felling is indeed slowing, the area of land being burned by farmers is actually increasing,
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Indigenous Amazonians Prepare For War to Stop Massive Hydroelectric Dam on Xingu River
Brazil's planned 11 gigawatt Belo Monte Dam on the Xingu River (a tributary of the Amazon) has raised a lot of protest in the past few months--and some comparisons of life
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Indigenous Tribesmen Storm Brazilian Congress
In a dramatic scene of protest today in the Brazilian Capitol Building, several dozen indigenous tribesmen clashed with security outside the chamber of the House of Representatives--some armed with batons and sticks. Capitol Police managed to hold back
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Musical About Amazonian Tribe Debuts in Germany
They may not be crooning cats, singing sailors, or inner-city gang members with a flair for dance, but that's not stopping indigenous Amazonian tribesmen
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Brazil Announces Plan For Sustainable Palm Oil
Photo via the Land Coalition Palm oil production has long been a contentious issue and a double-edged sword. On the one hand, the oil's renewable source and application as biofuel make it an appealing alternative, but on the other, some of the most
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Photo Released to Prove Uncontacted Tribes Exist
Deep in the heart of Peru's rainforest live some of the planet's few remaining uncontacted tribesmen. But if oil executives have their way, these tribes' first introduction to the outside world will be a pipeline
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Half the Amazon Could be Lost by 2050, Says Study
In what could easily be considered a worst-case scenario for the fate of the world's largest rainforest, a study led by Brazil's National Institute of Special Research found that the size of the Amazon could be reduced 50 percent by
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A Tale of Two Frogs That Need "Save the Frogs" Day
Photos via Mundo Gump For many frogs, it's the worst of times. Take the Poison dart frog, for example--the most poisonous vertebrae in the world. These tiny frogs contain enough alkaloid poison in their skin to kill around fifteen people, or two adult
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Large-Scale Soy Farming Pushing Cattle Ranchers Deeper Into Amazon
Ah the tangled web... Report after report has detailed how both the beef and the leather industries have been major causes on deforestation in Brazil. There have even been ones showing how cattle
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Amazon Expedition Aims to Collect 100,000 Bugs
To date, around 1
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Belo Monte Dam Moves Ahead Despite Indigenous Protests, Celebrity Visits, and Court Injunctions
Neither the celebrity sway of "Avatar" director James Cameron nor a top court's injunction were, in the end, enough to stop the Brazilian government from
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Judge Puts Brakes on Hydroelectric Dam Project in Brazil's Amazon Rainforest
A controversial hydroelectric dam project that would have forever
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Freaky Nose Leech Named For Its Enormous Teeth
Three years ago, after a young Peruvian girl bathed in a river, she began to experience an odd sensation in the her nose--like something was moving back there... And it turns out there was. After visiting with a local physician
