Amazon rainforest

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Loggers Threaten Remote Amazon Tribe

Despite court order, outsiders refuse to leave Awa lands

(Newser) - Illegal loggers and settlers deep in the Brazilian rainforest are refusing a court order to leave land that belongs to the shrinking Awa tribe, some of whose members have never encountered outsiders, reports LiveScience . A Brazilian judge ordered the loggers off the Awa land last year and gave them a...

Ecuador to China Oil Barons: Amazon Rainforest for Sale

Indigenous groups not happy

(Newser) - Tree-huggers will be really displeased to hear this: Ecuador is planning to auction off more than 7 million acres of the Amazon ... to Chinese oil companies. Politicians pitched bidding contracts to oil company reps in Beijing on Monday, the Guardian reports. Needless to say, indigenous groups living on the land...

How Many Trees in the Rainforest? Brazil to Count

Census to inform policy decisions

(Newser) - Brazil doesn't know enough about its tropical forest, says its environmental minister—so it's going to take a census of its trillions of trees. Over the next four years, officials will travel the country, stopping at 20,000 locations, each about 12 miles from the next. There, they'...

Amazon Destruction Sinks to Lowest Level

But lawmakers are looking to ease tough restrictions

(Newser) - Brazil's Amazon rainforest lost an area about the size of Delaware in the year ended in July, but there's a silver lining to that stat: It's the lowest level of destruction since tracking began in 1988, reports the AP . The deforestation peaked in 1995, with the staggering...

Your New 7 Wonders, Maybe
 Your New 7 Wonders, Maybe 
Nov 12, 2011 10:52 AM CST

Your New 7 Wonders, Maybe

Grand Canyon didn't make the cut

(Newser) - A controversial contest to name the new 7 Wonders of Nature has picked its "provisional" winners. They won't be confirmed until early next year, notes MSNBC . (Skeptics will want to read this Guardian story, with allegations that organizers are just trying to make a buck by charging countries...

Far-Flung Amazon Village Hitting Google Street View

Brazilian villagers had never heard of Google before

(Newser) - Google's effort to extend Street View to places well off the beaten track has brought it to a remote village on a tributary of the Amazon. A Google trike with nine cameras attached was sent to the remote Brazilian community of Tumbira and traveled up and down its paths...

Jagger Named Peru Rainforest 'Ambassador'

Becomes regional 'ally' in fight to protect ecosystem

(Newser) - Now that he's saving the rainforest, maybe Mick Jagger will finally get that long-elusive satisfaction. The Rolling Stone has been dubbed an honorary ambassador for tourism to a region of Peru's Amazon, AFP reports. "You are our ally. Your presence is a great support in our fight...

Drug Smugglers May Have Wiped Out Amazon Tribe

Uncontacted tribe missing after traffickers overrun lands

(Newser) - Authorities in Brazil fear that a "lost" tribe deep in the Amazon has been wiped out after encountering the outside world at its worst. The tribe, which had never previously been contacted by outsiders— and was photographed earlier this year aiming bows and arrows at a plane flying over...

Brazil Finds New Tribe in Amazon

These 200 people have had no contact with outside world

(Newser) - A never-before-seen indigenous tribe living in the Amazon rainforest has been revealed by aerial photographs, the latest such tribe to be discovered in the wilds of Brazil. The group, believed to contain about 200 people, has never had any contact with the outside world, the Telegraph reports. The settlement, which...

Amazon Rainforest Activist Gunned Down

Jose Claudio de Ribeiro da Silva predicted own murder

(Newser) - A leading campaigner against illegal logging and ranching in the Amazon rainforest has been gunned down 6 months after predicting his own murder. "I will protect the forest at all costs," Jose Claudio de Ribeiro da Silva said last year. "That is why I could get a...

Peru Battles Plague of Vampire Bats

500 bitten, 4 dead in Amazon attacks

(Newser) - Peru has dispatched emergency teams to deal with an outbreak of rabies spread by vampire bats. The bloodsuckers have attacked over 500 people in a remote Amazon area, including four children who died, the BBC reports. Most victims have now been vaccinated. Experts believe the bats have started preying on...

Brazil Tribes Grab 'Burial Ground' Dam Workers

Hostages freed as Indians demand reparations

(Newser) - A group of 300 Brazilian Indians from eight tribes have freed some 100 dam workers that were held hostage for over 24 hours in an action protesting construction of a dam over an ancient burial ground. The Indians—wearing war paint and brandishing bows and arrows—encircled the dam site...

This Leech Wants to Live in Your Nose
 This Leech Wants to 
 Live in Your Nose 
in case you missed it
Apr 18, 2010 12:50 PM CDT

This Leech Wants to Live in Your Nose

Large-toothed leech infests Amazon—and, of course, noses

(Newser) - If the piranhas aren't enough to deter you from swimming in the Amazon region, this thing probably will be. A new species of leech has been discovered in Peru—and it's especially fond of dwelling inside the human nose, the BBC reports. The creature, discovered after a doctor pulled one...

James Cameron Fights for 'Real-Life' Na'vi in Brazil

Director opposes construction of $11 billion Amazon dam

(Newser) - For indigenous groups in the Amazon, the plot of Avatar is all too familiar, the movie's director says. James Cameron is helping Indian groups and environmentalists battle a hydroelectric plant on Brazil's Xingu River. "I'm drawn into a situation where a real-life Avatar confrontation is in progress," he...

Brazil Using Condoms to Protect Rainforest

Sustainable condom project to use Amazon rubber

(Newser) - Brazil has unrolled an ambitious plan to preserve vast areas of the Amazon rainforest by tapping its rubber trees to make sustainable condoms. Most "rubbers" are now made from cheaper synthetic materials, but officials of the Brazilian government—which buys 1 billion condoms a year—say the project will...

13-Foot Alligator Kills 11-Year-Old Girl

Victim was swimming in shallow water of Brazilian river

(Newser) - An 11-year-old girl who was swimming with friends in a river in Brazil was attacked and killed by a 13-foot-long alligator, according to local media reports. The girl was playing in shallow water in the northern part of the country, near the Amazon, when the alligator struck. The reptile was...

Deforestation Reveals Signs of 'El Dorado'

 Deforestation Reveals 
 Signs of 'El Dorado' 


lost city of gold found?
Jan 6, 2010 7:05 AM CST

Deforestation Reveals Signs of 'El Dorado'

Team spots evidence of massive Amazon civilization

(Newser) - The legends of lost cities that drew Spanish explorers to their doom seeking "El Dorado" in the Amazon may have been rooted in truth after all. Deforestation in Brazil and northern Bolivia has revealed signs, including roads and massive earthworks, of an Amazon civilization much bigger than anything previously...

Brazil: 'Gringos' Must Pay to Keep Rainforests

Industrialized nations have done most damage to Amazon

(Newser) - Brazil's president says "gringos" should pay Amazon nations to prevent deforestation, insisting rich Western nations have caused much more past environmental destruction than the loggers and farmers who cut and burn trees in the world's largest tropical rain forest.

Let's Pay People Not to Cut Down Trees
Let's Pay People 
Not to Cut Down Trees 

analysis
Sep 25, 2009 2:42 PM CDT

Let's Pay People Not to Cut Down Trees

A deal could curb greenhouse gas emissions by 18%

(Newser) - Deforestation releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, so how about paying people to keep trees standing? A pilot project in Brazil has paid families to do just that, and aroused the interest of world leaders who plan to negotiate a climate deal in Copenhagen in December, the Economist reports. But...

Pee in the Shower, Save the World: Brazilian Group

(Newser) - A Brazilian environmental group is running TV ads encouraging citizens to save water by urinating in the shower, the AP reports. SOS Mata Atlantica says a household can save more than 1,000 gallons a year by going No. 1 straight into the drain. The humorous ad is “a...

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