Amazon rainforest

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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...

Kilimanjaro, Grand Canyon Among '7 Wonders' Finalists

(Newser) - Twenty-eight finalists made the cut today for the “New 7 Wonders of Nature” poll, including the Grand Canyon and the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, the AP reports. Organizers expect 1 billion people to vote online or by phone before the winners are announced in 2011. Other wonders up...

Sole Survivor of '71 Jungle Crash Recounts Ordeal

Teen girl fell 2 miles from sky, trekked 10 days out of Amazon

(Newser) - The miraculous survival of a sole passenger in the Indian Ocean plane crash this week brought back some painful memories for German librarian Juliane Koepke, CNN reports. Koepke, then 17, was the sole survivor of a 1971 crash in the Amazon rainforest. She plummeted more than two miles strapped to...

Amazon Indians Win Repeal of Land Grab Laws

Decision hailed as major victory for indigenous people

(Newser) - Peru's Congress has revoked two laws that led to bloody clashes between police and indigenous protesters, CNN reports. Lawmakers voted overwhelmingly in favor of ditching the laws that opened up the country's Amazon region to mining, logging, and oil companies. Dozens of people died earlier this month when police moved...

Photos Reveal 'Amazon Tiananmen'

Photos from Peru add weight to claims government covered up massacre

(Newser) - Graphic photographs taken by aid workers reveal the extent of violence Peru's military used to crush a land-rights protest by indigenous people earlier this month, the Independent reports. Police are seen pulling injured protesters from ambulances and beating them and bodies are seen piled by the roadside, adding weight to...

Nervous Peace Prevails After Peru Cops Quell Unrest

Curfew in place after clashes kill dozens of indigenous people, police

(Newser) - An uneasy peace has returned to northeast Peru after 3 days of clashes between indigenous people and security forces that left dozens dead, CNN reports. A curfew is holding, and both police and protesters say they want to settle their dispute through nonviolent means. The leader of the indigenous rights...

Peru Army Cracks Down on Amazon Eco Uprising

(Newser) - The Peruvian Army has imposed a curfew and set up checkpoints following deadly clashes with indigenous tribes protesting plans to drill for oil and gas in ancestral homelands in the Amazon region, reports the BBC. Dozens of people, both police and protesters, were killed in the clashes that mark the...

Climate Change Doom Looms for 85% of Amazon

Death of much of the rainforest is inevitable even under most optimistic scenario

(Newser) - Climate change may be a bigger threat to the Amazon rainforest than all the chainsaws in the world, the Guardian reports. New research predicts a global temperature rise of 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit—widely believed to be the best-case scenario even if carbon emissions are slashed—would kill off up...

Meet Titanoboa, 45-Foot Snake
 Meet Titanoboa, 45-Foot Snake 
Feb 5, 2009 11:32 AM CST

Meet Titanoboa, 45-Foot Snake

(Newser) - A 45-foot, 1.25-ton snake stalked the jungles of South America in the period shortly after dinosaurs went extinct, the Times of London reports. Researchers have found 28 individual “Titanoboas” in Colombia’s Cerrejon Coal Mine; with every specimen at least 40 feet long, scientists say it’s likely...

Brazil Rescues 4,600 Slaves in 2008

(Newser) - Brazil freed more than 4,600 slaves this year after storming a record number of remote farms, the Guardian reports. Often teaming up with federal police, the government's anti-slavery task force raided 255 farms, but advocates say thousands of poor are still being trapped into debt slavery. "It is...

Brazilian Busted in Murder of US Nun Nabbed on Slavery Charges

Dorothy Stang's slaying was subject of movie

(Newser) - A Brazilian rancher facing charges in the death of a 73-year-old American nun has been arrested again for fraud and slavery in the same Amazon region where the nun was shot three years ago, reports CNN. Evidence supporting the latest charges will be used at his murder trial. Four others...

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