01.09.2010
Disappearing Amazon: Congratulations to Brazil’s Cattle Ranchers
The Amazon rainforest belongs to Brazil and nobody else. That being said, despite the fact that the rate of deforestation has slowed considerably in recent years, fifteen per cent of the area once covered by the rainforest has now disappeared, according to research undertaken by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics.
The Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE)* has released data today revealing that the total area of the Brazilian rainforest has been reduced by 15 %, although in recent years the rate of deforestation has decreased. Reaching a peak in 2004, by 2009, the area destroyed was just one third of that cut down five years before.
The campaign by President Lula’s Government started to kick in, in terms of results, in recent years: between 2007 and 2009 forest fires were reduced by 63%, while between 1997 and 2004, the area destroyed showed a continuous increase.
The report claims that the main source of emission of harmful GEG gases in Brazil is the destruction of the rainforest, because the fires represent around 75% of Brazilian carbon dioxide emissions. IBGE states that this statistic puts Brazil among the 10 highest producers of GEG.
* IBGE Sustainable Development Indicators´
João MOREIRA
BRAZIL
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Showing posts with label Americas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Americas. Show all posts
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Monday, August 30, 2010
Chilean workers begin drilling shaft to free trapped miners
Top story: Chilean workers will begin drilling a rescue shaft today in an effort to bring 33 miners who are trapped underground to safety. They will need to drill through more than 2,300 feet of rock -- an effort that that could take three to four months. The miners have been trapped since August 5, when a cave-in blocked their exit; they are surviving off of nutrients funneled to them by an "umbilical cord," which reaches above ground.
While workers attempt to build a shaft to free the miners, a four-person team from NASA is set to arrive this week to provide the miners with physical and psychological support. NASA has been deeply involved in efforts to maintain physical and mental well-being during long periods of isolation due to their tests for long-distance space travel.
The miners have already been sent vaccines to prevent diphtheria and tetanus, as well as rubber boots and chlorine to disinfect the water underground. They also have a video camera, which they are using to film their injuries so a doctor on the surface can help treat them. The miners were first able to speak to their families yesterday, when officials rigged a phone line down to them from the surface base.
U.S. diplomacy in Sudan gathers speed: The Obama administration is intensifying its efforts surrounding a planned referendum on the independence of south Sudan, which is scheduled for January. In the past few weeks, the United States has doubled its diplomatic representation in the south.
Article Source
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While workers attempt to build a shaft to free the miners, a four-person team from NASA is set to arrive this week to provide the miners with physical and psychological support. NASA has been deeply involved in efforts to maintain physical and mental well-being during long periods of isolation due to their tests for long-distance space travel.
The miners have already been sent vaccines to prevent diphtheria and tetanus, as well as rubber boots and chlorine to disinfect the water underground. They also have a video camera, which they are using to film their injuries so a doctor on the surface can help treat them. The miners were first able to speak to their families yesterday, when officials rigged a phone line down to them from the surface base.
U.S. diplomacy in Sudan gathers speed: The Obama administration is intensifying its efforts surrounding a planned referendum on the independence of south Sudan, which is scheduled for January. In the past few weeks, the United States has doubled its diplomatic representation in the south.
Article Source
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Fidel Castro says he was 'at death's door'
By the CNN Wire Staff
August 30, 2010 4:10 p.m. EDT
Fidel Castro addresses a special session of the Cuban Parliament on August 7, 2010.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
* In a rare interview, Fidel Castro describes his illness four years ago
* He handed over power to younger brother Raul Castro then as he underwent surgery
* Fidel says he was "at death's door," but he does not offer details about his illness
Havana, Cuba (CNN) -- In a rare interview, Fidel Castro gives new details about his health four years ago when emergency surgery forced him out of power, saying he didn't think he would make it and still has difficulty walking.
"I was at death's door," he told the director of the left-wing Mexican newspaper La Jornada in an article published Monday. "I didn't aspire to live, much less anything else."
"I asked myself many times if (doctors) were going to let me live in these conditions or let me die," he said.
The 84-year-old did not, however, provide any details about what illnesses he suffered from.
Cuban state TV read aloud a letter from Castro on July 31, 2006, announcing he was handing power to his younger brother Raul Castro. He disappeared from public view amid repeated rumors he had died.
He later started writing essays for state media and appeared in occasional photos.
Last month, Castro re-appeared in public to urge the United States to prevent what he sees as an imminent nuclear war with Iran. While he appears frequently on Cuban TV, he rarely grants interviews to the international media.
Castro said at his lowest point his weight fell to 66 kilos (about 145 pounds) but that he was now weighing in at almost 86 kilos (about 190 pounds).
"I want to tell you that you are looking at someone who has come back from the dead," he said in the interview. "This morning I succeeded in walking 600 steps alone, without a cane, without help."
According to the article, Castro "devours" books and reads up to 300 news articles a day.
When asked why all this activity, he replied: "I don't want to be absent in these days. The world is in its most interesting and dangerous phase of existence and I am committed to what is going to happen. I still have things to do."
Castro said he wants to form an anti-war movement to deter a nuclear standoff.
CNN's Shasta Darlington contributed to this report.
Article Source
BACK to margotbworldnews.com
August 30, 2010 4:10 p.m. EDT
Fidel Castro addresses a special session of the Cuban Parliament on August 7, 2010.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
* In a rare interview, Fidel Castro describes his illness four years ago
* He handed over power to younger brother Raul Castro then as he underwent surgery
* Fidel says he was "at death's door," but he does not offer details about his illness
Havana, Cuba (CNN) -- In a rare interview, Fidel Castro gives new details about his health four years ago when emergency surgery forced him out of power, saying he didn't think he would make it and still has difficulty walking.
"I was at death's door," he told the director of the left-wing Mexican newspaper La Jornada in an article published Monday. "I didn't aspire to live, much less anything else."
"I asked myself many times if (doctors) were going to let me live in these conditions or let me die," he said.
The 84-year-old did not, however, provide any details about what illnesses he suffered from.
Cuban state TV read aloud a letter from Castro on July 31, 2006, announcing he was handing power to his younger brother Raul Castro. He disappeared from public view amid repeated rumors he had died.
He later started writing essays for state media and appeared in occasional photos.
Last month, Castro re-appeared in public to urge the United States to prevent what he sees as an imminent nuclear war with Iran. While he appears frequently on Cuban TV, he rarely grants interviews to the international media.
Castro said at his lowest point his weight fell to 66 kilos (about 145 pounds) but that he was now weighing in at almost 86 kilos (about 190 pounds).
"I want to tell you that you are looking at someone who has come back from the dead," he said in the interview. "This morning I succeeded in walking 600 steps alone, without a cane, without help."
According to the article, Castro "devours" books and reads up to 300 news articles a day.
When asked why all this activity, he replied: "I don't want to be absent in these days. The world is in its most interesting and dangerous phase of existence and I am committed to what is going to happen. I still have things to do."
Castro said he wants to form an anti-war movement to deter a nuclear standoff.
CNN's Shasta Darlington contributed to this report.
Article Source
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Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Wounded Knee
Party politics and the road to an American massacre.
Written by Jason Zasky
Virtually everyone has heard of the Wounded Knee Massacre, where upwards of 300 Indians were murdered in one of the great tragedies of American history. Yet it’s probably safe to say that few are cognizant of the role that politicians and the media played in fostering the conditions that led to the disaster. “The dark machinations of partisan American politics are at the heart of the story,” writes political historian Heather Cox Richardson in “Wounded Knee: Party Politics and the Road to an American Massacre” (Basic Books), a new book that reexamines the massacre—and why it occurred.
Last week I interviewed Richardson to discuss the major themes of “Wounded Knee,” as well as the political maneuvering of that era, which continues to impact elections to this day.
What happened near Wounded Knee Creek, South Dakota on the morning of December 29, 1890?
What happened is that a group of about 300 Minneconjou Sioux—mostly women, children and elderly men—were being moved to an Indian agency, and the officer in charge decided that he had to disarm them. In the process of disarming tensions developed, not only because the Indians were frightened of the large number of soldiers, but also because they were starving. They knew if the Army succeeded in taking their guns, they had no security that they would actually be fed. Guns were also very expensive, and they had paid a lot of money for their guns. As the soldiers disarmed them, they actually marked names on some of the guns, intending to give them to friends.
Finally, one of the Minneconjou held his Winchester over his head and announced that he had paid a good deal of money for his gun and would not give it up without being paid for it. Three soldiers jumped on his back, and as they began struggling, the soldiers around the four men lowered their guns and pointed them at the group. Then one of the mixed-blood scouts screamed, “Look out! Look out! They are going to shoot!” At that point, the gun they were struggling over went off. It fired into the air, but with the report, the commander screamed, “Fire!” The soldiers fired, and the first volley cut through the Indians, killing a number of them, including a bunch of little boys playing leapfrog. A number of soldiers were also killed.
This was in the days before smokeless powder, so with the firing of the guns everything was obscured by black powder. And when that happened the Indians began to fight back. They had knives and managed to snatch guns from the soldiers who had fallen. But they were badly outnumbered and the soldiers, who had canons set up on a rise, fired down on them. Meanwhile, the Indian women—who had been held separately and told to saddle up the horses and wagons to go to the agency—jumped into the wagons and tried to escape. But the mountain guns began taking out the wagons. In the carnage about 270 Indians died.
Can you give me some background in terms of the politics of the period?
Benjamin Harrison was elected president in 1888 without the popular vote—100,000 votes short. And he had only achieved that by an extraordinarily corrupt campaign. So from the time he got into office, his men were determined to skew the electoral system so that they would be able to get Republicans re-elected. One of the first things they did when Harrison got into office was to let in six new states, which they believed would vote Republican. That’s how we got North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Idaho and Washington. The problem was that the summer of 1890 was so bad out west that those states began to slide away to the Democrats. The Republicans knew they had to hold onto those states, but they ended up losing the House by 2-1 and held onto the Senate by just four votes. Then they lost the White House in 1892.
How did Harrison Republicans treat the Indians in South Dakota?
In October 1890, when they were trying desperately to hold those Western states, one of the things they did was to remove Indian agents in South Dakota—agents that had established relationships with the Sioux. They replaced those agents with Party operatives [who were part of a system of patronage]. But the man Harrison put in charge [Daniel F. Royer] knew nothing about Indians and was afraid of them. He became panicked that Indians were on the warpath. Yet there is no evidence that there was any concern on the part of people in South Dakota or Nebraska about the people being afraid of the Indians.
What role did the media play in the months leading up to and following the massacre?
Back east the media started to portray the crisis in South Dakota according to the Harrison administration. As soon as troops went in, [newspapers] sent stringers and reporters and photographers to South Dakota. But there wasn’t a story, so they started making stuff up—saying how the Indians were going to fight. They also got the photographers to stage pictures with the Indians, encouraging them to pose as if holding guns at reporters. There is a wonderful image of this in Richard Jensen’s “Eyewitness at Wounded Knee” (University of Nebraska Press).
What is the legacy of the massacre? What happened in the aftermath?
First, the general in charge of the Army mobilization [Nelson Myles] was aghast at what had happened, in part because the massacre destroyed his chance to possibly be President. He held a Court of inquiry, but the Harrison administration completely whitewashed it. Col. James Forsyth was exonerated, as were all the soldiers who we know killed women and children as they were running away. And the Harrison administration handed out 20 Medals of Honor to the people who were engaged at Wounded Knee [or immediately thereafter].
In terms of the Indians, the Sioux nation has never really recovered from anything that happened from the 1890s on. It remains mired in the direst poverty, and no one in America even seems to notice.
The final thing that is really important for people to understand is that five of the six states that the Harrison Republicans let in never got the settlers that the Republicans insisted they would, and continue to exercise a disproportionate influence on American politics. It’s astonishing that Americans don’t talk about this and don’t seem to recognize it.
Heather Cox Richardson’s Wounded Knee book site
Copyright © 2010 Failure Magazine LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Read more: http://failuremag.com/index.php/site/print/wounded_knee/#ixzz0x0oBLYjW
BACK to http://margotbworldnews.com
Written by Jason Zasky
Virtually everyone has heard of the Wounded Knee Massacre, where upwards of 300 Indians were murdered in one of the great tragedies of American history. Yet it’s probably safe to say that few are cognizant of the role that politicians and the media played in fostering the conditions that led to the disaster. “The dark machinations of partisan American politics are at the heart of the story,” writes political historian Heather Cox Richardson in “Wounded Knee: Party Politics and the Road to an American Massacre” (Basic Books), a new book that reexamines the massacre—and why it occurred.
Last week I interviewed Richardson to discuss the major themes of “Wounded Knee,” as well as the political maneuvering of that era, which continues to impact elections to this day.
What happened near Wounded Knee Creek, South Dakota on the morning of December 29, 1890?
What happened is that a group of about 300 Minneconjou Sioux—mostly women, children and elderly men—were being moved to an Indian agency, and the officer in charge decided that he had to disarm them. In the process of disarming tensions developed, not only because the Indians were frightened of the large number of soldiers, but also because they were starving. They knew if the Army succeeded in taking their guns, they had no security that they would actually be fed. Guns were also very expensive, and they had paid a lot of money for their guns. As the soldiers disarmed them, they actually marked names on some of the guns, intending to give them to friends.
Finally, one of the Minneconjou held his Winchester over his head and announced that he had paid a good deal of money for his gun and would not give it up without being paid for it. Three soldiers jumped on his back, and as they began struggling, the soldiers around the four men lowered their guns and pointed them at the group. Then one of the mixed-blood scouts screamed, “Look out! Look out! They are going to shoot!” At that point, the gun they were struggling over went off. It fired into the air, but with the report, the commander screamed, “Fire!” The soldiers fired, and the first volley cut through the Indians, killing a number of them, including a bunch of little boys playing leapfrog. A number of soldiers were also killed.
This was in the days before smokeless powder, so with the firing of the guns everything was obscured by black powder. And when that happened the Indians began to fight back. They had knives and managed to snatch guns from the soldiers who had fallen. But they were badly outnumbered and the soldiers, who had canons set up on a rise, fired down on them. Meanwhile, the Indian women—who had been held separately and told to saddle up the horses and wagons to go to the agency—jumped into the wagons and tried to escape. But the mountain guns began taking out the wagons. In the carnage about 270 Indians died.
Can you give me some background in terms of the politics of the period?
Benjamin Harrison was elected president in 1888 without the popular vote—100,000 votes short. And he had only achieved that by an extraordinarily corrupt campaign. So from the time he got into office, his men were determined to skew the electoral system so that they would be able to get Republicans re-elected. One of the first things they did when Harrison got into office was to let in six new states, which they believed would vote Republican. That’s how we got North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Idaho and Washington. The problem was that the summer of 1890 was so bad out west that those states began to slide away to the Democrats. The Republicans knew they had to hold onto those states, but they ended up losing the House by 2-1 and held onto the Senate by just four votes. Then they lost the White House in 1892.
How did Harrison Republicans treat the Indians in South Dakota?
In October 1890, when they were trying desperately to hold those Western states, one of the things they did was to remove Indian agents in South Dakota—agents that had established relationships with the Sioux. They replaced those agents with Party operatives [who were part of a system of patronage]. But the man Harrison put in charge [Daniel F. Royer] knew nothing about Indians and was afraid of them. He became panicked that Indians were on the warpath. Yet there is no evidence that there was any concern on the part of people in South Dakota or Nebraska about the people being afraid of the Indians.
What role did the media play in the months leading up to and following the massacre?
Back east the media started to portray the crisis in South Dakota according to the Harrison administration. As soon as troops went in, [newspapers] sent stringers and reporters and photographers to South Dakota. But there wasn’t a story, so they started making stuff up—saying how the Indians were going to fight. They also got the photographers to stage pictures with the Indians, encouraging them to pose as if holding guns at reporters. There is a wonderful image of this in Richard Jensen’s “Eyewitness at Wounded Knee” (University of Nebraska Press).
What is the legacy of the massacre? What happened in the aftermath?
First, the general in charge of the Army mobilization [Nelson Myles] was aghast at what had happened, in part because the massacre destroyed his chance to possibly be President. He held a Court of inquiry, but the Harrison administration completely whitewashed it. Col. James Forsyth was exonerated, as were all the soldiers who we know killed women and children as they were running away. And the Harrison administration handed out 20 Medals of Honor to the people who were engaged at Wounded Knee [or immediately thereafter].
In terms of the Indians, the Sioux nation has never really recovered from anything that happened from the 1890s on. It remains mired in the direst poverty, and no one in America even seems to notice.
The final thing that is really important for people to understand is that five of the six states that the Harrison Republicans let in never got the settlers that the Republicans insisted they would, and continue to exercise a disproportionate influence on American politics. It’s astonishing that Americans don’t talk about this and don’t seem to recognize it.
Heather Cox Richardson’s Wounded Knee book site
Copyright © 2010 Failure Magazine LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Read more: http://failuremag.com/index.php/site/print/wounded_knee/#ixzz0x0oBLYjW
BACK to http://margotbworldnews.com
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