all change in brazil and peru
May 14, 2008I’ve only been back a few days, but the Amazon is producing news like crazy. First up, a big shock out of Brazil: the environment minister, Marina Silva, has resigned. She says she doesn’t have political support to protect the environment.
Brazil is losing the only voice in the government that spoke out for the environment. The minister is leaving because the pressure on her for taking the measures she took against deforestation has become unbearable.
Not everyone’s disappointed. Some argue that Silva was a radical, unable to find room for the competing demands of environmental action and economic growth in the Amazon.
Things are different across the border. Peru’s government has just announced it’s setting up a new environment ministry, saying it’ll help protect the Amazon. The establishment of political muscle for the environment in Peru will be welcomed by many, but - as with all things - the proof will be in the pudding.
Tomorrow, PRI’s The World will air my first story from Manaus, Brazil. It’s a look at how the city’s rubber boom produced an unlikely sound in the rainforest: opera.
In the meantime, take a look at this slideshow of people pushing back the edges of the Amazon.
Hello. Yeah, the BBC is doing a whole series on the Amazon this week. I listen to a Portuguese webcast called bbcparaafrica.com. Not that I am fluent in Portuguese, but they did something similar to what you did. They sent a journalist called Luís into the Amazon. In one story they posted on the website two days ago, there was a program to use satellite imagery and computers to monitor the deforested ares of the Amazon. The Amazon is a very important one to keep on the radar.
Crystallography says : I absolutely agree with this !