Seeds of Hope
RainforestECO – Regeneration & Youth Impact
2015 International Day of Trees News Snips
The flying river is a movement of large quantities of water vapor transported in the atmosphere from the Amazon Basin to other parts of South America. The forest trees release water vapor into the atmosphere through transpiration and this moisture is deposited in other localities in the form of precipitation, forming a virtual river.
Meanwhile…
Taps Start to Run Dry in Brazil’s Largest City – São Paulo Water Crisis Linked to Growth, Pollution and Deforestation
Deforestation in the Amazon River basin, hundreds of miles away, may also be adding to São Paulo’s water crisis. Cutting the forest reduces its capacity to release humidity into the air, diminishing rainfall in southeast Brazil, according to a recent study… Click here to read more.
Meanwhile….
Massive new study shows that pressures on the Amazon rainforest mean it can no longer be relied on to soak up more CO2 from the atmosphere than it puts out.
Two decades ago, the forest drew down a peak of two billion tonnes of carbon dioxide each year from the atmosphere. Now, according to a massive new study in Nature journal by more than 90 scientists, the rate of withdrawal has fallen to around half that total. Click here to read more.
Meanwhile…
I was searching for even a morsel of good news to report while composing this post, and received this message of genuine hope from John Liu, in response to my Facebook comment about the despair many of us feel these days. He wrote:
“I think that we need to realize our own limitations. As individuals we cannot solve the problems humanity faces. We need to do this together with large numbers of like minded people. This will have to be done by creating a new society and economy and way of life. COMMUNITIES dedicated to creating the models necessary. It is not an accident that this discussion is emerging now. We need to have a profound and ongoing conversation, to create an inclusive way that everyone can live in peace and achieve their full potential for themselves, for human society and for the Earth. I’m still overall encouraged by the recognition of the need. But we must go much further and LIVE THE CHANGE. This means shared ownership of land, tools, vehicles, and transparent participatory governance. But it also means full employment – WORK not JOBS – and it means equality of ownership. It will not be easy but there is great satisfaction and great rewards in joy, resilience, health and consciousness.”
“I think we need to realize that the problem is bigger than simply ecological degradation and the need to restore natural water regulation, soil fertility and biodiversity. It is also bigger than simply growing good healthy food. These are fundamentally important but there is much more that needs to be done. We need to remake human society and economy. This requires creating new institutions because the ones we have serve a corrupt and corrupting world view. One thing that I notice is the number of people who want to do restoration but don’t know where to work. These people must find each other and join together in social and professional partnerships. I think Benefit Corporations may be a good transition model. A way needs to be found to bring financial capital together with “Life’s Energy” from people who devote their lives to restoring the Earth. We need to value the “Life’s energy” higher than the financial investment and make both of these ways toward ownership. Equality, ownership, homes, food, ecological restoration, education healthcare, freedom, peace are all needed and possible but require us to begin a profound societal conversation and work steadily toward creating the human civilization we can be proud of and want our children and future generations to inhabit.”
I Just Want A Rainforest
Since 2010 the iGive Trees project has been crowdfunding the renewal of an endangered rainforest in Brazil. We’re thrilled to announce that 32 page, full color book is will soon be available, documenting our story.
Our first gift of trees was delivered to residents of the back country in Cunha, São Paulo, Brazil on Thanksgiving Day, 2010. So as we mark the four year anniversary of the occasion, I wanted to share my feelings of fulfillment from this project with this video preview of the book.
United Nations Climate Summit films: WHAT’S POSSIBLE & A WORLD OF SOLUTIONS
At times when the negative news can be so very overwhelming, this is the type of news I need to share. The news that “You can choose today, to make a world of difference.”
Thanks to Louie Schwartzberg for propagating beauty and hope with his art. See more on his site United Nations Climate Summit films: WHAT'S POSSIBLE & A WORLD OF SOLUTIONS.
Synthetic RainForests Kill Wildlife
“In my life, I have dreamt of seeing the great herds of wild animals, jungles and rainforests full of birds and butterflies, but now I wonder if they will even exist for my children to see.”
~ 12 yr old Severn Suzuki at first Rio Earth Summit
I once thought that restoring a rainforest was pretty straightforward. Turns out I was mistaken. It’s completely two-faced.
One face is that of a simple country person collecting and planting seeds from the Mother trees of their region. The other face wears a protective chemical mask while planting genetically engineered forests.
If you read my post “A Silent Rainforest is a Dead Rainforest,” you know how painfully I discovered this for myself during the last few trips to Brazil. In the post I referenced the heart wrenching documentary “A Silent Forest,”. Now a sequel is being made to dive deeper into this shadowy story.
Raindancer Media, Global Justice Ecology Project, Three Americas and Earth Links came together in 2007 to produce “A Silent Forest” in which Canadian Scientist David Suzuki passionately and eloquently warned that GE trees could be developed and released if we were not vigilant. Now with GE trees in the ground and the pending release of many genetically engineered tree species, “Synthetic Forests” will be an invaluable tool in bringing the story of this dangerous group of technologies into the public eye. As with GMO labeling initiatives, when people see the facts they can act.
CLICK TO WATCH THE FULL VIDEO ONLINE.
“Synthetic Forests” shows in detail how GE Eucalyptus and GE Poplars, combined with the search for higher profits, will accelerate the devastation of indigenous communities and native forests. Deforestation, loss of biodiversity, pesticide use as well as increased water use and contamination will follow the release of GE trees. Pollen from GE trees, whether in the Southern US or the Global South could contaminate non GMO trees and will be inescapable for many people as pollen can drift hundreds of miles. Inhaled pollen could take away our choice to live GMO free, perhaps forever.
It’s a powerful way to show the world who’s behind the protective chemical masks. It may not be who you think it is.
And, you might be supporting them every time you go to the supermarket for diapers, toilet paper and tissues.
Rio Behind on Olympic Promise to Plant 24 Million Trees | RioOnWatch
Rio de Janeiro is falling behind on its promise to plant 24 million trees to offset the carbon emissions produced as a result of hosting the 2016 Olympic Games. According to the official counter, just 5.5 million have been planted, and time is running out to get the remaining trees planted before the end of 2015 deadline. Back in September 2012, State Environment Secretary Carlos Minc was so confident of reaching the goal of 24 million trees he increased the target to 34 million. But with less than two years remaining before the set deadline and little more than that until the start of the 2016 Olympic Games, it is looking more likely that this will be another ‘Olympic legacy’ left unrealized.
Of the trees to be planted, the majority are meant to be native trees to help restore Rio’s highly threatened yet biodiverse Mata Atlântica, or Atlantic Forest, that covers much of coastal and southern Brazil and which has been deforested to just 7% of its original coverage. Reforestation of degraded land is an expensive exercise, costing up to R$10,000-40,000 per hectare (all expenses included) over three years, according to Nicholas Locke, the President of REGUA, an association involved in reforestation of the Guapiaçu Valley in Rio state. It is unclear where the financing for this is going to come from, but the state has previously indicated that the effort would be a public-private partnership, with private companies providing R$500 million to meet environmental compensation requirements or as conditions for receiving environmental licensing.
A Silent Rainforest is a Dead Rainforest
“Genetic engineering (GE) of our food supply amounts to a massive science experiment being performed on mankind, without consent or full disclosure. Although the biotech industry continues to claim GE products are safe, the truth is that no one knows what the long-term effects will be, because no one has done the necessary studies.
The loudest proponents of GE are the ones who stand to profit the most, and they don’t seem terribly concerned about the human or environmental costs.
What do we know for certain? We know genetic engineering is riddled with unpredictable effects… so we should expect the unexpected.
You may not realize that this reckless genetic experimentation is not limited to your food supply. Besides being used to create drugs and “Frankenfish,” they’ve also created vaccine-containing bananas, goats that produce spider silk in their milk, venomous cabbage, chemotherapy chicken eggs, and even glow-in-the-dark cats.
As creepy as some of these things are, the application that may have the greatest potential for global disaster are GE trees created to serve the desires of the paper industry.”
~Excerpt from article by Dr. Mercola “Why Genetically Engineer Trees?”
As you’ve read in several of my prior posts, this is exactly what we’re facing in rural Brazil:
• ArborGen reaches agreement with International Paper of Brazil
• From an Endangered Rainforest to Your Garbage Can and Toilet
• GMO Corn and Trees Replace a Rainforest
What you see below are a series of segments of the entire one hour film “A Silent Forest.”
You can watch the entire film here: http://vimeo.com/51040243
Extinction of Fruit-eating Birds Impacts Forest Ecology
The extinction of large, fruit-eating birds in fragments of Brazil’s Atlantic rainforest has caused palm trees to produce smaller seeds over the past century, impacting forest ecology, found a study published in Science.
The researchers looked at Euterpe edulis palm seeds in patches of forest that have been fragmented by deforestation, coffee plantations, and sugar cane fields since the 19th century. They found that palm trees produced significantly smaller seeds in areas of forest that are too small to support “large-gaped” birds like toucans and large cotingas. The absence of these birds means that larger seeds aren’t effectively dispersed, while smaller seeds are more vulnerable to drying out before germinating. The outlook for Euterpe edulis palms — and the species that depend on them — is therefore bleak in these fragments.
Fragmentation is having other impacts as well. Research published in Science in September documented a stunning and rapid decline in mammal populations in isolated forest fragments. Mammals suffered from population isolation, degradation of habitat, and invasive species.
Source:
Rainforest news review for 2013.
If they want to build a prison in your neighborhood – just plant a forest.
Suppose you lived in a beautiful neighborhood of Sao Paulo, and you learn that the City has decided it’s the ideal location to build a new prison. What do you do? Complain endlessly about how wrong this is? Or take a creative action: plant a forest on the lot, knowing they can’t cut it down.
This was exactly the brilliant citizen activism of a small group in Vila Magdalena, who started their forest 20 years ago. Preferring to remain anonymous, the early members of this action meet each weekend to tend and increase their plantings. Now the City has become a partner, giving some small measure of help.
Neighbors get to know one another while they learn about Nature with their children. One of the people who has done a large part of the work is now paid as a gardener, rather than just receiving poverty benefits.
What can we learn from this?
Reforestation in Rio
This week I welcomed an invitation to hike through Floresta da Tijuca, the largest urban forest in the world. Turns out it’s one of the most successful reforestation projects on the planet, right here, within the city of Rio de Janeiro.
To me it’s beyond exquisitely beautiful. This forest inhales worry and and exhales hope. It reassures me, that given a bit of wisdom, massive action and enough time, Nature does repair herself. It keeps me motivated to keep planting trees in neighboring areas, former forests, that have been slashed and burned, where people now suffer the consequences: diminished water supplies, landslides and floods.
In 1861, Dom Pedro II, the Brazilian Emperor, issued a decree expropriating degraded coffee plantations from their owners near Rio de Janeiro. The decree encouraged reforestation of the mountainous area, and was aimed at restoring watershed services to the city. After all the original forest had been destroyed to make way for coffee farms, Tijuca was replanted by Major Manuel Gomes Archer. These actions led to the restoration of the Tijuca Forest, ultimately inaugurated as the Tijuca National Park. It’s now the largest urban forest in the world (14.7 square miles).
In 1961, Tijuca Forest was declared a National Park. Among its impressive peaks is the Pedra da Gávea. The Forest contains a number of attractions, most notably the colossal sculpture of Christ the Redeemer atop Corcovado mountain.
