Amazon

More from our very own Christine Z splashing life and brilliance onto the page.

Recently an un-contacted (by “civilized man”) tribe was found in the far west reaches of Brazil’s Amazon Basin on the Peruvian border. They were photographed by aircraft and are seen painted bright red pointing their bow and arrow weapons at the craft in defense!

It’s a long road to really creating an eco friendly world, but we are making positive steps forward. Very often these little steps are made by individuals, cities, and mayors that are not waiting on national legislature. There is allot of debate to why national governments are taking their time, one of which is the involvement and persuasion of the oil industry. Today, a very inspirational story came to my attention that has been going on for years that surrounds those big bad oil companies.

Good news from Brazil - the Brazilian government inaugurated a condom factory that will help both poor Brazilian rubber tappers to make a living and to preserve the Amazon rain forest. Sounds like a win-win deal to me!

The guitars in the Les Paul SmartWood Exotics series are made from tropical woods. The trees are harvested from managed, renewable forests certified by the Rainforest Alliance. A portion of all sales will be donated to benefit the Rainforest Alliance.

All those trees being cut down to make paper to print books on is a waste when there are lots of read copies of the books you want out there, lying around and gathering dust. From EcoStreet here are 5 things you can do about it right now.

Amazon.com has teamed up with The Surfrider Foundation to raise money towards Surfrider’s mission. If you go through the link below, Amazon will donate 5% of all purchases to Surfrider Foundation. There is no cost to the user, all the money comes out of Amazon’s pocket. It’s super simple:

Whatever the motivation, Kindle steps recycled paper books and paperless paper up a futuristic notch by re-igniting the e-book market and paving the way for book publishers to go green. Maybe.

By some measures, forest fires in the Amazon are at near-record levels, according to analysis Brazilian satellite data by mongabay.com. A surge in soy and cattle prices may be contributing to an increase in deforestation since last year.

The slowing of Amazonian rainforest destruction in recent years may be about to end. Already there are signs that deforestation is gathering speed again. Deforestation in the states of Mato Grosso and Para is reportedly rising, with chainsaws and forest fires levelling thousands of hectares of pristine forest. Figures released last week by Brazil's space agency, INPE, show that between May and July of this year there was a 200% rise in deforestation in Mato Grosso.

This article states New York City's parks department is America's biggest destroyer of Amazonian rain forest and that Mayor Bloomberg isn't doing much to stop it.

Seven years? It's a tall order but Greenpeace have a cunning plan. Together with eight other national campaigning organisations, their Brazilian team have launched an ambitious proposal with a goal of zero deforestation by 2015.

As global warming continues on it rapid trend upwards and national governments still doing little to slow down the process comes a list of articles that are demonstrating the impact of human apathy and procrastination. Sequoia, Sierra Nevada, Europe, Amazon, Brazil, France, Italy, India, Mexico, Africa, Migration, Crops, Drought, and War.

Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has welcomed new figures showing that the destruction of the Amazon rainforest has decreased by 25%. President Lula said this had prevented the release of millions of tonnes of CO2 gas into the atmosphere. The government says environmental policies, including measures against illegal logging, have had an effect. Environmentalists welcomed the figures, but said falling commodity prices and economic conditions were also a factor.