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...Aral Sea in Central Asia -- 10 years ago the fourth largest inland sea in the world, now dead, its fishing fleets stranded surreally in dry desert. The water that once fed the Aral was diverted in an ill-considered irrigation project to grow cotton. Gore traveled to the vanishing Amazon rain forest and to the globe's other environmental Stations of the Cross. He knows too much, however, to indulge in mere sentimentalism about Earth-Motherhood, or to join a doctrinaire rush to simplification...
Chico Mendes, the Brazilian organizer who was assassinated in 1988 by ranchers for trying to preserve the Amazon forests for small-scale rubber tappers, remains the best known of the ecomartyrs, but his case is far from unique. In many countries, crusaders bring down the wrath of private interest groups, government agencies and even fellow citizens, and endure abuse ranging from intimidation and arrests to beatings and murder. "It's not at all unusual to have someone threatened or harassed in some way," says Pat Costner, director of toxics research for Greenpeace U.S.A. "It happens more often than...
...week he is leading a coalition of environmental, food-policy and animal-rights groups in launching a well-financed advertising campaign aimed at slashing worldwide beef consumption by 50% over the coming decade. Members of the coalition range from the Rainforest Action Network, which blames cattle for "killing the Amazon," % to the Fund for Animals, which criticizes the use of poisons and traps to control coyotes that prey on calves. The International Rivers Network blames cattle for wasting scarce water resources, while Food First denounces the feedlot system for wasting grain that could otherwise be used for human consumption...
...balance is self-destructive. Deforestation in Southeast Asia has let the rivers wash fertile topsoil down the drain, so to speak, destroying the land and the habitat of the indigenous human population that was supposed to benefit from the cleared space. The same thing is being repeated in the Amazon...
...movies can manage to make Sean Connery look stupid. Highlander came close, but he came out of that one with some semblance of dignity. Combine Connery's charisma with an exotic setting like the Amazon rain forest, throw in a "hard-headed female scientist" (Lorraine Bracco) and -- why not? -- a cure for cancer, and you're practically guaranteed...