Word: amazone
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Scientists are concerned that the destruction of the Amazon could lead to climatic chaos. Because of the huge volume of clouds it generates, the Amazon system plays a major role in the way the sun's heat is distributed around the globe. Any disturbance of this process could produce far-reaching, unpredictable effects. Moreover, the Amazon region stores at least 75 billion tons of carbon in its trees, which when burned spew carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Since the air is already dangerously overburdened by carbon dioxide from the cars and factories of industrial nations, the torching of the Amazon...
...potential consequences of rain-forest destruction became more widely known, saving the Amazon became the cause of 1989. In New York City, Madonna helped organize a benefit concert called "Don't Bungle the Jungle," which also featured the B-52s and the Grateful Dead's Bob Weir. Xapuri, the remote town where Mendes lived and died, has been besieged by journalists, agents and pilgrims. Robert Redford, David Puttnam and other prominent moviemakers have sought the rights to film the Mendes story...
Many Brazilians still believe the Amazon is indestructible -- a green monster so huge and vital that it could not possibly disappear. Asked about a controversial hydroelectric project that might flood an area as large as Britain, a Brazilian engineering consultant said, "Yes, that's a big area, but in terms of the Amazon it's small." Maintained Sarney recently: "It's not easy to destroy a rain forest. There are recuperative powers at work...
...rain forest is deceptively fragile. Left to itself, it is an almost self-sustaining ecosystem that thrives indefinitely. But it does not adapt well to human invasions and resists being turned into farm- or ranchland. Most settlers find that the lush promise of the Amazon is an illusion that vanishes when grasped...
...when stripped of its trees, the land becomes inhospitable. Most of the Amazon's soil is nutrient poor and ill suited to agriculture. The rain forest has an uncanny capacity to flourish in soils that elsewhere would not even support weeds...