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A game-changer for the Amazon


An ambitious project is underway in the Amazon for the largest environmental reserve in the world — twice the size of France! And the Colombian President just announced he will champion it. If we can create a huge global push now, and run national polls in Brazil, Colombia and Venezuela, we can give the project the public backing it needs!

SAVE THE AMAZON
Dear friends,

An ambitious project is underway to create the largest environmental reserve in the world, protecting 135 million hectares of Amazon forest. That’s more than twice the size of France! But it won’t happen unless Brazil, Colombia and Venezuela’s leaders know the public wants it. That’s where we come in.

Colombia has just said it is on board. Now, if we create a huge global push to save the Amazon and combine it with national polls in all three countries, we can give the Colombian president the support he needs to convince Brazil and Venezuela. All three leaders are looking for opportunities to shine at the next UN climate summit. Let’s give it to them.

The Amazon is vital to life on earth — 10% of known species live there, and its trees help slow down climate change by storing billions of tonnes of carbon that would otherwise be in the atmosphere. Experts say this reserve would be a total game-changer for stopping rampant deforestation. Sign the petition now, when we reach 1 million signers, indigenous leaders will deliver our petition and polls directly to the three governments:

https://secure.avaaz.org/en/amazon_corridor_dn_b/?biEWLbb&v=56335

Dear friends,

An ambitious project is underway to create the largest environmental reserve in the world, protecting 135 million hectares of Amazon forest. That’s more than twice the size of France! But it won’t happen unless Brazil, Colombia and Venezuela’s leaders know the public wants it. That’s where we come in.

Colombia has just said it is on board. Now, if we create a huge global push to save the Amazon and combine it with national polls in all three countries, we can give the Colombian president the support he needs to convince Brazil and Venezuela. All three leaders are looking for opportunities to shine at the next UN climate summit. Let’s give it to them.

The Amazon is vital to life on earth — 10% of known species live there, and its trees help slow down climate change by storing billions of tonnes of carbon that would otherwise be in the atmosphere. Experts say this reserve would be a total game-changer for stopping rampant deforestation. Sign the petition now, when we reach 1 million signers, indigenous leaders will deliver our petition and polls directly to the three governments:

https://secure.avaaz.org/en/amazon_corridor_dn_b/?biEWLbb&v=56335

The fate of the Amazon rainforest is dangling by a thread. After declining for a few years, deforestation rates started rising again last year, and shot up in Brazil by 190% in August and September. Current laws and enforcement strategies are failing to stop the loggers, miners and ranchers. The best way to regenerate the forest is by creating large reserves, and this ecological corridor would go a long way to help save the fragile wilderness of the Amazon.

Some say reserves hold back economic development, others say they are implemented without consulting the indigenous communities. But those behind this proposal have committed to full engagement and collaboration with the indigenous tribes. And 80% of the territory in this plan is already protected. All that this ground-breaking proposal really requires is regional coordination and enforcement.

Indigenous peoples and activists have lost their lives protesting the devastation of the Amazon’s ecology and their home. If we now unleash our massive global community led by Avaaz members in Latin America, we have a unique power to get these leaders to agree to this step forward in the fight against climate change and species loss. Sign now — let’s give these leaders huge public support for this amazing Amazon plan.

https://secure.avaaz.org/en/amazon_corridor_dn_b/?biEWLbb&v=56335

The Avaaz community has fought for our forests before, helping to face down threats to the Amazon in Bolivia, Peru and Brazil. This is an opportunity to win a tangible and vital project that could help guarantee all of our futures. If it works, this could be replicated in all the world’s most important forests. Together, this could plant a seed that helps look after the whole world.

With hope and determination,

Alice, Bert, Ana Sofía, Oscar, Marigona, Joseph and the entire Avaaz team

More Information:

Colombia proposes world’s largest eco-corridor with Brazil, Venezuela (Business Standard)
http://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ians/colombia-proposes-world-s-largest-eco-corridor-wi

Colombia seeks ‘environmental corridor’ across Andes, Amazon (Phys.org)
http://phys.org/news/2015-02-colombia-environmental-corridor-andes-amazon.html

What next? Brazil’s deforestation soared by 290% in September 2014 (REDD Monitor)
http://www.redd-monitor.org/2014/10/31/what-next-brazils-deforestation-soared-by-290-in-september-20

Amazon deforestation soars after a decade of stability (New Scientist)
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn27056-amazon-deforestation-soars-after-a-decade-of-stability.h

Colombia wants to achieve “zero deforestation” in the Amazon by 2020 (EFE)
http://www.efeverde.com/noticias/colombia-promueve-deforestacion-cero-amazonia/

The Amazon will no longer be the world’s lung, according to report (Eco Portal)
http://www.ecoportal.net/Eco-Noticias/El-Amazonas-ya-no-sera-mas-el-pulmon-del-planeta-segun-un-estu

Amazonian Wildlife (BBC Nature)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/places/Amazon_Basin
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The key to saving the Amazon


 Dalia Hashad – Avaaz

Every 60 seconds, Amazon forest the size of 3 football fields disappears — thousand-year-old trees logged or burnt to the ground. Scientists warn that we must make a choice now: take action to save the Amazon or lose the fight in a generation. One untapped resource is the key to saving the Amazon: indigenous people who have called it their home for centuries. Like the jaguar or the giant kapok tree, these communities are not simply inhabitants of the forest, but rather part of the Amazon itself. Guardians of the forest’s hidden treasures, they are front-line experts on the plunder that threatens it and what preservation requires. But the 400 tribes don’t have resources to convert their knowledge into the political power necessary to save the Amazon.That’s where we come in.If we back indigenous communities with funds and a top-notch team of campaigners from around the world, we can make theirs the voice that saves the Amazon. We’ll train indigenous leaders in advocacy, campaigning, civil disobedience and provide them with the resources they need from media access to funded lobbying trips. Then we will set them up with satellite phones that can alert rapid response teams around the world to launch into action.

To save the Amazon, instead of leading, what we really need to do is join with indigenous communities and follow. With enough pledges now, we can combine the power of our massive global movement with the true guardians of the Amazon to do what we need to save us all.

Click to pledge now — Avaaz will only process your donation if we raise enough to ignite a global campaign
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Indigenous Peoples of the Amazon are Stronger with Our Support! ~ repost
Português | Español | Deutsch | [+]The indigenous peoples of the Amazon have long known this simple truth: what we do to the planet we do to ourselves. That is why Amazon Watch directly supports communities challenging massive industrial expansion like the Belo Monte Dam Complex and the proposed dams on the Tapajos River in Brazil. And why we supported indigenous women at the COP20 Climate Conference last week in Peru – generating media and grassroots support to make their fight central to the climate change debate. Your donations made that work possible.Scientists have shown empirically that empowering indigenous peoples with the rights to their ancestral territories is the most effective way to preserve the Amazon rainforest. In fact, if indigenous communities successfully assert their land rights, over 200 million hectares of the Amazon could be protected.

The race to exploit the Amazon has already led to mass deforestation, sickness, death, the extinction of previously “uncontacted” communities, cultural disintegration, prostitution, and more. This is unacceptable. We need everyone to invest in the fight to end these abuses.

Amazon Watch will continue to advance the rights of our indigenous partners – the stewards of our planetary life-support systems. And you can directly help tip the balance in their favor for everyone’s benefit. Please support Amazon Watch today.
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Underpaid workers, deplorable health conditions, exploitation, active racism, wage theft


Beauty

New York Nail Salon Workers Get Their Own Bill of Rights

Nora Crotty
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Today’s Headlines … As the Clock Strikes Midnight…



Davan Maharaj, editor of the Los Angeles Times

The LA Times Logo
Time ran out on the National Security Agency’s authority to collect massive amounts of Americans’ telephone calling data Sunday night. The Senate appears poised to pass a House bill this week to reform the NSA’s domestic surveillance practices, but debate among Republicans especially has become a major element in the 2016 presidential campaign.

A Soccer Tournament in Jeopardy
The federal corruption investigation of FIFA, the governing body of world soccer, may jeopardize the much ballyhooed 2016 Copa America tournament in the United States. The alleged bribery connected with the tournament was one of the major examples in the 161-page indictment handed down last week. The tournament has never been held here and its coming was taken as a validation of the sport’s growing prominence in this country. Now, it’s uncertain if the tournament will take place in the U.S. after all.

Squiggling L.A.
The Sixth Street Viaduct has been one of the most revered — and dilapidated — icons in the city. Due to a fatal flaw in its concrete, the bridge will soon be replaced with a new span designed not just as a utilitarian crossing between Boyle Heights and downtown, but as a squiggling connector, destination, urban artwork and playground. Demolition begins this summer. The $428-million project is scheduled to open in 2019.

Sheriff’s Deputies Admit Lying
Two sheriff’s deputies have broken ranks and changed their stories in a jail beating case. The deputies now say in a plea agreement that the victim, a visitor to the jail, was handcuffed while he was beaten. The two deputies have agreed to plead guilty to criminal charges and testify against three other deputies who have been indicted on federal assault and civil rights charges.

Gastronomical Science
Do you eat your food or subject it to weights and measures? Chef-turned-food writer Christopher St. Cavish does both. In his quest to find the perfect Shanghai soup dumpling known as xiao long bao, he set off across the city of 24 million to rate dumplings. Inspired by the ones he enjoys at Din Tai Fung, the Taiwanese restaurant that has expanded to the United States, St. Cavish studied how thin the dough was, how much soup was served with the dumpling and the weight of the filling inside. Then he published his findings. Restaurateurs weren’t impressed, but he was satisfied. In more ways than one.