American brewing icon Anheuser-Busch has agreed to a $50 Billion takeover by Belgian based brewer InBev in a deal set to create the world’s largest beer maker. What sealed the deal in the month long negotiations between the two brewing giants was InBev raising its offer to $70.00 per share, 27% higher than Anheuser-Busch’s all time high stock price from 2002, and $5.00 per share higher than InBev’s initial offer reported on TakePart last month.

Although many American politicians including Democratic Presidential hopeful Barack Obama and Missouri Governor Matt Blunt have come out against the deal, personally I’m all for it. For one, as a matter of personal taste, Anheuser-Busch could use the help in crafting their brews from InBev, the same company that produces one of my favorite beers, Stella Artois. Secondly, the new company will be a truly international conglomerate. InBev itself was formed in a 2004 merger between Brazilian brewer AmBev and Belgian based Interbrew and although the company is based out of Leuven, Belgium, its management is made up of primarily Brazilian executives. So we’ll end up with America’s favorite beer, owned by a company operating out of Belgium and run by Brazilians - a perfect brew for a globalized, interdependent world.

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The world’s richest nations and emerging economies joined together at a summit on the island of Hokkaidou, Japan to commit to long range cute in global greenhouse emissions. They concluded their meetings today, calling climate change “one of the great global challenges of our time.” Good news, right? Well, not just yet.

Yesterday, leaders of the G8 (United States, Japan, Germany, France, Canada, Italy, Britain and Russia) pledged to cut emissions of heat-trapping gases in half by 2050. But the Group of 5 emerging economies (China, India, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa) refused to sign onto that goal. They are holding out until rich nations like the United States take more aggressive steps to cut pollution over the next decade.

“It is good that the developing countries have embraced the principal of a global target that they will participate in,” Philip Clapp of the Pew Environmental Group said. “It would have been better if the United States and the other G-8 countries would have been willing to step up to the plate and make a strong commitment about what they would do over the next 10 years.”

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Last week, we told you that photographs were taken of a tribe of reclusive people native to the Peruvian/Brazilian forests.  On the heels of that, the Peruvian government has announced it will take action to protect the tribes and stop loggers from encroaching on the land the tribes inhabit.  From the BBC:

Authorities in Peru’s Amazon state of Madre de Dios now say they will stop illegal loggers who travel deep into the forest in search of tropical hardwoods.

They are often the first people to encounter the tribes.

Aside from destroying the tribes’ homes, the loggers also can bring diseases fatal to the tribespeople - even something as simple as the common cold can kill.

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For the first time ever, a tribe indigenous to the forests on the border of Brazil and Peru has been photographed. The photos were taken by aircraft, and the native people are shown firing arrows at the plane. The expedition was led by José Carlos dos Reis Meirelles, Jr., an expert on native affairs in Brazil. Though the number of native people seems strong, Meirelles has a warning against those that would destroy the ecosystem the tribe resides in. From the UK’s Daily Mail:

Logging is driving uncontacted tribes over the border and could lead to conflict with the estimated five hundred uncontacted Indians already living on the Brazilian side.

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Remember that book How Much is a Million?  Well, nowadays, we think bigger, and one group wants you to think about how much a billion is.  That is to say: If you were to plant a billion trees, it would cover 2.5 million acres of Atlantic forest.  This, by the way, is not a thought experiment - it’s a real goal from the people at The Nature Conservancy.

The target date is 2015 - only seven years to plant a billion trees in Brazil.  At this point, only seven percent of what once were the Brazilian tropical forests remain.  As each tree disappears, more carbon is released into the environment and the global climate becomes slightly more unstable.

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What do Brigitte Bardot, beach litter, and American rappers on skid row have in common? They’re all on the TakePart Top 10 Weekly Roundup!  The Roundup is a compilation of the week’s most notable stories from our entertainment-meets-social-action blogging network. Check out some of our most popular stories of the week, as well as a few TakePart blogger favorites!

Katie:

Pras On Skid Row (Literally)

Top 10 Reasons to Go to the Havana Film Festival in New York

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Nicole:

6 Million Pounds of Trash Found On World’s Beaches In One Day

“Take A Bite” Out of Climate Change

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Giulia:

Once Upon A Time Mommy Wasn’t This Pretty

We Can Solve It

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Gina:

The Fresh Air of the Flight of the Red Balloon and Hou Hsiao Hsien

Brigitte Bardot on Trial for Her Contempt Towards Muslims

Thanks to the Havana Film Festival New York (HFFNY), you can see some of the great films that are part of the Festival Internacional del Nuevo Cine Latinoamericano de La Habana, AKA the Havana Film Festival. In its 9th year, HFFNY features full-length features, documentaries, short films, classics and animation from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela, Puerto Rico and the United States.

Here are 10 reasons you won’t want to miss the festival.

1) ESTELA BRAVO RETROSPECTIVE: WITNESS OF HER TIME. FREE! (Tuesday April 15th) Check out three films of the Brooklyn born American filmmaker Estela Bravo, the director of 30 award-winning documentaries on Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa and the US. Then stay for a talk between Bravo and filmmaker Tami Gold.

2. Holy Father and Gloria, Bravo’s moving account about Carmen Gloria, a Chilean student whom the Chilean military doused with gasoline and set on fire in 1986 and Pope John Paul’s visit to Chile a year later, which ignited a massive outpouring against the repressive Pinochet regime.

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The TakePart Top 10 Weekly Roundup is a compilation of the week’s most notable stories from our entertainment-meets-social-action blogging network. Don’t miss some of our most popular articles of the week, as well as a few TakePart blogger favorites.

Katie:

Autism Awareness Day

Dolly Parton & American Idol: 9 to 5 and Women’s Rights

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Nicole:

Top 10 Garbloggers Talkin’ Trash

‘Garbage Warrior’ Turns Trash Into Green Homes

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Giulia:

Low US Grad Rates & ‘The First Year’

‘The Greatest Silence’ & More Ways to Take Action

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Gina:

Top 10 Dystopian Film Heros & Heroines

Empire Or Humanity? Howard Zinn & Viggo Mortensen Spread the Word On YouTube

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Kerry:

Eco-action blogger Kerry Trueman has moved onto greener pastures, but you can still find her at eatingliberally.com. Good luck, Kerry. We’ll miss you!

If cinema has anything to say about it the future is a scary scary place. Filled with oppressive governments and dark and dirty landscapes, dystopian cinema provides lessons of what might lie ahead if we don’t get our act together today. One of the ways we can work to make sure our future is bright, emotion filled and without oppression is to look at the examples the heroes and heroines of these films provide.

Below are the Top 10 Dystopian Film Heroes & Heroines. For some movies I’ve included not only the obvious male hero but also the woman that is often connected to him. It isn’t right that only the men should be honored for their efforts!

So take a look and let me know if I’ve missed your favorite.

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1. THX 1138 : THX 1138

The end of this film is why THX tops my list. The boldness and fearlessness he exhibits as he moves towards the unknown exemplifies what it means to be a hero. After his girlfriend is found pregnant and he is arrested THX doesn’t give in to authority. More than that he never gives up the search for his love and his freedom in the tightly controlled underground world he finds himself in. Plus, who doesn’t love Robert Duvall!?

and learn how THX could have avoided (and young girls can avoid ) pregnancy with Planned Parenthood.

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Spitzer’s prostitution scandal and the outing of “call girl” ashley alexandra dupre, have provoked quite a reaction and much debate. Yet, the debate about legalizing prostitution has yet to surface. Is it time for the United States to decriminalize the world’s oldest? If we acknowledge that prostitution will never go away, wouldn’t we, as a society, be better off if prostitution were legal? Prostitutes would be less stigmatized and victimized. Prostitutes would have protection from the violence which haunts them, and more access to safe sex education, resources, and testing. The debate over whether prostitution is “moral” or “immoral,” liberating of exploitative strikes me as academic. What we do know is that the “problem isn’t going away.” So the question is, do we live in a state of denial and hypocrisy? Or do we think rationally and act compassionately?

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