As we prepare for tomorrow’s countdown to 2009, our friends at Conservation International remind us that there are some other numbers we should keep in mind as we approach the new year:

4 - hours in which the world loses acres of tropical forest equivalent in size to the island of Manhattan

20 - percent of all global CO2 emissions caused by deforestation

2 trillion – amount in dollars that burning and clearing forests costs the global economy every year as valued through lost fresh water, food, timber and carbon reduction

70 – number of species of South and Central American frogs that have gone extinct, likely due to climate change.

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Last night I attended an inspiring benefit for The Amazon Conservation Team (ACT) organized by Be Stirred, and while the party was way up in the Hills of Beverly, ACT president Dr. Mark Plotkin, illustrated how closely tied we all are to the Amazon.   ACT partners with indigenous tribes to preserve the biodiversity, health and culture in tropical America, which not only protects the forest and it’s inhabitants, but empowers them as well.  We had the unique opportunity to meet a shaman from a tribe in Suriname who has worked closely with Dr. Plotkin, and shared with us his appreciation for the program.  Using Google Earth, the organization has trained tribes to map their land, protecting large territories from encroaching nefarious activities, such as deforestation, mining and drug trafficking.  Other programs help to document cultural and medicinal traditions to ensure the information is passed on to future generations.

Click on the image below to learn more from ACT’s video overview and takepart by supporting The Amazon Conservation Team.

In the days leading up to Obama’s election there was a lot of talk about “socialism” and “drinking the Kool-Aid“, but none of that ridiculous, political mud-slinging compares to the atrocity of the kool-aid drinking socialism that took place during the Jonestown massacre.  More than 900 Americans died 30 years ago in a South American jungle when Rev. Jim Jones ordered his cult commune to drink fruit juice laced with cyanide.  Tomorrow night CNN will air Escape from Jonestown, a report on the few that survived the mass-suicide:

I recently strode confidently through the halls of the Scientology Celebrity Centre out of curiosity, thinking myself immune to indoctrination.  But desperate circumstances and well-executed manipulation can lead people to do things they wouldn’t normally agree to.  Don’t worry, I made it out of the Centre without being recruited.

takepart and learn more about the dangers of mind-control and cults from the Freedom of Mind Centre

You like animals, right?  I thought so.   Well, I’ve got good news and bad news on that front.   The good news is, animals still exist.   The bad news is, maybe not for very long.   A new report from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (I.U.C.N.) tells us that 1 in 4 mammals are threatened with extinction, and 1 in 3 amphibians are either threatened with extinction or already extinct.

The causes of the extinction threat are things we’ve heard before - habitat loss, hunting, and climate change.   And though there have been modest improvements here and there in revitalizing species, Jan Schipper, the director of global mammal assessment (actual job title) for the I.U.C.N. has this to say

Although 5 percent of mammals are recovering, what we observe are rates of habitat loss and hunting in Southeast Asia, Central Africa and Central and South America that are so serious that the overall rate of decline has steadily increased during the past decade, Mr. Schipper said.

So five percent up, 25 percent down.   Not exactly great progress.

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Norway, which it turns out is not in South America, is the first country to donate to an Amazon preservation fund that will give money to Brazil to save its rainforest.   According to the Associated Press via MSNBC, Norway pledged $1 billion to the fund, paid by 2015, assuming that Brazil reduces deforestation.

The hope is that $21 billion will be raised that will all go to Brazil so that the country may immediately work “to protect nature reserves, to persuade loggers and farmers to stop destroying trees and to finance scientific and technological projects.“  Says Noways Prime Minster Jens Stoltenberg

‘Efforts against deforestation may give us the largest, quickest and cheapest reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. Brazilian efforts against deforestation are therefore of vital importance if we shall succeed in our campaign against global warming.’

Seems to make sense, no?  This year, Norway will give $21 million to Brazil, next year $210 million, and will keep releasing money according to some sort of metric based on how well Brazil is doing on combating deforestation.

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Gordon Gekko: “What’s worth doing is worth doing for money.”

Sentences like that are littered throughout Oliver Stone’s Wall Street, a film that makes a strong case for money being the most important thing for those entering the workforce. Someone should let Mr. Gekko know that the tides appear to be changing. Another Wall Street, The Wall Street Journal, has noticed a shift in young folks post-college career decisions. Instead of looking for the most lucrative career, they are opting for more altruistic endeavors. Ranging from Teach for America and working for organizations abroad, today’s college graduates are moving towards jobs that make a difference.

One of the first reasons for this is a practical one, the job market is weak. Most employers are not hiring tons of college graduates, but service organizations it seems always need help. The other main reason for the shift? Young people today want to use their time doing something to make the world better:

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World Day Against Child Labor is today. Long outlawed in the United States, child labor is still a major issue throughout the world, particularly in poverty stricken regions where the lure of cheap, easily exploited children is often taken advantage of by employers while at the same time many children living in poverty tragically feel forced to work in order to contribute to their family’s wellbeing. Currently the UN International Labor Organization estimates that 165 Million children between the ages of 5 and 14 are involved in child labor practices throughout the world.

This year the focus of the annual event is on education as a route to reduce child labor and on gender equality between boys and girls. Countries throughout the world from Africa to Asia to South America to the Middle East to Europe and beyond are staging events to reduce the unfair exploitation of children.

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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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The Rolling Exhibition is not your typical photography exhibit. Then again, Kevin Connolly is not your typical photographer. Connolly was born in Montana 1985, a healthy baby, but without legs. As a teenager he got into scateboarding and taking pictures. Last year while traveling abroad, tired of the way people stared at him because he has no legs, Connolly started staring back, through his camera: “I wanted to stare back at that guy, to let him know that, ‘Yeah, I catch you looking,’” he says. “And the way I did that was with my camera.” Combining his love of photography and his scateboard, which he prefers over his wheelchair which he rarely uses, Kevin embarked on an adventure, travelling to 15 countries in three months, from New Zealand to Japan, through Europe, Iceland, and then through America back to Montana. Always shooting from the hip, he would start his days heading away from the sun, shooting people as he rolled through cities and villages. By going to so many different countries, Connolly discovered how, on some level, we are really the same:

The thing I just loved was you had an executive-looking type guy in say New York City, someone who’s clearly wealthy enough to afford a very nice suit and a good cell phone, staring at you in the exact same way that a beggar in Ukraine would.

32,000 photos, 15 Countries, 31 Cities, and 32,000 photos later, Connolly discovered “One stare” captured on his online exhibit TheRollingExhibition.com. Connolly explains in his artist statement

1 year ago I was asked by a little boy in Christchurch, New Zealand if I had been eaten by a shark.

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