Judge Juan Nunez has recused himself in the case which focuses around claims that Chevron has been environmentally irresponsible in Ecuador’s Amazonian rainforest. He is the fifth judge to leave the case. While he refuses to discuss the reasons he has disqualified himself from giving judgment in the case, there has been a flurry of claim and counterclaim around Chevron’s release of video in which he appears to say to members of the ruling Alianza Pais party that he will decide against Chevron, although judgment is not due to be given until October.

Chevron further alleges Nunez was to be given a $15 million ‘commission’ by the party, for deciding against the oil company. Judge Nunez says the video was manipulated – Chevron say it was not and that they will bring a counter-case against him for corruption.

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The Xingu River — home to some 600 species of fish — is one of the largest tributaries running through the Amazon. But not if the Brazilian state power company has their way.

What would be the world’s third largest dam, called the Belo Monte, would flood over 200 square miles of tropical rainforest; about the size of Tucson, AZ. It would also flood the homes of 19,000 people.

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Seven miles of walls, reaching a height of three metres (10ft) will be built around sections of at least 11 slums this year, Icaro Moreno, the president of the state’s public works department, said.

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But planting new trees in a deforested area takes time - years.  The earth’s atmosphere needs a more immediate solution.  This is why researchers at Berkeley Labs in California are working on recreating the photosynthesis process - and are half way there as they have been able to duplicate the first step - breaking up water molecules by using photons found in sunlight.  Nano sized crystals of Cobalt Oxide - a photo reactive metal oxide catalyst, have been found to do the job more efficiently than Mother Nature herself!  

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It’s a situation that’s difficult to monitor, and even more difficult to assess – in some places it’s the income produced by illegal logging that is causing the movement of animals which are then shot, either in deliberate poaching activity or as a result of their predation of villages. In other places the trees that are cut down are worthless – they are removed simply to force the animals to vacate the area so that they will be easier targets for poachers who have ready markets for tiger-skins and organs and for ivory.

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On Saturday, three people were killed and several injured after a massive landslide in Sarawak, Malaysia. According to one group, the slide could have been prevented if loggers had left the rainforest in the area alone.

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World Species Survey details gloomy outlook for many animal species.In early October of 2008, the results of a global species  survey, conducted by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, were released.  The numbers are startling:

• At least a quarter of mammal species are headed toward extinction in the near future.
• Nearly 80 percent of the primate species in southern and southeastern Asia are immediately threatened.
• At least 22 percent of reptile species are at risk of extinction.
• Perhaps 40 percent of North American freshwater fish are threatened.
• In Europe, 45 percent of the most common bird species are rapidly declining, and so are the most common bird species in North America.

But perhaps these figures are a bit too abstract. Here’s a more precise way to look at the present state of bio-diversity on Earth.

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With a constant need to look out for the planets ecosystems, it is always saddening to see that some governments simply are not. So when I saw the news that, over the past 12 months, deforestation in the Amazon rain forest had jumped 69%, I was literally shocked.

According to the National Institute for Space Research, or INPE, which monitors destruction of the Amazon, since August 2007 a total of 8,147 square kilometers (3,145 square miles) was destroyed within the Amazon. This is the first such increase in 3 years, and saw a 69% jump over the 4,820 square kilometers (1,861 square miles) felled in the previous 12 months.

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Additional popular items are wine corks, key chains, dice, dominoes, and chess pieces. Look further to find cane and umbrella handles, pipes, tiles, and sewing needle cases. Most pieces are results from the fine art of scrimshaw.

The green and reasonably soft nut from the hard casing has the consistency of Jell-O. Once the nut is ripened, it becomes very hard, so this is the time to shape tagua into different molds.

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The benefits of reading aloud to children also extends to seaking meaning from the messages present in the literature. Storybook content and illustrations provide a catalyst for discussing the green values expressed by the author and/or illustrator and espoused by your family. There are many wonderful children's books that use the narrative form to express green values and ideas, especially conservation. The following environmental children's books are amongst my five favorites as a teacher and a parent.

The Lorax by Dr. Seuss
The Lorax is the original children's book on the need for conservation, originally published in 1971. Dr. Seuss cleverly used rhymes and silly words to warn several generations of the consequences of overusing natural resources. The truffula trees are rapidly cut down to be used in the manufacturing of thneeds, causing creatures, such as the brown bearbaloots and swamee swams, to flee from the habitat loss and pollution caused by the thneed factory. At the end of the tale, readers are left with a glimmer of hope, when one truffula tree seed is given to a boy. "Plant a new Truffula. Treat it with care. Give it clean water. And feed it fresh air. Grow a forest. Protect it from axes that hack. Then the Lorax and all of his friends may come back." You can read more about the Lorax in "Green Family Values: Who Speaks for the Trees?"

The Tree by Dana Lyons and David Lane Danioth
Beautifully illustrated, The Tree is an old growth Douglas Fir that hears the bulldozers coming to end its life. With simple text inspired by a song, the tree reflects upon its life in the forest. "For eight hundred years I have lived here, through the wind, the fire and the snow…There's a river flowing near me, and I've watched that river change and grow." As the tree ponders who will enjoy such sacred beauty once it is gone, the bulldozers get closer. The tree is saved by the children, who encircle its trunk in their arms. This book is published by Illumination Arts, a company devoted to publishing "high quality, enlightening children's picture books with enduring, inspirational and spiritual values."

Brother Eagle, Sister Sky by Susan Jeffers
Brother Eagle, Sister Sky was the first children's book I ever bought for my daughter. It is an adaption of the famous speech delivered by Chief Seealth (Seattle) during the 1850s. "We did not weave the web of life, we are merely a strand in it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves." Although there is controversy as to whether Chief Seealth (Seattle) ever actually said these words, the point is moot in my opinion, especially in considering this quality children's book is written for children and not historians. The book has also been criticized for not representing the rich diversity of Native American cultures or representing images of Cheif Seealth's tribe; however, the message of Chief Seealth's word ring true! These words were spoken as an elegy for the way of life he saw ending. The beautiful, detailed images that accompany the text throughout evolve from Native Americans living in harmony with nature to a bleak clearcut from logging to a modern family planting trees. The final image leaves us with a sense of hope and renewal.

The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein
The Giving Tree, like The Lorax, is another classic tale from my childhood, that some may interpret as a message of conservation, whereas others may find a different moral to the story. The story begins, "Once there was a tree…and she loved a little boy." The tree proceeds to try and fulfill the boy's happiness by giving her apples, branches, and trunk until the tree is nothing more than a stump. When the boy returns as an old man and contentedly rests on the stump, the tree is happy again. The anthropomorphism of the tree endears readers to feel compassion for her self-sacrifice and for all the trees that have been felled for human use. The book has been criticized for its message of self-sacrifice on the part of the tree and the selfishness of the boy; however, the end result demonstrates that the boy did not need all the material items he got from the tree's resources to find true happiness. This message is important for children to hear in our culture of overconsumerism. The Giving Tree is open to multiple interpretations which may change with every reading.

The Great Kapok Tree by Lynne Cherry
The Great Kapok Tree is set in a rain forest about to be logged. An ax man enters the jungle, then falls asleep and dreams about the extraordinary and diverse inhabitants of the jungle. Snakes, butterflies, jaguars, a child, etc. whisper into his ear the consequences of deforestation. The anteater says to the man," Senhor, you are chopping down this tree with no thought for the future. And surely you know that what happens tomorrow depends upon what you do today. The big man tells you to chop down a beautiful tree. He does not think of his own children, who tomorrow must live in a world without trees." When the man awakes, he can not cut down the tree. Lynne Cherry's detailed illustrations reveal a reverence for nature and beauty.

For more great green picture books, please read Kelli's post "Teaching Your Children Well: Picture Books for Eco Kids", including my favorite The Tin Forest. We invite you to add to this list of environmental children's literature by leaving a comment!

EcoWorldly’s interview with Rolf Skar, Greenpeace’s Senior Forest Campaigner

EW: What are your initial impressions after the meeting between Presidents Obama and Lula da Silva?

RS: I think in terms of positive there was a god personal rapport and a general commitment to improve relations. Not that they were terrible under the Bush administration, but it was clear that there was a mutual respect and mutual interests that the two countries want to pursue. So I think that was positive. I think there was also a commitment to try and address the global economic crisis, which is affecting both countries. I know Lulu was talking about how Brazil’s economy is still robust, but of course there are plenty of challenges there two, so I think those are two positives.

EW: What’s your position on biofuels? Are you pro, con or is there a good middle ground that can be worked out?

RS: There can be. The problem right now is that many biofuels are a bit of a distraction from other technologies and other mechanisms which clearly produce better climate results for less investment, so I understand how Brazil is busy to reduce import tariffs on Brazilian ethanol. I don’t think those tariffs will be removed overnight, if they are at all; and I think biofuels, for example we saw a push for biofuel based on palm oil coming out of Southeast Asia, and then when we crunched the numbers, we found that that kind of biodiesel would result in as much as 15 to 30 times the greenhouse gas emissions because of the way it’s produced.

So lots of times, biofuels are seen as a quick fix–as an easy way to switch fuels–and unfortunately easy doesn’t always mean possible or effective. Certainly the ethanol that’s being produced in the US right now in terms of an energy investment and solving a greenhouse gas emissions problem, it’s definitely not the cure-all that  some proponents want to make it out to be.

EW: What can be done to make Brazilian ethanol more environmentally friendly?

RS: There need to be better efficiencies. Certainly when you’re producing biofuels and then shipping them around the planet, you reduce some of the efficiencies that are potentially built in to those kinds of fuels. And I think that the big consuming nations–I know Brazil uses a lot of it domestically–but the countries in Europe and the US are developing renewable fuel standards that the set really robust, scientifically sound benchmarks and sideboards on the kinds of fuels that can be purchased. There need to be true life cycle analyses showing that there are true environmental and climate benefits. And there need to be basic sideboards. For example, we shouldn’t be sacrificing in tact or ancient forests to produce biofuels which have small or minimum climate benefits; we don’t want to sacrifice biodiversity for small gains on the climate side.

EW: Greenpeace has talked about a $16 billion annual fund from the US to support the rain forest. What’s that number about?

RS: The number is based on a global Greenpeace assessment of contributions that are needed for from [rich] nations to developing countries. And the $16 billion is roughly what we think the US should contribute on an annual basis to a global fund to tropical forests worldwide. So $16 billion is a number that we suggest the US should invest annually to really produce enormous climate benefits around the world– not just in the Amazon, but also in SE Asia and the Congo basin. The debate around how to do this is basically framed around whether people want market based offsets in which green carbon credits are traded with black smokestack carbon, or whether you want some sort of fund based project, or something in the middle.

Greenpeace is proposing a hybrid fund based approach where we make sure that there’s sizable, predictable investment that countries can bank on into the future as they do their long term planning that can be available soon so we can take immediate action and that is adaptable to the different realities on the ground in different rain forest nations. So, Brazil has a relatively highly sophisticated infrastructure for measuring both deforestation and other important benchmarks that are needed to prove emissions reductions. Nations in the Congo Basin are completely without those capacities. The fund would allow us to invest in those nations and allow them to protect their forests alongside of Brazil.

We think that Brazil’s a particularly important player in this debate because not only do they have the largest chunk of remaining rain forest in the world, but Lula’s administration has come out very clearly and said on the Eve of the talks in Poland this past December that they want their forests protected for the climate, they want the economic benefits for that, but in no way do they want market based credits or offsets coming from their rain forest land. So they’re very clearly made that statement. It was a bit of a bombshell for lots of folks, because of course they hold the majority of the world’s rain forests at least in terms of the nation by nation split and I know that they’ve been talking to other smaller rain forest nations about the benefits of a fund based approach as opposed to a market based approach.

In terms of coming back to the Obama and Lula visit, it was a bit of a missed opportunity for Obma because his administration has not yet come down on one side or the other of this issue, and they haven’t found a middle ground either. They haven’t really articulated a position. This would be a great opportunity for Obama to at least  hear out Lula on why Brazil has taken this position and then consider ways in which the two countries can work together. I think personally, it’s clear to me that both two men are the most important in the world on the deforestation issue.

EW: Brazil has just discovered 80 billion barrels of oil and there’s some talk of using that as a bargaining chip to lift the US import tariff on Brazilian cane ethanol. As a conservationist, does the discovery of oil make your job easier or more difficult?

RS: I think it makes it more difficult in some ways, of course. I mean, oil always tends to complicate political equations, and so I’m not sure it makes it any easier. I know that in Brazil it’s a source of national pride because for many years, they were told that they didn’t have oil reserves. They had everything else in the world, in terms of forests, water and mining resources, but not oil. And now they finally have that too, so it’s a bit of pride. As a conservationist, of course, I don’t want to see oil influence their national policy, so if we can minimize that as much as possible.

EW: How do you think the meeting between Presidents Obama and Lula da Silva will affect US relations with other South American countries?

RS: I think it will actually help. I’m not an expert on foreign relations, but I think Lula is seen a bit left of center from US perspective, but not as left as Chavez, and I think that if he can serve as a bit of a bridge–if he can be an ambassador to other nations in Central and South America–I think that’s a good thing.

I think, again, just to bring it back to the forest issues for just a minute and reduced emissions and deforestation, I think that Lula’s in a unique position to serve as an ambassador to a lot of other nations in Central and South America and even in other parts of the world, like the Congo Basin and SE Asia to show some strong leadership. And with commitments from the US on some funding, or you know with an olive branch from the US extended on this issue, they could use the necessary momentum. If you’ve got the largest potential donor nation in the world and then the largest rain forest nation in the world showing leadership on this issue, I think a lot of other nations would come along.

EW: In an ideal world, what would you like to see happen at this point?

RS: I’d love to see Obama visit Brazil. It sounds like there may be plans in the works for that, and I’d love to see that trip serve as an opportunity for the deforestation issue and reduced emissions to really be treated substantively for the two leaders. I think it actually needs to be handled at the top. It’s an important enough issue. There’s lots of money at stake, but I think it needs to be treated at the executive level. I’d also like to see members of the Obama administration within the state dept. under Hillary Clinton’s leadership start a dialogue with their counterparts in Brazil on this issue and to start developing a set of positions and a way to move forward cooperatively on the reduced emissions and deforestation program. This is not work that can happen at Copenhagen in December. It’s not even work that can happen in October of this year. It needs to happen now. We’ve got a lot of ground to make up; over the last eight years there was a lot of wasted time.

Image credit: The White House Blog via Global Voices, under a Creative Commons license.