The Amazon Rainforest/River has reached the final stage of an international online competition to name the world's seven natural wonders, the New 7 Wonders Foundation announced today.
The 28 official finalists also include Angel Falls (Venezuela), Galapagos (Ecuador), Grand Canyon (The United States), Iguazu Falls (Brazil/Argentine), Bay of Fundy, Black Forest, Bu Tinah Shoals, Cliff of Moher, Dead Sea, El Yunque, and Great Barrier Reef.
Halong Bay, Jeita Grotto, Jeju Island, and Kilimanjaro, Komodo, Maldives, Masurian Lake District, Matterhorn/Cervino, Milford Sound, Mud Volcanoes, Puerto Princesa Underground River, Sundarbans, Table Mountain, Uluru, Vesuvius and Yushan, were also added to the list.
Competition organizers expect more than a billion people to participate in the online voting, which will continue into 2011, when the finalists by categories will be announced.
A panel of experts chose the finalists among the 77 nominees that gained the most votes in an early round of polling. People had suggested 261 landmarks in countries all over the world.
The panel chaired by Federico Mayor, former chief of Unesco, the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, picked the finalists depending on geographical balance, diversity and the importance to human life.
The Amazon Rainforest, also known as Amazonia, the Amazon jungle or the Amazon Basin, encompasses seven million square kilometers (1.7 billion acres), though the forest itself occupies some 5.5 million square kilometers (1.4 billion acres), located within nine nations: Peru, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana; Suriname and Venezuela.
The Amazon represents over half of the planet's remaining rainforests and comprises the largest and most species-rich tract of tropical rainforest in the world.
The Amazon River is the largest river in the world by volume, with a total flow greater than the top ten rivers worldwide combined.
It accounts for approximately one-fifth of the total world river flow and has the biggest drainage basin on the planet. Not a single bridge crosses the Amazon.
http://www.andina.com.pe/Ingles/Noticia.aspx?id=TjV3xvhBG6M=
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Showing posts with label amazonia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label amazonia. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Saturday, May 3, 2008
Youth Samba in Support of Amazonia
When May arrives in the United States, Banda Jeito Moleque will be introducing what all Brazil knows as the SOUND that's HAPPY! "Moleque" in Portuguese, the language spoken by Brazilians, can mean mischievous, rascal, a young boy who enjoys life. Oh, so true: this Brazilian band is very HAPPY with life. Are they teens? Not really ... but mischievous bright young boys, no doubt about that! Their sound is fun, joyous, full of spirit and Brazilian energy; and all that this group is going to bring to the Land of Uncle Sam! Bruno, Carlinhos, Alemao, Rafa and Felipe set the tone with the more than 30 people who make up their band.
What is their sound? The sound of samba and pagode, Brazilian musical styles that move thousands of people... And they really move, because there's no way to sit still when this group comes out on stage. The audience of these moleques, made up mostly of young boys, are lifted to their feet by a music that makes you dance to a rhythm that is wonderful to hear.
It's no surprise if, all at once, the music they play is unusually moving, because it evokes a blend of Brazilian sounds, with the cavaquinho, guitar, the tambourine and atabaque drum, mixed with some reggae and love ballads. It's a combination of elements mixed just right. The members of the band all have good university training, so important for the many choices they must make in show business. Their painstaking attention to the composition of their lyrics and melodies is derived from their knowledge of Brazilian culture, highlighting the unmistakable joy of these people who have found in music one their principal sources of contact with the world.
The powerful presence of Banda Jeito Moleque is also felt by the audience through their advocacy of protecting the environment, and most of their shows are carbon neutral. With unflagging and powerful emphasis, the band never lets its fans forget the vast and wonderful environmental patrimony of Brazil, and recently they recorded their latest DVD in the middle of the Amazon rainforest. What's more, it's the first DVD recorded in the Brazilian Amazonia with environmental management!
They'll be arriving in Florida on May 2, moving on from there to Connecticut and Massachusetts. And they are sure to be a smashing success! So go for it! Dancing for real, swaying with a huge crowd who really enjoy the music of these Latin Americans, which is so bold, irreverent and entertaining! And they are very very famous south of the Equator.
It's real entertainment. Dress is casual because the band will come out on stage like they're going surfing, in caps and baggy t-shirts, flip-flops or sneakers to walk in the sand. This is something that's really worth checking out.
http://www.sunherald.com/447/story/526326.html
Monday, January 28, 2008
Brazilian lawyers propose international court to save Amazonia
Brasilia - The Brazilian bar association on Friday proposed the creation of an international tribunal to fight deforestation in the Amazon rainforest, Brazilian media reported. "Allowing Amazonia to be devastated, as is happening at great pace, is committing a crime against humanity," the Order of Brazilian Lawyers president Cezar Britto said in a statement.
The association said it will hold a large-scale meeting this year to discuss the creation of the tribunal and "definitive solutions to prevent the disappearance of these assets that belong to Brazil and to humanity."
Britto said the tribunal should be permanent and put pressure on individual countries to adopt public policy to preserve the rainforest and its great biodiversity.
Amazonia, the largest tropical rainforest in the world, covers a surface of 5.5 million square kilometres across eight countries - Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru and Venezuela.
Official data were released Thursday showing 3,235 square kilometres of jungle were destroyed in the last five months of 2007, setting a record pace for deforestation.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva Thursday called an emergency meeting of seven ministers, and a series of measures were announced to investigate the increase in deforestation and intensify efforts to fight it.
Among the measures announced were the suspension of licences to cut down the forest in towns with the highest rates of illegal deforestation in 2007, an embargo on estates where there is deforestation and the suspension of financial assistance for businesses that promote illegal tree-cutting.
Beginning February 21, surveillance of Amazonia is set to be increased, with the presence of an extra 780 federal police officers.
Brazilian Environment Minister Marina Silva said the recent increase in deforestation is linked to the search for more land for the production of meat and soy.
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