Vampire bats Wreak Havoc on Awajun and Wampis Community ~Nichole Rose

Local health officials have reported that vampire bats in the region of the northern Amazon region have bitten over 3,500 people. The bats have killed 20 people with a recent child that makes the 5^th child to die from the rabies infected bats. The ages of the children that have died are between 5 and 10 years old. Rabies is a viral disease that causes inflammation of the brain and is fatal, especially in children.

Peru’s health ministry has sent emergency units to the area to vaccinate the people of the Awajun and Wampis tribes. So far they have immunized 900 people but some are hesitant to take the vaccine and have refused to receive it. Many fear that the death toll will rise because of the cost of obtaining the vaccine and the difficult means of getting it to the tribes.

Vampire bats usually feed on livestock and other mammals by night but since the rainforest is undergoing utter destruction of habitat, the people are more susceptible to being bit by these bats.

Chilean Miners Update: The Rescue Pod Arrives! ~Nichole Rose

Chilean miners update:

San Jose, Chile~ The 33 miners of Chile that have been trapped in a mine since August 5 are receiving many luxury items to aid in the comfort of their situation. They have not only received cots that were sent down disassembled to be re assembled by the men trapped, but they have also received water to drink and shower through tubes that pump 100 liters of water a day to them.

The cage arrived at the mine head to rescue the men from the mine shaft that is half a mile deep into the Earth. The steel case is named Phoenix from the Greek mythological bird that rose from the ashes. Once a rescue shaft is drilled large enough for the steel cage to be lowered into the mine shaft, it will pull the men up one by one. Rescuers estimate that it will take between 20 and 30 minutes to pull up each miner. The case is equipped with communication devices and oxygen that will last for 90 minutes. The case also opens from the bottom for safe entrance for the miners and for emergency precaution that if the case gets stuck, the miner can wedge his way back down to the other miners safely.

The trapped miners have families that are camping at the mine head for support of their loved ones, clapped when the cage arrived. Many of them even got a chance to stand in the cage and see for themselves the roominess of it and how it will operate for the rescue. Mining Minister, Laurence Golborne says that they are ahead of schedule for the rescue and plans to start pulling miners up as early as first week of November. As of Saturday, the first of three holes has been drilled to 1,458 feet deep. Progress in underway.  

Shark fin Soup Obsession ~Nichole Rose

The Environmental Justice Institute of Brazil is suing seafood exporter, Siglo do Brasil Comercio, for illegally killing nearly 300,000 sharks which has created massive damage to the marine ecosystem. The issue at hand is that most of these sharks were just thrown back into the ocean with their fins cut off. It is illegal to separate fins from the sharks in Brazil but Asian diners are obsessed with their shark fin soup which places enormous value on the fins of sharks. The backlash is that the damaged sharks are then just thrown back into the ocean to die. The Asians only value the fin for the popular Asian Soup. This craze is most popular among the Asian middle class which encourages companies like Siglo do Brasil to hunt sharks strictly for their fin and waste the rest of the animal.

This only shows a fraction of the sharks that are illegally killed off the northeast coast of Brazil. This illegal fishing is causing irreparable harm to the ocean’s ecosystem because sharks are at the top of the food chain. Upon raiding the premises of the seafood exporter, the enforcement agency of Brazil’s environmental ministry found separated fins from sharks but the seafood company denies where they came from and has no documentation to prove where they got them. The Associated Press tried to reach the Brazilian company but the calls went unanswered.

The Environmental Justice group is suing for the sum of $790 million dollars for the sale of the 290,000 sharks that were de- finned and lost their lives to the Asian soup craze.

Amazon unlivable?... On the contrary... ~Nichole Rose

A long time belief that the Amazon Rainforest was too inhabitable for any civilization to live there has evidence to point to the contrary. Archeologists have found a huge swath of forest that signals a very large and advanced civilization thrived in this unruly tangled jungle that is full of mosquitoes. The long held belief is that small, primitive Stone Age tribes may have lived in this unforgivable environment as hunter and gatherers but no society larger than that….until now.

To the contrary, though…. American archeologists have found evidence that signals that upward around 20 million people inhabited the area. Man made Indian mounds that have been excavated unearthed a very rich soil that was made fertile by the ancestors of the land from hundreds of years ago. These mounds are called terra preta made from charcoal, human waste, and other organic ingredients in the soil that plummet 3 feet deep and over 100 acres wide. To top that, they have also found huge orchards of fruit trees, moats, canals, and causeways that lean toward a complex civilization that inhabited the area around 800 AD. They hypothesize that these early people diverted rivers and moved soil for their orchards. The findings of excavation work performed by Anna C. Roosevelt also shown house foundations, pottery, and such advance network of agriculture that it must have been at least 100,000 people that lived in just this one area of the forest. This soil was so rich in nutrients that it was compared to the mysterious Hopewell Nation of Iowa.

Even though the jungle life was harsh with poisonous snakes and mosquitoes, the land was full of potential. All the people had to do was transform the landscape to feed the number of people and protect the village from predators and it appears that is exactly what they did.

Chilean Rescuers... To the rescue of Sanity ~Nichole Rose

Thirty three Chilean miners in Northern Chile have been trapped in a mine that stretches 2,230 feet into the Earth since August 5^th.  The obstacles that they must overcome in the long weeks before they can be rescued will be harrowing. Not only do they have to endure complete darkness but with 33 people in one small area, they must also combat sickness through fungal or bacterial infections. They do, however, have a small 3.19 inch hole that connects them to the surface of the Earth which is helping the miners with supply of food, water, nutrients and vitamins. Granted this supply line is very small but the miners are fortunate to have it.

What is still more worrisome than the physical health of the miner’s is their psychological well being. Battling darkness for days, weeks on end takes its toll on the mind. Sensory deprivation is a condition that could cause irritability, depression and hostility which could lead to injuring one if not more of the other miners. When there is no access to emergency care, this is a valid concern.

The miners are working in shifts to man the supply line around the clock. In the upcoming weeks, they will need to be removing rock and dirt from the supply line as rescuers drill a bigger a rescue shaft. This grueling job will be taxing on the miners that have weak bodies and minds. The miners are just as much responsible for their own rescue as it is for those above ground rescuing them.

One way that rescuers are helping the trapped miners is through a fiber optic projector that illuminates a 50 inch picture on the cave wall that they may enjoy movies and football games. They have supplied them also with an Ipod to listen to music which is periodically sent up the supply line for recharging. Some of the families have even recorded performances for their trapped loved one that they may view to keep their spirits up and know their family is waiting for their return.

Every effort is being made to ensure the spirits are being kept up for the miners. One request from the miners is red wine so that they may celebrate Chile’s Independence Day coming up on September 18.

Suriname Rainforest threatened by Gold Rush ~Nichole Rose

Fewer than a dozen men, barefoot with survival on their minds, blast away at the Earth for three days in Suriname Rainforest in pursuit of gold. They have used tools such as high pressure power hoses and earth movers to decimate the land and destroy vital habitat in this swathe of rainforest. The miners of Nieuw Koffiekamp state that they need work and this is the only option left for them. They plan to spend a week ripping through the soil and filtering it through toxic mercury to find the gold. When asked about the damage that they have caused, a most defensive Juergen Plein shouts, "But survival comes first." When they fail or succeed to find any gold, they will move on to a new swath of rainforest to dig for more.



Small scale mining operations are growing along the northeastern border of South America due to record gold prices on the market. The drive comes from the previous year where 16.5 metric tons of gold was produced, hitting a record high. The effects of this mining are due to the protocol used when mining for it. Not only are these miners uplifting trees but also poisoning the waters with mercury. Most alarming is the make shift jungle towns being erected, fully equipped with shops, churches and prostitutes. What they leave is destruction and mayhem in the jungle while in fervent need to find gold. World Wildlife Fund representative, Dominiek Plouvier says, “In their wake is a wasteland.” He explains that “all the top soil has been removed, it’s finished.”



Most intriguing is that many of the miners are illegal immigrants from Brazil that are fleeing the law in some form and fashion. Suriname is known as a country that is rich in resource simultaneously as being the country with the weakest enforcement of law. Even the Vice President Robert Ameerali said he would seek to reduce the use of mercury even though it is outright illegal already. Making laws and policies regarding better technology or training for miners will go unheard because there is no enforcement behind it. The Suriname rainforest is in danger and an easy target on what the scientific world sees as a vital and irreplaceable biome.