rain forest

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Long-Lost Civilization Found in Rainforest

Search for legendary 'White City' in Honduran jungle led to find

(Newser) - Heard of the long-lost "White City" or "City of the Monkey God"? A group of experts who entered a Honduran rainforest in search of it emerged last Wednesday saying they have found a lost city—one that's totally untouched, National Geographic reports. As writer Douglas Preston...

Loggers Threaten Remote Amazon Tribe

Despite court order, outsiders refuse to leave Awa lands

(Newser) - Illegal loggers and settlers deep in the Brazilian rainforest are refusing a court order to leave land that belongs to the shrinking Awa tribe, some of whose members have never encountered outsiders, reports LiveScience . A Brazilian judge ordered the loggers off the Awa land last year and gave them a...

Ecuador to China Oil Barons: Amazon Rainforest for Sale

Indigenous groups not happy

(Newser) - Tree-huggers will be really displeased to hear this: Ecuador is planning to auction off more than 7 million acres of the Amazon ... to Chinese oil companies. Politicians pitched bidding contracts to oil company reps in Beijing on Monday, the Guardian reports. Needless to say, indigenous groups living on the land...

Scientists Find Ancient Rainforest—in Antarctica

Continent was downright balmy 52M years ago

(Newser) - It turns out Antarctica wasn't always an inhospitable expanse of ice. Drilling in the seabed off Antarctica has dug up sediment cores that, scientists say, reveal that a "near-tropical" forest covered the continent about 52 million years ago, the AFP reports. "There wouldn't have been any...

Greenpeace: Barbie's Killing Rainforests

Group unfurls a banner over Mattel headquarters

(Newser) - Greenpeace has set its sights on a new eco-villain: Barbie. The group says it has traced packaging used by Mattel and other toy companies to protected Indonesian rainforests, and they’re taking it out on Mattel’s perpetually well-accessorized doll, Reuters reports. Activists dressed like Ken descended on Mattel’s...

'Zombie Ants' Found in Brazil
 'Zombie Ants' Found in Brazil 

'Zombie Ants' Found in Brazil

Fungus takes over brain, forces ants to relocate

(Newser) - First, the fungus takes over the ant’s brain. Then, it uses “mind control” to force the ant to move to a new location—an ideal location where the fungus can grow and its spores can spread. Finally, the fungus kills the ant—and then grows out of its...

Check Out the 2010 Stamps
 Check Out the 2010 Stamps  

Check Out the 2010 Stamps

Katharine Hepburn, Mother Teresa, Negro Leagues baseball make the cut

(Newser) - Nobel Prize winner Mother Teresa, Oscar-winning actress Katharine Hepburn, singing cowboy Gene Autry, artist Winslow Homer, and Pulitzer Prize winner Bill Mauldin will be honored on US postage stamps next year. Other new stamps will honor baseball's Negro Leagues, the Sunday funnies and the Hawaiian rain forest, the AP reports....

'Ecobarriers' Wall In Rio's Poor
 'Ecobarriers' Wall In Rio's Poor 

'Ecobarriers' Wall In Rio's Poor

(Newser) - They’re called “ecobarriers,” but critics say the walls being erected in Rio de Janeiro aren’t there to protect trees. The 10-foot cinderblock walls are supposed to prevent Rio’s favelas, or shantytowns, from expanding into the rainforest, but critics say they’re really a means of...

Despite Laws, Amazon Jungle Disappearing

Even president's tough new measures may not halt rapid deforestation

(Newser) - The deforestation of the Amazon jungle is speeding up, and Brazil may be unable to stop it, Time magazine reports. Over the last five months an estimated 2,700 square miles of forest have been cleared—more than twice the size of Rhode Island. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva...

Whale Beached in Amazon
Whale Beached in Amazon

Whale Beached in Amazon

Minke stuck on sandbar in the rain forest

(Newser) - Frantic villagers yesterday splashed water to try to save the life of a whale beached in a river in the Amazon rain forest 1,000 miles from the ocean. The 18-foot minke whale was stuck on a sandbar in the Tapajos River in Brazil. "It apparently got separated from...

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