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Ajay V

Earth Floor: Biomes - 0 views

shared by Ajay V on 23 Sep 09 - Cached
Ajay V

Taiga - Google Books - 0 views

shared by Ajay V on 23 Sep 09 - Cached
Ajay V

Taiga - 0 views

shared by Ajay V on 08 Sep 09 - Cached
Ajay V

untitled - 0 views

shared by Ajay V on 02 Sep 09 - Cached
Paul I liked it
  • Tundra comes from the Finnish word tunturi, meaning treeless plain.
    • Hannah J
       
      WOW, this is really interesting
    • Kyra N
       
      I never knew that and I think it's very interesting.
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    Tundra comes from the Finnish word tunturi, meaning treeless plain.
  •  
    Tundra comes from the Finnish word tunturi, meaning treeless plain.
Ajay V

Deforestation in the Amazon - 0 views

shared by Ajay V on 11 Sep 09 - Cached
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    Home What's New About Contribute Submissions Rainforests Mission Introduction Characteristics Biodiversity The Canopy Forest Floor Forest Waters Indigenous People Deforestation Consequences Saving Rainforests Amazon rainforest Borneo rainforest Congo rainforest Country Profiles Statistics Works Cited For Kids For Teachers Photos/Images Expert Interviews Rainforest News XML Feeds Chinese French Japanese Spanish Other Languages Pictures Books Links Newsletter Education Mongabay Sites Kids' site Travel Tips Tropical Fish Madagascar Contact About this site Providing tropical forest news, statistics, photos, and information, rainforests.mongabay.com is the world's most popular rainforest site. [more] Deforestation in the Amazon DEFORESTATION IN BRAZIL: 60-70 percent of deforestation in the Amazon results from cattle ranches while the rest mostly results from small-scale subsistence agriculture. Despite the widespread press attention, large-scale farming (i.e. soybeans) currently contributes relatively little to total deforestation in the Amazon. Most soybean cultivation takes place outside the rainforest in the neighboring cerrado grassland ecosystem and in areas that have already been cleared. Logging results in forest degradation but rarely direct deforestation. However, studies have showed a close correlation between logging and future clearing for settlement and farming. [Português | Español | Français] Deforestation by state Deforestation Figures for Brazil Year Deforestation [sq mi] Deforestation [sq km] Change [%] 1988 8,127 21,050 1989 6,861 17,770 -16% 1990 5,301 13,730 -23% 1991 4,259 11,030 -20% 1992 5,323 13,786 25% 1993 5,751 14,896 8% 1994 5,751 14,896 0% 1995 11,220 29,059 95% 1996 7,012 18,161 -38% 1997 5,107 13,227 -27% 1998 6,712 17,383 31% 1999 6,664 17,259 -1% 2000 7,037 18,226 6% 2001 7,014 18,165 0% 2002 8,260 2
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    TROPICAL RAINFORESTS: Deforestation in Brazil Click Here Home What's New About Contribute Submissions Rainforests Mission Introduction Characteristics Biodiversity The Canopy Forest Floor Forest Waters Indigenous People Deforestation Consequences Saving Rainforests Amazon rainforest Borneo rainforest Congo rainforest Country Profiles Statistics Works Cited For Kids For Teachers Photos/Images Expert Interviews Rainforest News XML Feeds Chinese French Japanese Spanish Other Languages Pictures Books Links Newsletter Education Mongabay Sites Kids' site Travel Tips Tropical Fish Madagascar Contact About this site Providing tropical forest news, statistics, photos, and information, rainforests.mongabay.com is the world's most popular rainforest site. [more] Deforestation in the Amazon DEFORESTATION IN BRAZIL: 60-70 percent of deforestation in the Amazon results from cattle ranches while the rest mostly results from small-scale subsistence agriculture. Despite the widespread press attention, large-scale farming (i.e. soybeans) currently contributes relatively little to total deforestation in the Amazon. Most soybean cultivation takes place outside the rainforest in the neighboring cerrado grassland ecosystem and in areas that have already been cleared. Logging results in forest degradation but rarely direct deforestation. However, studies have showed a close correlation between logging and future clearing for settlement and farming. [Português | Español | Français] Deforestation by state Deforestation Figures for Brazil Year Deforestation [sq mi] Deforestation [sq km] Change [%] 1988 8,127 21,050 1989 6,861 17,770 -16% 1990 5,301 13,730 -23% 1991 4,259 11,030 -20% 1992 5,323 13,786 25% 1993 5,751 14,896 8% 1994 5,751 14,896 0% 1995 11,220 29,059 95% 1996 7,012 18,161 -38% 1997 5,107 13,227 -27% 1998 6,712 17,383 31% 1999 6,664
Ajay V

Rainforest Facts - 2 views

shared by Ajay V on 09 Sep 09 - Cached
  • It is estimated that nearly half of the world's estimated 10 million species of plants, animals, and microorganisms will be destroyed or severely threatened over the next quarter-century due to rainforest deforestation.
    • Marius S
       
      Wow!
  • Commercial logging is the single largest cause of rainforest destruction, both directly and indirectly. Other activities destroying the rainforest, including clearing land for grazing animals and subsistence farming. The simple fact is that people are destroying the Amazon rainforest and the rest of the rainforests of the world because "they can't see the forest for the trees."
    • Gurupranav G
       
      Useful if you are looking at the destruction of rainforests.
  • When a medicine man dies without passing his arts on to the next generation, the tribe and the world loses thousands of years of irreplaceable knowledge about medicinal plants.
    • Marius S
       
      Linked to a paragraph below...
  • ...19 more annotations...
  • Rainforests once covered 14% of the earth's land surface
    • Gurupranav G
       
      gurusQ4. Useful- Destruction of rainforests.
  • Most rainforests are cleared by chainsaws, bulldozers and fires for its timber value and then are followed by farming and ranching operations, even by world giants like Mitsubishi Corporation, Georgia Pacific, Texaco and Unocal.
    • Gurupranav G
       
      gurusQ4. Useful. Destruction of rainforests.
  • There were an estimated ten million Indians living in the Amazonian Rainforest five centuries ago. Today there are less than 200,000.
    • Audrey C
       
      Why though?
  • At least 3000 fruits are found in the rainforests; of these only 200 are now in use in the Western World.
    • Antonio D
       
      We should stop this!
  • The beauty, majesty, and timelessness of a primary rainforest are indescribable. It is impossible to capture on film, to describe in words, or to explain to those who have never had the awe-inspiring experience of standing in the heart of a primary rainforest.
  • Each time a rainforest medicine man dies, it is as if a library has burned down.
    • Chloe W
       
      I can't believe they have that much knowledge!
  • At least 80% of the developed world's diet originated in the tropical rainforest. Its bountiful gifts to the world include fruits like avocados, coconuts, figs, oranges, lemons, grapefruit, bananas, guavas, pineapples, mangos and tomatoes; vegetables including corn, potatoes, rice, winter squash and yams; spices like black pepper, cayenne, chocolate, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, sugar cane, tumeric, coffee and vanilla and nuts including Brazil nuts and cashews.
    • Chloe W
       
      WOW! It may not be the most unique foods and plants, but it is interesting that most of our things come from rainforests!
    • Chloe W
       
      Hopefully, this will come in handy for my central idea.
  • Two drugs obtained from a rainforest plant known as the Madagascar periwinkle, now extinct in the wild due to deforestation of the Madagascar rainforest, have increased the chances of survival for children with leukemia from 20 percent to 80 percent. Think about it: eight out of ten children are now saved, rather than eight of ten children dying from leukemia. How many children have been spared and how many more will continue to be spared because of this single rainforest plant? What if we had failed to discover this one important plant among millions before human activities had led to its extinction? When our remaining rainforests are gone, the rare plants and animals will be lost forever-and so will the possible cures for diseases like cancer they can provide.
    • Marius S
       
      Because of deforestation, all this has happened!
  • Rainforests have evolved over millions of years to turn into the incredibly complex environments they are today. Rainforests represent a store of living and breathing renewable natural resources that for eons, by virtue of their richness in both animal and plant species, have contributed a wealth of resources for the survival and well-being of humankind. These resources have included basic food supplies, clothing, shelter, fuel, spices, industrial raw materials, and medicine for all those who have lived in the majesty of the forest. However, the inner dynamics of a tropical rainforest is an intricate and fragile system. Everything is so interdependent that upsetting one part can lead to unknown damage or even destruction of the whole. Sadly, it has taken only a century of human intervention to destroy what nature designed to last forever. The scale of human pressures on ecosystems everywhere has increased enormously in the last few decades. Since 1980 the global economy has tripled in size and the world population has increased by 30 percent. Consumption of everything on the planet has risen- at a cost to our ecosystems. In 2001, The World Resources Institute estimated that the demand for rice, wheat, and corn is expected to grow by 40% by 2020, increasing irrigation water demands by 50% or more. They further reported that the demand for wood could double by the year 2050; unfortunately, it is still the tropical forests of the world that supply the bulk of the world's demand for wood.
    • Yen Yu C
       
      rainforest could be gone if the wood suplies keeps going up like this!
  • In 1950, about 15 percent of the Earth's land surface was covered by rainforest. Today, more than half has already gone up in smoke. In fewer than fifty years, more than half of the world's tropical rainforests have fallen victim to fire and the chain saw, and the rate of destruction is still accelerating. Unbelievably, more than 200,000 acres of rainforest are burned every day. That is more than 150 acres lost every minute of every day, and 78 million acres lost every year! More than 20 percent of the Amazon rainforest is already gone, and much more is severely threatened as the destruction continues. It is estimated that the Amazon alone is vanishing at a rate of 20,000 square miles a year. If nothing is done to curb this trend, the entire Amazon could well be gone within fifty years. Massive deforestation brings with it many ugly consequences-air and water pollution, soil erosion, malaria epidemics, the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, the eviction and decimation of indigenous Indian tribes, and the loss of biodiversity through extinction of plants and animals. Fewer rainforests mean less rain, less oxygen for us to breathe, and an increased threat from global warming.
    • Yen Yu C
       
      that is just scary but it is something we must know inorder for someone to solve the problem someday...i guess
  • But who is really to blame? Consider what we industrialized Americans have done to our own homeland. We converted 90 percent of North America's virgin forests into firewood, shingles, furniture, railroad ties, and paper. Other industrialized countries have done no better. Malaysia, Indonesia, Brazil, and other tropical countries with rainforests are often branded as "environmental villains" of the world, mainly because of their reported levels of destruction of their rainforests. But despite the levels of deforestation, up to 60 percent of their territory is still covered by natural tropical forests. In fact, today, much of the pressures on their remaining rainforests comes from servicing the needs and markets for wood products in industrialized countries that have already depleted their own natural resources. Industrial countries would not be buying rainforest hardwoods and timber had we not cut down our own trees long ago, nor would poachers in the Amazon jungle be slaughtering jaguar, ocelot, caiman, and otter if we did not provide lucrative markets for their skins in Berlin, Paris, and Tokyo.
    • Yen Yu C
       
      why really is to blame??i think it's every human that lives in a house and have wonerful furnitures . I think even me.....us....
    • Yen Yu C
       
      good for some of my questions.....
  • More than half of the world's estimated 10 million species of plants, animals and insects live in the tropical rainforests. One-fifth of the world's fresh water is in the Amazon Basin.
    • Gurupranav G
       
      Useful for my Q1, Q3
  • It is estimated that a single hectare (2.47 acres) of Amazon rainforest contains about 900 tons of living plants, including more than 750 types of trees and 1500 other plants.
    • Gurupranav G
       
      Useful if you are loking at the biodiversity of a rainforest.
  • Destruction of our rainforests is not only causing the extinction of plant and animal species, it is also wiping out indigenous peoples who live in the rainforest.
    • Gurupranav G
       
      Useful for my Q4
  • he problem and the solution of the destruction of the rainforest are both economic. Governments need money to service their debts, squatters and settlers need money to feed their families, and companies need to make profits. The simple fact is that the rainforest is being destroyed for the income and profits it yields, however fleeting. Money still makes the world go around . . . even in South America and even in the rainforest. But this also means that if landowners, governments, and those living in the rainforest today were given a viable economic reason not to destroy the rainforest, it could and would be saved. And this viable economic alternative does exist, and it is working today. Many organizations have demonstrated that if the medicinal plants, fruits, nuts, oils, and other resources like rubber, chocolate, and chicle (used to make chewing gums) are harvested sustainably, rainforest land has much more economic value today and more long-term income and profits for the future than if just timber is harvested or burned down for cattle or farming operations. In fact, the latest statistics prove that rainforest land converted to cattle operations yields the landowner $60 per acre; if timber is harvested, the land is worth $400 per acre. However, if medicinal plants, fruits, nuts, rubber, chocolate, and other renewable and sustainable resources are harvested, the land will yield the landowner $2,400 per acre. This value provides an income not only today, but year after year - for generations. These sustainable resources - not the trees - are the true wealth of the rainforest.
    • Gurupranav G
       
      Useful for my Q4. Tells you the basic reason why rainforests are being destroyed.
    • Marius S
       
      That's interesting...
  • More than 20 percent of the world oxygen is produced in the Amazon Rainforest.
  • And while 25% of Western pharmaceuticals are derived from rainforest ingredients, less than 1% of these tropical trees and plants have been tested by scientists.
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    Its good
  • ...4 more comments...
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    At least 3000 fruits are found in the rainforests; of these only 200 are now in use in the Western World
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    Its intersting, and I never knew that!
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    Loads of inforamation... really good!
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    a commercial website that has a page of rainforest facts aimed at students doing reports
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    At least 3000 fruits are found in the rainforests; of these only 200 are now in use in the Western World
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    At least 3000 fruits are found in the rainforests; of these only 200 are now in use in the Western World
Ajay V

How can we save rainforests? - 0 views

shared by Ajay V on 07 Sep 09 - Cached
  • Rainforests are disappearing very quickly. The good news is that there are a lot of people who want to save rainforests. The bad news is saving rainforests is not going to be easy. It will take the efforts of many people working together in order to ensure rainforests and their wildlife will survive for your children to appreciate and enjoy.
    • Ajay V
       
      A good introduction to how rainforests are getting destroyed
  • Teach others about the importance of the environment and how they can help save rainforests. Restore damaged ecosystems by planting trees on land where forests have been cut down. Encourage people to live in a way that doesn't hurt the environment Establish parks to protect rainforests and wildlife Support companies that operate in ways that minimize damage to the environment
    • Ajay V
       
      A variety of types to help save rainforests
  • ...1 more annotation...
    • Paul I
       
      reason immanq3
Ajay V

Rainforest people - 0 views

shared by Ajay V on 25 Sep 09 - Cached
Ajay V

Football War - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 0 views

  • The "Football" War (La guerra del fútbol, in Spanish), also known as the Soccer War or 100-hours War, was a four-day war fought by El Salvador and Honduras in 1969. It was caused by political conflicts between Hondurans and Salvadorans, namely issues concerning immigration from El Salvador to Honduras. These existing tensions between the two countries coincided with the inflamed rioting during the second North American qualifying round for the 1970 FIFA World Cup. On 14 July 1969, the Salvadoran army launched an attack against Honduras. The Organization of American States negotiated a cease-fire which took effect on 20 July, with the Salvadoran troops withdrawn in early August.
  • The "Football" War (La guerra del fútbol, in Spanish), also known as the Soccer War or 100-hours War, was a four-day war fought by El Salvador and Honduras in 1969. It was caused by political conflicts between Hondurans and Salvadorans, namely issues concerning immigration from El Salvador to Honduras. These existing tensions between the two countries coincided with the inflamed rioting during the second North American qualifying round for the 1970 FIFA World Cup. On 14 July 1969, the Salvadoran army launched an attack against Honduras. The Organization of American States negotiated a cease-fire which took effect on 20 July, with the Salvadoran troops withdrawn in early August.
    • Thomas C
       
      A war over a football match? Thats the strangest start to a war ever! T.C.
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    Hey guys,\nA description of a Football War? Very strange!
Ajay V

Susan Cooper - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 0 views

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    Susan Cooper-Wikipedia
Ajay V

Biography - 0 views

Thomas C

The Embassy of Afghanistan, Washington, DC - 0 views

  • Afghan girls were not allowed to go to school. Girls also had to hide or get rid off their dolls because the Taliban opposed all images of people or animals, including photographs and posters. Boys and girls were not allowed to play together. Afghan children were also not allowed to watch television or listen to music. Luckily, times have changed and many dedicated people are working hard to improve the lives of children in Afghanistan.
    • Thomas C
       
      I didn't know that.
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    Nice stuff here. I could really use it.
Thomas C

Ahmed Rashid - Afghan crunch time: Obama must decide whether to talk to the Taliban - 0 views

  • Neighboring countries and most Afghans believe that the endgame has begun for a post-U.S. Afghanistan.
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    What!!!!!!
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    This could be really good!!
Thomas C

Afghanistan Online: Education in Afghanistan - 0 views

  • As a result of the Soviet war, and the civil war which occurred shortly afterwards, many schools were destroyed and the education process as a whole in Afghanistan was negatively affected.  The destruction of the education infrastructure went to an extreme level when the Taliban conquered and ruled most of Afghanistan. 
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    This looks useful.
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    Hey Guys
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