The Amazon (not the internet shopping site!)

[bushynewbie]

Just reading about the amazon rain forest, whilst i agree its still very vast but i do worry for its future, its being destroyed at an alarming rate.

i'm fascinated by the place, anyone else?

[Steffen]

yes, i would also like to go there.

[born2roam]

A fantastic place to visit. Like many I wanted to see it before it is destroyed more and was lucky enough to go there in 2008.

Love to go back and visit a lot longer, if you have some time to kill read the trip report on my website or if you just want to see some pics you can go directly here.

Just a short impression...

Grtz Johan

[Gagnrad]

Just reading about the amazon rain forest, whilst i agree its still very vast but i do worry for its future, its being destroyed at an alarming rate.

Yeah, it's big. IIRC, Volkswagen (sic) owns a tract about the size of Switzerland. Others have more.

But, well, if you look at the time taken to bring the North American bison to virtual extinction ... The size of a resource makes little odds, if it's being over-exploited. Talking of North America, the speed with which parts of that were deforested is remarkable. Wood had become short in Britain very early, which is why coal was early exploited here. In the U.S. wood was used for darn near everything -- even railway viaducts.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Seeds-Wealth...dp/0330488120/


Terrible ecological damage. And unfortunately, we're also talking about the destruction of some of the last hunter-gatherer communities on earth, too.

I'd strongly recommend the book linked below as a good read. Norman Lewis, said to be one of the greatest travel writers of the last century, on the exploitation of the native peoples. You can get it for a penny at Amazon (the other one!) plus postage. It's the strange story of how South American governments, business, and "Christian" missionaries were, effectively, working hand-in-hand to bring about the native peoples' dispossesion. The missionaries would be allowed access on account political and economic leaders were switched-on enough to realize that a people's economy, material culture, way of life, and spiritual beliefs make a kind of circle, so that if you undermine people spiritually and culturally by breaking down their religious traditions, it then becomes easier to exploit and disposses them:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Missionaries...dp/0099599600/

[bushynewbie]

some great links there, thanks

its the indigenous people i do feel sorry for

[HillBill]

Only until they find what they are looking for

I've spent a fair bit of time in French Guiana. I liked it there, jungles suit me, though i can't say the same for many. It was known as "the green hell" amongst the lads.

its being destroyed at an alarming rate.
i'm fascinated by the place, anyone else?

[Gagnrad]

its the indigenous people i do feel sorry for

Here's one old lady who managed to survive the upheavals there -- reputedly to 121:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-14730434


BTW, there's a fascinating chapter on the Amazon in Dr. Kamler's book Surviving the Extremes: What Happens to the Human Body at the Limits of Human Endurance:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Surviving-Ex...dp/0143034510/

Wish I had personal experience of the area, like some people here.

[bushynewbie]

i'm fortunate enough to have done some travelling, but its one place i havent been

to be honest i wouldnt want to go as a tourist as such, i'd love to experience it in a primitive way