The Ice Cap Melting

Nowadays, a problem that has been affecting the society and being discussed among the years between several important and worried world leaders.
It began in the 50’s due to the global warming, which increases the temperature, causing the meltdown. The governments tried a lot of agreements to the global warming problem but they weren’t a long term deal for a solution.
So, now the consequences can be observed, such as the defrosting in some areas, the constant weather changing, the ocean acidification and the ice cap melting.
This problems cause other issues, such as the sea level rise, ocean temperature rise, volcanoes, earthquakes and other drastic changes in our world.
I chose this topic because I had some sort of knowledge about the melting and the “changes” that are happening in the world, and the damages that can be severe and hazardous to the society.
In my opinion, these issues won’t be solved until the human race stops interacting badly on the environment, so, as it’ll never happen, we’re certainly doomed, but it’ll probably take a long time for “us” to notice that. =)

Renan Vasconcelos – Edi 1B

Poliana Helmond
Leon Shywas
Maysa Alves

The deforestation of the Amazon Rainforest

        The main sources of deforestation in the Amazon Rainforest are human settlement and development of the land. In the nine years from 1991 to 2000, the total area of Amazon Rainforest cleared rose from 415,000 to 587,000 km². The Amazon rainforest continues to shrink but more recently the rate of deforestation has been slowing, with the 2011 figures showing the slowest rate of deforestation since records have been kept.       
      The Amazon Rainforest is being cut away for many different reasons. Agriculture, the valuable hardwood, housing space and farming space especially soybeans are just the main reasons. But the most important cause are cattle pasture. The farmers deforested bigger quantities of trees and natural plants for the livestock.               A  satellite data have found that clearing for mechanized cropland has recently become a significant force in Brazilian Amazon deforestation. This change in land use may alter the region's climate. Researchers found that in 2003, the then peak year of deforestation, more than 20 percent of the Mato Grosso state’s forests were converted to cropland. This finding suggests that the recent cropland expansion in the region is contributing to further deforestation.
                   Analyzing the data, we conclude that action human make seriously problems for the environment (climate, endangered species, fires) and it's very important to find a way to convert this situation.

        We need change to save the Amazon Rainforest. Change our actions. Change our minds. Change our life.

Yuri Silva

Testimonial Pedro e Raphael

Pedro Henrique
Raphael Raggi

Brazil: An example of recycling

The recycling of can has led Brazil to world leadership in business for eleven consecutive years. In 2011, Brazil again beat the world record for recycling aluminium cans for beverages, with the rate of 98,3%. 248.700 tons of scrap cans were recycled corresponding to 18,4 billion of units.

The program's recycling aluminium cans is today a successful experience with great social, economic and environmental influence. In 2011, only the collection stage (purchase of used cans) injected about R$ 645 million into the national economy, equivalent to the generation of jobs and income for thousands of people.

This is the result of a combination of various aspects. The main factor is the fact that the country has a recycling market already established in all regions.

It is indisputably the importance of aluminium cans for recycling activity in Brazil, as it reinforces the ecological awareness of the population ends up creating more jobs, favoring the society and the national economy.



Matheus Augusto Araújo Demétrio de Amorim - EDI 1B

Testimonial - Belo Horizonte Super Expansion

Testimonial - Belo Horizonte Super Expansion
Lucas Meireles e Luiz Simões

FEATURE ARTICLE - Amazon Deforestation

 Amazon Deforestation

The Amazon forest is the largest forest of the planet, the place with the greatest biodiversity, the "lung" of the world. But this scenario has been changed. The Amazon that was once a forest land that housed several species of animals, birds and native, became an area intended for farming, grain production and urban center. If no action is taken, the Amazon can be completely cleared in a few years.

            The main sources of deforestation in the Amazon are human settlement and development of land. Between 1991 and 2000, the total area of Amazon forest cleared for cattle ranching and roads increased from 415,000 to 587,000 km ². In February 2008, the Brazilian government announced that the rate at which the Amazon forest is being destroyed had been accelerating significantly during the time of year that it usually lower: In the last five months of 2007, more than 3,200 square kilometers.

            Besides affecting biodiversity (Amazon owns more than 30% of global biodiversity), Amazon deforestation affects, and much, life of local populations that without the variety of resources of the largest freshwater basin in the world, find themselves without possibility to ensure their own survival, becoming dependent on government aid and non-governmental organizations.

             However, several actions have been taken to prevent the worst from happening and preserve the richness provided by Amazon. NGOs like Greenpeace, SOS Mata Atlantica, WWF, IPAM (Institute for Amazon Research) and several other entities, campaign and study aiming to publicize and facilitate sustainable development and the recovery of degraded areas of the Amazon in Brazil.

Luiz Fernando Simões

Problems of Brazil

Thales Barbosa
Matheus Amorim

The City Where I Live

Lucas Freitas Viana
Marcus Vinicius Maia

How we do change the world…

We live in a community that has many problems. One of these problems are the trash on the streets. Currently you cannot walk in the streets without you may encounter with a  large quantity of waste, due to the lack of concern and awareness of society on the subject.

Plastic bags, papers, bottles and many other discards are commonly found on the public streets, roads and vacant lots. This practice performed by a great number of people, implies very bad consequences to the environment and cities. For example, the constant floods occurred in large cities due to the large volume of trash found in culverts. Another problem also encountered in our daily life is the dumps: large deposits of garbage to open sky which, despite being more "economic”, aggravate the pollution of the soil.

For the reduction of this problem, people needs  to have more awareness about the subject, may be diffused through awareness campaigns, is by means of advertisements in various media, telecommunication (TV, radio and the internet, mainly by social networks) or by an increase in the investment of funds to the cities. Among the possible solutions, one of the most widespread nowadays it would be the recycling that would help with the reduction in extraction of raw material for natural materials already recycled avoiding the great devastation of the environment.

 Vinícius Dias do Carmo Costa e Yuri Henrique Silva

Problems in my city

Thiago de Moro Loures

The Ice Cap Melting

  The ice cap melting is a recent problem in the environment. The melting began in the last 50 years with the global warming. The temperature rises and the ice caps melt. I choose this because it’s a problem in the environment that can raise tsunami’s probability and it can destroy hundreds of places near the ocean (Rio, Vanuatu, Japan) and the polar species.

  A polar ice cap is a high latitude region of a planet or natural satellite is covered in ice. The polar ice caps are melting because of the release of methane gas, which is a warming gas, and the slowing of the Atlantic Conveyor that brings warm water from the Gulf Stream to the North Atlantic.

  While some scientists offer that certain areas in Greenland and Antarctica are abundant with ice caps due to the increased of snowfall, they are still melting at an alarming rate.

Thiago de Moro Loures

Garbage with good eyes

Currently, the environment is one of the largest global concerns. Various events such as climate change and the extinction of species of living beings, having been caused due to human action. There are various causes that can be solved and another can be mitigated, as for example, the removal of raw materials which cause deforestation and exhaust the Earth's natural resources.

Recycling is one solution to reduce this raw material and removal of much of the garbage that is thrown by the people. There are cooperatives responsible for this type of work therefore create jobs.

In Belo Horizonte, many projects were elaborated to make possible the reuse of products made of plastic, paper and lots of other components. In this cooperative they give jobs to people who works in streets collecting the rests that are thrown out by the population. They can earn some money from their jobs and at the same time they make the city cleaner.

I chose that theme because is an alternative very important way to reduce the garbage, reuse raw materials try to make a better world for live.

Vinícius Dias do Carmo Costa

Endangered species in Mata Atlântica

Historically, the Mata Atlântica composed of more than a 1.2 million square kilometers, but after centuries of deforestation the Mata Atlântica has declined by well over 90% today less than 100.000 square kilometers of the forest remains. Despite so little forest survive, the Mata Atlântica remains remarkably rich in biodiversity ,but 60% of Brazil's endangered species are in the Mata Atlântica, some endemic species.

Deforestation of forest for agriculture, both industrial and small-scale, remains a major cause for deforestation in the Mata Atlântica. However the Mata Atlântica also suffers from cattle ranching, eucalyptus plantations,  hunting and poaching, urban sprawl and proximity to large urban centers cause pollution problems. Between 2005-2008, 102.938 hectares of Mata Atlântica were destroyed, with an average of 34.121 hectares per year.

New species continue to be found in the Mata Atlântica, The area has even yielded new primate species. In 1990 researchers discovered a new tamarin: the black-faced lion tamarin . In 2006 researchers rediscovered the blonde capuchin.  Due to a number of threats and species left in small, dwindling fragments, a Brazilian conservationist, Antonio Rossano Mendes Pontes, has called species in the Mata Atlântica: 'the living dead'. Examples of endangered species in the Mata Atlantic are the: muriquis, Blonde capuchin, Brazilian arboreal mouse, Maned sloth, Thin-spined porcupine, The Brazilian merganser, Brazilian Snake-Necked Turtle, Brazilian Gold Frog , among others. With forest deforestation these species tend to disappear and some species still unknown will be extinguished.

Conservation awareness has come to the forefront in many parts of the Mata Atlântica A number of ambitious projects are underway, including reforesting large parts of the land, as the initiative by President, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, in November 2008, said the government AIMS to restore the Atlantic Forest to 20 percent of its original cover. And the program by the Nature Conservancy is working to plant one billion trees over approximately 10.000 square kilometers in the Mata Atlântica.

Luisa Freitas

CO2 Emissions

The idea that CO2 is the responsible, or the main, for global warming is easily accepted by most today. But there isn't evidence shows that CO2 control the Earth's climate, and case control, the human interference is insignificant in this respect.

This story of global warming, has been present in the past, where global temperatures were higher than today's. Over time there was also a drop in temperature, and this variation is constant in the history of the earth. We note that independent of men, changes in global temperature are inevitable.

Even so, we are often influenced to mobilize to reduce our CO2 emissions, with drastically interfere in our day to day, until well buy expensive products called "green products". But research shows that relative the emitters of CO2 in the atmosphere terrestrial, the human action has an insignificant portion, which makes all this mobilization useless.

So, the CO2 emitted by human activity doesn't interfere significantly in the global climate, but that doesn't mean we can pollute and do whatever they want in relation to the environment. We have that be aware of environment and act politely, to do our role in a healthy lifestyle and a good local climate of urban cities.

Those many errors in this idea of CO2 and human action in the supposed global warming aren't showed, due to the interests of other, more powerful economically. For better explain on the matter, i advise to attend a lecture by Professor da USP Ricardo Augusto Felício, available on Youtube.

Marcus Vinicius Maia

The Amazon Deforestation

In recent years the Amazon forest, located in the northern region of South America, is being severely damaged. Many loggers are in search of raw material for making furniture, paper and charcoal. There are also many farmers who are in search of new areas for breeding and planting. Currently, there is serious concern about the situation of the forest: the reduction of the forest area and the loss of oxygen influence on the local climate, affecting the water cycle, without forgetting the issuance of oxygen will decrease.

Between 1991 and 2011 the area has greatly increased deforestation and now has about 800,000 km ². Since 2004, the pace has been decreasing, reaching a record high of minimal. The deliberate fires are the main causes of deforestation, but the cut is also present.

The deforestation affects local biodiversity. The animals are left without their habitat. Many species are becoming extinct every year, animals and plants. Do not forget that most of the planet's fresh water is there. With fewer trees, water cycle is affected, thereby decreasing the amount of water present. The Amazon is one of the largest oxygen responsible for control of the planet. Less trees, less air.

Currently the government has serious oversight, but there's still plenty to do. Gradually, deforestation is reduced, and people will be more aware about their own life.

Lucas Freitas Viana