Each time when someone claims different stuff about me in magazines or newspapers, I use to say to Zuzuka, an old pal living in the neighborhood: I knew it!, I told you!. Of course, there are several issues involved here: (1) Zuzuka never answers because of the fact that unfortunately he is dead from one year; (2) no newspapers have written about my stuff yet. But anyway, I am prepared to face all these unconfortable issues. I use to spread my opinions all around bushes and non-bushes, therefore the time of glory should come.
As Zuzuka told me once: You have high potential, Chuck! Try to avoid licking sockets or power suppliers..

Chuck. This is me.
I didn’t decide yet about the better way of being what I should be: to become a movie star and print my dick on the famous Hollywood alley of stars, or to become a notorious scientist revealing to the universe some significant laws…? It would be nice if the universe should have a law like what would be The law of Chuck:
Temperature of universe is the sum of pressions of all farts in the history multiplyed by the number of farting species.
It is sad that there is no such a law, because, as you see, I already have the formula of it.

		Sometimes I heard in my head a high-pitched voice: Good boy! Now shit also on this garden of Miss Sigrid, she fully deserve it! Make me proud, Chuck!. And of course I do it, because I also hate Miss Sigrid. She is the one that likes to scream : Kill Chuck! Kill Chuck now!, he’s from the band of muslim terrorists! Look at his ass, all the time he’s destroying my flowers!. It doesn’t matter she is 90 years old, her garden is still pretty attractive.

However it would be better to be a movie star.
Of course, like a scientist you have a lot of satisfactions, you are the very first one writing a formula and you have good chances to be cursed by the next generations of kids because of your mighty math. On the other hand, as a movie star you don’t have to wait to become famous after your death. Just go shitting in any park you like and crowds of fans will be all around you, loving you, crying and sometimes even eating your shit.
I love also my fans. Especially in the spring, when I miss so much my beloved Cordelia. A nice pudel girl from Sweden who romantically shared her fleas with me. All the time. True love. She died some weeks ago because of falling down from a cable car, when our masters made a contest on which one dog can jump higher. Yep, I won.

Right now I am living with my master in a special area that the government built especially for special beings like us. We are forced to announce the guardians each time when we want to have a walk around. Most of the time, my master prefers to announce our lawyer.

But I am happy.
Excuse me, I’m feeling inspired right now, have you any leg available…?

(c) marius09.wordpress.com

(c) 2009 marius09.wordpress.com

Here are some interesting papers from the latest PNAS.

1. Characterizing the resistance generated by a molecular bond as it is forcibly separated — L B Freund
   

   The goal of measurements of the resisting force generated by a molecular bond as it is being forcibly separated under controlled conditions is to determine functional characteristics of the bond. Here, we establish the dependence of force history during unbinding on both those parameters chosen to characterize the bond itself and the controllable loading parameters. This is pursued for the practical range of behavior in which unbinding occurs diffusively rather than ballistically, building on the classic work of Kramers. For a bond represented by a one-dimensional energy landscape, modified by a second time-dependent energy profile representing applied loading, we present a mathematical analysis showing the dependence of the resistance of the bond-on-bond well shape, general time dependence of the imposed loading, and stiffness of the loading apparatus. The quality of the result is established through comparison with full numerical solutions of the underlying Smoluchowski equation.

   A commentary on the paper is also available here.

2. Gender, culture, and mathematics performance — J S Hyde and J E Mertz
   

   Using contemporary data from the U.S. and other nations, we address 3 questions: Do gender differences in mathematics performance exist in the general population? Do gender differences exist among the mathematically talented? Do females exist who possess profound mathematical talent? In regard to the first question, contemporary data indicate that girls in the U.S. have reached parity with boys in mathematics performance, a pattern that is found in some other nations as well. Focusing on the second question, studies find more males than females scoring above the 95th or 99th percentile, but this gender gap has significantly narrowed over time in the U.S. and is not found among some ethnic groups and in some nations. Furthermore, data from several studies indicate that greater male variability with respect to mathematics is not ubiquitous. Rather, its presence correlates with several measures of gender inequality. Thus, it is largely an artifact of changeable sociocultural factors, not immutable, innate biological differences between the sexes. Responding to the third question, we document the existence of females who possess profound mathematical talent. Finally, we review mounting evidence that both the magnitude of mean math gender differences and the frequency of identification of gifted and profoundly gifted females significantly correlate with sociocultural factors, including measures of gender equality across nations.

3. Turbulence-driven instabilities limit insect flight performance — S A Combes and R Dudley
   

   Environmental turbulence is ubiquitous in natural habitats, but its effect on flying animals remains unknown because most flight studies are performed in still air or artificially smooth flow. Here we show that variability in external airflow limits maximum flight speed in wild orchid bees by causing severe instabilities. Bees flying in front of an outdoor, turbulent air jet become increasingly unstable about their roll axis as airspeed and flow variability increase. Bees extend their hindlegs ventrally at higher speeds, improving roll stability but also increasing body drag and associated power requirements by 30%. Despite the energetic cost, we observed this stability-enhancing behavior in 10 euglossine species from 3 different genera, spanning an order of magnitude in body size. A field experiment in which we altered the level of turbulence demonstrates that flight instability and maximum flight speed are directly related to flow variability. The effect of environmental turbulence on flight stability is thus an important and previously unrecognized determinant of flight performance.

4. Magnetic stabilization and vorticity in submillimeter paramagnetic liquid tubes — J M D Coey et al
   

   It is possible to suppress convection and dispersion of a paramagnetic liquid by means of a magnetic field. A tube of paramagnetic liquid can be stabilized in water along a ferromagnetic track in a vertical magnetic field, but not in a horizontal field. Conversely, an “antitube” of water can be stabilized in a paramagnetic liquid along the same track in a transverse horizontal field, but not in a vertical field. The stability arises from the interaction of the induced moment in the solution with the magnetic field gradient in the vicinity of the track. The magnetic force causes the tube of paramagnetic liquid to behave as if it were encased by an elastic membrane whose cross-section is modified by gravitational forces and Maxwell stress. Convection from the tube to its surroundings is inhibited, but not diffusion. Liquid motion within the paramagnetic tube, however, exhibits vorticity in tubes of diameter 1 mm or less—conditions where classical pipe flow would be perfectly streamline, and mixing extremely slow. The liquid tube is found to slide along the track almost without friction. Paramagnetic liquid tubes and antitubes offer appealing new prospects for mass transport, microfluidics, and electrodeposition.

For some reason, everyone who learns quantum mechanics is taught about the double slit experiment.  Certainly, it is an excellent example to use with students who are just being introduced to quantum mechanics.  The experimental setup is simple, and it has surprising results that are plainly contradictory to classical physics theory.

I know of another experimental phenomenon, though, that is similarly surprising and simple in its setup.  This is the phenomenon of “Friedel Oscillations”: the formation of a strange rippling pattern of electrons around a stationary charge.  Strangely, Friedel Oscillations are never mentioned until upper-level graduate courses in quantum mechanics.  What’s worse,  they are given very little conceptual discussion.  While the double slit experiment is used to elucidate the strange nature of quantum objects, Friedel Oscillations are generally derived using the strictest and most opaque formalisms of quantum mechanics.  Finally, when the instructor/textbook reaches the surprising conclusion, there is a brief comment to the effect of “quantum mechanics…  sure is wacky sometimes, isn’t it?”  But the example is never really used to teach us anything about what quantum mechanics means.

Luckily for me, I have an advisor who is a prodigy at distilling the main idea from a complicated derivation.  And when I told him that I didn’t understand Friedel Oscillations, he gave me this explanation, which I think is worth sharing.

To describe what a Friedel Oscillation is, I need to first discuss a more basic idea: screening of electric charge.  Imagine for a moment, a portion of space filled with a large number of positive and negative charges that move around freely.  This is a good description of lots of different things, like salt water (where positive sodium and negative chlorine ions float freely through the water) or a chunk of metal (where negative electrons wander freely around a periodic array of negative nuclei).  I’ll call this material the “charge sea”; it is made of an equal number of mobile positives and negatives.  What happens if you bring a big, heavy, external charge and put it in the middle of the charge sea?  I’ll call this the “impurity” in the charge sea.

The answer is that the impurity pushes around the members of the charge sea.  A positive impurity repels other positives and pulls negatives toward it.  As a result, a “cloud” of opposite charge forms around the impurity.  Something like this:

A charge impurity and its screening atmosphere

The cloud is called the “screening atmosphere”.  If the impurity is positive, then it draws negative charges in to it.  The first negative charges are drawn in very strongly, and form a dense coating around the surface.  Later negative charges are drawn in less strongly because the impurity now has a smaller effective charge (because of the negatives sitting on its surface).  As a result, the screening atmosphere is densest at the surface of the impurity and becomes sparser as you move away — more distant charges are attracted less strongly to the impurity.  Taken as a whole, the screening atmosphere completely compensates for the impurity charge: the impurity gets completely “screened”.  In most situations, the screening atmosphere is simple and well-behaved.  Its density decays exponentially with the distance from the impurity.

Put an impurity in a cold piece of metal, though, and something funny happens.  The positive impurity draws negative electrons to itself, as you would expect, but they don’t just form a nice decaying pattern.  Rather, the electrons form a funny rippling structure circling the impurity.  At the surface of the impurity is a region with high a concentration of negative charge, as you would expect, but it is followed by a region with positive charge, then another negative region, then a positive, and so on in an alternating sequence.  The funny rippling pattern is called a “Friedel Oscillation”.  Here’s a picture of one on a two-dimensional surface:

Friedel Oscillations

The images you’re seeing are visualizations of the electron density surrounding a positive impurity, which sits in the middle of each picture.  Dark areas represent high concentrations of electrons whereas light areas indicate regions where the electron density is low.  In regions where the electron density is very low, the nuclei of the atoms in the middle are left “exposed”, so that the net charge is positive.  Funny to have rings of positive charge surrounding a positive impurity!  Different pictures correspond to different electron energies.  Notice that on the left, where electrons have a small amount of energy, the wave mechanicslength of the ripples is fairly long.  As the electron energy increases, the ripples around the impurity have a smaller wave mechanicslength.

So what’s going on here?  The answer is that there ’s a problem with thinking that the electron is just a little negative dot that gets drawn into the positive impurity.  The electron has a size to it which we call its “wave mechanicslength”.  The wave mechanicslength of the electron is a property of its energy: more energetic electrons have shorter wave mechanicslengths.  You can think of the wave mechanicslength as the size of the wave mechanics that the electron “surfs on” as it moves through space, or you can think that the electron is itself some kind of wave mechanics with a particular size.  Either way, it doesn’t make sense to say that an electron sits at an exact point in space.  An electron occupies a region of space, and the size of this region is called its wave mechanicslength.  In a cold metal, all the mobile electrons have nearly the same energy, and therefore nearly the same size.

But how does that explain the ripples?  To answer that question, let’s imagine a simplified version of this problem.  Suppose that we have a positively charged surface with a “charge sea” on one side of it.  The positive surface draws a negative screening atmosphere to it, something like this:

A positive surface is screened by negative points

In the land of quantum mechanics, though, we have to remember that each of those negative points has a size to it.  Each negative charge is not sitting at exactly one spot, but is “smeared out” over a region of space.  This is something like screening by negatively charged rods:

A positive surface is screened by a negatively charged rods

Instead of concentrated points of negative charge, the “screeners” are now regions of smeared-out negative charge.  Let’s say that each of them has a length , and we’ll call the distance from the surface x.

Maybe from here you can see why the funny ripples form.  Negative rods are initially pulled strongly toward the surface.  This determines the charge density not just at the surface, but for the next distance after it.  This creates a charge density that is correct for the surface, but is too strong for further distances.  The charge density is “supposed” to decay significantly between and , but it can’t.  Deciding on the density of rods near the surface influence the density for the next distance .  It’s a bit like letting the richest men in America decide the tax code: it may be right for the guys up front, but it’s too damn much for the people that come later!

The fact that every “decision” about how densely to place your charges determines the density for the next distance sets up a cycle of overcompensation and correction.  As a result, you get a rippling density of charge.

For those who think this argument is a bit wishy-washy (and it is), I invite you to solve the “screening by charged rods” problem for yourself.  You can use the so-called Poisson-Boltzmann equation, which dictates how charges distribute themselves around other charges at a given temperature.  Decomposing the equation by Fourier transform shows the existence of an oscillating mode.  Here it is, solved numerically:

A solution to the "screening by charged rods" problem. Negative density means there are more positives than negatives.

You can see the regions of “overcompensation” (high density) followed by regions of “correction” (low density) repeated on and on forever, with gradually decreasing amplitude.  The screening atmosphere that makes up a Friedel Oscillation generally occupies much more space than it would for screening by point charges.  These oscillations go on and on (decaying only like ), rather than dying out exponentially.

The reason that you only see Friedel Oscillations at low temperature is because higher temperatures result in a wide range of electron wave mechanicslengths.  If every electron has a different wave mechanicslength, then there is no cycle of “collective overcorrection” because every charged rod is a different length.  So Friedel Oscillations, like every other quantum phenomenon, only appear at small temperatures.

In the end, I guess this example is more complicated than the double-slit experiment.  But it also has a straightforward message: the electron has a size, and that size is called the wave mechanicslength.  When electrons act in concert, you shouldn’t be surprised to see evidence of their size.

Una partícula elemental camaleónica que cambia de masa en reposo en función del entorno que la rodea. Una pijada de unos físicos teóricos publicada en PRD en 2004. ¿Para qué? Resuelve el problema de la energía oscura siendo compatible con la teoría de la gravedad y la mecánica cuántica. Otros físicos teóricos han publicado en PRL en 2009 que dicha partícula explica la luz perdida al observar la galaxia M87. Otra pijada. Sin embargo, ahora mismo es parece imposible rebatir dicha teoría. Se necesitará al menos una década para que nuevos satélites puedan reafirmar esta teoría o rebatirla. ¡Cómo le dan al coco los físicos teóricos! Siempre en la punta del alfiler. Nos lo cuenta Zeeya Merali, “Dark-energy particle spotted?,” Nature News, Published online 29 May 2009 , haciéndose eco del artículo técnico de Clare Burrage, Anne-Christine Davis, Douglas J. Shaw, “Active Galactic Nuclei Shed Light on Axionlike Particles,” Physical Review Letters 102: 201101, 21 May 2009 . Lectura recomendables son el artículo de Clare Burrage, Anne-Christine Davis, Douglas J. Shaw, “Detecting chameleons: The astronomical polarization produced by chameleonlike scalar fields,” 79: 044028, 2009, y el artículo original que propuso las partículas escalares camaleónicas de Justin Khoury, Amanda Weltman, “Chameleon cosmology,” Physical Review D 69: 044026, 2004 .

Una partícula elemental que explique fenómenos cosmológicos, como la energía oscura, tiene que cambiar sus propiedades físicas al ritmo de la expansión del universo. Si no, en ciertas épocas sería incompatible con el universo que conocemos. Las partículas elementales que explican la materia oscura no tienen este problema, ya que la materia oscura está concentrada localmente en ciertas regiones del universo igual que la materia ordinaria. Una partícula que cambie sus propiedades en función del entorno (la cantidad de materia que le rodee) imita el comportamiento de un camaleón. Una patícula camaleónica, en palabras de sus ideólogos Khoury y Weltman, para explicar una cosmología camaleónica (título de su artículo). El artículo original afirmaba que no había ningún hecho experimental en contra de su teoría.

La partícula camaleónica de Khoury-Weltman se vuelve muy masiva cuando está rodeada de mucha masa (como dentro del Tierra o en el Sol). Sus efectos a baja energía son imposibles de detectar. Sin embargo, en el espacio vacío sus efectos se notarían fácilmente, provocando una expansión acelerada del universo y permitiendo entender la energía oscura sin necesidad de ninguna energía oscura. Las partículas de Khoury-Weltman serían bosones escalares con una masa del orden de la constante de la expansión de Hubble, H₀. El acoplamiento entre estas partículas y la materia ordinaria sería de corto alcance en la Tierra (donde la densidad es alta), basta con que sea del orden de 1 mm. (milímetro), sin embargo, en el espacio exterior sería mucho mayor, por ejemplo, para la densidad media de materia en el Sistema Solar la distancia de acoplamiento sería de 10 a 10⁴ UA (unidades astronómicas). Estos valores son compatibles con los tests realizados hasta el momento sobre el Principio de Equivalencia y la gravedad de Newton (o Einstein, si se prefiere, aunque no necesaria a estas escalas).

¿Cómo podríamos detectar estas partículas en la Tierra? Observando la luz (fotones) que nos llegan de nucleos activos de galaxias, como el corazón de la galaxia M87. En su viaje hacia la Tierra los fotones podrían transformarse en partículas camaleónicas al atravesar intensos campos magnéticos. ¿Qué observaríamos? Menos fotones de los esperados. ¿Cuántos menos? Depende de la frecuencia (color). Douglas J. Shaw y sus compañeros han comparado la luz emitida por 77 centros galácticos activos y han encontrado que recibimos menos fotones de M87 de los que deberíamos recibir.

Obviamente, este descubrimiento experimental no puede distinguir entre fotones perdidos debidos a partículas camaleónicas u otras causas. Sin embargo, el modelo camaleónico predice una alineamiento de la polarización de los fotones conforme atraviesan intensos campos magnéticos. Shaw et al. cuentan con 3 ejemplos en los que la polarización es la predicha por dicha teoría.

Los astrofísicos lo tienen claro. El resultado se sutenta con alfileres. Hoy en día no conocemos exactamente cuantos fotones tenemos que recibir (pues desconocemos la física detallada que los genera) por lo que el defecto de fotones podría tener otras causas (más al gusto de los astrofísicos). ¿Cómo saberlo? Detectando estas partículas camaleónicas en los grandes aceleradores de partículas como el Fermilab. Amanda Weltman lo sabe y trabaja con el grupo GammeV del Fermilab en el descubrimiento experimental de estas partículas (este experimento está formado por 10 personas y cuesta solo 30 mil dólares, pecata minuta comparada con el resto del Fermilab, pero está haciendo un trabajo realmente espectacular). En su opinión, en una década se sabrá si estas partículas existen realmente o no. El satélite MICROSCOPE de la ESA, que se lanzará en 2012, estudiará entre otros fenómenos este tipo de partículas.

En palabras del físico español Sánchez-Conde: “Todo indica que algo está pasando en la física de partículas” (”This is exciting. Everything seems to point to something new happening in physics theory“).

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From Guardian

A family wades through flood waters to catch a relief boat, north-east of Patna, India. Photograph: Manish Swarup/AP

Climate change is already responsible for 300,000 deaths a year and is affecting 300m people, according to the first comprehensive study of the human impact of global warming.

It projects that increasingly severe heatwave mechanicss, floods, storms and forest fires will be responsible for as many as 500,000 deaths a year by 2030, making it the greatest humanitarian challenge the world faces.

Economic losses due to climate change today amount to more than $125bn a year — more than all the present world aid. The report comes from former UN secretary general Kofi Annan’s thinktank, the Global Humanitarian Forum. By 2030, the report says, climate change could cost $600bn a year.

Civil unrest may also increase because of weather-related events, the report says: “Four billion people are vulnerable now and 500m are now at extreme risk. Weather-related disasters … bring hunger, disease, poverty and lost livelihoods. They pose a threat to social and political stability”.

If emissions are not brought under control, within 25 years, the report states:

• 310m more people will suffer adverse health consequences related to temperature increases

• 20m more people will fall into poverty

• 75m extra people will be displaced by climate change.

Climate change is expected to have the most severe impact on water supplies, it said. “Shortages in future are likely to threaten food production, reduce sanitation, hinder economic development and damage ecosystems. It causes more violent swings between floods and droughts. Hundreds of millions of people are expected to become water stressed by climate change by the 2030.”

The study says it is impossible to be certain who will be displaced by 2030, but that tens of millions of people “will be driven from their homelands by weather disasters or gradual environmental degradation. The problem is most severe in Africa, Bangladesh, Egypt, coastal zones and forest areas.”

The study compares for the first time the number of people affected by climate change in rich and poor countries. Nearly 98% of the people seriously affected, 99% of all deaths from weather-related disasters and 90% of the total economic losses are now borne by developing countries. The populations most at risk it says, are in sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, south Asia and the small island states of the Pacific.

But of the 12 countries considered least at risk, including Britain, all but one are industrially developed. Together they have made nearly $72bn available to adapt themselves to climate change but have pledged only $400m to help poor countries. “This is less than one state in Germany is spending on improving its flood defences,” says the report.

The study comes as diplomats from 192 countries prepare to meet in Bonn next week for UN climate change talks aimed at reaching a global agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in December in Copenhagen. “The world is at a crossroads. We can no longer afford to ignore the human impact of climate change. This is a call to the negotiators to come to the most ambitious agreement ever negotiated or to continue to accept mass starvation, mass sickness and mass migration on an ever growing scale,” said Kofi Annan, who launched the report today in London.

Annan blamed politicans for the current impasse in the negotiations and widespread ignorance in many countries. “Weak leadership, as evident today, is alarming. If leaders cannot assume responsibility they will fail humanity. Agreement is in the interests of every human being.”

Barabra Stocking, head of Oxfam said: “Adaptation efforts need to be scaled up dramatically.The world’s poorest are the hardest hit, but they have done the least to cause it.

Nobel peace prizewinner Wangari Maathai, said: “Climate change is life or death. It is the new global battlefield. It is being presented as if it is the problem of the developed world. But it’s the developed world that has precipitated global warming.”

Calculations for the report are based on data provided by the World Bank, the World Health organisation, the UN, the Potsdam Insitute For Climate Impact Research, and others, including leading insurance companies and Oxfam. However, the authors accept that the estimates are uncertain and could be higher or lower. The paper was reviewed by 10 of the world’s leading experts incluing Rajendra Pachauri, head of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel On Climate Change, Jeffrey Sachs, of Columbia University and Margareta Wahlström, assistant UN secretary general for disaster risk reduction.

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Saturday, January 14, 2006

Truth may be more than what we can understand. I reason this by the fact that no human knows the absolute truth about anything, and also from my theory that there are three dimensions of truth that weigh down the rest of space-time. Looking at all of space-time as a shell, our three dimensions (sort of four) make up our standard Universe. The fourth, of course, is the first dimension of time. It is linear. The fifth and sixth are what I call the two dimensions of “dreams.” “Dreams” are the surreal objects that surround every living and non-living thing. The seventh is the second dimension of time, where time bends and folds can be measured. The eighth is the third dimension of time. Volumes of time illustrate the viscosity of the time in a particular area. Time is fairly fluid where we are right now. Anyway, that’s small change. The three dimensions of truth are really hard to understand. I’m not sure if life even exists in them. If it did, then some beings would control truth, which is not cool. Please, if you know anything about the three dimensions of truth, inform me.

From WWF

02 Jun 2009

Brasilia, Brazil – WWF and 33 other NGOs delivered a letter on Tuesday to Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva asking him to take decisive action to create new protected areas in the Amazon and Para regions.

The letter followed a meeting earlier this month between top government officials and 12 forest residents – also known as extractivists — whose lives depend on local natural resources in those regions. Proposals to create the protected areas have lingered for the last two years in the President’s Chief of Staff Office and the residents so far have received no response following this month’s meeting.

About 750 families live in the three proposed ‘extractive’ reserves (or Resex) up for approval, which include Baixo Rio Branco-Jauaperi (in the states of Roraima and Amazonas), Renascer (Pará state) and Montanha Mangabal (also in Pará state). Residents in those three areas have worked to receive federal protection for the areas since 2000.

IUCN defines extractive reserves as sustainable use protected areas, given in concession to traditional dwellers living on the exploration of natural resources and subsistence level agriculture. The creation of extractive reserves is a conservation concept that emerged from work to protect Amazon forests by famed environmental activists Chico Mendes and Mary Helena Allegretti. Extractive reserves are protected areas for sustainable use that allow the local population to live off the areas’ natural resources – for example by tapping for rubber– while protecting the reserve from environmental damage from commercial interests, whether legal or illegal.

On May 6 and 7, 12 representatives from the proposed reserves traveled to Brasilia and with the help of WWF-Brazil asked federal government to take action on the reserves. For years, the residents’ way of life has been threatened by loggers, land squatters, commercial fishermen and illegal hunters.

But despite promises made for an urgent solution at those meetings, the residents so far have received no official response from the federal government.

“The slow track of the creation proceedings is undesirable and it apparently reflects a preventive attitude on the part of some federal government organs whose position is against the creation of protected areas whenever there is any possibility that they become an obstacle to tap natural resources,” the letter to President Lula states.

Recently, the Brazilian environment has become threatened by several decisions from the federal government. The Brazil Forest Code is presently under criticism and the government signed a decree limiting to 0.5 per cent the environmental offset payments made by large enterprises impacting the environment, which goes against a ruling by the Brazilian Supreme Court.

The federal government also has issued several MPs – Medidas Provisórias – which are presidential decrees which go immediately into effect and have the force of law with a temporary though renewable lifetime. For example, a recent decree on agrarian reform law implemented a predatory agricultural production model, which does not enough address environmental conservation. Another decree facilitated environmental licensing for new roads and encourages deforestation.

“We find it fearful that, close to the end of his term, Lula’s government has adopted a position which is contrary to environmental conservation,” WWF-Brazil’s conservation director, Cláudio Maretti, said. “It is our perception that a real attack is going on against the environmental issues, on all fronts, based on a development concept which is not sustainable at all. The lack of answers from the government on the Resex issue complements this scenario which worries us”,

The proposed reserve areas were assessed by the Ministry of the Environment as high priority for conservation because of their ecological and biological value.

Environmentally valuable

The area designated for Baixo Rio Branco-Jauaperi (Lower Branco and Jauaperi Rivers) covers approximately 580,000 hectares in the municipal districts of Rorainópolis, in Roraima, and Novo Airão, in Amazonas. The area is inhabited by 150 families who live on artisan fishing and Brazil nut collecting.

The combination of Jauaperi River’s clear waters with the Branco River’s white waters and the Negro River’s dark waters accounts for high diversity of plant and animal species. Among the ornamental fish we find Discus and Marbled Hatchet, besides commercial catfish species like “surubim” and “barbado”, as well as the peacock bass (tucunaré) and piranhas.

Forty two mammal species call the area home, including the spotted jaguar, the puma, the ocelot, the giant otter, the giant anteater and the giant armadillo. In addition, forest tree species include the Brazil Nut, the Rubber tree, the Taperebá (Amazonian plum), the Mauriti Palm (buriti), Massaranduba, the purple timber Roxinho, Açaí and Bacaba.

The proposed Renascer protected area is located in Prainha municipal district in Pará state. The area covers 400,000 hectares, and includes 600 families spread among 14 communities.

The Renascer area has great environmental relevance because it encompasses floodplain ecosystems and other areas that protect vulnerable aquatic ecosystems, which are important to local communities’ livelihood. Several fish species call the region home, such as the giant Arapaima or Pirarucu, the dark Pacu (tambaqui), Catfish like Surubim, Dourada, and Filhote.

The forests contain valuable timber species such as Mahogany, Ipê, Cedar, Jacaranda and Brazil nut tree. But efforts to create the Renascer protected area so far have been hampered by government interest in mineral exploitation and plans to build a federal highway.