Amazon's 'tallest tree' safe from fires, say scientists

Yahoo – AFP, September 4, 2019

Handout picture released by SETEC (Science and Technology Secretary of
Amapa State) showing the giant Dinizia Excelsa tree, found in the Paru State
Forest in the Amazon basin, on August 21, 2019 (AFP Photo/Rafael ALEIXO)

Sao Paulo (AFP) - Intrepid Brazilian and British scientists say they have located the Amazon's tallest tree in northern Brazil, untouched by a spate of wildfires that have raged in the rainforest for weeks.

The scientists say they located an unusually large specimen of the giant Dinizia Excelsa species -- measuring 88 meters (288-feet) with a circumference of 5.50 meters -- in a sanctuary of other Dinizia trees.

"The species generally reach a height of 60 meters. We have a great discovery here and now a commitment to preserve the largest trees in the Amazon," said research coordinator Eric Bastos.

Bastos led research conducted in August by scientists from the Federal University of the Valleys of the Jequitinhonha and Britain's Cambridge University and the University of Swansea.

The discovery was made by using aerial sensors over Paru State Forest, which is shared by the Brazilian Amazon basin states of Amapa and Para.

The sanctuary of Dinizia Excelsa trees lies outside the areas affected by the wildfires which have caused international concern, Amapu State scientific sourcees told AFP.

According to National Geographic, scientists earlier this year discovered the world's tallest tropical tree, a 100 meter meranti tree in Sabah on the island of Borneo.

The tallest known trees are California redwoods, which have been measured up to 379.7 feet, or 115.7 meters.

Brazil's army fights Amazon fires after hundreds of new blazes ignite

France24 – AFP, 25 August 2019

Porto Velho (Brazil) (AFP) - Brazil on Sunday deployed two Hercules C-130 aircraft to douse fires devouring parts of the Amazon rainforest, as hundreds of new blazes were ignited ahead of nationwide protests over the destruction.

Heavy smoke covered the city of Porto Velho in the northwestern state of Rondonia where the defense ministry said the planes have started dumping thousands of liters of water, amid a global uproar over the worst fires in years.

Swathes of the remote region bordering Bolivia have been scorched by the blazes, sending thick smoke billowing into the sky and increasing air pollution across the world's largest rainforest.

Experts say increased land clearing during the months-long dry season to make way for crops or grazing has aggravated the problem this year.

"It gets worse every year -- this year, the smoke has been really serious," Deliana Amorim, 46, told AFP in Porto Velho where half a million people live.

At least seven states, including Rondonia, have requested the army's help in the Amazon, where more than 43,000 troops are based and available to combat fires, officials said.

The fires have triggered a global outcry and are a major topic of concern at the G7 meeting in Biarritz in southern France.

World leaders at the summit have agreed to help the countries affected by the fires "as fast as possible," French President Emmanuel Macron said Sunday.

His remarks come amid an escalating war of words with his Brazilian counterpart Jair Bolsonaro, who he has accused of lying over Brazil's stance on climate change.

Bolsonaro has denounced what he calls Macron's "colonialist mentality."

Trade deal at risk

The fires threaten to torpedo a huge trade agreement between the European Union and South American countries, including Brazil, that took 20 years to negotiate.

Pope Francis on Sunday also voiced concern for the rainforest, which he described as a "vital" lung for the planet.

The latest official figures show 79,513 forest fires have been recorded in Brazil this year, the highest number of any year since 2013.

More than half of the fires are in the massive Amazon basin, where more than 20 million people live. Some 1,130 new fires were ignited between Friday and Saturday, according to Brazil's National Institute for Space Research (INPE).

The new data come as protesters plan to take to the streets across Brazil on Sunday, after thousands held demonstrations in the country and in Europe on Friday.

GRAPHIC: Wildfires active in the Amazon. More than half of the fires are in the massive Amazon basin, where more than 20 million people live pic.twitter.com/SoDx41DWo0

— AFP news agency (@AFP) 25 augustus 2019

Pope Francis asks indigenous Mexicans for forgiveness

Yahoo – AFP, Yemeli Ortega, Jean-Louis De La Vaissiere, 16 February 2016

Pope Francis waves from the popemobile in San Cristobal de Las Casas on 

February 15, 2016 (AFP Photo/Ronaldo Schemidt)

San Cristóbal de las Casas (Mexico) (AFP) - Pope Francis reached out to Mexico's long-marginalized indigenous population, asking for forgiveness over their exclusion as he celebrated an open-air mass in native languages in impoverished Chiapas state.

While Chiapas is the country's least Catholic state, tens of thousands of people packed into a sports field for the mass celebrated, under special papal decree, in the indigenous languages of the region.

Women wearing colorful embroidered dresses led biblical readings and hymns in the Chol, Tzotzil and Tzeltal -- all languages of the indigenous Maya people of the region.

The pope himself said a few words in one of the native languages and cited Popol Vuh, an ancient Mayan text.

Map of Mexico detail Pope Francis' itinerary on his forthcoming visit. (AFP 

Photo/Nicolas Ramallo, Gustavo Izus, Vincent Lefai)

"On many occasions, in a systematic and organized way, your people have been misunderstood and excluded from society," the 79-year-old Argentine-born pontiff said.

"Some have considered your values, culture and traditions to be inferior. Others, intoxicated by power, money and market trends, have stolen your lands or contaminated them. How sad this is," he said.

"How worthwhile it would be for each of us to examine our conscience and learn to say, 'Forgive me!'"

The pope said Monday that the planet had much to learn from indigenous groups, especially their harmony with nature amid "the greatest environmental crises in world history."

Around 30 percent of Chiapas's population does not speak Spanish, the language of the colonial power that conquered Mexico in the 16th century, exploited indigenous people and sought to convert them to Christianity.

Francis already apologized for the church's colonial-era crimes during a trip to Bolivia last year.

A young girl attends a mass celebrated by Pope Francis with representatives of the 

indigenous communities of Chiapas in the municipal sport center in San Cristobal

de Las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico on February 15, 2016 (AFP Photo/Gabriel Bouys)

While Mexico's early 20th century revolution sought to end land oligarchies, indigenous groups remain among the poorest in the country to this day and feel abandoned by the government.

The continuing plight of indigenous groups triggered a revolt by Zapatista rebels who sought more autonomy for them in 1994.

Losing flock

"Long live the pope of the indigenous people!" some shouted from the roofs of their homes as the pope arrived at the field, where a replica of the yellow facade of the city's cathedral served as background to the large stage.

"I'm very happy because few people speak Spanish in my village and now they can receive the body of Christ in their language," said Mariano Perez, a 33-year-old Tzotzil who attended the mass wearing a rancher hat.

While Mexico is the world's second most populous Catholic nation after Brazil, with 82 percent of its population of 122 million identifying with the religion, only 58 percent are loyal to the Vatican in Chiapas.

Pope Francis kisses a baby from the popemobile upon arrival in San Cristobal de las 

Casas in Chiapas State for his second open-air mass, on February 15, 2016 (AFP Photo/

Ronaldo Schemidt)

"If the church is to stop the hemorrhaging of indigenous (populations) in Chiapas and across Latin America, it must offer more masses in indigenous languages and recruit indigenous priests who are very small in numbers," Andrew Chesnut, religious studies professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, told AFP.

The pope's visit comes in the middle of an intense, five-day trip that he has used to speak out against crime and corruption.

After the mass Francis visited San Cristobal's cathedral.

He stopped in front of the tomb of Samuel Ruiz, a controversial bishop who defended the Mayan people and acted as mediator between the government and the Zapatista guerrillas.

Lingering tensions over the state's social problems reemerged last week, when protestors spray-painted the words "we don't want the pope, we want justice" on the cathedral's yellow walls.

But the demonstrators dispersed over the weekend and authorities repainted the cathedral.

"We know that the government wants to hide things or make it seem that everything is all right," said Octavio Gomez, a 45-year-old Tzeltal from a nearby village.

Chamula's indigenous people attend the open-air mass officiated by Pope Francis

 in San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas state, Mexico, on February 15, 2016

(AFP Photo/Mario Vazquez)

Family: basis of 'healthy society'

After the mass, the pope flew by helicopter to the nearby capital of Chiapas, Tuxtla Gutierrez, to attend an event focused on family issues at a packed stadium.

Francis heard stories about marriage and divorce, and a single mother who had a chance to abort, but decided to keep the child.

"You were very brave," the pope told her.

Francis said family was "the basis of any healthy society" and warned about the "pretense of modernity" and ideologies that "destroy" it.

The pope heads Tuesday to the western state of Michoacan, where farmers rose up in 2013 to crush a cultish drug cartel, before ending his trip on Wednesday in the northern border city of Ciudad Juarez. 

Pope to Mexico priests: don't give up in face of violence https://t.co/2cPWMA8MNZ #PopeInMexico #PapaEnMich pic.twitter.com/hprFAmgiBf

— AFP news agency (@AFP) February 16, 2016