WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.520 --> 00:00:03.720 Welcome. This is Marcia for Radio I, and today I 2 00:00:03.799 --> 00:00:08.560 will be reading National Geographic Magazine dated March twenty twenty five. 3 00:00:09.359 --> 00:00:12.640 As a reminder, RADIOI is a reading service intended for 4 00:00:12.720 --> 00:00:16.000 people who are blind or have other disabilities that make 5 00:00:16.039 --> 00:00:19.559 it difficult to read printed material. Please join me now 6 00:00:19.600 --> 00:00:23.679 for the first article titled The Vanishing Beauty of Brazil's 7 00:00:24.000 --> 00:00:30.359 Charado by Michael Finkel. The world's largest agricultural boom is 8 00:00:30.399 --> 00:00:35.479 transforming a vast savannah of hidden wonders. Here's what happens 9 00:00:35.479 --> 00:00:40.640 when progress outpaces our understanding of what might be worth preserving. 10 00:00:41.719 --> 00:00:46.439 It's called the Chiado Portuguese Foreclosed, and for nearly all 11 00:00:46.479 --> 00:00:50.119 of human history, this vast tropical savannah in central Brazil 12 00:00:50.799 --> 00:00:52.759 seems to have been shut off from the rest of 13 00:00:52.799 --> 00:00:57.119 the world. People do live there. Hunter gatherer groups overcoming 14 00:00:57.159 --> 00:01:01.920 the formidable wilds have roamed Therado since the Stone Age, 15 00:01:02.320 --> 00:01:06.920 and in colonial times, those escaping slavery often disappeared behind 16 00:01:06.920 --> 00:01:11.519 the hills, where they built tight knit communities, unlocked the lands, 17 00:01:11.640 --> 00:01:16.040 subtle gifts, and settled in otherwise. Across centuries, hardly anyone 18 00:01:16.159 --> 00:01:21.359 ventured inside. The terrain was repellent to visitors, practically impossible 19 00:01:21.400 --> 00:01:25.000 to traverse. Much of the chiroto as a dense, tailed 20 00:01:25.079 --> 00:01:28.359 mess of stunted trees and shrubs, the whole place crawling 21 00:01:28.359 --> 00:01:31.799 with snakes. It pales in lushness to the mighty Amazon 22 00:01:31.959 --> 00:01:35.519 rainforest to the north, the green lungs of the earth. 23 00:01:36.159 --> 00:01:39.120 Even some scientists who study the chiado call it ugly. 24 00:01:39.680 --> 00:01:44.400 The common term for it scrubland is campo suho dirty field. 25 00:01:45.120 --> 00:01:48.519 But the main reason that tchiato was ignored beyond indigenous 26 00:01:48.560 --> 00:01:51.799 peoples and those seeking refuge, is that no one could 27 00:01:51.840 --> 00:01:56.480 find money in it. No hardwoods, no diamonds, no oil. 28 00:01:57.000 --> 00:02:00.840 The soul is highly acidic, deadly to most non native plants, 29 00:02:01.079 --> 00:02:04.519 and during the six month dry season the land is 30 00:02:04.560 --> 00:02:07.599 often ravaged by fire. Until the mid twentieth century, the 31 00:02:07.640 --> 00:02:11.400 tiato was dismissed by the capitalist world as a wasteland, 32 00:02:11.639 --> 00:02:14.479 best to leave a closed and move on. In the 33 00:02:14.560 --> 00:02:17.599 nineteen fifties, Brazil found a use for it. The nation, 34 00:02:17.840 --> 00:02:21.319 leaping into the global economy, decided to construct a new 35 00:02:21.360 --> 00:02:25.479 capital city, a monument to Brazilian progress, in the center 36 00:02:25.560 --> 00:02:28.719 of the country. So a hunk of the tiado smack 37 00:02:28.800 --> 00:02:32.599 in the middle was cleared and Brazilia rose up. Five 38 00:02:32.639 --> 00:02:36.719 million people now live there. Only Salpaldo, Rio de Janeiro 39 00:02:36.960 --> 00:02:42.120 and Belo Horizonte are bigger. Then in the nineteen seventies 40 00:02:42.159 --> 00:02:47.039 came a more sweeping transformation. Brazilian agricultural scientists working in 41 00:02:47.080 --> 00:02:50.599 a government lab cooked up a fertilizer packed with lime 42 00:02:50.960 --> 00:02:55.240 that modified the harsh Shiado soil and enabled cash crops 43 00:02:55.280 --> 00:02:59.520 to grow. Industrial watering systems could counteract the dry season, 44 00:03:00.039 --> 00:03:03.439 and fire brigades would snuff out the flames. The Troado 45 00:03:03.599 --> 00:03:07.400 was opened for business. Bulldozers and tractors rolled in, and 46 00:03:07.479 --> 00:03:12.919 thousands of square miles of scrubby chiato were scraped clean. Corn, sugar, cane, 47 00:03:12.919 --> 00:03:16.960 and especially soybeans were planted, then trucked across the country 48 00:03:16.960 --> 00:03:21.360 to seaports. China, the United States, and Europe bought them up, 49 00:03:21.520 --> 00:03:26.080 and the land clearing intensified. The largest agricultural corporations in 50 00:03:26.120 --> 00:03:31.439 the world established massive factory farms there. The Brazilian economy roared, 51 00:03:31.800 --> 00:03:35.280 more land was churned up. There seemed no limit. The 52 00:03:35.360 --> 00:03:39.960 Chiado's size is Texas times three. The area, according to 53 00:03:40.000 --> 00:03:42.840 a twenty twenty one report from the World Bank, has 54 00:03:42.879 --> 00:03:47.319 the greatest art agricultural potential on the planet. Along with 55 00:03:47.360 --> 00:03:50.960 government workers and farm hands, a new generation of biologists, 56 00:03:51.000 --> 00:03:55.080 many lured by the science department at the University of Brasilia, 57 00:03:55.560 --> 00:03:59.800 also came to the Tchiado curious about this relatively unknown region, 58 00:04:00.280 --> 00:04:04.120 always considered less worthy of study than the Amazon. Over 59 00:04:04.159 --> 00:04:08.000 the past two decades, scientific attention has focused on the area, 60 00:04:08.479 --> 00:04:13.840 even as it has shifted toward becoming an ecological sacrifice zone, 61 00:04:14.240 --> 00:04:18.399 what land use experts call a place lacking strong environmental 62 00:04:18.399 --> 00:04:22.839 protection that caters to human consumption, and the Chiato's great 63 00:04:22.879 --> 00:04:27.920 secrets have emerged. Turning away most humans from millennia appears 64 00:04:27.959 --> 00:04:32.480 to have been an ideal strategy for preserving extraordinary biodiversity. 65 00:04:33.079 --> 00:04:36.879 The Chiato, researchers from the University of Brazilia and elsewhere 66 00:04:36.920 --> 00:04:40.639 have tallied is home to more than eleven thousand species 67 00:04:40.639 --> 00:04:44.879 of plants and trees, forty percent of which exist nowhere else. 68 00:04:45.560 --> 00:04:49.839 There are eight hundred bird species, twelve hundred fish species, 69 00:04:50.079 --> 00:04:54.839 and ninety thousand insect species. The golden firred, stilt legged 70 00:04:55.160 --> 00:04:59.240 maimed wolf prowls the Toroto, as does the giant ant eater, 71 00:04:59.560 --> 00:05:04.839 which grow seven feet long, not including its two foot tongue. 72 00:05:05.279 --> 00:05:09.360 There are wide populations of bees, snakes, lizards, bats, and butterflies. 73 00:05:09.839 --> 00:05:13.240 About five percent of Earth's animal and plant species are 74 00:05:13.240 --> 00:05:16.600 thought to live in the Toroto, the biologically richest savannah 75 00:05:16.639 --> 00:05:19.399 in the world. The real secret, though, is what you 76 00:05:19.439 --> 00:05:22.519 can't observe. The soil in the Troto runs deep in 77 00:05:22.560 --> 00:05:25.959 places eighty feet and to help survive the dry seaves 78 00:05:26.000 --> 00:05:30.600 and its fires, many plants sprout extensive root systems. The 79 00:05:30.720 --> 00:05:35.600 vast majority of the Chrodo's biomass is subterranean. Some trees 80 00:05:35.639 --> 00:05:39.240 that look like spinbly fence posts above are mussel rooted 81 00:05:39.319 --> 00:05:43.920 and brawny below. Biologists who examine this hidden realm called 82 00:05:43.920 --> 00:05:48.839 the Toroto the upside down forest. This underground world performs 83 00:05:48.920 --> 00:05:53.639 priceless ecological services. It's a massive carbon sink, locking away 84 00:05:53.720 --> 00:05:57.600 billions of tons of carbon dioxide in well buried roots 85 00:05:58.120 --> 00:06:00.839 as the Trotto is converted to farm land. The current 86 00:06:00.920 --> 00:06:03.639 rate is more than four thousand acres a day. The 87 00:06:03.639 --> 00:06:07.399 greenhouse gas is released each year. According to the World 88 00:06:07.399 --> 00:06:12.199 Wildlife Fund WWF, the discharge drew to altering the Troto 89 00:06:12.319 --> 00:06:16.319 is equivalent to the annual emissions of fifty million cars. 90 00:06:17.120 --> 00:06:20.079 If all the carbon held by the trodo were discharged, 91 00:06:20.399 --> 00:06:23.959 this might single handedly push global warming over the one 92 00:06:24.000 --> 00:06:27.439 point five degrees celsius limit set by the United Nations 93 00:06:27.879 --> 00:06:31.480 at the Paris Climate Conference of twenty fifteen, a point 94 00:06:31.600 --> 00:06:35.600 at which the global ice sheets could inexorably melt, causing 95 00:06:35.639 --> 00:06:40.519 the seas to inundate every coastal city. Deep soil is 96 00:06:40.560 --> 00:06:44.279 also a sponge. The troto collects and stores seasonal rains 97 00:06:44.319 --> 00:06:48.040 in immense subterranean chambers. The more land that's cut above 98 00:06:48.160 --> 00:06:53.319 the less water held below. These aquifers, geologists report, feed 99 00:06:53.480 --> 00:06:57.680 the headwaters of eight of the twelve major river basins 100 00:06:57.759 --> 00:07:02.279 in South Americada. Those underground tanks pump water all over 101 00:07:02.319 --> 00:07:05.600 the continent. If the Amazon is the lungs, the Troto 102 00:07:05.839 --> 00:07:08.879 is the heart. To get a place where the Chiado's 103 00:07:08.959 --> 00:07:12.480 pulse can be experienced untamed in raw. Take the road 104 00:07:12.519 --> 00:07:16.680 north out of Brasilia. It first runs arrow straight through 105 00:07:16.680 --> 00:07:20.079 the suburbs, then direct to the factory farms. Rows of 106 00:07:20.160 --> 00:07:26.040 soybeans roll to the horizons. Grain trucks outnumber cars. Trectors 107 00:07:26.160 --> 00:07:29.279 spray the fields with white mist. More than one hundred 108 00:07:29.279 --> 00:07:34.040 and fifty million gallons of pesticides. Brazilian environmental journalists report 109 00:07:34.399 --> 00:07:38.199 douse the chiroto each year. The land has been decimated, 110 00:07:38.240 --> 00:07:44.759 says Brazilian ecologist Paolo Lviira Editure of the Tirodos of Brazil, 111 00:07:44.959 --> 00:07:49.079 a book that explores the natural history of the region, 112 00:07:49.519 --> 00:07:52.360 and soybeans, for the most part, aren't eaten by people. 113 00:07:52.680 --> 00:07:55.480 They're shipped around the globe to feed cattle the world 114 00:07:55.560 --> 00:07:58.839 demands beef. After a couple of hours of driving, the 115 00:07:58.839 --> 00:08:03.319 windshields spattered with bugs, hills rise up, the giant farms dissipate, 116 00:08:03.680 --> 00:08:07.000 and the Toroto exists in a natural state. The terrain 117 00:08:07.120 --> 00:08:12.120 admittedly can appear reared soil toxicity metals with tree growth 118 00:08:12.399 --> 00:08:16.319 making the trunks all gnarled and hunched. The frequent fires 119 00:08:16.319 --> 00:08:19.120 scorch the buds at the ends of branches, which are 120 00:08:19.120 --> 00:08:23.120 replaced by lower buds that grow at contorted angles. Then 121 00:08:23.319 --> 00:08:26.839 those eventually get fire burned too, and so on. It's 122 00:08:26.920 --> 00:08:31.240 basically a big thicket of elbows. Though not every Toroto 123 00:08:31.319 --> 00:08:35.200 landscape looks Doctor Seuss strange. The Torodo is one huge, 124 00:08:35.279 --> 00:08:40.159 interconnected biome, composed of a dozen varieties of smaller ecosystems, 125 00:08:40.600 --> 00:08:44.879 ranging from open grassland to dense full sized woods. Driving 126 00:08:44.919 --> 00:08:48.879 deeper in some one hundred fifty miles from Brazilia, travelers 127 00:08:48.919 --> 00:08:54.240 approach Chapada dos vie d'erros, one of the two national 128 00:08:54.240 --> 00:08:58.000 parks in the Trotto, where sections of closed canopy forest 129 00:08:58.240 --> 00:09:02.559 shroud tumbling rivers. There is a tourist town here, alto 130 00:09:02.799 --> 00:09:07.799 Paraizzo High Paradise, where a steady stream of visitors, primarily 131 00:09:07.840 --> 00:09:12.039 from other parts of Brazil. Higher certified hiking guides lounge 132 00:09:12.039 --> 00:09:17.120 in streams and purchase genuine Cchiado crystals from pendant necklace 133 00:09:17.159 --> 00:09:20.840 size to paper weight, dug from the ancient soil and perfect, 134 00:09:21.200 --> 00:09:25.559 say the shopkeepers for cleansing your aura. This is where 135 00:09:25.559 --> 00:09:28.639 the battle for the Shido is being waged, between those 136 00:09:28.679 --> 00:09:31.600 who cherish the other worldly place as it is and 137 00:09:31.679 --> 00:09:35.039 those bending near land to their will. Less than ten 138 00:09:35.039 --> 00:09:39.200 percent of the Shrodo falls under any environmental protection, mostly 139 00:09:39.240 --> 00:09:42.120 at state parks and mixed use areas where people live 140 00:09:42.240 --> 00:09:47.159 and grow crops. Only three percent is under full federal preservation. 141 00:09:48.120 --> 00:09:52.000 The national parks are just specks in the vastness. By comparison, 142 00:09:52.080 --> 00:09:55.240 about half of the Amazon biome is protected, and the 143 00:09:55.279 --> 00:09:59.360 Amazon is specifically named in the Brazilian Constitution as a 144 00:09:59.480 --> 00:10:04.240 national Heritage zone but not the Chiroto, and estimated four 145 00:10:04.360 --> 00:10:07.960 fifths of the entire Chiato has already been disturbed by 146 00:10:08.000 --> 00:10:11.879 human activities. Almost everything happening in the past fifty years. 147 00:10:12.639 --> 00:10:15.080 No one knows how many unique species of plants or 148 00:10:15.120 --> 00:10:21.240 animals have already been lost. International conservation organizations like WWF 149 00:10:21.360 --> 00:10:25.240 and Global Fitness, as well as Brazilian groups such as 150 00:10:25.240 --> 00:10:28.799 the National Campaign in Defense of the Chiado, have mobilized. 151 00:10:29.440 --> 00:10:32.039 They seek to spread awareness of the Chiado and its 152 00:10:32.279 --> 00:10:37.279 precarious situation and implore the Brazilian government to safeguard what's left. 153 00:10:37.960 --> 00:10:41.759 A team of Brazilian forestry scientists, in a notable twenty 154 00:10:41.799 --> 00:10:46.519 seventeen paper, demonstrated that the Cchiado's essential ground layers, which 155 00:10:46.559 --> 00:10:50.679 contain most of the endemic species, are painfully slow at 156 00:10:50.679 --> 00:10:54.120 self repair. A section of cleared land that had been 157 00:10:54.159 --> 00:10:57.679 abandoned for more than twenty years hardly seemed to regenerate 158 00:10:57.840 --> 00:11:03.279 much biodiversity. At times, Brazilian legislators seem receptive to the 159 00:11:03.320 --> 00:11:07.240 idea that consumption and conservation can exist hand in hand. 160 00:11:07.879 --> 00:11:11.159 The same government lab that originally developed the fertilizer that 161 00:11:11.279 --> 00:11:15.879 fueled the Chiado's cultivation, has now been tasked with creating 162 00:11:15.919 --> 00:11:21.000 an improved version to significantly increase crop yield so economic 163 00:11:21.039 --> 00:11:26.000 growth can be maintained without surrendering more land. Technology can 164 00:11:26.039 --> 00:11:29.000 both harm us and save us the great roulette wheel 165 00:11:29.080 --> 00:11:32.720 of the modern world. So far, progress has been modest, 166 00:11:33.080 --> 00:11:37.080 with the leaders of Brazil more actively enforcing environmental protections 167 00:11:37.480 --> 00:11:41.639 to slow the rate of deforestation. Meanwhile, plenty of historic 168 00:11:41.679 --> 00:11:45.120 grassland continues to be plowed over. There appears to be 169 00:11:45.159 --> 00:11:49.679 a reluctance among legislators to enact regulations that will likely 170 00:11:49.799 --> 00:11:54.559 harm finances, and the agribusiness undeniably is helping keep the 171 00:11:54.600 --> 00:11:58.600 economy of Brazil and the globe rolling along. At the 172 00:11:58.600 --> 00:12:01.440 same time, the National Campaign in Defense of the Tirado 173 00:12:02.000 --> 00:12:06.440 and science journalists have reported about the particularly convenient and 174 00:12:06.519 --> 00:12:11.480 widespread belief that nothing is really being lost. Agricultural lobbyists 175 00:12:11.519 --> 00:12:16.000 have indicated to legislators that the Tirado's last untouched places 176 00:12:16.320 --> 00:12:20.240 are little but in fertile, uninhabited regions just waiting to 177 00:12:20.320 --> 00:12:25.080 turn a profit. Luciana Santos begs to differ. She was 178 00:12:25.120 --> 00:12:27.360 born in the Chiato and lives there still with her 179 00:12:27.440 --> 00:12:30.559 husband and four young daughters. Her family is part of 180 00:12:30.559 --> 00:12:34.840 a community, a collection of villages known as a Quirambo, 181 00:12:35.519 --> 00:12:39.440 whose first members escaped slavery some two hundred and fifty years ago. 182 00:12:40.120 --> 00:12:43.200 Here enfolded into the hills just beyond the boundaries of 183 00:12:43.320 --> 00:12:49.279 Chapada dos via Daros National Park, the roads remain unpaved 184 00:12:49.279 --> 00:12:53.519 and electricity hasn't yet reached the farthest thatched roofed homes. 185 00:12:54.320 --> 00:12:56.919 Santos is thirty three years old. When she was young, 186 00:12:57.000 --> 00:12:58.759 she had to walk two hours to get to school 187 00:12:58.799 --> 00:13:01.919 each way, though her daughters don't do that. There's a 188 00:13:01.960 --> 00:13:05.600 new school in her village that becomes a community library 189 00:13:05.639 --> 00:13:09.919 at night. Currently, there are forty four separate cuiambos in 190 00:13:10.000 --> 00:13:15.240 the Chiato and about eighty different indigenous ethnicities whose ancestors 191 00:13:15.279 --> 00:13:19.639 stretch back to pre European times. Some hunt, some farm, 192 00:13:19.720 --> 00:13:25.200 some fish, some grays livestock. Everyone sings different songs. An 193 00:13:25.240 --> 00:13:28.519 accurate census of the Tarrato is elusive, but about one 194 00:13:28.600 --> 00:13:32.159 hundred thousand people are believed to live traditionally off the land. 195 00:13:33.200 --> 00:13:36.200 Several groups do not own the legal deeds to the territory, 196 00:13:36.639 --> 00:13:40.600 their future destined to be fraught with lawsuits and land battles. 197 00:13:41.320 --> 00:13:45.600 The community Santos comes from has embraced tourism, sharing the 198 00:13:45.720 --> 00:13:49.039 chiato they believe helps save it. They don't want bulldozers 199 00:13:49.039 --> 00:13:52.879 approaching their hills. They have everything to lose. Any visitors 200 00:13:52.879 --> 00:13:55.759 willing to take the long drive from Brazilia are welcome. 201 00:13:56.480 --> 00:13:59.679 Santos is one of the guides walking the footpaths around 202 00:13:59.720 --> 00:14:03.320 her Quilambo. She sees through the chaos of shrubs and 203 00:14:03.360 --> 00:14:07.759 trees and bushes indecipherable to most outsiders, and points out 204 00:14:07.879 --> 00:14:11.360 ingredients she regularly uses. These leaves make a lotion for 205 00:14:11.440 --> 00:14:14.080 skin care, she says. Brew a tea with this for 206 00:14:14.240 --> 00:14:18.159 mussel ache. This one's good for bug bites. Tiny black 207 00:14:18.200 --> 00:14:21.559 frogs dart abruptly across the path. They do that when 208 00:14:21.559 --> 00:14:23.960 it's about to rain, she says, and a few minutes 209 00:14:24.039 --> 00:14:27.480 later it does. Santos gained her knowledge of the natural 210 00:14:27.519 --> 00:14:31.000 world from her grandmother and mother, and some some from 211 00:14:31.120 --> 00:14:34.279 men too, but they're harder to learn from, and vows 212 00:14:34.279 --> 00:14:36.919 that she will pass on everything to her daughters. I 213 00:14:36.960 --> 00:14:42.559 will not allow our culture to die. Prepackaged goods occasionally 214 00:14:42.679 --> 00:14:46.360 arrive by truck, but her community, like every Quilambo, can 215 00:14:46.399 --> 00:14:48.679 grow all its own food. They did it for a 216 00:14:48.679 --> 00:14:53.080 couple of centuries, coaxing the soil to yield rice, beans, pumpkins, cassava. 217 00:14:53.720 --> 00:14:56.600 Nothing is sprayed with pesticides. You could drink the water 218 00:14:56.720 --> 00:14:59.480 right out of the streams. Chickens and cows are raised 219 00:14:59.519 --> 00:15:04.720 for meat. Rivers provide fish. Berries are plentiful. Beiiti palm 220 00:15:04.960 --> 00:15:10.159 trees offer roofing material and creamy fruits. Mangaba trees produce 221 00:15:10.320 --> 00:15:13.960 some like sugary treats. But the local favorite, Santo says, 222 00:15:14.039 --> 00:15:18.159 is definitely the pequis, a fruit native to the Chrodo's 223 00:15:18.759 --> 00:15:22.279 that's a little complicated and a touch dangerous to eat, 224 00:15:22.639 --> 00:15:26.200 as there are needlelike spines inside that must be carefully avoided. 225 00:15:26.759 --> 00:15:29.039 The flavor, a trace of bitter lemon and a hint 226 00:15:29.039 --> 00:15:32.879 of cheddar cheese, doesn't immediately appeal to everyone, but for 227 00:15:32.919 --> 00:15:36.080 those who can adapt to the taste, the pequis often 228 00:15:36.159 --> 00:15:41.000 becomes a prized delicacy. The pequis, Santos implies, is like 229 00:15:41.080 --> 00:15:44.000 the trotto itself, if you're able to adjust in just 230 00:15:44.039 --> 00:15:48.120 the right ways, the prickliness and oddities are not merely tolerated, 231 00:15:48.159 --> 00:15:51.360 but deeply adored. I've never wanted to live anywhere else, 232 00:15:51.399 --> 00:15:56.159 she says. One person's wasteland is another's wonder. Witnessing the 233 00:15:56.200 --> 00:16:00.279 Toroto's wild glory, while also avoiding the afternoon heat, sometimes 234 00:16:00.320 --> 00:16:03.240 requires departing with a guide on the National Park trails 235 00:16:03.240 --> 00:16:08.320 before dawn. Moths flit about your headlamp. Crystal fragments glint 236 00:16:08.360 --> 00:16:11.759 in the dark. There's a crazy amount of noise. Frogs burp, 237 00:16:11.919 --> 00:16:16.799 crickets squeak, a cacophony of insects, greet's first light. Some 238 00:16:16.840 --> 00:16:20.919 sound like power tools, others like kazoos and whistles and buzzers, 239 00:16:21.240 --> 00:16:26.200 a sense of teeming infinite life. Everywhere are twisted tree branches, 240 00:16:26.320 --> 00:16:30.559 the shadow staple and vines dangling down like loose wires 241 00:16:31.200 --> 00:16:35.240 from the undergrowth. Ferns stretch their herringbone fronds towards the light. 242 00:16:35.919 --> 00:16:40.039 Brilliant splatches of color pop from the greenery, purple, jasmine, 243 00:16:40.080 --> 00:16:44.399 red hibiscus. A candle bush holds up bright yellow blooms, 244 00:16:44.480 --> 00:16:50.360 a grand chandelier, A blue morpho butterfly circles flying stained glass. 245 00:16:51.080 --> 00:16:54.480 The air is a heavy blanket, and the loamy scent lingers, 246 00:16:55.000 --> 00:16:59.080 termite mounds shaped like witches hats rise from the soil. 247 00:16:59.240 --> 00:17:03.759 A fat lizard lumber's tongue. Flitting black ants hauling husks 248 00:17:03.759 --> 00:17:07.039 of leaves to their nests look like a procession of 249 00:17:07.119 --> 00:17:12.000 tiny windsurfers. A breeze triggered confetti of white petals tumbles 250 00:17:12.000 --> 00:17:18.079 out of a tree. Birds are constant companions, parakeets, humming birds, flycatchers, hawks, 251 00:17:18.640 --> 00:17:22.119 A Tucan bob's beak heavy through the air as if 252 00:17:22.160 --> 00:17:26.240 swimming the breaststroke. A pair of flamboyant macaws mate it 253 00:17:26.279 --> 00:17:30.359 for life. Rainbow over the tree tops, the trail steepens 254 00:17:30.440 --> 00:17:33.599 up a bowaberie slope, and a sound like rolling thunder 255 00:17:33.680 --> 00:17:37.720 starts and doesn't stop. It only intensifies, soon drowning out 256 00:17:37.759 --> 00:17:40.680 even the bugs. Then the forest parts at a rocky 257 00:17:40.759 --> 00:17:43.559 outcrop on top of a hill, and there it all 258 00:17:43.759 --> 00:17:47.759 is an expansive sweep of untouched sharado, not a farm 259 00:17:47.799 --> 00:17:51.200 in sight, the green wilderness sliced open by a deep 260 00:17:51.319 --> 00:17:55.960 cliff walled canyon, the river within hurtling off a stairway 261 00:17:56.200 --> 00:17:59.960 of ledges, The raging waterfalls, the source of the thunder 262 00:18:00.519 --> 00:18:04.319 kick up clouds of mist. The sheer breadth of the 263 00:18:04.400 --> 00:18:08.680 view is dizzying and spectacular. The heart of Brazil still 264 00:18:08.839 --> 00:18:13.680 beating strong, but for how long. The director of Chapada 265 00:18:13.759 --> 00:18:18.039 dos Varios Deiros National Park, a thirty seven year old 266 00:18:18.039 --> 00:18:23.640 biologist named Nayara Stacceski, says she is fearful the Chiato 267 00:18:23.720 --> 00:18:27.359 could pass any salvageable tipping point in less than a decade. 268 00:18:27.720 --> 00:18:30.359 This could all become a desert, she says, and everyone 269 00:18:30.519 --> 00:18:34.240 with a steak in the toroto will lose. Many Brazilian 270 00:18:34.279 --> 00:18:37.920 scientists who specialize in the Tchirado are in general agreement. 271 00:18:38.359 --> 00:18:41.000 It's hard to halt or even slow the march of 272 00:18:41.079 --> 00:18:45.319 progress and the force of consumerism. I'm not optimistic, says 273 00:18:46.480 --> 00:18:50.960 Guarino Coli, and ecology professor of the University of Brasilia 274 00:18:51.039 --> 00:18:54.880 who studies the Toiroto's lizards and snakes. Coli indicates that 275 00:18:54.960 --> 00:18:58.440 it's not the celebrated areas like the Amazon Rainforest, for 276 00:18:58.519 --> 00:19:01.359 which people are willing to donate money and fight to protect, 277 00:19:01.759 --> 00:19:04.319 that we should worry about, but rather it is the 278 00:19:04.400 --> 00:19:08.079 lesser known, vulnerable lands that could determine our fate. How 279 00:19:08.119 --> 00:19:11.240 we treat the sharado is by extension, how we will 280 00:19:11.279 --> 00:19:14.279 treat much of the world. What's at risk, according to 281 00:19:14.319 --> 00:19:17.160 the National Campaign in Defense of the Chiado, is the 282 00:19:17.240 --> 00:19:21.599 life of every being. There are no simple solutions. Everyone 283 00:19:21.640 --> 00:19:25.279 wants inexpensive commodities. If we don't farm the Tiado, we 284 00:19:25.359 --> 00:19:28.680 will have to farm elsewhere. Eight billion people need to 285 00:19:28.680 --> 00:19:32.079 be fed every day. All nations seek to grow their economy. 286 00:19:32.480 --> 00:19:35.119 Nobody is at fault, and everybody's at fault at the 287 00:19:35.119 --> 00:19:38.720 same time. We all have some responsibility for the devastation 288 00:19:38.839 --> 00:19:42.640 of the Chiado, says Colli, so a being. Demand is soaring, 289 00:19:42.720 --> 00:19:46.400 and the expansion of farmland will almost surely continue. The 290 00:19:46.480 --> 00:19:50.480 lure of cheap cheeseburgers is strong. The Tarado, it is possible, 291 00:19:50.799 --> 00:19:53.279 will be a place that few will really miss until 292 00:19:53.279 --> 00:19:58.440 it's closed, forever and gone. Aw Brazil's Troto is changing. 293 00:19:58.680 --> 00:20:01.640 At the edge of the Amazon Range forests, Brazil's lesser known, 294 00:20:01.720 --> 00:20:07.200 less protected, and second largest ecosystem. The Toiado is rapidly transforming. 295 00:20:07.599 --> 00:20:11.519 Its diverse savannahs, grassland and forests house some five thousand 296 00:20:11.599 --> 00:20:18.559 endemic species whose habitats are vanishing at extreme speed, Accelerating 297 00:20:18.599 --> 00:20:22.720 losses deforestation in the Chiado increased by sixty eight percent 298 00:20:23.200 --> 00:20:27.039 between twenty twenty two and twenty twenty three, prompting new 299 00:20:27.119 --> 00:20:33.920 efforts to protect the area vanishing landscape. The Chiato's natural 300 00:20:34.359 --> 00:20:37.200 vegetation is being cleared to make way for cattle grazing 301 00:20:37.240 --> 00:20:42.160 and crops including soybeans, rice, and sugar. Pastures for grazing 302 00:20:42.240 --> 00:20:45.039 now occupy twenty six percent of the Toroado, up from 303 00:20:45.079 --> 00:20:49.799 seventeen percent in nineteen eighty five. Today, natural savannahs make 304 00:20:49.880 --> 00:20:52.960 up twenty seven percent of the Troto, down from forty 305 00:20:52.960 --> 00:20:59.599 percent in nineteen eighty five. Next, Reviving medieval monsters, how 306 00:20:59.640 --> 00:21:03.559 modern artisans are honing an age old style of stonecraft 307 00:21:03.839 --> 00:21:07.960 and bringing new beauty to an English cathedral By Roth Smith. 308 00:21:08.759 --> 00:21:11.839 On a damp spring morning in the ancient English city 309 00:21:11.839 --> 00:21:14.440 of York, a group of school children stopped in front 310 00:21:14.480 --> 00:21:18.000 of the iconic york Minster Cathedral and broke into giggles, 311 00:21:18.319 --> 00:21:21.680 sharing uneasy looks. Built over a period of two hundred 312 00:21:21.720 --> 00:21:25.680 fifty years and consecrated in fourteen seventy two, the church 313 00:21:25.759 --> 00:21:29.440 is the largest Gothic cathedral in Britain. It features three 314 00:21:29.519 --> 00:21:34.000 huge medieval towers adorned with shimmering stained glass windows, but 315 00:21:34.039 --> 00:21:36.480 the kids were focused more intently on something at the 316 00:21:36.640 --> 00:21:39.920 edge of the stone Matian's yard outside the building that 317 00:21:40.039 --> 00:21:43.160 steered back at them. A large stone statue of a 318 00:21:43.200 --> 00:21:46.880 beastill creature in mid scream, clutching its head as a 319 00:21:46.920 --> 00:21:51.440 frog sprang from its mouth. Weighing about half a ton, 320 00:21:51.519 --> 00:21:54.160 the freshly made carving is a classic example of a 321 00:21:54.200 --> 00:21:58.880 medieval grotesque, a style of ornate architectural decoration that most 322 00:21:58.920 --> 00:22:01.880 people see only at a day. During the Middle Ages, 323 00:22:01.960 --> 00:22:08.319 grotesques were placed atop religious buildings alongside similarly fanciful gargoyles, 324 00:22:08.599 --> 00:22:11.200 the key difference being that gargoyles are a style of 325 00:22:11.279 --> 00:22:15.839 grotesque with functional rain spouts. This particular monster had been 326 00:22:15.920 --> 00:22:20.680 hand carved out of about fifteen hundred ten pounds of 327 00:22:20.799 --> 00:22:25.440 local limestone by one of Yorkminster's twelve full time stonemasons. 328 00:22:25.599 --> 00:22:29.519 It is essentially a modern replica. When eventually hoisted up 329 00:22:29.599 --> 00:22:32.519 onto one of the buttresses on the cathedral, it will 330 00:22:32.599 --> 00:22:35.519 replace a similar statue that had been eroded to a 331 00:22:35.559 --> 00:22:39.880 faceless nub by centuries of wind and rain. We try 332 00:22:39.880 --> 00:22:43.039 to replace lke for like, says Lewis Morrison, the master 333 00:22:43.160 --> 00:22:47.319 stonemason who spent fourteen weeks carving the statue, but Morrison 334 00:22:47.359 --> 00:22:50.880 admitted that even he wasn't entirely sure that the original 335 00:22:50.920 --> 00:22:54.160 creation featured a frog. It was so badly worn you 336 00:22:54.200 --> 00:22:57.119 couldn't tell much about it other than the pose. With 337 00:22:57.200 --> 00:23:01.400 a hand raised beside his head, he says, york Minster's 338 00:23:01.400 --> 00:23:05.799 stone masons face a tricky balance in restoring such architectural relics, 339 00:23:06.400 --> 00:23:09.480 so in addition to practicing the time honored techniques of 340 00:23:09.559 --> 00:23:13.720 stone carving, they've learned to harness modern technology and take 341 00:23:13.799 --> 00:23:19.680 some historically informed artistic license to recurate the beastly grotesque. 342 00:23:19.759 --> 00:23:24.279 For instance, Morrison and his team ascended to the church's rooftop, 343 00:23:24.599 --> 00:23:27.480 where they used a camera capable of taking high quality 344 00:23:27.519 --> 00:23:30.559 images that can be stitched together into a three D 345 00:23:30.720 --> 00:23:35.440 model to render the statue's exact dimensions. Next, they carved 346 00:23:35.720 --> 00:23:40.000 a polyerethane model of the weatherworn original as a reference copy, 347 00:23:40.519 --> 00:23:44.000 following the same lines, proportions and silhouette of the original. 348 00:23:44.680 --> 00:23:49.400 Morrison then spent weeks researching several similarly posed grotesques on 349 00:23:49.599 --> 00:23:54.400 york Minster and pouring over fourteenth century illustrated manuscripts before 350 00:23:54.400 --> 00:23:58.240 coming up with a theme and design He eventually chose 351 00:23:58.359 --> 00:24:01.599 the timeless theme of good inn evil. The beast holds 352 00:24:01.599 --> 00:24:04.720 its head while encountering the frog, which is a symbol 353 00:24:04.720 --> 00:24:08.519 of demons in medieval folklore. But viewers should also notice 354 00:24:08.519 --> 00:24:11.400 that the creature grips of fish in its other hand, 355 00:24:11.519 --> 00:24:16.880 symbolizing Christianity. Once the design was approved by the cathedral's architect, 356 00:24:17.160 --> 00:24:20.599 the slow, intimate process of carving began. It's one that 357 00:24:20.640 --> 00:24:25.319 would have been readily recognizable to Morrison's medieval counterparts, with 358 00:24:25.400 --> 00:24:29.480 the same tools, same pale limestone, and same musical ring 359 00:24:29.519 --> 00:24:34.640 of steel on stone, clean cling sounding across the yard. 360 00:24:35.680 --> 00:24:38.640 There's been a permanent stone mason's yard at Yorkminster for 361 00:24:38.640 --> 00:24:41.759 more than two hundred years, part of a rolling program 362 00:24:41.920 --> 00:24:46.000 of restoration and repairs that began in the late eighteenth century. 363 00:24:46.640 --> 00:24:50.240 Is a never ending job, says Alex Mcallian, director of 364 00:24:50.279 --> 00:24:54.559 Works and Precinct at Yorkminster. Our scaffolding is on one 365 00:24:54.640 --> 00:24:59.359 hundred year rotation today. However, these methods of restoration could 366 00:24:59.359 --> 00:25:03.400 be to evolve. The cathedral recently opened a new workspace 367 00:25:03.480 --> 00:25:07.160 for its tradespeople, called the Center of Excellence for Heritage 368 00:25:07.160 --> 00:25:11.400 Skills and Estate Management, and over ten million dollars state 369 00:25:11.480 --> 00:25:15.039 of the art facility just around the corner from the cathedral. 370 00:25:15.680 --> 00:25:19.680 The workshop is equipped with computer controlled stone saws for 371 00:25:19.839 --> 00:25:23.680 roughly shaping blocks of limestone, along with laser scanners and 372 00:25:23.799 --> 00:25:28.720 digital software to help measure and virtually model designs. These 373 00:25:28.759 --> 00:25:32.200 tools could be wielded to not only replicate artifacts, but 374 00:25:32.319 --> 00:25:35.799 also create entirely new ones, like a nearly two ton 375 00:25:35.920 --> 00:25:39.839 statue of the late Queen Elizabeth the sculpted from a 376 00:25:39.880 --> 00:25:43.240 block of French limestone that now stands outside on the 377 00:25:43.279 --> 00:25:46.559 west end of the cathedral. It's a big step into 378 00:25:46.559 --> 00:25:49.680 the future for us, says Mecallian, although we won't be 379 00:25:49.720 --> 00:25:53.759 abandoning our roots in traditional craftsmanship. Every piece we make 380 00:25:53.799 --> 00:25:56.920 will still be finished by hand using the same tools 381 00:25:57.200 --> 00:26:00.839 mallet and chisel we've always used. It is vital that 382 00:26:00.880 --> 00:26:04.480 we do not lose humanity. Like the new Grotesque, the 383 00:26:04.519 --> 00:26:07.759 statue of the Queen should last throughout several centuries to come. 384 00:26:08.160 --> 00:26:11.200 There's always more work to be done, though, ensuring that 385 00:26:11.279 --> 00:26:14.480 plenty more beasts will be rising from the mason's yard 386 00:26:15.680 --> 00:26:18.599 over the centuries. Many of this stone details at york Minster, 387 00:26:18.720 --> 00:26:24.519 the Gothic cathedral in York, England, eroded, requiring restoration or replacement. Building. 388 00:26:24.759 --> 00:26:29.839 This new grotesque demanded expert craftsmanship and creative problem solving, 389 00:26:30.240 --> 00:26:32.720 as some of the original details had been lost to 390 00:26:32.759 --> 00:26:37.559 the ages. How reindeer got to America. In the eighteen nineties, 391 00:26:37.599 --> 00:26:41.119 the idea of raising domesticated reindeer took root in Alaska, 392 00:26:41.400 --> 00:26:44.680 leading to a herd being imported to replace dwindling numbers 393 00:26:45.039 --> 00:26:49.960 of free ranging caribou as a regional food source. In 394 00:26:50.039 --> 00:26:53.319 nineteen twenty nine, the Canadian government, inspired by the success 395 00:26:53.319 --> 00:26:56.240 of reindeer in Alaska, decided to buy a portion of 396 00:26:56.240 --> 00:26:59.880 the thriving herds and bring them east. The planned eighty 397 00:27:00.119 --> 00:27:03.440 month journey stretched to five brutal years. The team was 398 00:27:03.440 --> 00:27:07.200 beset by storms, stampedes, and dangerous run ins with wolves 399 00:27:07.240 --> 00:27:12.200 along the route. Beneath its destructive reputation, the red palm 400 00:27:12.240 --> 00:27:17.200 wevil reveals a mesmerizing complexity. Each groove, curve and texture 401 00:27:17.279 --> 00:27:21.680