Deforestation = more malaria; study

Reuters reports that malaria rates rise when the forests are cut down in the Amazon according to a study by U.S. researchers.

The scientists found in their study, published in Emerging Infectious Diseases journal, a 48 percent increase in malaria rates in Brazil after 4 percent of the tree cover was cut down.

"Conservation policy and public health policy are one and the same," Jonathan Patz, the professor who oversaw the work, said in a telephone interview. "How we manage our landscapes and, in this case, tropical rain forest has implications for public health."

Malaria, caused by a parasite transmitted by mosquitoes, kills about 860,000 people a year globally, according to the World Health Organization. Brazil has about 500,000 cases a year of malaria, most carried by Anopheles darling mosquito.

Patz's team has been tracking mosquito populations and how they change as forests are cut down in Brazil and Peru. They took satellite data showing changes in tree cover in one county of Brazil's Amazon region and linked it with health records showing diagnosed cases of malaria.

Read the full story: Cleared forests lead to rise in malaria in Brazil

Photo from Nature's Crusaders / Stephen Ferry / Getty

"15 most toxic places to live"

Mother Nature Network reports on the 15 most toxic places to live:

Included in the list are:

Citarum River, Indonesia: the vast amounts of trash clogging up the waterway makes it look like a landfill rather than a river

Rondônia, Brazil (picture): slash and burning the Amazon rain forest to raise cattle has ruined the area

Lake Karachay, Russia: it was used by the former Soviet Union as the dumping spot for nuclear waste

See the slide show: The 15 most toxic places to live

Photo by National Geographic / Getty Images

Brazil's Pantanal animal kingdom

The Daily Green has a nice slideshow of the diverse wildlife of Brazil's Pantanal region. Animals shown include the giant anteater (picture right).

This region is a tropical wetland in the Mato Grosso do Sul state in the southwest of the country and extends into neighboring Bolivia and Paraguay according to Wikipedia.

There are also links to ecotourism options.

See the full slideshow: Discover Brazil's most spectacular wildlife

Photo by Brian Clark Howard

Green spaces in Sao Paulo

Mother Nature Network (MNN) reports on the green spaces worth visiting in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Its public transit system, though crowded, is an easy way to get around and there has been a city-level movement to increase the number of green spaces and to build an extensive network of bicycle paths. Add a vibrant organic eating scene that supports small farms to the list and the Sao Paulo (often referred to as Sampa in local slang) becomes an impressive destination for environmentally conscious travelers.

Read the full story: Destination of the week Sao Paulo

Photo by Fernando Podolski / iStockphoto

More Amazon should be cut down for food says Brazilian leader

Reuters reports that the governor of Brazil's largest soy producing region wants to help stem the so-called global food crisis by clear-cutting more of the Amazon rain forest for farm land.

Blairo Maggi of Mato Grosso state (in western Brazil) said in a local paper that as the global food crisis grows it will be "inevitable to discuss" either growing food or protecting the environment. He goes on to say that as a solution his country has the "space to raise [agricultural] production."

Mato Grosso has the distinction of being the most deforested state in 2007 but its northern half is still covered with Amazon rain forest.

Images above from NASA compare deforestation in Mato Grosso from June 17, 2002 center and June 28, 2006 top

Read the full story: Brazil "soy king" sees Amazon as food solution