It was 43 years ago today….

43 years ago today, on July 20, 1969, the United States’ Apollo 11 became the first manned mission to land on the surface of our moon.  The USA followed this achievement with an additional six missions as part of the Apollo program between 1969 and 1972 and a total of 12 men have had the experience of visiting the lunar surface.

Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin – Tranquility Base

And now, America continues its exploration of space for evidence of life with the landing of the Curiosity Rover on the planet Mars on August 5^th.  After 8 months the craft will have travelled 150 million miles from earth to join an earlier rover, Opportunity that has been collecting data since January of 2004.  The decision to send the more ambitious rover, Curiosity, was made after Opportunity found geological evidence that Mars was once warm and wet, with pools of salty water that dried up eons ago.

Curiosity is about the size of an Escalade travelling 13,000 miles per hour and its landing must be in perfect sequence, with perfect choreography and timing to avoid leaving a $2.5 billion dollar hole on the face of the planet.  Yippee Ki-Yay!

Wish my Escalade could do this!

In fact, it will take Curiosity 7 minutes to decelerate from 13,000 mph to zero with no margin for error. Encased in a heat shield it will let out a parachute, fire its retro rockets, be lowered by cables from a landing stage then send a signal that it is safely down.  Talk about a white knuckle manuever!  At a distance of 150 million miles from earth, any communications will take 14 minutes to reach NASA even travelling at the speed of light!  The excitement of my own space adventure is building as the test flights have begun.  It is astounding that this 2.5 billion dollar endeavor is being done entirely unmanned and by remote control.  I am one person who will be anxiously awaiting the touchdown of Curiosity on August 5th!

State of Deforestation in the Amazon 2012

As my expedition comes to an end, I grow increasingly more concerned about the deforestation happening in the Amazon, especially because I have witnessed it first hand.  Although recent reports have shown that the rate of deforestation has decreased 11% for the year of 2011, the struggle to maintain and enforce laws protecting the rainforest persists.  These facts are from 2009, but are still a current concern and meant to give you an idea of what has happened and what the Brazilian government continues to battle.

Logging continues, despite efforts to regulate and control it.  Multinational timber companies have moved into the Amazon, particularly from the Asian countries who have exhausted the rain forests of the rest of the world.  Domestic companies in every Amazon nation are equally predatory.  These are supposed to log ‘sustainably’ but government inspection of thirty-four operations around Paragominas found that not one was mitigating forest damage in the approved manner (6 to 8,000 square miles of forest are logged each year in Brazil alone – which is as much as is deforested for agriculture. Wide spread collateral damage is happening at an alarming rate.  Furthermore, the Brazilian government police and IBAMA (Brazil’s environmental protection agency) are struggling with corruption and lack of resources.

To the dismay of environmentalists, cattle ranching has made a gigantic comeback in recent months. Large and medium – sized ranches cause three – quarters of the deforestation of the Amazonia.  Brazil which used to supply only its domestic market is now the world’s leading beef exporter.  Cumulative deforestation of the Amazon Rain forest is massive and cannot be sustained without total destruction of this most important Natural Wonder of our World.

These photos are what I have now witnessed within the past few days.  We all will surely have to put our heads together for solutions to save the Amazon rainforest for future generations to come.

Amazon River

I am now traveling through the Amazon River, in the area called the Breves Narrows!  The greenery and wildlife are amazing, the Amazon is home to more wildlife species than anywhere else on earth!  I found this iguana just chillin’ in a branch right outside the boat as we passed by.  Today I learned that the Amazon river pours 55 million gallons of water into the sea.  That’s a lot of water that I’m currently floating on carrying me out to the Pacific Ocean!  As we pass through the narrows we are on our way to Belem, where we will stop and get some Brazilian seaside city time, a contrast to the bountiful nature we have been enveloped in.  Belem is literally translated to Bethlehem, and is the gateway city to the Amazon, but it will be one of my last stops on this jungle expedition!  I will be sorry to leave this beautiful land that is in dire need of our attention and care, and I will remember this trip as a significant lifetime experience!

Amazon Jungle Expedition

Alter Do Chao, Brazil

Hello from the jungle!  I am currently aboard the SeaDreamII, on my way to Alter Do Chao, Brazil.  What a lucky man I am to be in such a beautiful country, with so much wildlife to see and learn about.  I’m passionate about the state of our earth’s environment, and what better place to learn about it’s welfare then in the rainforest.  Deforestation has been a concern for about three decades now, and is still a huge battle, considering about 1.5 acres of rainforest are lost every second!  This simply boggles my mind, that’s the “lungs of our planet,” containing thousands of rare species, major producer of the world’s oxygen, and possibly cures for disease…. destroyed.  On the upside, there is some evidence that the deforestation is slowing down, giving me hope!  How to fix this global issue is a huge undertaking, but I’m dedicated to taking this on and making an impact!  But for now, my expedition will be more adventure, learning and inspiration to bring back with me to the U.S.A!  Wish me safe travels, I’ll have a concluding statements and photos when I return.