Antarctica breakthrough after scientists found evidence for warm 'ancient forest' in ice

ANTARCTICA stunned scientists after they found evidence for an ancient forest deep within the continent's sea ice.

By JOEL DAY
08:22, Sun, Nov 7, 2021 

Antarctica: Scientists find area where no life exists

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Antarctica is the Earth's fifth largest and most southerly continent. With temperature often dropping below -90C, it is one of the most inhospitable places on the planet, with only the most hardy of lifeforms able to survive. This hasn't stopped humans from venturing to the barren land, with anywhere between 1,000 and 5,000 people living there.

The wonders of adaptation have led to a thriving wild animal population, with around 235 different species calling Antarctica home.

While the Antarctica of today is nothing more than a desert of ice, previous research suggests that the region was once a hotbed of life and a temperate forest.

The breakthrough discovery was made after a mission found fossilised plant roots preserved under the ocean since the time of the dinosaurs.

Explored during the science journal Nature's short documentary, 'An ancient Antarctic rainforest', the narrator noted: "It seems this freezing landscape was once home to a lush forest."

Antarctica: Scientists found evidence for an ancient rainforest beneath the ice's surface (Image: Youtube/Nature)

Ice desert: Despite being one of the harshest regions on Earth, countless species call it home (Image: GETTY)


Johann Klages, a scientist from the Alfred Wegener Institute in Germany who led the research, said: "90 million years ago, a temperate rainforest existed in West Antarctica only 900 kilometres away from the South Pole."

He and his team found the evidence after setting out with a special drill to extract a core of material stretching down 30 metres into the sea floor in 2020.

The discovery was unprecedented: they found that the annual mean temperature of a strip of western Antarctic coastline was 12 degrees.

This would have made for a landscape of swampy rainforest.

Expedition: The researchers journeyed to the continent in 2020 (Image: Youtube/Nature)

He said: "When we recovered the core, we could already see what was inside and that it was very unusual.

"And therefore we decided to scan them in a CT scanner back home."

A visualisation of what the scientists found is shown, with a long, green and yellow thread-like material revealing the different properties of the item found within the ice.

Mr Klages said: "So what we see there is the overview of the CT-scanned core and the yellow strata that we see is the sandstone, and now we transition into the network of fossil roots.

Ancient rainforest: An artist's impression of what the region could have looked like (Image: Youtube/Nature)

Strata: Analysis of the materials found in the ice revealed a network of plant roots (Image: Youtube/Nature)


"We can nicely see how the roots are connected with each other and are pristinely preserved.

"We have thin roots, we have thick roots, and it's really a network as you would go to the forest near you and drill into the current forest."

Studying the core, including analysis of fossilised pollen and spores, even more information about the environment of the ancient rainforest was offered.

Mr Klages explained: "It revealed a very warm temperature for this latitude, and annual mean temperatures that are similar to those of Northern Italy.


Ice stores: The researchers analysing the ice stores (Image: Youtube/Nature)


"It would be very certain that also dinosaurs and insects lived in that environment, and in an environment that was dark for about four months during the year because we have the polar night."

This was one of the warmest periods in Earth's history.

Carbon dioxide levels were several times higher than they are today.

British study suggests violent video games do not lead to real violence

By HealthDay News

A British study found violent video games don't increase the chance people will engage in real world violence. File Photo by Keizo Mori/UPI | License Photo

Will boys fixated on gore-filled video games become violent in real life? Many parents may worry that's the case, but new and reassuring research finds violent video games don't trigger actual violence in kids.

The study included boys aged 8 to 18, the group most likely to play violent video games, and examined two types of violence: aggression against other people, and destruction of things/property.

The researchers found no evidence that the boys' violence against other people increased after playing a violent video game.

However, parents did report that their children were more likely to break things after playing violent video games.

The study was published recently in the Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization.

"Taken together, these results suggest that violent video games may agitate children, but this agitation does not translate into violence against other people -- which is the type of violence which we care about most," said study author Agne Suziedelyte.

She is a senior lecturer in City, University of London's department of economics.

"A likely explanation for my results is that video game playing usually takes place at home, where opportunities to engage in violence are lower," Suziedelyte said in a university news release.
"This 'incapacitation' effect is especially important for violence-prone boys who may be especially attracted to violent video games," Suiedelyte said.

Suziedelyte noted there are calls for governments to restrict access to violent video games.

But these findings suggest that "policies that place restrictions on video game sales to minors are unlikely to reduce violence," Suziedelyte said.

Previous research has found little evidence of a connection between violent video games and real-life violence.

The possible link is often brought up after mass shootings where perpetrators had an interest in violent video games.

But some experts suggest that other factors, such as mental illness or easy access to guns, are more likely explanations for mass shootings.

In 2013, former President Barack Obama called for more government funding for research on video games and violence.

More information

The American Academy of Pediatrics offers advice on video games.

Copyright © 2021 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

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Study: Unemployed, uninsured less likely to receive cancer screening


Researchers say that unemployed, uninsured people are less likely to undergo routine cancer screenings -- and that these gaps decrease their long-term likelihood for staying up-to-date on routine screenings. File Photo by CristinaMuraca/Shutterstock


Nov. 8 (UPI) -- Unemployed adults in the United States are less likely to undergo recommended cancer screening because they lack health insurance, a survey published Monday by the journal Cancer found.

More than 40% of responding adults who were unemployed reported that they did not have health insurance, compared with just 10% of those who had a job, the data showed.

Compared with those who were employed at the time of the study, fewer unemployed adults indicated they were up-to-date on recommended screening for breast, cervical, colorectal and prostate cancers.

For example, 68% of unemployed adults had been screened for breast cancer versus 78% of those currently working, according to the researchers.

And, screening rates for colorectal cancers, including colon cancer, were lower among the unemployed, at 42%, than the employed, at 49%.

"People who were unemployed at the time of the survey were less likely to have a recent cancer screening test and they were also less likely to be up-to-date with their cancer screenings over the long term," study co-author Stacey Fedewa said in a press release.

"This suggests that being unemployed at a single point in time may hinder both recent and potentially longer-term screening practices," said Fedewa, a senior principal scientist at the American Cancer Society.

Not undergoing routine screening for cancer can increase a person's risk of being diagnosed with late-stage cancer, which is more difficult to treat than cancer that is detected at an early stage.

About 30 million people in the United States do not have health insurance, the Department of Health and Human Services estimates.

Screening guidelines differ by type of cancer.

For example, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that adults undergo screening for colon cancer, via colonoscopy, starting between age 45 and 50.

It also advises women to get screened for cervical cancer every three years, starting in their 20s, while they should undergo mammograms between age 50 and 74.

Prostate cancer screening recommendations are less clear.

For this study, Fedewa and her colleagues analyzed information from adults under age 65 who responded to the 2000-2018 National Health Interview Survey, a nationally representative annual survey of the United States population on health and insurance status.

Among the unemployed, 79% had been screened for cervical cancer, compared with 86% of those currently working, the data showed.

Similarly, 25% of the unemployed said they had been screened for prostate cancer, while 36% of the employed had done so.

All differences in cancer screening rates were eliminated after the researchers accounted for health insurance coverage, highlighting the importance of insurance coverage for enabling individuals to receive recommended cancer screening tests, they said.


"Our finding that insurance coverage fully accounted for unemployed adults' lower cancer screening utilization is potentially good news, because it's modifiable," Fedewa said.

"When people are unemployed and have health insurance, they have screening rates that are similar to employed adults," she said.

Walmart tests driverless trucks to deliver groceries bought online


Walmart is testing the Gatik vehicles as part of a model for several store locations where smaller fulfillment centers are closer to buyers. Photo courtesy Gatik

Nov. 8 (UPI) -- Walmart announced on Monday that it's been making grocery deliveries with driverless trucks for months and the technology has proven to be safe and cost-effective.

The company said it's been testing two trucks in Bentonville, Ark., without a human safety monitor since August.

The collaboration between Walmart and autonomous car company Gatik began about two years ago.

A year ago, the Arkansas State Highway Commission granted approval for the companies to remove the human safety monitor.

"This milestone signifies a revolutionary breakthrough for the autonomous trucking industry," Gatik CEO Gautum Narang said in a statement.

"These are frequent, revenue-generating, daily runs that our trucks are completing safely in a range of conditions on public roads."

The retailer is testing the vehicles as part of a model for several store locations where smaller fulfillment centers are closer to buyers.

Gatik says on its website that it operates autonomous vehicles seven days a week for 12 hours a day on routes with fixed pick-up and drop-off locations. It says self-driving vehicles can reduce logistics costs by up to 30% for a grocery business.

Other grocery chains are also testing autonomous deliveries, including Kroger and Albertson's.

US Supreme Court hears religious discrimination case over 'state secrets'



The U.S. Supreme Court is hearing a religious discrimination case involving an FBI operation at a California mosque. File Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI | License Photo

Nov. 8 (UPI) -- The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday heard arguments in a high-profile religious discrimination case that could decide whether the government can withhold information in civil lawsuits by relying on "state secrets privilege."

The case --- Federal Bureau of Investigation vs. Fazaga -- stems from a series of events in 2006, when the FBI and the Orange County, Calif., Joint Terrorism Task Force conducted a yearlong counterterrorism operation at a mosque.

The plaintiffs are Yassir Fazaga, a former imam at the Orange County Islamic Foundation, Ali Uddin Malik and Yasser Abdel Rahim, members of the Islamic Center of Irvine. They allege the government and its agents illegally targeted members of the faith communities because of their Muslim religion and are urging the high court to allow their case to move forward

The case is on appeal from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, which in 2019 reversed a 2012 district court decision that dismissed the case in which the federal government invoked the state secrets privilege.

The three plaintiffs alleged religious discrimination, but the government has argued that those claims should be dismissed since they could result in divulging secret information that might endanger national security.
At issue is whether Section 1806(f) of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 displaces the state secrets privilege and authorizes a district court to resolve, in camera and ex parte, the merits of a lawsuit challenging the lawfulness of government surveillance by considering the privileged evidence.

In 2006, the Brennan Center for Justice implored Congress to stop what it called the abuse of state-secrets privilege used primarily during the administrations of President George W. Bush following the Sept. 11 attacks and President Barack Obama.


High court to hear secrets case over Muslim surveillance

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is preparing to hear a case about the government’s ability to get lawsuits thrown out of court by claiming they would reveal secrets that threaten national security.

The case before the high court Monday involves a group of Muslim men from Southern California. They filed a class action lawsuit claiming that the FBI spied on them and hundreds of others in a surveillance operation following the Sept. 11 attacks. The group, represented by lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union and others, claimed religious discrimination and violations of other rights, saying they were spied on solely because of their faith.

A lower court dismissed almost all their claims after the government said allowing the case to go forward could reveal “state secrets” — whom the government was investigating and why. But an appeals court reversed that decision, saying the lower court first should have privately examined the evidence the government said was state secrets to see if the alleged surveillance was unlawful.

The Biden administration, like the Trump administration before it, is telling the justices that decision is wrong.

The case involves a confidential informant, Craig Monteilh, the FBI used from 2006 to 2007. Monteilh pretended to be a new convert to Islam as a way to become part of Southern California’s Muslim community.

Monteilh told people he was a fitness consultant, but he was really working as part of a surveillance program known as Operation Flex. Monteilh regularly attended the Islamic Center of Irvine in Orange County and has said that he was told to collect as much information on as many people as possible. He gathered names and phone numbers and secretly recorded thousands of hours of conversations and hundreds of hours of video using a camera concealed in a shirt button.

Ultimately Monteilh’s handlers told him to ask about jihad and express a willingness to engage in violence. Those questions caused members of the community to report him to the FBI and other authorities and seek a restraining order against him.

The FBI has acknowledged Monteilh was an informant, and the story was covered in the news media including on the National Public Radio show “This American Life.”

Three of the men Monteilh allegedly recorded sued seeking damages and asking the government to destroy or return the information it had gathered.

This is the second case the court has heard involving the state secrets privilege since beginning its new term in October. Last month the court heard a case involving a Guantanamo Bay detainee that also involved the states secrets privilege.

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Remington Firearms relocating HQ from New York to Georgia

A Remington rifle and handgun were on display at Chuck's Firearms in Atlanta on February 13, 2018. RemArms LLC announced it is moving its headquarters from New York to Georgia. File photo by Erik S. Lesser/EPA-EFE

Nov. 8 (UPI) -- Gun manufacturer Remington Firearms announced Monday it will relocate its corporate headquarters from New York to Georgia with plans to build a $100 million manufacturing center in the state.

The arms maker, which owns some of the assets of the former Remington Outdoor Co., said it will build an advanced manufacturing operation and establish a "world-class research and development center" in LaGrange, Ga., located about 70 miles southwest of the state capital

The company, officially known as RemArms LLC, is currently located in Ilion, N.Y.

"We are very excited to come to Georgia, a state that not only welcomes business but enthusiastically supports and welcomes companies in the firearms industry," RemArms CEO Ken D'Arcy said in a statement.

RELATED Judge to decide if Sandy Hook families can delay Remington bankruptcy

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp praised the move by the nation's oldest arms maker, whose lines of shotguns and hunting rifles date back to 1816.

"I am a proud owner of some of Remington's first-class product, and now, I am excited to welcome them to their new home in the Peach State," he said in a release. "As yet another big manufacturing win for our state, I look forward to seeing the oldest firearms manufacturer in America thrive in Georgia's pro-business environment."

Kemp said the move will result in 856 new jobs created over a five-year period in Troup County, Ga.

RELATED Remington Arms files for bankruptcy

RemArms purchased several rifle brands from Remington Outdoor Co., which was broken up after its second bankruptcy filing last year in the wake of a lawsuit brought by families of victims of the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

The families argued that Remington had marketed its Bushmaster AR-15-style assault rifle in a way that inspired gunman Adam Lanza in his plot to attack the school. Twenty children and six adults died in the assault.

JPMorgan Chase and Franklin Advisors gained ownership of Remington after its first bankruptcy filing in 2018 while seven banks, including Bank of America, gave the company $193 million in loans. The private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management owned it before that.

Pandemic has led to 8.4M tons of excess plastic waste, researchers estimate

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to about 8.4 million tons of excess plastic waste produced globally, according to a new study. 

File Photo by nanD_Phanuwat/Shutterstock


Nov. 8 (UPI) -- Countries globally produced about 8.4 million tons of excess plastic waste over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic through August of this year, researchers estimated in an article published Monday by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Just over 87% of this waste has been generated by hospitals, though discarded personal protective equipment, or PPE, such as face masks and gloves accounts for less than 8% of it, the data showed.

Virus testing kits and their packaging account for about 5% of the waste, the researchers said.

North and South America account for less than 25% of this pandemic-related plastic waste, despite the fact the continents have recorded about 70% of the world's COVID-19 cases.

Although less than 1% of this plastic waste is likely to end up in oceans, due to dumping in rivers and other watersheds, an estimated 30,000 tons are still expected to end up in the seas, according to the researchers.

About 71% of this ocean-discharged excess waste will likely land on beaches by the end of this year, the researchers said.

"Globally ,public awareness of the environmental impact of PPE and other plastic products needs to be increased," wrote the researchers, from Nanjing University in China and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego.

Worldwide, up to an estimated 13 million metric tons of plastic enter the oceans annually, according to Our World in Data, a consortium made up of thousands of researchers.

However, as healthcare systems and other institutions have relied even more on disposable plastic products -- from face masks to virus testing kits -- during the COVID-19, plastic pollution is expected to increase significantly, research suggests.

For this analysis, the researchers derived their estimates of excess plastic pollution attributable to the pandemic based on data regarding use of products made from material from more than 40 countries.

This data was fed into a mathematical model created by the researchers to calculate the level of plastic waste generated through this usage.

The model found that levels of excess plastic generated during the pandemic could be as low as 4.4 million tons or as high as 15.1 million tons.

Asia has accounted for 46% of the excess plastic waste linked with the pandemic, while Europe has produced about 24%, the researchers said.

"A lot of single-use plastic items were produced during the pandemic," Philippe Miron, a researcher at Florida State University's Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies, told UPI in an email.
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"Many factors led to the increase of plastic production during the pandemic, such as the higher demands of PPE, while at the same time the recycling industry was forced to shut down," said Miron, who was not involved in this study but has conducted similar research.

Study: Air pollution exposure raises depression risk, affects brain function

A Chinese couple looks at part of the Forbidden City under a polluted sky in Beijing. Air pollution exposure may increase the risk for anxiety, depression and other mental health problems, according to a new study of people in China. 

File photo by Stephen Shaver/UPI | License Photo

Nov. 8 (UPI) -- Exposure to high levels of air pollution increases a person's risk for depression and adversely affects problem-solving and other brain functions, a study published Monday by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found.

The analysis of 352 healthy adults living in Beijing, China, a city with significant air pollution, found that those exposed to large amounts of particulate matter, or PM2.5, exhibited more symptoms of depression.

Study participants exposed to PM2.5, which are microscopic dust particles and other pollutants, also reported more difficulties with problem-solving and other mental tasks, the data showed.

In addition, magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, screenings of the study participants revealed that those exposed to high levels of PM2.5 showed evidence of disruption in activity in 22 brain regions, including those involved in thinking and memory, the researchers said.

"Air pollution not only affects heart and lung health, it can directly affect the operation of genes in the brain that control thinking and emotional functions that can lead to brain disorders like depression," study co-author Dr. Hao Yang Tan told UPI in an email.

"The nuance of this is that while any air pollution is bad, for people with genetic risk for depression, the effects on brain function and ultimately risk for depressive illness are much worse," said Tan, lead investigator at the Lieber Institute for Brain Development at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

About 90% of the global population lives in regions with air pollution levels above the thresholds for human health established by the World Health Organization, the international agency estimates.

RELATED Poor air quality in offices impacts worker productivity, study finds

Fine particulate matter such as PM2.5 has been linked with up to 4 million early deaths worldwide annually and has been described as "the greatest threat to human health."

Although most of the health complications related to air pollution are associated with the heart and lungs, there is evidence that it can also affect mental health, with a study published earlier this year suggesting that worker productivity is impacted in offices with poor air quality.

For this study, Tan and his colleagues assessed 352 otherwise healthy adults living in Beijing for symptoms of depression using standard diagnostic criteria.

RELATED Particulate pollution the 'world's greatest threat to human health,' study finds

Study participants also answered questionnaires on mental health and brain function throughout the course of the study.

In addition, they also underwent genetic testing to establish their risk for depression based on family history, according to the researchers.

The researchers estimated each participant's PM2.5 exposure in the six months immediately before the study using data from the nearest air monitoring station to their residential address.

Participants were also asked to solve several mathematical problems while being timed and undergoing functional MRI scanning, which measures brain activity during the performance of certain tasks.

Study participants living in areas with higher PM2.5 levels based on monitoring station data had more symptoms of depression and showed greater evidence of compromised brain performance on functional MRI, according to the researchers.

Those with a family history of depression, based on genetic data, who were also exposed to high levels of PM2.5 were at higher risk for the disorder compared with those without a genetic history, the data showed.

"These findings are likely the tip of the iceberg in terms of the genes and brain functions involved," Tan said.

"While we focus on depression, it is likely other related disorders from ADHD, to anxiety disorders, to perhaps even psychosis and dementia," he said.

Study: Heart attack rate down in U.S. as COVID-19 lockdowns cut air pollution

By Dennis Thompson, HealthDay News

Researchers say the number of heart attacks in the United States dropped as air pollution from driving declined because fewer people were driving as a result of COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020. 

File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

Urban air cleared during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns as fewer commuters hit the road daily, and that might have resulted in one unexpected heart health benefit for Americans, a new study suggests.

Those reductions in air pollution appear to be linked to a decrease in heart attacks during the shutdowns, according to research slated for presentation Saturday at the American Heart Association's online annual meeting.

The number of heart attacks dropped by 6% for every 10 microgram-per-cubic-meter decline in fine particle pollution, researchers found.

"The main message from our research is that efforts to reduce ambient pollution can prevent the most severe form of heart attacks," said lead researcher Sidney Aung, a fourth-year medical student at the University of California-San Francisco.

"We hope that this would provide a greater impetus for increased public health efforts aimed at reducing air pollution," Aung said.

Prior research had found a reduction in fine particle pollution while people stayed home during lockdowns, Aung said.

There was about a 4.5% drop in fine particle pollution during the last two weeks of March 2020, compared to the same period in previous years, Aung said.

Such pollution dropped by more than 11% when looking at counties in states that instituted early closures of non-essential businesses.

To see how cleaner air might have improved health, Aung's team used federal data to compare the frequency of heart attacks with air quality in different regions of the United States.

It turned out there was a direct correlation. Nearly 61,000 heart attacks occurred from January through April 2020, and then the number of heart attacks declined as air grew cleaner in specific parts of the nation.

The tiny particles that make up fine particle pollution are truly minuscule, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Individual particles are 2.5 micrometers or smaller by comparison, a single hair from your head is 70 micrometers in diameter, or 30 times larger than the largest fine particle.

Studies have linked breathing in these tiny particles to increased inflammation, irregular heart rhythm and thicker blood, Aung said.

"These all represent ways that bad air could lead to more heart attacks, which is why we think improvements in air quality could lead to fewer heart attacks," Aung said.

A drop of 10 micrograms per cubic meter is not small potatoes, however. Aung noted that Los Angeles' average pollution level in 2018 was 12.7 micrograms per cubic meter.

"However, we want to reiterate that even a smaller decrease in particulate matter concentration and subsequently any reduction in heart attacks could be tremendously beneficial for public health," Aung said

The findings provide another powerful reason for pursuing clean energy technologies, said Dr. Joel Kaufman, chair of the American Heart Association's 2020 policy statement on air pollution.

"If these results hold up, it reinforces the benefits of air pollution reduction as a cost-effective way to improve health," said Kaufman, a professor of environmental and occupational health sciences, epidemiology and medicine at the University of Washington in Seattle.

"It also means that reducing fossil fuel combustion -- which we need to do anyway, to combat climate change -- might mean tremendous health benefits now, even if the climate benefits take a few years to accrue," Kaufman said.

Aung agreed, while adding that air quality is likely to deteriorate as more folks start commuting again.

"We believe that it is highly possible that air quality will return to usual higher levels as people shift towards resuming their normal pre-pandemic activities," Aung said. "We hope that our research will have implications for greater support of clean energy technologies to reduce air pollution levels."

As an observational analysis, the study does not prove cause and effect, only that there is a link between air quality and heart attack.

Findings presented at medical meetings are also considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.


More information

The Environmental Protection Agency has more about particle pollution.

Copyright © 2021 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

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Jan. 6 Capitol rioter seeks asylum in Belarus

Nov. 8 (UPI) -- Evan Neumann, wanted by the FBI for participating in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, appears to be seeking asylum in Belarus, according to a report on its state-run news media on Monday.

Neumann is wanted for violent entry and disorderly conduct on the Capitol grounds, as well as for assaulting, resisting and obstructing law enforcement during civil disorder, among other charges, according to the Justice Department.

In an excerpt of his interview, Neumann claimed that he "lost almost everything and is being persecuted by the U.S. government" because he "sought justice and asked uncomfortable questions" following the 2020 presidential election, according to the Washington Post.

Neumann said he was staying in Ukraine until security service agents started following him and he escaped to Belarus. Belarusian border guards detained him on Aug. 15.

Neumann sold him home in Mill Valley, Calif., in April for $1.3 million after charges were filed against him. His brother, Mark Neumann, a local construction worker in the area, said in July he knew nothing of his brother's whereabouts

Belarus is led by authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko, who is a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

New gold rush fuels Amazon destruction

New gold rush fuels Amazon destructionAn aerial view of an illegal gold mine in Sao Felix do Xingu, in Brazil's Para state -- as investors have sought a haven from the Covid-19 chaos in gold, illegal miners have responded by hacking rust-colored scars into the plush green of the Amazon 

(AFP/MAURO PIMENTEL)More

Joshua Howat Berger, with Valeria Pacheco in Brasilia
Mon, November 8, 2021

Standing over the gaping pit in the middle of his small farm, Brazilian wildcat miner Antonio Silva struggles to explain why he joined the new gold rush sweeping the Amazon.

The 61-year-old grandfather of six had planned to retire from illegal mining, and the environmental destruction that comes along with it.

He bought this farm in rural Sao Felix do Xingu, in the southeastern Amazon, and was starting a cattle ranch on a long-deforested patch of jungle where he would not have to cut down more trees.

But then the pandemic hit, gold prices soared, and Silva -- a pseudonym, as the man is involved in illicit activity -- couldn't resist the temptation of easy money.

He put his retirement plans on hold and spent 50,000 reais ($9,000) of his meager savings to rent an excavator, hire four workers, and dig a hole the size of a large house that now dominates his emerald pastures.

Filled with murky gray-green water, the hole is outfitted with a pump sitting on a ramshackle raft that delivers muddy sediment to a sluice to be panned for gold. To his chagrin, he has found only trace amounts so far.

"I know it's wrong. I know the problems mining causes. But I don't have anything else," says Silva, who got his start mining in the gold rush of the 1970s and 80s at the infamous Serra Pelada mine, known for images of tens of thousands of mud-soaked men swarming its cavernous sides like ants, hauling sacks of dirt from its bowels.

Now, illegal mining is surging again in the mineral-rich Amazon basin, fueled by poverty, greed, impunity and record gold prices.

As investors have sought a haven from pandemic-induced economic chaos in gold, illegal miners have responded by hacking giant rust-colored scars into the plush green of the world's biggest rainforest.

Mining has already destroyed a record 114 square kilometers (44 square miles) of the Brazilian Amazon this year -- more than 10,000 football pitches.

Silva's operation is relatively tiny, and the land he's damaging is his own.

But much of the destruction is on protected indigenous reservations.

There, gangs with heavy equipment and brutal tactics are installing huge mines, attacking villages, spreading disease, poisoning the water -- and devastating the very communities experts say are key to saving the Amazon.

- 'You'll have to kill me' -

The Brazilian Amazon has 1.2 million square kilometers (450,000 square miles) of indigenous reservations. Most of it is pristine forest, thanks to native traditions of living in harmony with nature.

Mineral-rich and remote, many reservations are also easy prey for illegal mining gangs. Their camps often are a breeding ground for other crimes, prosecutors say, including the drugs trade, sex trafficking and slave labor.

The government estimates there are 4,000 illegal miners operating on indigenous territory in the Amazon, though activists say the figure is much higher.

Recent studies found they used 100 tonnes of mercury in 2019-2020 to separate gold dust from soil -- and that up to 80 percent of children in nearby villages show signs of neurological damage from exposure to it.

Mercury also poisons the fish that many indigenous communities rely on for food.

Native peoples facing this nightmare have begun organizing anti-mining patrols and protests -- sometimes paying a heavy price.

Maria Leusa Munduruku is a leader of the Munduruku people, whose territory has been among the hardest hit.

When illegal miners started buying off community members with cash, alcohol and drugs in a bid to move in on tribal land, Munduruku, 34, organized local women to resist.

Soon, she was getting death threats, she says.

On May 26, armed men swarmed her home.

"They poured gasoline on my house, then set it on fire," she says, red flowers crowning her black hair, her baby nursing at her breast.

"I said I wasn't leaving, that they would have to kill me. Somehow, my house survived. God only knows why it didn't catch fire. They burned everything inside it."

Munduruku, who has five children and a grandson, did not back down.

In September, she traveled to Brasilia, some 2,500 kilometers (1,550 miles) from her village, to help lead a protest of indigenous women demanding the government protect their land.

That rally came in the wake of another major indigenous demonstration in the capital a month earlier, also over land rights issues.

"We have to make sure our children have a river to fish in, land to live on," she says.

"That's why I keep fighting."

- Backed by Bolsonaro -

Brazil mined 107 tonnes of gold last year, making it the world's seventh-biggest producer.

Illegal mines have exploded under far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, who has pushed to open indigenous reservations to mining since taking office in 2019.

A recent study found just one-third of Brazil's gold production is certified as legally mined.

Current regulations allow sellers to vouch for the origin of their gold by simply signing a paper.

The Amazon region is notoriously hard to police.

"We realized using only on-the-ground police operations was an exercise in futility," says Helena Palmquist, spokeswoman for the federal prosecutors' office in the northern state of Para.

Miners would flee into the jungle when police arrived, she says. Authorities burned the machinery left behind. But in a sign of how well-financed the gangs are, they easily replaced the excavators, which cost 600,000 reais apiece.

So prosecutors got creative, going after the powerful financiers trafficking illegal gold.

In August, they moved to suspend the operations of three major gold dealerships, asking a court to fine them 10.6 billion reais. The ruling is pending.

But there are powerful interests in play.

"Gold-sector lobbyists regularly meet with the environment minister, with top administration officials. They have direct access to the government," Palmquist says.

"And there's a very deep-rooted idea here in Brazil that the Amazon is a good that exists to be exploited."

That may be changing.

In downtown Sao Felix, Dantas Ferreira is fishing at dusk on the Xingu River, a bright blue Amazon tributary, just upstream from where another river, the Fresco, dumps its turbid, brown-stained waters into the Xingu's crystalline ones.

Authorities say the Fresco is badly polluted with illegal mining waste.

Like most people in Sao Felix, Ferreira, a 53-year-old cattle rancher, is a proud Bolsonaro supporter.

But he says the environmental destruction in the region has gone too far.

The president "needs to stop this," he says.

"If they don't crack down on illegal mining, our water is never going to be normal again."

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