Olaf Winter Amazon 15
Zetta Durupan
Study area descriptions/descriptor: Mato Grosso is located in the central-western part of Brazil, with an area of 903,378,292 km, making it the third largest state in Brazil. The state has three different climate zones: in lower elevations, there is a tropical monsoon climate, with rainy summers and dry winters and an average temperature of over 24C; and also a tropical rainforest climate, with no distinct seasons, heavy rainfall, and average temperature of 23C; and in higher elevations, there is a subtropical climate, with an average temperature of 17C. Most regions are at low to medium elevations, with areas from about 100 meters in the southwest and northern areas, reaching up to 1,118 meters above sea level; nevertheless, about two thirds of the state is below 600 meters in elevation. Mato Grosso is drained by streams that flow north to the Amazonas drainage basin (e.g. Juruena, Teles Pires, and Xingu rivers), east to the Tocantins-Araguaia river basin (e.g. Araguaia River), and south to the Paraná river basin (e.g. Cuiabá River).
Kimberley Strassel: Hesitating as usual, yes. When it comes to some of this more sophisticated equipment, this has been one of the problems with the Biden administration. I give it credit for keeping coalitions together, for generally remaining strong on the issue of Ukraine and spending more money and other munitions. But when it's come to certain aircraft or this question of the tank, the argument against sending the Abrams is that they're too complicated for the Ukrainians to operate, they take too much training, too much logistical support, they're too gas-guzzley. They've had all of these arguments. But what seems to be growing apparent is that the White House looks to understand that it needs to break what has become a log jam now with Germany's reticence to do anything here. And Germany has suggested that it is worried that Russia will escalate. It doesn't want to be seen to be out there on its own making this decision to green light tanks, and so it wants some cover as it were. And the United States apparently is now leaning toward doing that. And it's so important because we are headed out of what has become a winter deadlock. Both sides are gearing up for what could be a very vicious spring offensive. And Ukraine really needs to be prepared for that. And in order to break through Russian lines, it needs a lot of these tanks. And Poland has talked about sending a company of them, which is about 14 tanks, but Prime Minister Volodymyr Zelenskyy's Chief of Staff in Ukraine has said that the country needs several hundred. Now, if you can break this log jam, it's possible you could get closer to those numbers because the Leopard 2's are owned and operated by some 20 countries, ranging from Canada all the way to Turkey. So there's a lot of countries in that coalition that would like to help Ukraine. And if you can get this off the ground, you could see a huge outpouring of these tanks into Ukraine and that seems to be the operating thinking in the White House is that maybe this is just what needs to be done in order to get everything moving.