Six on Geography and Science: 5 Reasons Climate Science Looks Beyond 2040; gold miners invade indigenous village in Brazil after its leader is killed; Grave Diggers; Horrified Iowan Farmer Starts Breaking Out In Corn; Nepal-China railway plans hit a
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"Dozens of gold miners have invaded a remote indigenous reserve in the Brazilian Amazon where a local leader was stabbed to death and have taken over a village after the community fled in fear, local politicians and indigenous leaders said. The authorities said police were on their way to investigate.
Illegal gold mining is at epidemic proportions in the Amazon and the heavily polluting activities of garimpeiros – as miners are called – devastate forests and poison rivers with mercury. About 50 garimpeiros were reported to have invaded the 600,000-hectare Waiãpi indigenous reserve in the state of Amapá on Saturday.
Indigenous people evacuated Mariry and fled to the bigger village of Aramirã – where shots were fired on Saturday. Indigenous leaders and local politicians have called for urgent police help, fearing a bloodbath.
“The garimpeiros invaded the indigenous village and are there until today. They are heavily armed, they have machine guns. That is why we asking for help from the federal police,” said Kureni Waiãpi, 26, a member of the tribe who lives in the nearest town of Pedra Branca do Amapari, two hours away and 189km from Amapá state capital Macapá. “If nothing is done they will start to fight."
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"Then one day last July, as I was stacking my wood for the coming winter, I noticed a small black and orange beetle around one of the disposed mice. Fascinated, I watched for over an hour as a tomentose beetle (Nicrophorus tomentosus) dug a trench alongside the mouse and ever so slowly rolled the mouse into it. Another beetle arrived and went under the mouse and removed more soil. If I disturbed them, the beetles would bury themselves quickly, then resume work in a matter of minutes once they felt safe. The carcass was gradually lowered into the ground until it was interred.
Throughout the summer I watched nine additional deer mice or white-footed mice being buried or dragged into crevices and covered in this small area. After hours of observation, I realized that the tomentose beetles were not alone in using this grave site; I also saw roundneck sexton beetles (Nicrophorus orbicollis) at work.
Burying beetles are members of the Silphidae family and are also called “carrion” or “sexton” beetles; it’s a large group: there are about 100 species of Nicrophorus alone. Within this genus, a tomentose beetle is identifiable by the dense yellow pubescence on the dorsal front of the thorax. Its club antennae, which double as a nose, are used for sensing vertebrate carcasses; if the male finds a carcass first, he sends out pheromones to attract a female. The carcass plays an essential role in the breeding process, so the pair must coordinate carefully.
The beetle or beetles first test the soil to determine if it’s suitable for excavation. They then turn over on their backs and squeeze under the carcass. Using their six legs in a series of leg presses, they leverage the body, moving it ever so slightly toward the chosen burial site.
Once buried, they strip the animal of its fur with their mandibles and drag this material to the surface. The skinned carcass is then shaped into a ball and an anal secretion is spread over it to retard decomposition. The female beetle lays her eggs randomly in the nearby soil, making it more difficult for predators to locate and destroy them. The eggs hatch in a few days and the larvae feed on the carcass. Tomentose beetle larvae largely develop on their own, while roundneck sexton beetle parents provide their larvae with protection and food until the point of pupation. Ants are key predators during this period of life."
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There is no consensus among political actors about how this project, which is part of the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative, should be funded.
Moreover, the railway would be challenging to build. The mountainous terrain poses a major challenge. The Chinese side has been saying that the project needs further study and depends on new technological advances, as the proposed route runs through the earthquake-prone Himalayan range.
In 2008, China announced that the Qinghai-Tibet railway would be extended to Keyrung on the Nepal-China border, which is the only operating trade point between the countries. Surrounded by India on three sides, by the Chinese Himalayas on the fourth, Nepal had depended solely on India for third-country trade and transit.
When Nepali leaders in 2016 saw the opportunity of breaking that sole dependence, they negotiated with China to bring the proposed railway up to Kathmandu, something China agreed to in principle as a part of its overarching Belt and Road framework."
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