My house is in Jabaquara, a suburb of the city of Paraty, in the Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro. It’s surrounded by rainforest that goes almost down to the Atlantic coast. Most of the people that buy land here tend to cut down all the trees and level the ground. But the mango forest suffers. That’s why I have done the opposite.
It was important to me that my home was compatible with nature. The house consists of only one room and a large terrace. The kitchen is outdoors and the branches of the trees touch the roof. When I’m lying in bed I can look out into the forest through the glass wall.
I’ve tried to interfere with the nature here as little as possible. Small crabs clean the insects out of my garden and monkeys come by for breakfast in the mornings because I always give them a couple of bananas. The only noise you can hear is birdsong and the frogs croaking. But I don’t know how long my home is going to stay this peaceful. Just recently somebody bought the land next to mine and they accidentally cleared some of my property too.
Let’s start with consumerism’s more obvious charms – the glitter and bling, for example. Novelty lies at the beating heart of capitalism. Innovation is vital to enterprise: the continual throwing over of the old in favour of the new, the entrepreneur’s relentless search for new markets and new products to fill them with.
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Kenya has banned plastic bags and its new policy is starting to bear fruit.
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Growth will ultimately lead us to our downfall, reckons the environmental economist Federico Demaria.
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In the Afghanistani province of Kabul a major talking point is air pollution which kills more citizens than the war.
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The Adjumani district in northern Uganda is mostly dry and hot. Right now, the main topic of conversation there is the conflict over resources in its cooler and fertile Apaa rainforest area. This is home to the Acholi and Madi tribes, who supply themselves with forest with wood and food. Now, influential people, some of them government officials, have acquired large sections of the country.
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Short news from China.
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