a natural beauty should be preserved like a monument to nature

fos do iguaçù by Emilio Navarino

Iguazu Falls was created in the area where the Rio Iguacu (Iguazu River, in Portuguese) in Brazil flows over a basalt rock plateau that ends at the Parana River. Basalt is formed from a lava flow. There are actually 275 waterfalls in the full Iguazu series.

"Amazon, you had so much and now so much is gone. . ."
From one of my favorite Neil Young songs, that line always brings me close to tears. (You can access a pop-up of Neil Young's original 2004 recording of Natural Beauty at: CLICK.) I found this cover of the song and was really moved by the sweet intensity of the performance by these two women. Theirs is a pure and soulful offering of song to the Earth. It touches me. Deeply.



Tara MacLean is joined by Melanie Doane for a gorgeous version of Neil Young's "Natural Beauty" during Tara's CD Release Party for her CD Wake, ----- 29 Oct 2009 at Hugh's Room in Toronto, ONT.
http://www.taramaclean.com
[from Tara MacLean's website: She lives what she speaks; as a result, Wake is a zero footprint CD www.zerofootprint.net. "We used minimal packaging: 100% recycled paper and no hard plastic cases. I was arrested and jailed in 1993 for protesting the clear-cut logging of a temperate rainforest in B.C. Singing protest songs on the blockades showed me a new way to use my voice, and gave me a new reason. Since then, I have been trying to incorporate my love of nature into my love of music. When I'm singing ‘I'm turning on to different information' on this record, it means I am trying to learn and make choices that are not going to hurt the planet any more. The way I eat, the way I dress, the way I travel, the way I raise my children. Not preaching, just trying to be an inspiring person. I grew up singing gospel music, so music has always been about looking for light."]


Natural Beauty - Lyrics

On the roller coaster ride
That my emotions have to take me on
I heard a newborn baby cry
Through the night.

I heard a perfect echo die
Into an anonymous wall of digital sound
Somewhere deep inside
Of my soul.

A natural beauty should be preserved like a monument to nature
Don't judge yourself too harsh, my love
Or someday you might find your soul endangered
A natural beauty should be preserved like a monument to nature.

Amazon
You had so much and now so much is gone
What are you gonna do
With your life?

What a lucky man.
To see the earth before it touched his hand
What an angry fool
To condemn.

One more night to go
One more sleep upon your burning banks
A greedy man never knows
What he's done.

A natural beauty should be preserved like a monument to nature
Don't start yourself too short, my love
Or someday you might find your soul endangered
A natural beauty should be preserved like a monument to nature.

Went to the rodeo today
I saw the cowgirls lined up on the fence
A brand new Chevrolet
A brand new pair of seamless pants.

We watched the moment of defeat
Played back over on the video screen
Somewhere deep inside
Of my soul.

A natural beauty should be preserved like a monument to nature.

.

The Yasuni Rainforest

Yasuni National Forest -- a one-page fact sheet

Before I blog about Wellington, our sponsored child in Ecuador, I'm presenting this 60-second video and link that I feel serve as dramatic backdrop for a key issue in Ecuador: saving the Yasuni National Forest from oil drilling. President Rafael Correa, in office since January 2007, has proposed a "carbon offsetting" concept whereby wealthy nations would pay Ecuador $350 million a year in exchange for leaving an estimated 1 billion barrels of oil under the ground in the pristine Yasuni rainforest.

Ecuador is a country on shaky footing and Correa is the eighth president in 10 years in Ecuador. He is embroiled in a power struggle with Congress and opposition lawmakers who say he is scaring off oil investment. The U.S. military base at Manta is the most prominent American military outpost in South America, and to the Bush administration it's a critical component in the war on drugs in the Andes. And if Correa gets his way it will be gone by next year. With Manta being a flash point in a regional debate over the limits of American power in Latin America, it's hard to conceive of the U.S. going along with Correa's proposal to preserve the Yasuni rainforest. But the time has come, and is nearly passing, when we must consider radical ideas to counter global warming, and first-world countries need to get ready to sacrifice for the long-term cause.

Correa isn't perfect but he's no slouch. He received a Master's degree in Economics from the Université Catholique de Louvain (Belgium), and a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (United States) in 2001. We don't have much time before his Yasuni proposal is off the table, as everything I've read on this indicates a 2008 deadline.

Additional information can be found at 2008 Yasuni Depends on You!