Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Originally, the Brazil trip was going to be about beef. Cattle ranching has long been a
major driver of deforestation in the Amazon. Surely there was some friendly rancher out
there who would give us the inside scoop on how virgin rainforest gets turned into hambur-
gers. Just think of the steaks we would eat.
But then we found out about soy. That's where the action was, we read (Adam read).
Soy farmers were leveling great stretches of forest so they could sell animal feed to Europe.
We ditched the ranching idea and chose Santarém as our destination. The city is the site of a
controversial export terminal built by the multinational company Cargill to bring soybeans
out of the Amazon. Near Santarém, we would be able to see it all: unblemished jungle,
jungle being cut back, soy fields, and the terminal itself, a cruel agribusiness dagger thrust
directly into the pulsing, green heart of the world. At least, this was my fervent hope.
With research outsourced to Adam, it fell to me to direct field operations. I put together
a reporting plan.
1) Buy airline ticket (IMPORTANT).
2) Fly to Brazil.
3) Exit airplane.
4) Exit airport.
5) Find taxi.
6) Ask taxi driver to take us to the Amazon, preferably the part on fire.
This was a plan I could handle, especially once Adam—seeing I had no intention of
addressing Action Item No. 1—went ahead and bought our plane tickets himself. (I still
haven't paid him back.)
Then, as if to punish me for it, he shows up in my office wearing a green visor and
waving a sheaf of papers, and gets all
NEWSFLASH
on me. The Brazilian government had
just announced record-low rates of deforestation for 2010. The lowest rates of deforestation
ever recorded.
Those bastards. Here I was, about to drag my ass to Brazil to go adventuring through
a jungle-clearing orgy of absolutely first-rate proportions, and up pops President Lula to
tell me that deforestation is more or less
solved.
It was disgusting. Since
when?
Wasn't de-
forestation like death and taxes? I'd been hearing about the inexorable destruction of the
rainforests since I was a child. Now that, too, would be taken away from me?
It didn't matter. We had our tickets. And so we turned to the traveler's customary
scramble of last-minute chores: suddenly you have a critical need for magnetic bug-proof
