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THE DECADE OF DESTRUCTION CLASSROOM VERSION


6 video programs /10 -19 minutes each /Grades 6-12

Produced by Adrian Cowell

With support from the World Wide Fund for Nature, Adrian Cowell
has created a series of six programs for use in classrooms based
on his epic saga of the destruction of the Amazonian rainforest
during the 1980's. The series gives students a well-rounded view
of the many complex factors that led to what may be this century's
worst environmental disaster. With Study Guide

Awards: Best Instructional Film, North American Associoation for
Environmental Education

Classroom Version Series: 6 programs on 1 cassette ISBN: 1-
56029-349-7

or 6 programs on 6 cassettes

Subtitle: The Rainforest

10 minutes

This program uses time-lapse and satellite photography as
dramatic visual aids to provide a basic understanding of the
mechanics of the world's largest rainforest. It shows clouds
forming at the Atlantic coastline and then drifting southwest over
the heart of the rainforest. It explains how 3/4 of the rain that
falls in the forest is caught by the trees and leaves, and is
pumped back into the sky again. It's a symbiotic process. Without
the trees there would be no clouds, and once the trees are cut
down the soil is impoverished and can grow few crops.

Subject Areas: RAINFORESTS, SOUTH AMERICA, SCIENCE, BIOLOGY,
ECOSYSTEMS

ISBN: 1-56029-351-9

Subtitle: The Development Road

12 minutes

The first nail in the coffin of the rainforest is always a
road. First comes a surveyor, then bulldozers, then loggers, then
a small settlement, and finally farm families. In Rondonia the
name of the road was BR364. Jose Lutzenberger, Brazil's best
known environmentalist, points out the incredible inefficiency of
the region's economy which is totally dependent on imported
energy. It's a system that cannot last. Before long all the
valuable wood will have gone. Cattle ranches are already proving
unsuccessful. Cash crops like cocoa are vulnerable to Amazonian
diseases. So far 60% of the land that was cleared is now
abandoned. Is this development?

Subject Areas: RAINFORESTS, DEVELOPMENT, SOUTH AMERICA, ECONOMICS

ISBN: 1-56029-355-1

Subtitle: The Colonists

16 minutes

The colonists who invaded the rainforest in huge numbers in the
1980's are mostly small farmers forced off their land in other
parts of Brazil by increasing mechanization and the economics of
cash cropping for export. When they reached the state of Rondonia
they were given roughly 175 acres of virgin forest free of charge
on condition that they cleared the land. This led to deforestation
on a massive scale. But the tragic irony is that once the trees
have been cut down the soil is so poor that many colonists were
forced to abandon their land after just a couple of years.

Subject Areas: RAINFORESTS, DEVELOPMENT, SOUTH AMERICA,
AGRICULTURE

ISBN: 1-56029-353-5

Subtitle: The Indians

17 minutes

Of course the Amazon was not unpopulated when the colonists
arrived. There are many Indian tribes that have lived in the
forest since the beginning of time. The Brazilian Government's
Indian Agency, knowing what contact with "civilization" was likely
to bring to the Indians, tried to protect them against the
invading road builders and colonists and the diseases they would
bring with them. Search parties were sent out in advance. Reserves
were set up. But it was to no avail. Colonists and loggers invaded
the reserves, and tragically many Indians succumbed.

Subject Areas: NATIVE PEOPLES, SOUTH AMERICA, SOCIAL STUDIES

ISBN: 1-56029-357-8

Subtitle: The Rubber Tappers

11 minutes

Indians were not the only inhabitants of the forest. Rubber
tappers had made peace with the Indians and learned the necessary
survival skills 70 years ago. Most of their food grows round the
house, or in the forest. They also breed chickens and pigs, and
they fish. They learned about medicinal plants from the Indians.
Their lifestyle can be sustained indefinitely, in sharp contrast
to that of the colonists, who invaded their land. In some places
the rubber tappers organized themselves and successfully defended
their lands. Chico Mendes was one of their leaders who campaigned
for the defense of all Amazonia and was assassinated by local
ranchers for his pains. But his alliance with the Indians and the
example of his life is one of the great hopes for the future of
the Amazon.

Subject Areas: RAINFORESTS, SOUTH AMERICA, SUSTAINABLE
AGRICULTURE, ENVIRONMENT

ISBN: 1-56029-359-4

Subtitle: The Politicians

19 minutes

It was Brazil's politicians who saw the Amazon as the answer to
their prayers. Here was the world's richest storehouse of raw
materials and all over Brazil were millions of poor people who
would come to help exploit it. The main obstacle was that the
BR364 road was unpaved. So they went to the World Bank to finance
the project, known as Polonoroeste. Jose Lutzenberger opposed it
and took his fight to the U.S. Congress. He felt it was vital that
provisions be made for the protection of the forests, Indians and
rubber tappers. Eventually the World Bank was forced to admit
their mistakes, but in the meantime hundreds of thousands of
square miles of rainforest were burned. The 1989 election brought
a new president, Fernando Collor, who appointed Jose Lutzenberger
as the Minister of the Environment and gave him orders to stop
deforestation in Amazonia. With the help of satellite photographs
and helicopters the battle to save the world's richest heritage of
biodiversity and evolution has begun.

Subject Areas: RAINFORESTS, ENVIRONMENT, SCIENCE, SOCIAL STUDIES

ISBN: 1-56029-361-6


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