""In the rain forests of the western Amazon,"" writes author Andrew Revkin, ""the threat of violent death hangs in the air like mist after a tropical rain. It is simply a part of the ecosystem, just like the scorpions and snakes cached in the leafy canopy that floats over the forest floor like a seamless green circus tent.""
Violent death came to Chico Mendes in the Amazon rain forest on December 22, 1988. A labor and environmental activist, Mendes was gunned down by powerful ranchers for organizing resistance to the wholesale burning of the forest. He was a target because he had convinced the government to take back land ranchers had stolen at gunpoint or through graft and then to transform it into ""extractive reserves,"" set aside for the sustainable production of rubber, nuts, and other goods harvested from the living forest.
This was not just a local land battle on a remote frontier. Mendes had invented a kind of reverse globalization, creating alliances between his grassroots campaign and the global environmental movement. Some 500 similar killings had gone unprosecuted, but this case would be different. Under international pressure, for the first time Brazilian officials were forced to seek, capture, and try not only an Amazon gunman but the person who ordered the killing.
In this reissue of the environmental classic The Burning Season, with a new introduction by the author, Andrew Revkin artfully interweaves the moving story of Mendes's struggle with the broader natural and human history of the world's largest tropical rain forest. ""It became clear,"" writes Revkin, acclaimed science reporter for The New York Times, ""that the murder was a microcosm of the larger crime: the unbridled destruction of the last great reservoir of biological diversity on Earth."" In his life and untimely death, Mendes forever altered the course of development in the Amazon, and he has since become a model for environmental campaigners everywhere.
Contents Foreword to the 2004 Edition 1. The Burning Season 1 2. Amazonia 17 3. Weeping Wood 39 4. Jungle Book 62 5. Coming of Age in the Rainforest 78 6. Roads to Ruin 98 7. The Fight for the Forest 123 8. The Wild West 150 9. Joining Forces 165 10. The Greening of Chico Mendes 185 11. An Innocent Abroad 208 12. Into the Fire 231 13. The Dying Season 255 Epilogue 278 Afterword 299 Notes TK Appendixes Map of South America, Brazil, and the Amazon TK The Murder Scene TK A Resource Guide TK Acknowledgments TK
"The Burning Season is environmental journalism at its best, addressing a globally important issue with a riveting crime story, excellent natural history, and a brighter future for humanity foreseen."
