Category Archives: Natural history

Avocados

avatarPosted on by March 5, 2019

By Roger B. Swain, In Field Days: Journal of an Itinerant Biologist. Lyons & Burford, Publishers, New York, 1994. Central American animals that could have swallowed and excreted avocados include mammoths; toxodon, a rhinoceros-size mammal, without the horn, that was probably semi-aquatic; gomphotheres, elephantlike beasts with tusks in both jaws; glyptodonts, that weighed a ton or more, had a domed carapace, a heavy armored tail, and an armored head that could withdraw into the shell.

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Top Five Reasons Why Caracol Industrial Park is Disastrous for Haiti

avatarPosted on by December 22, 2018

By Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. The Caracol Bay area was slated to be a World Heritage Site and Marine Park because of its breathtaking barrier reef, mangroves, and migratory birds. The area is also the site of archaeological finds including Guacanagaric, one of the largest and most complete Taino Indian villages. The area has been converted into the massive Caracol Industrial Park (or Free-Trade zone, FTZ) that is expected to pollute the Trou du Nord River and the bay and get served by a deep-water port.

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Stone-Age Animation

avatarPosted on by March 11, 2019

By Bruce Bower, Science News | Commentary by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. Thirty thousand years ago, when humans had just arrived to Europe from Africa and probably numbered only a few hundreds, they used cartoon-like techniques to create the illusion of wild beasts charging across cave walls.

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Poor Little Rich Haiti to Be Fleeced of Copper-Silver-Gold Via Caracol Deep-Water Port

avatarPosted on by July 30, 2022

By Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. Plans are under way for Canadian and US corporations to mine Haiti’s northeast area near Caracol, which has been discovered to contain a wealth of silver and gold, in addition to copper. As in the Dominican Republic’s Pueblo Viejo project, construction of the mines will involve dynamiting of mountains, and the ore will be extracted by an opencast (or open-pit) mining process that contaminates large volumes of water with cyanide. UPDATES: Attempts to issue mining permits to the US’ VCS Mining LLC and Canada’s SOMINE SA, without any environmental impact assessment (EIA) were thwarted by Haiti’s Senate in January 2013. Plans to dredge a deep-sea port in the pristine Bay of Fort Liberte were scrapped in April 2014.

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Chilean Farmers Fight Brazilian Billionaire’s Plans for Thermoelectric Plant In Area of Rich Marine Biodiversity

avatarPosted on by March 5, 2019

By Marianela Jarroud, IPS, Tierramerica | Haiti Chery. Plans to build the Castilla Thermoelectric Project, near an area of rich marine biodiversity has sparked fierce opposition from the Chilean farming town of Totoral, which has scored its first victory in court. Behind the Castilla project is the energy company MPX, a subsidiary of the EPX Group owned by Brazilian billionaire Eike Batista.

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Amplified Acceleration of Ice Loss from Antarctica to the Sea

avatarPosted on by March 5, 2019

PRESS RELEASE, UT Austin Institute for Geophysics. A study of nearly 40 years of satellite imagery has revealed that the floating ice shelves of a critical portion of West Antarctica are steadily losing their grip on adjacent bay walls, amplifying an already accelerating loss of ice to the sea.

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Rapid Changes to Global Water Cycle Imply Severer Floods, Droughts, Famines

avatarPosted on by December 12, 2018

By Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. An article by Paul Durak and colleagues in the Journal Science represents yet more confirmation that the effects of global warming are stronger than anticipated from scientific models. An intensification of water evaporation and precipitation over the Earth implies severe consequences for living things, including famines, floods, droughts, and general climate instability.

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Breadfruit With Okra – Tomtom ak Kalalou Gombo – Veritab ak Gombo

avatarPosted on by March 11, 2019

By Jean Edner Dorvil in: A Taste of Haiti (Hyppocrene books, NY) | Commentary by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. Tomtom ak Kalalou Gombo is traditional to the town of Jeremie, in southern Haiti, but in colonial times this was the everyday dish of the Haitians. It is never eaten alone.

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New Wildlife Sanctuaries in the Sundarbans for Freshwater Dolphins

avatarPosted on by March 5, 2019

By Staff, SPX via Terra Daily | Staff, Wildlife Conservation Society. The Government of Bangladesh recently declared three new wildlife sanctuaries for endangered freshwater dolphins in the world’s largest mangrove ecosystem – the Sundarbans. In 2009 these areas were discovered to harbor thousands of freshwater dolphins, when only a few hundreds were thought to remain in the entire world.

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Caracol Free-Trade Zone Jeopardizes Natural and Cultural Heritage | La zone franche de Caracol met en péril le patrimoine naturel et culturel du Nord-Est

avatarPosted on by March 11, 2019

By Rachelle Charlier Doucet, AlterPresse | Commentary and translation by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. A massive industrial park is scheduled to open in the Caracol Bay area of Haiti, although no plan is in place to mitigate the park’s impact on a region that has been proposed as a World Heritage Site for its ecological, historical, and archaeological importance. (English | French)

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A Poem by Michael Leunig: Spring Diary of a Small, Brown Bird

avatarPosted on by March 10, 2019

By Michael Leunig, Spring Diary of a Small, Brown Bird | Commentary by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. The poem below is a favorite of mine and the only one I’ve found so far that describes falling in love entirely from the point of view of an animal. From a collection by Leunig titled: Short Notes from the Long History of Happiness (Penguin Books Australia, Ltd, 1996).

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Jamaican Wildlife Threatened By International Biopiracy

avatarPosted on by December 28, 2018

By Zadie Neufville, IPS | Haiti Chery. News of Vienna’s Schoenbrunn Zoo’s newest attraction shocked Jamaican authorities. The unlikely stars: a flock of 45 endangered Jamaican Amazon parrots, hatched from eggs smuggled from the island in rum-cake boxes.

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