Pre-Reflections |
Foz Do Iguaçu Documentaries Reflections
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Pre-Reflections |
Foz Do Iguaçu Documentaries Reflections
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The documentaries “Sustainable Urban Living: A South American case study,” Digital Journey’s segment “The Smart City: Learning from Curitiba,” and Jaime Lerner’s TED Talk “City is not a problem, city is the solution” presentation all reveal the intricacies of sustainable urban planning practices in the city of Curitiba, Brazil. “Sustainable Urban Living: A South American case study” shows the urban planning in Curitiba. This remarkable transition is the brainchild of principal Curitiba’s architect and former mayor and former governor of Paraná, Jaime Lerner. During the 1970s, Lerner revolutionized Curitiba by implementing changes in a timeframe of less than two years, turning the city from an area devoted almost entirely to agriculture to an industrial hub. Curitiba’s system consists of the following five aspects: a revolutionary sanitation system, creation of elaborate urban parks, an efficient integrated mass transit system, a green exchange system of recyclables and excess produce in impoverished areas, and lastly, a devotion to community projects to improve quality of life in urban areas and reduce car traffic. First on the list is the sanitation system, which is revolutionary for its emphasis on recycling and its efficient organization of waste. The second aspect is Curitiba’s extensive patchwork of urban parks, which has helped both to reduce flooding from the system of rivers and streams which flow throughout the city and to reduce homelessness. The success of the urban parks is also related to two other parts of Lerner’s project that also improve quality of life for curitibanos. The third component of Curitiba’s urban planning is the green exchange ongoing in rural areas of the city. In rural Curitiba, there is often a crop excess, and so poor curitibanos exchange their recyclables for some of the excess produce. The fourth element is the large-scale renovation of Curitiba's principal shopping district. Lerner had the idea to transform the city’s shopping district into an outdoor pedestrian mall, which he did within a 72-hour span. The last and perhaps most important piece of Curitiba’s urban planning is the sophisticated integrated transport system, which consists of multicolored bus routes which transport Curitiba denizens to and fro different areas of the city. This has been a major gamechanger for the city as it allows curitibanos (especially poor curitibanos) to cheaply and efficiently across the city. It also has significantly reduced Curitiba’s emissions.
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9. Wildlife of Brazil’s Amazon In the program, Wild Amazon: Savage Realm, another elaborate look is given at the wildlife of the Amazon River and Amazon rainforest. In particular, the documentary discusses the biodiversity and the unique adaptations that Amazon fauna and flora have evolved in order to survive. It also discusses the anthropogenic threats currently facing the Amazon and how the region could change in the future because of these threats. Inter- and intraspecies relationships are an important topic. One such example is between Amazon bees, agoutis (medium-sized rodents), and brazil nut trees. Several species of Amazonian bee are the sole pollinators of the flowers of the brazil nut tree. The flowers are difficult to reach and pollinate, and so only the fittest bees pollinate, and those that do are covered in pollen, which the bees transfer to the next flower. But the trees still need to spread their seeds. This is where the agoutis come in. Agoutis are cat-sized rodents native to the Amazon rainforest which use their rodent incisors to feed on nuts, including the particularly tough Brazil nut. The agoutis disperse the seeds contained within the Brazil nut pods by caching leftover nuts (some of which are forgotten), thus allowing for continued germination of the Brazil nut tree. This floral-faunal cooperative alliance demonstrates the intricacy of relationships that Amazon plants have with many different variety of animals. Another symbiotic relationship is that of the dotted humming frog (Chiasmocleis ventrimaculata) and Colombian lesserblack tarantula (Xenesthis immanis). In this symbiosis, Colombian lesserblack tarantula mothers allow dotted humming frogs to serve as caretakers of their nests. By eating swarms of ants, the frog rids the mother spider’s eggs and babies of a potential predator. In return, the frog gets a home, protection, and an unlimited food supply of ants. This commensalism is one example of the sophisticated ecological interactions of the fauna of the Amazon basin. The previous two examples of organism partnerships used above both strongly illustrate the importance of symbiosis and intraspecific specific relationships in maintaining ecological biodiversity. First, the relationship between the bees, tree, and agoutis not only helps maintain the Brazil nut trees’ presence within the Amazon ecosystem, but as Brazil nuts are commercially harvested, the relationship has significant economic value. This is important because since the relationship’s importance can be accurately demonstrated, conservation policies might be easier to initiate if this cycle was upset in any way. The second aforementioned example is also of significance. Without the relationship between the tarantula and frog, survival rates of burrowing tarantula offspring would probably be lower, and with that, their overall population would eventually go into decline. This would cause a ripple effect throughout the ecosystem, as tarantula are significant predators of small amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals. |
Sustainability major at Stockton University