World’s Largest Urban Forest Was Planted by HandQuestPoint

From the top of Rio de Janeiro’s towering mountain of Corcovado, at the feet of the iconic Christ the Redeemer statue, the high rise urban centers neatly tucked along the shoreline are dwarfed by the rugged natural skyline. On these peaks, for as far as the eye can see, grows the dense jungle of the Tijuca forest — the largest urban forest in the world — which gives Rio the feel of city that has managed to coexist with nature like none other on the planet. But things weren’t always so harmonious. In fact, there was once a time where these hills were stripped bare, deforested to make room for plantations. The truth is, this sprawling forest was replanted by hand. For as much attention that’s given to deforestation in the Amazon rainforest in the last centuries, Brazil’s Atlantic forest ecosystem has fared much worse. Home to a multitude of unique species, the Atlantic forest once extended along nearly the entire Brazilian coastline, though today only small patches remain. To support Brazil’s population, the majority of which live in close proximity to the ocean, these forests were largely cut down to make room for development — and Rio’s Tijuca forest was no exception. Read on: Source:Treehuger

Vice President on Employment and Economic Impact of the Recovery Act

Vice President Joe Biden today issued the following statement on a new report from the Congressional Budget Office on the employment and economic impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act: “This new analysis from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office is further confirmation of what we’ve been hearing from leading economists, the nation’s governors and families across the country: the Recovery Act is working to rescue the economy from eight years of failed economic policy and rebuild it even stronger than before. When the CBO, Congress’s top watchdog and an institution widely-respected on both sides of the aisle, says that because of the Recovery Act as many as 3.3 million Americans are on the job today and the unemployment rate is as much as 1.8 percent lower, it’s impossible for even the most cynical, bent-on-rooting-for-failure critics to deny. So while Republicans in Congress – the same party that got us into this mess in the first place – may want to turn back the clock and drive us back into the same ditch we’re making our way out of, it’s now clearer than ever before that we can’t afford to go backward; we have to keep moving forward and build on measures like the Recovery Act that are creating jobs and making us competitive in the 21st century economy.” According to the CBO report, “Estimated Impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act on Employment and Economic Output from April 2010 through June 2010,” in the second quarter of 2010, the Recovery Act: • Raised the level of real (inflation-adjusted) gross domestic product (GDP) by between 1.7 percent and 4.5 percent, • Lowered the unemployment rate by between 0.7 percentage points and 1.8 percentage points, • Increased the number of people employed by between 1.4 million and 3.3 million.

Jenna Dewan Tatum’s Interview for PETA

The 29-year-old actress dropped her clothing and slipped under some scaly body paint for PETA’s new ad campaign against the use of accessories made from snakes, lizards, alligators and crocodiles. “I couldn’t believe that that is what happens for a wallet or a purse,” Jenna said in her interview with the organization.See the video.