Over the past years, half the world's 7.7 million square miles of tropical rainforest has vanished, threatening entire populations of native people. Whether by land-starved pioneers or rapacious speculators, loggers, miners or industralists, these indigenous people are dying as their rivers are poisoned, their food sources are depleted & the invaders bring murder, starvation & disease. Destroying the rainforests also adds to the greenhouse effect, threatens our global climate & hastens the extinction of untold thousands of plant & animal species. Explore the reasons behind this global tragedy. Readings in six chapters deal with: Native people under siege * Indian culture * Biodiversity * Wood as fuel * Economic & social roots of the crisis * Labor rights & ecology * Gold mining & the timber industry * Disease in the Amazon * Endangered species * Human survival * World-wide deforestation & conservation efforts. A discussion activity debates the issue of land rights in the tropical forest. 173 pages, bibliography, illustrated. (Gary E. McCuen, ed.) Hardcover. ISBN 0-86596-087-9, $12.95. Contents: Chapter 1 -- The Demise of Brazil's Amazon Rain Forest; Chapter 2 -- Native People Under Siege; Chapter 3 -- Rainforests Under Siege; Chapter 4 -- Saving the Forest; Ideas in Conflict. Other features -- Appendix, Glossary, Bibliography, Illustrations & Reading Reasoning Skill Activities (Understanding Maps, Examining Cultures & Counterpoints, Interpreting Editorial Cartoons, Detecting Cultural Bias & Ethnocentrism). GEM (Gary E. McCuen) Publications, Inc., Attn: Order Dept., 411 Mallalieu Drive, Hudson, WI 54016, 715-386-7113.