1. Friday, February 4th, 2011 Geography: BRAZIL
IN: Turn to page 18. Put a finger on the largest country in South America. What is it? Who are its neighbors?
Content Objective: Students will research and interpret multiple viewpoints on issues that shaped the current policies for resource use in Brazil by examining the carbon credit system and explaining who is affected positively and negatively in a letter.

2. Physical Characteristics:
Rivers, coast, rain forest, highlands
Highlands= small mountains/ hills
4 Regions:
1) Amazon River Basin
Basin= place where water collects
2) Brazilian Highlands
3) Northeast
4) Southeast

3. Turn to page 234
Put a finger on each region.

4. 1) Amazon River Basin
Amazon River: Starts in Peru, but becomes the world’s largest river (by volume) in Brazil.
Where’d all the water come from?
Approximately 80in of rainfall each year.
Compare: Colorado= 17in

5. So much rain… Predict-pair-share
Describe the forest so much rain creates…

6. Rainforest= Very Valuable
Reason 1) Indigenous (native) live there
Reason 2) Very rich biodiversity (plants/ animals) many not found anywhere else in the world

7. Rainforest= Very Valuable
Reason 3) Certain trees are worth a lot of $ cut down
Reason 4) Rainforest is bought by companies from all over the world and used for carbon credits…
Say wha??? what are carbon credits?

8. Carbon Credits The world has too much carbon in the air (bad)
Factories, cars, farms, etc… put it there (bad)
Trees take carbon out of the air (good)
In USA and other countries, if a factory puts too much carbon in the air, it must find a way to take some out (bad & good)
The amount it takes out is a carbon credit (good)

10. One way to get carbon credits is buying TREES…
Video- Carbon Credits
Complete the worksheet as you watch…

11. OUT:
Write a letter to______________________. You are trying to persuade (convince) him/ her to fix the ISSUE/PROBLEM above. You must include:
-Who you are & why you’re writing
-What the problem is
-What the challenges are to fixing it.
-Who is affected by it.
-Your solution (how you plan to fix it)
**Use your voice!!!**
**Letters are power!!!**
**Get someone to listen to you!!!**