Five thousand metres above the most biodiverse corner of the Amazon, tropical ecologist Greg Asner and his team see a kaleidoscope of colours among a mass of green.

Huddled in a twin-engine Dornier 228 aeroplane called the Carnegie Airborne Observatory, the scientists are capturing multicoloured images of the Peruvian rainforest canopy that verge on the psychedelic.

Inside the plane, a machine known as a Lidar (Light Detection and Ranging) bounces a laser beam off the forest canopy 400,000 times per second – the result is a three-dimensional map of the forest showing unprecedented detail.

In addition, a spectrometre, kept at a temperature of -131C (-204F), measures the biodiversity of the jungle in vivid colours by registering the chemical and optical properties of the forest canopy. The team can scan 360 sq km each hour.

“The technology that we have here gives us a first-ever look at the Amazon in its full three-dimensional detail, over very large regions,” said Asner, who is conducting the research for the department of Ecology at the Carnegie Institution for Science, based at Stanford University, California.

“[It's] the critical information that’s missing for managing these systems, for conserving them and for developing policy to better utilise the Amazon basin as a resource, while still protecting what it has in terms of its biological diversity.”

As well as measuring how the forest ecosystem is responding to the 2010 Amazon drought – the worst ever recorded – the technology accurately monitors deforestation and degradation, and has revealed unexpectedly high levels of biodiversity in high forest on the Andean rim of the Amazon basin.

The data could prove critical to the United Nation’s Redd (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) initiative, which will be the biggest future source of funding to protect the planet’s tropical forest.

The programme is designed to compensate tropical countries for reducing deforestation and forest degradation.

“Redd cannot exist without scientifically monitored data on carbon stock,” said Asner, who may have invented the most efficient way of measuring it to date.

Daniel Nepstad, director and president of the international programme at the Brazil-based Amazon Environmental Research Institute (Ipam), and a leading expert on Redd programmes, described Asner as in “a league of his own in resolving the technical challenges that must be overcome for Redd to realise its potential.”

Having scanned some of the Peruvian Amazon’s most inaccessible places, Asner says the region has one of the “most incredible portfolios of biodiversity”. But Asner said his initial research showed a radical increase of illicit alluvial gold mining in Peru’s Amazon region of Madre de Dios since it was last mapped in 2009, making it the region’s primary cause of deforestation – an area estimated to exceed 100 sq km.

An expedition to a tiny South American country has revealed more than 40 species that scientists believe to be new to science.

The expedition to the pristine tropical forests of Suriname was led by the charity Conservation International.

The collaboration between scientists, indigenous people and students recorded 1,300 species in total.

The team is now working to confirm which of these weird and wonderful creatures are newly discovered species.

Among those they believe to be new to science are the “cowboy frog”, an amphibian with white fringes along its legs, and a spur-like structure on its “heel.”

Another colourful addition to the scientific record is a cricket, or katydid, that has been named the “crayola katydid” because of its bright colouration.

One of the new finds – an armoured catfish that has bony plates covered with spines all over its body to defend itself from the giant piranhas the inhabit the same waters – was almost eaten by one of the expedition guides.

Fortunately, before the guide had a chance to tuck in, the scientists noticed the fish’s unique characteristics and preserved it as a specimen.

The three-week project was part of Conservation International’s ongoing Rapid Assessment Program (RAP), which has been in progress for more than 20 years.

RAP director Dr Trond Larsen explained why this area of Suriname was so special.

“As you fly into the area, you travel for hundreds of miles and often (don’t) see a single road – just continuous forest,” he told BBC Nature.

“It’s one of the last places in the world where you can find that wilderness.”

Dr Larsen pointed out that conservationists often focused on places that were “already on the brink.”

“We take these wildernesses for granted,” he told BBC Nature. “But unless we focus on them now, they won’t be like that for long.”

The team have already helped the local people to designate an area of the forest as a “no take zone.”

The eventual plan is for this area to become a small nature reserve.

This could safeguard native wildlife, ensuring that indigenous people are able to hunt sustainably, as well as encouraging ecotourism.

An Ecuadorean appeals court has upheld a ruling that Chevron should pay damages totalling US$18.2bn over Amazon oil pollution. Chevron said the judgement was “illegitimate” and “a fraud.” Texaco, which merged with Chevron in 2001, was accused of dumping toxic materials in the Ecuadorean Amazon. The original ruling ordered Chevron to pay US$8.6bn in damages, which was more than doubled after the company failed to make a public apology.

Five days after a massive wildfire first began to spread in Chile’s Torres del Paine national park, which ultimately consumed 30 thousand acres of pristine Patagonian ecosystem, the nation’s president says the blaze is now under control. Authorities say that the devastating fire, which was only contained with the help of some 500 fire-fighters, was initially ignited by a tourist who simply failed to fully extinguish a toilet-paper roll he was burning.

In the final hours of the weekend, fire-fighters were able to keep the fire at bay, though the damage to the national park is significant. By late Sunday evening, 30 thousand acres of forest was burned of the Torres del Paine’s roughly 600 thousand acres of Patagonia.

“Thanks to the great work of our firemen, and better weather conditions, the Torres del Paine fire is under control,” Chile’s President Sebastian Pinera said via Twitter.

According to a report from the AFP, authorities say the fire was started accidentally when a tourist at nearby camping sight improperly disposed of burning trash. The tourist faces 60 days in jail if convicted, though he has since claimed to be a scapegoat for the incident.

While the powerful impacts of global warming can be seen in various forms throughout the world, few places have experienced observable changes as dramatic as in Chile’s Southern Patagonian Ice Field. Over the course of just one year, the region’s Jorge Montt Glacier receded an alarming 1 kilometre, evidenced by time-lapse video composed of 1,445 images taken by research scientists – and they’re as surprised as anyone to see the glacier disappearing so quickly.

Stretching out over 5 thousand square miles of the Chilean Andes, the Patagonian Ice Field is the world’s third largest mass of ice after Antarctica and Greenland, worrying experts that the rapid rate of melting there may be a bellwether for similar loss elsewhere. To make matters worse, the period from February 2010 and January 2011 in which the Jorge Montt Glacier receded over half-a-mile is troublingly higher than previous trends. Researchers from Chile’s Center of Scientific Studies (CEC) say that, based on historical photos of the site, this glacier previously receded at a rate of about 12 miles per century.

“Since 1898, the glacier had initially held fast until, during the 90′s, when it collapsed and lost seven miles in less than seven years. Today, it has become accelerated in its withdrawal, producing a large number of icebergs,” says CEC glaciologist Andres Rivera.

According to the CEC, the loss is being attributed at least in part to climate change, spurred by the release of greenhouse gas emissions. But despite the Jorge Montt Glacier’s increasing rate of ice loss, researchers say that this region isn’t even the worst hit – and that’s even more concerning.

“Patagonia climate has changed much more moderate rates than those in the rest of the world, however, almost all glaciers the region have experienced losses of areas. And Jorge Montt is the one with the record retreat,” says Rivera.

The dramatic ice loss might otherwise be difficult to comprehend if it were not for time-lapse footage collected over the previous year. Unlike severe weather or other anomalies in climate patterns which can often seem like one-off events, these images of a receding glacier offer evidence that detrimental changes to our planet’s health do not just lie before us, but are well underway.

Deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon region fell to its lowest in 23 years in the year through July, the Brazilian government said Monday, attributing the drop to its tougher stance against illegal logging.

Destruction of the Brazilian portion of the world’s largest rain forest dropped 11 percent to 6,238 square km (2,400 square miles) over the 12-month period, satellite data from Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research showed.

That is less than a quarter of the forest area that was destroyed in 2004, when clear-cutting by farmers expanding their cattle and soy operations reached a recent peak.

Brazil has stepped up its monitoring and enforcement policies in the Amazon in recent years but the improvement has partly been driven by slower global economic growth that has reduced demand and prices for the country’s farm produce.

Overall improvement in 2010/11 masked worrying rises in some Amazon states such as Rondonia, where deforestation doubled from the previous year. Forest clearing in the farming state of Mato Grosso rose 20 percent.

“Some states are still extremely sensitive,” Environment Minister Isabel Teixeira told reporters. “Rondonia needs to be clarified, we need to understand what has caused the change in its profile.”

Two large hydroelectric dams are being built in Rondonia, boosting the local economy and attracting migrant workers.

The drop in deforestation comes as Brazil’s Congress debates an overhaul of the land law that environmentalists say would severely set back conservation efforts. The Senate is expected to approve the new forest code in the coming days.

Brazil’s influential farming lobby says the reform, which would ease conservation requirements for land owners, is needed to end widespread uncertainty over the current regulations that farmers say is a burden on production.

Last week senators in Brazil approved a text that condemns the Brazilian forests, a deal between government and agribusiness made in back rooms and secret meetings, and they rejected an amendment that calls for a ten-year moratorium on deforestation in the Amazon. This rejection revealed the true intentions behind the new Forest Code text and the sector that is behind the change.

The moratorium amendment was a chance to make official what we have learned in recent years as deforestation has decreased in Brazil – you don’t need to cut down trees to increase production. However, the agribusiness sector got the best of the process and the new Forest Code text only pays lip service to saving the forests, while in reality it paves the way for more destruction.

The final vote in the Senate is expected to happen this week. After that, the bill returns to the House of Representatives, and then goes to President Dilma Rousseff for approval. President Dilma now holds the power to save the forests. She needs to veto the new Forest Code to and make good on the green campaign promises she used to win her position as President.

Despite her promises, the signals that come from her are negative. While the new Forest Code was being co-opted in the Senate, President Dilma was at an event celebrating sixty years of the National Confederation of Agriculture, which represents the agribusiness and large farmers. While the Senate was making sure the law benefited the agribusiness sector, the President was out shaking their hands and making sure they knew where the Brazilian governments’ support lies.

President Dilma needs to remember the promises she made to Brazilians – that she would not allow further deforestation. Today we sent that message to President Dilma at Brazilian embassies all over the world, where volunteers marched to the beat of traditional samba music as they called on the President to protect the Amazon rainforest and stop the destructive changes to Brazil’s Forest Code.

Brazil made significant gains in fighting deforestation in recent years, and for the past six years deforestation rates were decreasing. The new Forest Code bill threatens that progress, but there is still time: President Dilma must veto the proposed changes to the Forest Code.

Almost everyone in Port Kaituma is making money from gold. From the miners who head out to the camps in the surrounding jungle to the owners of the bars and stores where the miners spend their money.

It is clear that the economy of this small town in northwest Guyana is entirely reliant on the precious mineral.

“I moved here for the work,” says Wayne Wright Doris, a docker unloading food, fuel and timber at the river port. “I’m very comfortable here”, he says.

The goods Mr Wright Doris is handling are destined for the mining camps, known as back dams.

Port Kaituma’s reliance on mining is replicated across Guyana – gold accounts for nearly half of the country’s total exports, which were some US$218m in the first quarter of 2011.

But mining threatens what could be a greater asset for Guyana – its pristine rainforests.

Around 80% of the country is covered by Amazon jungle which is home to a myriad of species, including the rare golden tree frog, jaguar and harpy eagle.

It is a dilemma many developing countries face – how do you balance the desire for economic growth and preserve the world’s forests?

As a new round of UN climate talks gets under way in Durban, South Africa, from 28 November until 9 December, Guyana’s outgoing president Bharrat Jagdeo believes he has the answer to this particular dilemma.

He came up a scheme in 2006 to “sell” stewardship of his country’s rainforests to investors who would pay to preserve them.

The Norwegian government liked the idea and in 2009 pledged US$250m to Guyana in return for protection of the forest.

But so far, Guyana has not received any of the US$70m deposited to date with the World Bank.

Increasing threat

President Jagdeo says the World Bank has never administered funds for a scheme like this before and puts the delay in disbursing the money down to teething problems.

Mr Jagdeo, who cannot stand for office again, has indicated that he expects the funds to be released once Guyana’s general election on 28 November is over.

But amid the delay, gold is continuing to fetch high prices on international markets, so increasing the threat to Guyana’s rainforests.

Flying over the country, the back dams stand out as ugly yellow scars on an otherwise deep green surface.

“Two years ago on trips to Kaieteur Falls I wouldn’t see any evidence of mining,” says local tour operator Alisha Ousman.

“Now there are patches everywhere, there’s no control of logging and mining.”

These concerns are echoed in Norway, where critics of the scheme say the government cannot properly monitor what is happening on the ground in Guyana.

“I am yet to see any concrete action by the Guyanese government to make sure more mining does not lead to increased deforestation in the long term,” says Vemund Olson from the Rainforest Foundation in Norway.

President Jagdeo insists that his government has the situation under control.

He says the government is monitoring key road and river routes to check for any illegal logging.

Mr Jagdeo has also pledged to replant the areas cleared by small-scale miners for the back dams and help medium-sized companies to do the same.

“There’s a difficulty in being the first,” said Mr Jagdeo. “We want to create a model that can be easily replicated by other countries, so we can’t cut corners.”

As other nations show an interest in implementing similar schemes – including the Republic of Congo, Belize and Suriname – Guyana’s success or failure in resolving the dilemma of economic growth versus environmental protection will be closely watched.

Following a tradition started by artists such as Space Invaders and Juliana Santacruz Herrera, a group of artists from the city of Rosario in Argentina sought to improve the public space experience of their neighbourhood by fixing missing street tiles with handmade calcareous replacements designed and handcrafted by them.

Sidewalks in Argentina are usually not made of concrete, but covered with different kinds of tiles chosen by neighbours. When one of them breaks, the tiles around begin to deteriorate as well and are sometimes removed creating holes in the street.

Anda Project by the organization Compartiendo Capital wanted to create a “refreshing intervention of public space through a simple strategy,” while also investigating the tradition of artisan calcareous tiles production.

Once very popular and extensively produced, these tiles lost ground when industrial mass production of tiles took its place in the 1970s.

Promoters of the project Inne Martino, Fabricio Caiazza and Melina Torres coordinated the manufacturing of the tiles designed by artists Silvia Lenardón, Pablo Bofelli, Carla Colombo, Anibal Perez and Jorgelina Saigo. They also created a step by step tutorial showing how to make them.

If you’re walking through Rosario sometime, be sure to look down. A similar project carried away by a mysterious 50-years-old artist replaced tiles in the Uruguayan capital Montevideo as well.

With today’s super telescopes, we are better placed than ever to witness the astonishing celestial beauty of stars, nebulae and quasars. But while telescopes are invaluable to our understanding of the distant Universe, there are luminous cosmic energies at play far closer to home that can be seen clearly with the naked eye. Most people have heard tale of the legendary Northern Lights – a.k.a. Aurora Borealis – but their southern cousins, Aurora Australis, make no less magical a spectacle.

Like the work of some immense extraterrestrial artist, auroras are intensely beautiful natural light displays seen in the sky, primarily in polar areas and mostly at night. Forming great swathes of colour, the lights are more visible nearer to the poles due to the longer periods of darkness and magnetic fields.

When observed close to the magnetic pole, aurorae may appear high overhead in what are actually altitudes some 100 km up. Yet from further away they can also light up the horizon as a vivid green radiance or at times as a hazy red – as if the sun were rising from a bizarre direction.

Aurorae commonly appear either as a diffuse glow or as a curtain-like wash stretching in a roughly east-west direction. Sometimes subtly formed in ‘quiet arcs,’ sometimes constantly shape-shifting as ‘active aurora,’ these wonders of the heavens are dynamic in the way they dance before our eyes.

Woven like a cosmic curtain, each aurora is made up of parallel rays of energised particles aligned to magnetic field lines. See, auroras are produced by charged particles in the outer reaches of Earth’s magnetosphere like electrons and protons clashing with atoms and molecules in the atmosphere.

Auroras are the upshot of something like an astro-pinball machine, with particle collisions electrically exciting atoms and molecules in the upper atmosphere. Most aurorae are green and red, emanating from atomic oxygen, but nitrogen molecules and ions also emit some purple and blue hues.

But what is the ultimate source of these stunning lightshows? It’s our very own Sun. Aurorae are powered by solar winds that constantly steam past the Earth via its upper atmosphere. Solar winds are actually a flow of hot plasma – very thin gas given off by the million-degree heat of the Sun’s surface.

When solar winds hit the Earth’s magnetosphere, they effectively ricochet, and so cough up their energy and material. The newly energised electrons and ions in the geo-space environment around Earth travel along the magnetic field lines to the polar regions of the atmosphere. Cue aurora.

The Southern Lights are observed less frequently than their more familiar northern counterparts – chiefly because so few people live in Antarctica during the austral winter – but such rarity only enhances the extraordinary quality of this atmospheric phenomenon.

Aurora are named is named after the Roman goddess of the dawn, Aurora. Borealis comes from Boreas, the Greek name for the ‘north wind;’ Australis on the other hand is the Latin word for ‘of the south,’ since Aurora Australis is only detectable from latitudes in Antarctica, South America or Australasia.

Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station in Antarctica is one of the Earth’s best observation points for taking in the splendour of Aurora Australis. Here the luminescence blankets the sky over the 10-metre South Pole Telescope, which is used to collect data on cosmic microwave radiation and black matter.

Amundsen-Scott is one of three US research posts on the Antarctic run by the National Science Foundation’s US Antarctic Program. Telescopes like the one there represent both our advances into the future and our gaze into the origins of the Universe. Aurorae are as old as the Earth itself, yet there are some stand out moments in their recent history recorded by man.

In the great geomagnetic storm of 1859, the activity of aurorae was so powerful that they were reported across four continents. During one night in Boston the aurora was brilliant enough for printed words to be read by their light. Elsewhere, telegraph line operators reported communication minus battery power, but working solely with a current caused by the aurora.

What else is there to say about aurorae, and Aurora Australis in particular? Science will continue to try to explain them, explorers will continue to be stunned by their radiance, and all who see them will be need no further convincing that there is not finer painter than nature itself.