Jago The Saw E-Book

alastair macleod

• Herausgeber: BookRix
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018

Beschreibung

Three short stories on crucial issues for the environment;

In Jago the Saw a young environmentalist is violently kidnapped by loggers.

In Late Swallow a young bird nearly makes a fatal mistake due to global warming.

In Population, young scientists seek the solution to the rise in human population ; the answer comes as a surprise.

Leseprobe

Alastair Macleod

Jago The Saw

and other eco stories

To the scientists battling to be heard.BookRix GmbH & Co. KG81371 Munich

Jago The Saw

Green parrots jostled in the nearby trees, squawking and screeching. It was morning. The hotel garden stretched, a tangle of flowering bushes, from the veranda to the high stone wall. Beyond that the beach, yellow sand, then blue. She sipped her coffee, Brazilian, aromatic and sharp.

A large yellow butterfly flicked its way and settled on the mahogany table. Gently it folded and opened its wings.

She studied the veins.

Not many pupils from her school had become zoologists - it “was a minority sport” said her school counsellor. Even within zoology, to study insects was rare.

She gently removed the camera from its case and slowly lifted it to her eye.

Good shot – so she could examine it later, put it up on the big screen in her room.

The butterfly flitted away.

This was a moment of respite from the rainforest camp. They were a team of scientists doing a project in the Parco Nationale de Suelvas. If there was enough of biological interest it could raise the park’s status, and it could be more valuable; the government of Coltrinas could barter it.

“If we preserve it,” said the president “a rich country gets to offset its carbon use against it – carbon trading.”

Cynical thought Carmen, but it was an arrangement that was effective. It would mean no logging. The precious one hundred-year-old trees with their rich eco systems would not be felled.

Carmen finished her coffee, left the hotel and stepped into the quiet street. As she did so she felt herself gripped, her arms pinned then handcuffed behind her back. Two swarthy men bundled her into a jeep. They smelt of oil and wood and tequila.

“Be quiet señorita and we will not harm you.”

Soon the jeep was out of town onto jungle tracks, bucking and rolling through green leaves.

Her mind was racing – probably they were loggers, what did they want with her?

The jeep slowed and took an even narrower track deep into the jungle; then it entered a clearing.

A few thatched long houses, wood smoke and a smattering of people - women cooking on open fires, men servicing equipment, sharpening saw blades- an illegal logger camp.

As she was dragged from the jeep into a hut she could hear scarlet macaws screeking. Her eyes adjusted to the gloom.

A stocky man in a flowered shirt, jeans, gold necklace, a gold tooth, dark hair and a scraggy beard. His large spade like hands were covered in scars. A large bush knife hung from his belt.

He cracked his knuckles.

“Señorita Carmen,” his voice was low, growling, like a jaguar.

“I am Jago The Saw, a mere businessman. Why are you here? Your life is to be traded.”

“For what?” She asked defiantly.

“For a halt to the research. Your friends must leave this forest - it is mine.”

“It is not yours.”

“If not mine then whose?”

A mosquito buzzed in her ear. Howler monkeys could be heard in the jungle canopy outside calling raucously.

Carmen took a long breath.

“The jungle belongs to the trees and plants and animals it supports.”