of gold at any cost. in two thousand and thirteen hunting images of the toll illegal mining had taken on the proving amazon went viral the video was taken by the carnegie airborne observatory a high tech plane developed by greg as nerve from the carnegie institution's department of global ecology. what is it about these mining activities that are so destructive from let's say from an environmental perspective first gold miners not only remove the forest to go down below the soil surface down into what would be called the mineral soil below the biologically active part of the soil so deep in the soil that there isn't a science to tell us that there's forest could ever recover. the devastation exposed from above was dramatic but it was also only part of the story the aircraft

but south fitted with all sorts of cool technology but how did you use some of that technology to zero in on what was happening in terms of gold mining yeah one of the key technologies on board the plane is a laser imaging system what it does is we fire laser beams out of the bottom of the plane the lasers can penetrate all the way down to the forest floor and so what we end up doing is we end up imaging the forest in very high fidelity three d. most of the work that have been done on this gold mining problem was using satellites that see some of the larger mines we started finding that there was a much larger contribution from thousands of small mining operations that weren't known and suddenly we had a problem to report the rate of gold mining expansion tripled after the two thousand and eight local recession if you are on a typical amazon river before seems like it's intact all around you but this is that same river. that we just were on in the boat. when we peel the forest back we

reveal the ground which is shown on the right here and what we see here are gold mining operations there so by and large they're said back from the river's edge so that they are being executed clandestinely the observatory also has a one of a kind spectrometer which can detect chemicals in the forest below including mercury our system is unique that it can measure four hundred twenty channels of light all at the same time from the ultraviolet to the visible part of the spectrum that we see in to the infrared into the short wave infrared its ability to do that gives us access to a key scientific breakthrough which is the ability to measure chemicals in the environment because chemicals shine in different wavelengths of the spectrum.

this video from the observatory shows one of the large mining areas in the tumble part a buffer zone here's how the spectrometer sees that same mining area so where it's blood red that's where the mercury pollution is the most intense so it's basically like a signature of contamination of severe contamination and then these blue areas are porous that have no mercury in them and these are also illegal mining activities these large cleared areas all of this is illegal while the spectrometer can see mercury contamination from the sky luis ferdinand is studying where mercury goes on the ground. where else does mercury end up because the mercury is dumped into the rivers and lakes then gets into the food chain bacteria in the water convert the mercury into something even more talks in order gannett compound called methylmercury which is easily absorbed in the digestive system mercury. unlike many other pollutants magnifies every time it goes from one link in that food chain

to the next so a fish at the top of the food chain in a contaminated region can have mercury levels millions or tens of millions of times higher than the water in which they swim where does that fish end up in many cases it ends up on the dinner plate of people that live hundreds of miles downstream. louise for the numbers and his team attested hair samples of more than a thousand people throughout the model of the the u.s. more than seventy five percent had levels above the limits considered safe by the environmental protection agency some as high as thirty three times the limit. to talk of. the flu. one only has a legal case because. they. can look at this from a. billion dollars this time it is in very little but.

over time mercury impacts the central nervous system it could cause problems with vision hearing and memory at high levels it can cause brain damage to unborn babies if you talk to minors you say hey this is a problem how do they usually respond usually they don't believe us they don't see the media defense because the type of exposure that you see here is a chronic one. by twenty twelve the price of gold was over fifteen hundred dollars amounts in illegal mining had eaten away more than one hundred thousand acres of proven rain forest in madrid videos alone. the proven government decided to get tough. troops went into mining areas and camps and equipment the strikes were part of

a multi-pronged strategy according to her and that's stored as luna a former advisor to proof ministry of the environment the study g m involved police operations and the prosecution of the orse offenders and it involved. financial intelligence to connect the dots in follow the money and see who are the big bosses the crackdown led to violent clashes between miners and police but it didn't stop illegal mining they sent in the military thousands of police what impact of that it's been a very temporary fleeting impact it's so profitable that you can loose cover a million dollars in machinery and two weeks later join back in business it is that profitable this strategy also includes a process of legalizing some mining operations outside of protected areas but only

if miners can prove they have proper permits and a plan to deal with the environmental impact it is impossible for many of them and that's the other part if people are never going to be able to be formal to put the telephone and start dealing with the. tecno also visited prue's ministry of the environment in lima so there is this formalization process how are the miners responded to this in some way well in some way or the not so good because sure it is more easy to work outside of the world for because it was cheap that is why we need to have very clear ways ford will describe to me this interdiction to crack down on some of these areas how was that hours ago in some way good but on the other hand we just very difficult to maintain that kind of interdiction because we cannot go eat every day so sometimes we pull out these people from the four b. and so on in two or three weeks there are coming back to the same place why can't

you do it every day why can't you come back every three weeks because they're also do see some ways to avoid the interdiction mishal for example in some places in the temple but for a real they're working by night is inside the tumble part of buffer zone it has been the target of more than one military interdiction yet our cameras caught this current mining operation at the pampa in broad daylight many of the real notable remains are allies of illegal mining in the rugged the corruption in the air not on the tory want to grow by seeing the fulfillment of the law in the service we need to show to good people but there with it is not see if miserably fail to put enough even small parts of the start the the government approved at the moment of a total abandonment of the need should leave i left the ministry over six months

ago why did you leave the ministry i love the ministry because of a but. from government in terms of environmental standards they approved a new law that weakens the ability of the ministry of environment to both create protests. areas in go after a moment of transformations i was there to help not to be part of the reason so i left techno also traveled into the heart of the tumble part to national reserve it's a place so protected that we had to register at two control stations on the way. yet even the park guards seemed overwhelmed. no i said no us i miss him but i asked him what. we saw miners working the river just a short distance away from the second control station yuri torres was our guide on this journey into the reserves he now makes his living by helping people experience

the breathtaking beauty of the rainforest as he knows the rain for so well he spots a saddleback tamarind monkey with a baby on its back during our interview but torres used to make his living off the jungle as a gold mine or one of the my there you don't really care about the forest of the three torres's father and his brothers still make their living as illegal gold miners and you talk to them about the dangers about the environment yes they do it's a big big deal do you worry about your father and your brothers as miners yes yes they do or level ones where family if they don't mind what any did. was very sad it's such beyond words we're talking some of the most biological diverse forests there are places where you could spin to for our worse what she just what's taking place in one branch of one tree in the way the light of the sun

shines some different. buses but in the school way. become better because of that i am absolutely convinced the human beings of all right to nature makes a stronger. so phil you've traveled a lot and done a lot of research in that region but this was the first time that you had seen this and been to these areas how did it affect you emotionally i've seen it from the plane and you tell my flying to this area and i've always heard about it but to actually see it firsthand was unbelievable really made me want to do something and make sure that people know how big of an issue this is i have to tell you to feel i mean just learning about this strikes a very emotional chord for me too because this is my part of the world not peru but

bolivia and believe is part of this equation here i mean there is a lot of mining activity gold mining in bolivia as well but the issues that are going on with the magnitude of the illegal activity in peru has been spilling over into bolivia so there's a lot of gold contraband that's going through people to get water and we're getting export it kind of under the radar which is really really crazy it's a huge issue about cars about three billion dollars an ounce of gold going through believe you huge amount is this similar to or more complicated than say blood diamonds like as a consumer what can i do to make sure i'm not contributing to the problem if i wear gold jewelry you know the advantage of the diamond problem it is just this dress to go on the ground but you can actually track it down and you can figure out based on its chemistry where it came from with gold it's a lot more difficult to do because a lot of the gold gets exported it gets all melted together so you could have gold from prove mixed with gold from croatia and all of that could make

a necklace found that story really opened my eyes so thank you for that really sobering but important be sure to check this out next time during techno is we bring you more. stories from the field of science dive deep into these stories and go behind the scenes at al jazeera dot com slash techno all on our expert contributors on twitter facebook instagram and google plus and more. we're heading to the place so deep in the truth really amazon it's taken us two days on this boat just to get there from the search for a dangerous macaws techno look at what is being done to protect one of the region's most iconic creatures cars are disappearing because k.l. legal pad trained with the main research us wanted to see if reintroduction of my cause was a viable option to save some of these population pretty good young techno on

al-jazeera. fly because our ways and experience the words like never before. can't own

a place going places together if you were looking at this from the outside would really wonder what was going on but what is this gross is a religion that they have an in-depth exploration of global capitalism and our obsession with economic growth this is still the center of capitalism there is no limits i view myself as a capital artist we are trying to pay for the world smaller and smaller we don't want to be set realistic in the world we would rather have a fantasy growing pains on al-jazeera. a un special rapporteur arrives in turkey to investigate the murder of saudi journalist.

follow on down jordan this is our jazeera live from doha also coming up venezuela's president nicolas maduro puts on a show of military might as his rival calls for more protests against. getting hooked in iraq high unemployment and poverty leads to an alarming rise in the heroin addiction. and thailand who cleans up its fishing out to a large scale look at what's being done to protect a valuable industry. we begin in the turkish capital ankara where the u.n. human rights investigators are looking into the murder of jamal khashoggi is due to meet turkey's foreign minister agnes column r. is due to have week long talks and the special says it's a crucial step towards formal accountability for the killing of the saudi journalist and critic of the crown prince stephanie decker joins us live now from

outside the saudi consulate in istanbul stephanie so how significant is this trip by the un special rapporteur on what can we expect to come out of it. bush is conducting this investigation on her own accord she's the one who says that according to what she's understood is that there is no push from the united nations or individual member states to try to get an official investigation underway so it is in her capacity she believed and what her words are the gruesome murder and of the significant and grave implications of the complex case that she has taken upon herself to come here with a team also including a british lawyer and a portuguese forensic expert to try and figure out what went on she is currently meeting the turkish foreign minister in ankara she'll be coming here to stumble as well she'll be meeting with friends of. the meeting with also the prosecution of course the prosecutor who's been undertaking the turkish case looking into what exactly happened here she has asked for access she's also saudis have access to the

consulate it's not clear whether that's been granted for access to saudi arabia at the moment no word on that so yes i think it's significant because it puts it back on the map darron four months almost since g. entered that building and never came out and also i think if you look at politically this is of course such a complex and loaded case when it comes to countries relationships with saudi arabia with the implications with the money involved when it comes to massive business and military deals particularly even just looking at the world economic forum in davos where you had pretty much a message from the saudi delegation meeting with all kinds of officials from all kinds of countries and companies that it is business as usual so i think the message that she is sending is that this is such a grave situation such a violation of human rights that she has taken upon herself and she will be issuing the findings of her report in june to the u.n. human rights council and stephanie things seem to have gone pretty quiet since the

killings so what's the latest with the ongoing investigation that. well turkey's investigation hasn't issued any final indictment they did have access to the consulate behind me about just over two weeks after the murder happened they then had access also to the consul general's home just a couple of hundred meters down from where we are but from sources we've spoken to understand that a they're for straight at the lack of access to the suspects which of course left turkey within twenty four hours of that murder happening they came in and left the country within the space of twenty four hours and also they're concerned about a well that was found at the house of the saudi consul general is that saudi is not giving them proper access to investigate it but then even some experts will tell you that so long after the fact any traces of d.n.a. evidence or any sort of forensic material will be extremely difficult if not impossible to find now the saudis of course maintain that this was a rogue operation that they have indicted eleven men five of those now facing the

death penalty but many people will tell you that they don't believe that is a credible or transparent investigation that they think that something as as as this is sending men to carry out would seem to be a hit squad inside to saudi diplomatic mission could not have been carried out without some kind of senior level greenlight of the saudi royal court so again we're going to have to wait and see what agnes comes up with at the moment we're not expecting any press statements throughout this week but we'll have to wait and see stephanie thank you venezuela's proclaimed president calling for two days of protests to demand nicolas maduro calls for you in the fair elections the recently reelected maturer is accusing the opposition leader of being part of a u.s. led to. we are calling for a mass mobilization at national and international level we will be taking to the

streets of venezuela and around the world to follow and show our support for the european union's ultimatum to the madrid government head of the senate a deadline it's an unprecedented ultimatum in support of our people's demand to bring down the user purse well australia has the latest government to recognize as interim president so does the majority of countries in the americas major european union countries such as france germany and the u.k. latin america at its embassy in yemen reports from in colombia near the border with venezuela. as never before venezuela's armed forces are taking center stage president nicolas maduro spent the day showing he's still in control of the military hanging out with the navy. after overseeing military exercises a prelude to what he says will be an unprecedented display of force next month the problem colombia is a conspiracy to divide our armed forces thousands of messages every day through the social media water trying to erode the army's morale and plant the poison of

a trial today i come to say that this bolivarian armed force will be every day more loyal to the people to the revolution and. as he spoke that so-called poison was being distributed by opponents to members of the armed forces it's an amnesty law offered to soldiers and high ranking officers guaranteeing that they'll be no reprisals if they defect and cooperate with the interim government tournament the fire. forces we are inviting them to join us to join the people not to come from there. the military is key to president mother's duration empower. soldiers of venezuela to give you an order not to shoot the people of venezuela. one why dog interim president designated by the op. controlled national assembly says that the government has escalated a campaign of repression and it's calling on the un high commissioner for human rights to rush to venezuela to witness unfolding events according to penal forum

and in jail the tracks arrests the number has jumped from five hundred to seven hundred ninety one over the weekend but so far why the all is not one of them president maduro is treading with caution in part because why dogs arrest could trigger a domestic powder keg but also because of the threat of international reprisals u.s. national security adviser john bolton tweeted that if anything should happen to guide dog or the national assembly the u.s. would issue a quote significant response you see in yemen al jazeera columbia isolates claiming responsibility for sunday's bomb attacks on a roman catholic church in the southern philippines but army commanders think that abu sayyaf fighters who are linked to iso planned the two explosions which killed twenty seven people president rodriguez it's a tense visiting some of the wounded on the muslim majority in the hall where the attack took place. well the french president says egypt's human rights record is

considered worse now than under hosni mubarak's leadership he made the comments during a three day trip to the arab nation manual macro was criticized for not taking a stronger stance when he met. in paris two years ago and the country's rights record has only got worse human rights watch estimates that since sisi came to power more than sixty thousand political prisoners was due to meet the president in cairo shortly and is under pressure to address the issue but he's walking a fine diplomatic line egypt is a longtime ally an important trading partner spending nearly six billion dollars on french arms fighter jets but it's bringing omar sure he joins me here on set he's a professor of security studies for the institute for graduate studies just how far then is macro able to proceed see on human rights if he wants to do further arms deals with egypt i mean he's he's walking a delicate fine line here isn't it indeed the rhetoric changed remembered in

october twenty seventh when he first met him he was saying that he would not lecture egypt on human rights and he's not who is he to do that today his rhetoric is very different talking about how the human rights situation deteriorated even compared to mubarak's times and this is unsustainable this is not stability exactly so very different rhetoric we're finding here but again egypt is being him his not being egypt so we'll see how that develops because on in many ways he wants the six billion dollars a year egypt is his number one customer in terms of on's but also there is a caveat here because the. deal has been on hold egypt is in a lot of death for these other french fighter jets french fighter multi-role jets that. there's a big question mark why does he need thirty thirty six. already has about twenty four he order twelve more and he's not in a. in a combat situation with

a state in that needs this kind of just a slightly broader picture i mean do you think we're likely to see a sustained coordinated effort perhaps from other european countries other western countries pushing on human rights i mean human rights watch says egypt has sixty thousand political prisoners i mean that's extraordinary that number has never been that on the mubarak it's it's just it's probably the first time in egypt's history that has that figure in political prisons on one on one and on the other and you have an administration in the us that is not very interested in the human rights record and you have less and less coordinated pressures on egypt the pressures come individually. as the macro obviously you know is one case but also the whole you did appear in parliament as more the more. vocal in terms of the criticism but there's no sustained pressure it's mostly a rhetoric and then after that you know the report to reuters that in twenty seventeen he gave him a list of a few activists to be released and that

a sponsor of. all of these are linked to the muslim brothers and this was the key word and there was nothing let's talk about libya if we can because that's the other item which both leaders will be discussing during this meeting will lead to any meaningful change in a country which is torn apart by over exactly there was the french and the policies in libya were on different directions to a certain degree france was in the very beginning was pro u.n. peace plan was supporting a similar gene. in the so a military dictatorship basically in the defense has been moving more and more towards the egyptian position and the more of a coming around to egypt's way of thinking do you think to a certain degree yes there's been intelligence support to have that there's a military support to have there's been some political leaning towards her side which is the position of egypt but i don't think this is going to be sustainable i think the french now realize more and more this is not sustainable because egypt

has been over the regime specifically has been up holding this policy since twenty fifteen we are now in twenty nineteen and you have a major destruction in the east of libya and there is no.