What we've learned

Final update: No. 25

AmazonQuest is an interactive expedition developed by Classroom Connect. For five weeks, a team of scientists and explorers are examining one of the most distinctive and most threatened environments on Earth: the Amazon River basin.

AmazonQuest bids farewell to the Amazon River basin at the edge of the city of Iquitos, Peru.

Thirty-three days ago we landed in the middle of a sea of jungle green.

A helicopter deposited our team, canoes, and supplies on a tiny stream that coiled its way through jungle.

We sallied forth as adventurers and ambassadors -- adventurers about to explore the unexplored, ambassadors to represent the curiosity and collective goodwill of hundreds of thousands of young people. Did we succeed?

Our expedition endured much. Within days of starting, a stingray's poisonous spine crippled Nick and dangerously infected his foot. Shallow waters forced us to drag heavy boats over low rapids. Then it rained. Lightning struck, trees fell and shivering team members dipped into hypothermia.

The lazy, sinuous stream erupted into a raging torrent, tipping our canoes, and sending us and our fragile electronics into muddy waters. We dried out, pressed the remaining electronics into double duty and got back online, as they say.

A few days later, mortality confronted us. A swooping bat, and the ensuing rabies scare and trauma, ended David's trip. "I spent 24 hours waiting to die," he told me, describing the last night before he was flown out of the jungle.

Now, 1,500 miles downriver and on my perch on a comfortable riverboat, I look back on all of this with a fond wistfulness. I miss the feeling of the unknown, the warm fatigue your shoulders feel after a day of paddling, and waking up in the morning to see the huge, indifferent Amazon unfold before you.

Of course, we all came away from AmazonQuest with different impressions.

Emily discovered that the rainforest's beauty is hard-earned. "It's no paradise," she told me. "Between the bugs, heat and disease, you're never not uncomfortable."

John, surprisingly, came away feeling that the rainforest here in Peru is in better shape than he expected. "We all flew over that unbroken carpet of green for hours and hours," he pointed out.

VIDEO View the team's daily movie feature on the AmazonQuest site Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)   EXTRA INFORMATION AmazonQuest  from Classroom Connect     AmazonQuest Get more on AmazonQuest from the scrollbox below MORE REPORTS Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day 6 Day 7 Day 8 Day 9 Day 10 Day 11 Day 12 Day 13 Day 14 Day 15 Day 16 Day 17 Day 18 Day 19 Day 20 Day 21 Day 22 Day 23

I've had to keep reminding myself that what we call a difficult adventure is everyday life for the people of the Amazon. Yes, they cut down trees, hunt animals and occasionally overfish their rivers.

But they also understand that their survival, and that of their children, relies on protection. Not once did we witness people senselessly abusing their environment. Wholesale destruction of the Amazon is mostly the work of big business -- lumber, petroleum and mining-many of which we indirectly support through buying their products.

That's where you came in. You helped us explore Hunt Oil's operations and directly reached top managers with your letters. We made several suggestions for making their operations friendly to both the environment and the Amazon's native peoples. But then you backed that up.

As part of our "Make a Difference" project, kids biked 44,876 miles, potentially saving more than 2,200 gallons of gasoline in the process. More importantly, it began to change behaviors that fuel the demand for the Amazon's oil.

Mary and Maureen Petricca's classes in suburban Chicago created leaflets to post in the hallway for all students, teachers and parents to show how their class was making a difference. Students bulleted ideas on what we can do here in our community to save the rainforests: carpooling, recycling, reading about conservation.

Likewise, 1,800 kids signed our petition requesting that the Peruvian president make the near-pristine Amarakaeri zone into a better-protected reserve. We're proud of this. But what really inspired us was when kids applied those ideas of conservation to their own community.

Janis Layborn's class from Enumclaw, Washington, explored the temperate forests near their homes. They learned about the forests, chipped in their own money and then lobbied local politicians for funding to buy parcels for preservation.

Amid a snarl of wires, swarmed by bees and sweating profusely, the team prepares for a transmission from the banks of the Rio Azul.

Sheila McVeigh's classes in Tom's River, New Jersey, built a Web site that built on the Quest's notion of making a difference. It not only provided outreach to jungle communities, but they also created a section for the victims of the September 11 tragedy.

I don't know if AmazonQuest will help save the Amazon rainforest or ease the lives of the people there. But it's this note, sent by a class in Africa, that convinces me that, indeed, you are making a difference:

"Thank you for giving us such an interesting and vital problem to debate ... It has stimulated our young people and increased their environmental awareness. In Zimbabwe, we face many equally perplexing dilemmas and it is so important that the youth of the country grow up with a passion to preserve this beautiful world. Maybe some of them will be instrumental in finding solutions to the problems raised by bad decisions in the past."

Hear, hear.

Dan Buettner