NewsTracker Answers for week of Apr 26, 2010

Q: Residents of a small Bolivian mountain village want to sue those who caused climate change, melting nearby glaciers and drying up their streams. Where in the world is Bolivia?

Circle the area on this map

Q: Mountain glaciers in Bolivia and nearby Peru and Ecuador have shrunk 40 to 50 percent in recent decades. Which mountain range runs through these countries?

A. Alps

B. Andes

C. Appalachians

D. Atlas

B. The Andes are over 4,300 miles long, making the Andean chain the longest continental mountain range in the world.

Q: The indigenous people of Khapi say their weather has grown much warmer, their streams are drying up and the village has already lost half its population. Who are indigenous people?

A. Aboriginal people

B. Poor people

C. Pastoral people

D. Village people

A. Indigenous or aboriginal peoples are descendants of the first people to inhabit a geographical region. The people of Khapi are Aymara Indians, as is Bolivian President Evo Morales. He is proposing an international court of environmental justice to hear cases like the one of Khapi.

Q: Many of the families who have left Khapi have gone to fast-growing urban areas like Bolivia's capital, which also is facing water shortages. What is Bolivia's capital?

A. Lima

B. Bogota

C. Caracas

D. La Paz

D. The city of La Paz was founded in 1548 by Spanish conquistadors settlers on the pre-existing site of an ancient Aymara village. It is the second largest city in Bolivia with a population of about 877,000 people.

Q: When the Spanish conquered the area that is now Bolivia, they enslaved the Aymara and forced them to mine gold and silver until those resources diminished. What natural resource could still bring wealth to Bolivia, one of South America's poorest countries?

A. Uranium

B. Gas

C. Coal

D. Diamonds

B. The country has the second-largest reserves of natural gas in South America, but there have been long-running tensions over the exploitation and export of the resource. Indigenous groups say the country should not relinquish control of the reserves.