Construction workers beside pipes in rainforest - stock photo

Manaus, Brazil June 4: Workers return to work at a gas pipeline being constructed in the Amazon rainforest on outside Manaus, Brazil. The 672-kilometer Urucu-Manaus gas pipeline is being constructed in an environmentally sensitive area and will open in 2009. The pipeline will reduce the oil consumption in the Manaus area. The Amazon represents half of the planets rainforests and clearing of the forest destroys forever the fragile equilibrium of water, mineral and organic matter.