Alarmist Brad Johnson takes unnecessary fossil-fueled trip to a very warm place; doesn't get kidney stones; finds an astounding variety of thriving plants and animals

Travels in Ecuador: Choosing the riches of life or of oil « Climate Progress

A team of scientists has documented that Yasuní National Park, in the core of the Ecuadorian Amazon, shatters world records for a wide array of plant and animal groups, from amphibians to trees to insects.

The newly-published study by a group of international scientists found that Yasuní contains more species of frogs and toads than are native to the United States and Canada combined. The plant and insect diversity is even more striking — each hectare of the park contains more tree and shrub species than all of the United States and Canada combined, with 100,000 species of insect estimated in each hectare. The entire park covers about 9,820 square kilometers, less than Los Angeles County, a little larger than Yellowstone National Park.