Master’s Tea
About Joe Kane
Joe Kane is a freelance journalist whose work has appeared in The New Yorker and Esquire. He joined an expedition in 1986, to travel the Amazon from its source (glaciers high up in the Andes), all the way to its mouth on the Atlantic coast of Brazil ˆ 6,700 km later. The expedition traveled by foot in the Andes, then by raft and kayaks, and often through remote, unpopulated, and dangerous areas. He was one of the first two people to complete this journey.
In 1991, Joe travelled to Ecuador to find out about the Huaorani Indians and their battle with international oil companies who were invading the Ecuadorian Amazon, setting off explosive charges, building new roads and oil rigs, and causing oil spills in the middle of the Amazon rainforest. Joe visited and stayed with the Huaorani many times, and met with environmentalists and oil companies trying to find out what was really happening to the Amazon rainforest and its people.
He is author of the books Running the Amazon and Savages, segments of which were originally published in the New Yorker Magazine. Savages is a engaging account of what happens when the 20th Century suddenly hits a remote rainforest people with full force bringing with it huge multinational companies, lawyers and public relations experts, politicians, environmentalists, evangelists, and technology.