RE: Amazon rainforest destruction

From: John Green (HPJGREEN@ihc.com)
Date: Tue Jun 20 2000 - 08:07:50 PDT


Date: Tue, 20 Jun 2000 09:07:50 -0600
From: "John Green" <HPJGREEN@ihc.com>
To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com
Message-Id: <aabcdefg1853$foo@default>
Subject: RE: Amazon rainforest destruction

Not to start a big argument on rainforest politics, because it would
certainly be good news to know that the rainforests aren't so
endangered, but I wonder if that article from the NY Post isn't
misleading. A quick search on the NY Times came up with a Nov. 25, 1998
Assoc. Press article ("Brazil's Rainforest Plan Under Fire") that does
confirm that 12.5% (over 200,000 square miles) of the Amazon rainforest
has been destroyed, "mainly by farmers, ranchers and loggers," but that
it happened from 1978 to 1996, which is a relatively short time. Also
of concern is the Atlantic Forest in Brazil, which "has been reduced to
just 3 percent of its original area." I spent a couple of years living
in southern Brazil and remember seeing a news program showing conditions
in northern Brazil where the rainforest had been stripped and the land
had become a dust-bowl, which would be difficult for the forest to
reclaim. It would be nice to breathe a sigh of relief and believe that
everything is okay, but maybe it's hard to be so optimistic when all the
information is contrary.

John Green
Salt Lake City, Utah



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