Recently, I watched a video of an old episode of Equinox, recorded about 18 months ago.
Called “The day the oceans burned” the documentary discussed the issues of global warming and concentrated on an aspect of the process which is often overlooked…the impact of large scale deforestation by the timber companies and beef farmers in Brazil.
The Brazilian rainforest not only represents the largest carbon “sink” on the planet, it is also helping to slow the greenhouse effect by extracting an increasing amount of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. For the non biologically inclined amongst you, plants absorb and breakdown CO2 as part of the process of photosynthesis; the carbon is used to construct cells and the oxygen is released back into the atmosphere.
Where we are hitting problems is the massive deforestation campaigns currently being undertaken in large parts of Brazil; the humus layer of soil that the rainforest grows on, is very thin (the rainforest obtains many of it’s nutrients from the decaying plant material at its base, rather than the soil) and as the trees are cutdown, slashed and burned the soil washes away / erodes very quickly.
With rampant inflation and high levels of unemployment that have plagued Brazil and other South American nations which border the Amazon rainforests over the last 2 decades, it is not surprising that governments have found it difficult to resist the pressure of logging companies and the farming industry, both of which argue that these activities provide food, jobs and much needed cash into the economy.
But the damage that is being done to our planets “Lungs” puts us all at huge risk of sudden and violent climate change, created by a combination of our carbon emissions and this unrestrained deforestation.
Personally, I think the time has come for all nations to consider paying some form of “Forestation” tax to Brazil; annual funds (possibly arranged and overseen by the UN) paid to Brazil to:-
- Immediately cease and desist further deforestation
- Pay local people to retrain as forest wardens
- Encourage Eco-tourism
- Support a range of scientific research projects
And before any of the redneck reactionaries out there scream “bleeding heart” consider this; quite apart from the climate issues, the rainforest potentially contains many thousands of different flora / fauna species which biologists have had no opportunity to research; hidden in this vast natural “chemist shop” may lie the cures or treatments for cancer, HIV and a range of other debilitating issues.
Personally, I’d be happy to pay a couple of extra quid a year to bring this senseless and short-sighted destruction to a halt….wouldn’t you?
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