Brazil Amazon deforestation soars

[Mycophile]

Is this ever going to stop? It's called the "lungs of the world" for a reason... And so many plants still to discover...


The Amazon has long been known as the "lungs of the world". The Brazilian government has announced a huge rise in the rate of Amazon deforestation, months after celebrating its success in achieving a reduction.

In the last five months of 2007, 3,235 sq km (1,250 sq miles) were lost.

Gilberto Camara, of INPE, an institute that provides satellite imaging of the area, said the rate of loss was unprecedented for the time of year.

Officials say rising commodity prices are encouraging farmers to clear more land to plant crops such as soya.

Aerial view of deforestation in Brazil, picture by Greenpeace

The monthly rate of deforestation saw a big rise from 243 sq km (94 sq miles) in August to 948 sq km (366 sq miles) in December.

"We've never before detected such a high deforestation rate at this time of year," Mr Camara said.

His concern, outlined during a news conference in Brasilia on Wednesday, was echoed by Environment Minister Marina Silva.

Expensive soya

Ms Silva said rising prices of raw materials and commodities could be spurring the rate of forest clearing, as more and more farmers saw the Amazon as a source of cheap land.

"The economic reality of these states indicate that these activities impact, without a shadow of a doubt, on the forest," she said.

map

The state of Mato Grosso was the worst affected, contributing more than half the total area of forest stripped, or 1,786 sq km (700 sq miles).

The states of Para and Rondonia were also badly affected, accounting for 17.8% and 16% of the total cleared respectively.

The situation may also be worse than reported, with the environment ministry saying the preliminary assessment of the amount of forest cleared could double as more detailed satellite images are analysed.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is due to attend an emergency meeting on Thursday to discuss new measures to tackle deforestation in the Amazon.

The latest figures will be an embarrassment for the Brazilian president, correspondents say.

Last year, President Lula said his government's efforts to control illegal logging and introduce better certification of land ownership had helped reduce forest clearance significantly.

Even as he celebrated the success, though, environmentalists were warning that the rate was rising again.

Source: BBC

 

[MindAstronaut]

I dont get it why dont they make the entire amazone a protected wildlife area, oke i know its big. but these are the treasures of our planet, that we must protect.
And give those wood company i big fine when they violate the agreement.

Its seems the world is a diehard cigarrete smoker who has serious trouble quiting..

 

[Dantediv86]

there should be a Forest Enforcement Agency (an international one) that kicks the deforestators asses...particularly the ones operating the machines and the ones profiting big time out of this
and the Brazilian government should fine them deforestators
and financing the reforestation programs and the cultivators as well so they stop deforestating

 

[Forkbender]

Just put a law in effect stating that every tree that is cut down should be replaced with 10 seedlings. Either they will stop cutting them down for the hassle or they will start to repair the world.

 

[MindAstronaut]

But most of those threes that are being cut down are more 100 years old,
it would take a long time for the seeds to become such a gaint.
And most companys are in it for the ground that they need for soya plantation.

 

[Guest]

perhaps now the ones that didn't saw the propaganda i talked when vegetarianism and this global awareness bullshit that is now FASHION can belive now ?
deflorestation is taken place so SOYA is planted. al gore, the united nations and all that burocratic façade are nothing more than puppets on the tv that make movies with more lies than truths. and we all aplaude:


ALL HAIL!!!AL AND THE BOYS ARE REAL MAKING AN EFFORT TO SAVE THIS!!!


i bet that they all live in little houses, that don't use amazonian wood or products that enslave people.
how can you all realize that they don't give a shit about the current situation ? greenpeace used to slay seals so they can film it and then said that there were terrible things happening in antartica. maybe it was, maybe it wasn't.
to reach high white-collar jobs, first you need to be dirty and destroy all your opponents, then you need to be a liar so you can convince the people, and then you need to be a puppet so the corporations continue paying you.
the rainforest is dying, and we are celebrating fake clowns that throw sand in your eyes. and many seem to like it. and to the more optimistic, please tell me where is the hope and the light at the end of the tunnel. nothing is going to change before nature starts killing us in a large scale. and i hope (with all my strenght) that after that it is too late, and i am glad it will be so. what good have we ever done to our planet ? from farming to nanotech, everything would be so much balanced without us. let's drop this sitcom that we intituled serious society and see with our open hearts that we are here just to destroy and mutilate something that it is pure and beautiful by itself.

 

[bloodbrother778]

:crybaby: I feel your pain trees :crybaby:

 

[random]

Officials say rising commodity prices are encouraging farmers to clear more land to plant crops such as soya.

If you get in the path of propaganda.. well everything is propaganda! How can you proof this statement above is not propaganda? Maybe it's a afirmation to encourage people to stop eating soya products and food, and go back eating more food derivative from animals. We can't know.

Well, apealing to my intuition... there's much land on earth... really. Why would they make more and more deforestation to plant soya?

To make even more doubt, my brother told me onde day that they were deforestation the amazon so cattles ( from companys such as mcdonalds and so on... ) could fit somewhere (along with the butcherys) so people won't see what they are doing.

So try thinking above that, and see all possibilities.

please tell me where is the hope and the light at the end of the tunnel. nothing is going to change before nature starts killing us in a large scale.

I feel your truth.. And I can believe it. But I try to not think much about that.. and try to things with brighter eyes. And believe there's hope. Because there is. It's not impossible. The hard issue here is: How can one recall humans Awareness and Reason? My opinion is, spread good information though people. Call their voice of Reason and Awareness. Maybe that's our last shot. Since, it seems, nothing can win the "power" of TV, Propaganda, Politics and Lies. Lets fight back with truth. Spreading truth "like a desease". Though people.

And I think people will wake up, sooner or later. Probably too late to do anything to turn the board.
Like Bill Hicks said: "We're a virus with shoes, that's all we are." Yes we are, now. But we weren't. Let's try to get back that connection with the earth. Let's start doing something and stop complayning.

 

[Guest]

i am happy that you know bill hicks, it is my favourite comediant of all time. we should see things with brighter eyes, but even if this article is phoney, and even the deflorestation is a lie, there are things that we do that cannot be repeated, and they are done again and again and again, like the lies we are fed everyday in the tv, the internet and so on. you can't change people that are impossible to be moved. a century ago, people were open to belive strange things much more than we are today. we have become impossible to shock or to amaze. we have became the "i've seen it all and done it all" society. we can share the truth with everyone, but be prepared to lose heavy losses. and i'll doubt that you can change many people above 20 years old. the majority of the people do not want facts, they want entertainment, reality tv and fast food. they want to be tied to the bed and fucked until they drop dead. that's what people want, i have been trying to promote thinking and seeing the reality as it is, and had little to no sucess. i am not a great speaker, although i am not that bad - maybe this is the problem. i have tried, over and over. trust me, it is so true....i can't really change people, because they after they say they "got it", they turn their backs and start doing the same things that are wrong. what can i do ? agree with them ? no! agree with you ? i cannot either. people should be moved, but they don't want, everyone grabs to their ideas after a certain age, and there's NO WAY they are going back. that's my experience, perhaps you have had a better sucess, and i hope you had.

 

[random]

you really called my voice of reason now... I can't denny anything that you wrote there. because I already felt, and feel it sometimes, that way. Explaining things to people, and they do it again, or they don't understand because of the "closed-minds" they have...

Some times I feel that the world is smaller to my imagination than it really is. Like a chess board, where I wish I could move the right checkers and do the right moves/choices but there is a kind of sheer wall between my will and wishs, and the board itself.

But I can't live other way. I can't be negative all the time. What feeds my will and wishs and dreams is just Hope. We know we can achieve something beyond our imaginations. But our egos are destroying all possibilities of reaching any kind of pure and balance state among the human beings.
I rather live this life knowing that this is all fucked up, and trying to do something (i'm not saying that we should trow away ones life to help saving the planet is the right choice, but spending some time trying to do it... just like I said on other thread: 1 or 2 hours each week won't get you exausted.) than knowing that this is fucked up and living it pretending that nothing is happening or not doing anything to help it and then die and realize that I was just like everybody else and all the truth I knew didn't help healing the One, in anyway. If you try, you never know if, in long or short terms, people will be (even if its just a little bit) more open to other issues and perspectives of seeing life.

a century ago, people were open to belive strange things much more than we are today. we have become impossible to shock or to amaze. we have became the "i've seen it all and done it all" society.

Truth. And how can one century change so much peoples mentality? :shock:

I was a hard-head. But life called my voice of reason. And suddenly I saw things in a completely different way.. and now that I found this psychedelic community, I'm willing to do something to help other people recall their reason. I can't just let it go, and be with myself all the time and don't care about the other part of myself (humanity). We can't live without each other. That's the truth. But today there are billions of people and that thought became futile and banal. That is why people think they don't need anybody and think they "see it all and done it all".

Forty six and two are just ahead of me

 

[buffachino]

Insanity!

How can humanity halt the vast obliteration of our world if we take inadequate steps to reduce it, while we continue to consume affluence regardless of how much we deceitfully propose to relinquish?

Can mankind continue fuelling the machines of war and conquest with the tattered remains of our humanity and the last few vestiges of beauty on this decaying planet?

No.

One can’t reduce manufacture and consumption as a subsidiary to proliferating them.
We can not expect this dire crisis to cease existing without changing the very basis of its origin;
mankinds corrupt lust for dominance at the hands of relentless exploitation.

No matter how economic society continues to repackage this unequivocal rape of our planet, it will remain a testimony to our ignorance and a rampant plague of our earth. As long as we bestow mortal power on those with an agenda only to profit from our suffering, we will only continue to spiral towards our own destruction.

Industry doesn’t really care how profits are made, just as long as they are.
Nor do they expect to stop economic proliferation any time soon; no matter the cost to life.

You can’t impede a problem without removing the root of it.

It’s like an addict, proclaiming the recession of his abuse, yet increasing his abuse to compensate for excusing it in the first place.
Conceal the issue by making some kind of façade that gives the impression of action until the heat is off, and then step it up another notch.
This is why we keep going in circles, and our problems seem to get grander; were not changing ourselves; were just masking the problem with a placebo until a larger problem conceals the previous one. Nothing is solved, and everything gets a lot worse.

It’s either we evolve, or we die, and take everything down with us.
You can’t have both; it’s a choice between life and death.
Not the nuclear half-life that industry seems to be shoving down our throats.
One can’t buy their way out of death, with more death.
It’s a complete overhaul or nothing here, and you have to take action.
Do you want to buy your life, or live it?
Concrete or grass?
Blood or water?

Peace.

Heres a little more info

 

[netdawgx]

has anyone read the opening chapter of David Pinchbeck's 2012? I just did last night and he spent some time talking about this subject (as well as atrocities the human race is committing against our mother Earth). anyway I personally think we need to start doing something about this *immediately* - some suggestions (which I'm sure are common sense but here is a list anyway);

1. *really* spend time and resources in developing a fully electric car - I honestly believe the only reason it hasn't already happened is because gas and oil companies are preventing it from happening (either by bribes or other illicit means) because it would seriously cripple their business.

2. create a environmental protection agency (on a UN level) that seriously regulates/abolishes destruction of our forests and other natural assets

3. make recycling mandatory or at least A LOT easier (recycling centers are so few and far between... ask anyone you know if they know where one is and I bet you maybe only a few percent will know where it is).

4. convert to natural energy... with the advance of nanotechnology solar panels could be less expensive, much more versatile (think flexible... even applied like paint) and with more research may even have more energy conversion efficiency than traditional solar panels.

I know the third suggestion is quite extreme, especially since we in the Psychedelic community are extremely close to the issue of law and personal freedom... but if we don't take action to seriously mitigate the damage we are causing, we will most certainly perish

please feel free to comment or add any of your own suggestions.

peace and much love,
ndx

 

[Forkbender]

But most of those threes that are being cut down are more 100 years old,
it would take a long time for the seeds to become such a gaint.
And most companys are in it for the ground that they need for soya plantation.

This is true, but young trees take in more CO2 than old trees as they convert more of it into matter.

 

[Guest]

are we talking about the ratio size:quantity of co2 or the overall quantity of co2 ? i doubt that a seedling will take as much co2 as an established Sequoia sempervirens

 

[random]

You can’t impede a problem without removing the root of it.

Exactly.

Our society is expert on creation solutions to the problems, but not solving/removing the problem from the root.

 

[buffachino]

No, our society is great at creating placebos.

 

[GOD]

Maybe a mini RANT . A sermon not just for sunday .

"This planet has enough for everybodys needs but not enough for everybodys greeds" .

I dont want to insult anyone or hurt anyone , but i`ve got the right to have an opinion and to say it . I just want to try to open peoples eyes and their hearts . To try to give people another perspective . If there is going to be a change in the world , in the way we all live , it has to start with us as individuals . You and me personaly . We have to start being honest , see our responsiblitys and spread the word . Change doesnt come from running away or waiting for some miracle that we all pretend will hapen one morning in 2012 without us having to do anything . We cant push our responsibilitys away and dream that its all in the hands of our stars , astrology , our third eyes , the maschine elves or our chakras .

When i read some of the things that are said on the subject in the world and the words that have been used to say it i feel some peoples resentment . That some people sound to me to be full of pain , like they have a chip on their shoulders . Like they know their own personal responsibility and are trying to deny it and to blame other people or justify the holocaust , the war against animals and nature . The facts are that eating dead animals is one of the six bigest killers / reasons for death and diseases in the world . The six are alcohol , tobaco , meat , suger , war and blind greed . Another fact is that soja is mostly grown to be used to feed animals that are later murdered and that this planet is one big Dachau for animals . I dont say that i am not guilty or want to try to justify my actions , when i was 14 i worked in an animal market and murdered hundres of animals , i had no pears , no one to give me a good example , i was copying other people trying to find out what men are . I also have 2 pairs of leather shoes and drink milk . I am ashamed of myself but i dont blame other people , resent people who are trying to be fair or try to defend mass murder and greed .

The only reason that the Amazon rain forest , the lung of the world , is dying is because of blind greed . Because of coruption right up to the highest politicians in Brazil , other south American countrys and the rest of the world .

This war against animals and nature has something to do with our own , humanitys , guilt complexes . Punishing ourselves through the war on animals and nature because of the short comings we see and feel in our own charakters . Trying to deny our personal responsibility for our swolen egos that we all subconsciously know are just lies and fantasy . A mirror image of our lack of spirituality and personal pain .

When the bus drives over a cliff because the driver is blinded by greed we cant blame the pasengers who have been blinded from birth by their education system and the press , or blinded by poverty .


"He's five foot-two, and he's six feet-four,
He fights with missiles and with spears.
He's all of thirty-one, and he's only seventeen,
Been a soldier for a thousand years.

He'a a Catholic, a Hindu, an Atheist, a Jain,
A Buddhist and a Baptist and a Jew.
And he knows he shouldn't kill,
And he knows he always will,
Kill you for me my friend and me for you.

And he's fighting for Canada,
He's fighting for France,
He's fighting for the USA,
And he's fighting for the Russians,
And he's fighting for Japan,
And he thinks we'll put an end to war this way.

And he's fighting for Democracy,
He's fighting for the Reds,
He says it's for the peace of all.
He's the one who must decide,
Who's to live and who's to die,
And he never sees the writing on the wall.

But without him,
How would Hitler have condemned him at Dachau?
Without him Caesar would have stood alone,
He's the one who gives his body
As a weapon of the war,
And without him all this killing can't go on.

He's the Universal Soldier and he really is to blame,
His orders come from far away no more,
They come from here and there and you and me,
And brothers can't you see,
This is not the way we put the end to war."


Educate , agitate and activate .

VIVA LA REVOLUTION

 

[buffachino]

Hopefully, with the majority of us thinking and talking about the same truths in different ways, everyone will understand what needs to be done.
No matter what your background, fears, loves and language; we all desire one thing:

Freedom.

Stop enslaving yourself and you will be free.

Peace.