rec.gardens.ecosystems homepage -> archive: MOD$990222.6440@rec.gardens.ecosystems



Subject: Re: stop killing rainforests!
From: arron <kcchin@pacific.net.sg>
Organization: arron
Date: Mon, 22 Feb 99 10:45:24
Message-ID: <MOD$990222.6440@rec.gardens.ecosystems>
References: <MOD$990218.20860@rec.gardens.ecosystems> <MOD$990219.8199@rec.gardens.ecosystems> <MOD$990221.16722@rec.gardens.ecosystems> <MOD$990222.2030@rec.gardens.ecosystems>



swani wrote:

> >>Why keep forests at all?
> >>.----for oxygen?
> >>---- biodiversity /genetic pool?
> >>---- esthetics?
> >>----tourism?
> >>----???
> >>This last question may seem a simple question to answer.
> >
> >>It is not!
>
> It is and it isnt.
> The simple is, all of the above, and more
> The complex is a long answer: because this region of the Earth breathes for
> us all, because of their vast potential biological wealth:
> Medicines,

Are we willing to pay for this "vast potential wealth?
Think back of the Rio Conference......What happen

> Because this is home to many people, plants, and animals,
Keep the 'many people' in the jungle? sort of a human zoo for
tourist.? These people wants the land for Agriculture, housing
and factories.

> Because records show that stressed ecosystems can descend
> into extinction very rapidly, as a result of relatively minor disruptions

> Because an obscure moth from Latin America saved Australia’s pastureland
> from an
> infestation of the prickly pear cactus.
What of the people vs the obscure moth?

>
> Finally, because humans subconsciously seek connection with
> nature. Wilderness gives peace, perhaps because it is one place we are not
> in control of, we feel our place as being, not lords of the Earth, but
> fruits of it.
>
Before" Finally," u think of First.. First you think of keeping the human
bodies and
breath together, than you think of aesthetic things of connecting with
nature , peace

>
> Today, clearing rain forests currently puts 1 billion tons of Carbon per
> year into the atmosphere.The end result of this emission level is a net
> increase in atmospheric CO2,
you are really off here, cutting forest is one time....(and forest are cut
to grow crops, a recycling .....You do not 'put 1 billion tons of Carbon PER
year into the atmosphere.'
(read also of Dan Sterner's posting of same thread)
Who is burning all them fossil fuels?....every year ,all the years
Non renewable sources.
..........

>
> but pumps hot air towards the temperate regions, warming them, while cooling
> the tropics.
who benefits with them HOT airs
(wht they need is land)

>
> The felling of these forests means that the rainfall is not intercepted, but
> runs off the land, causing massive erosion, reduction of rainfall, and the
> resulting dry winds further erode the edges of the forest.
You know not of how fast forest regenerates here! What dry winds,?
only hot airs!
Agriculture land does not erode that fast.,

>
> In the temperate forests and grasslands, organic matter lies fallow in the
> deep litter and humus. Seeds are more resistant to stress, and are able to
> lie dormant for long periods of time, which enables rapid recovery after
> disturbance. A century after disturbance, a temperate forest can be almost
> in its original state.
Dust Bowl of USA.
Energy ....sheer fossil energy is used to maintain the 'disturbance/t, a
temperate
forest can be almost in its original state.

>
> Two thirds of the forested land worldwide, consists of tropical red and
> yellow earth’s, which are typically acidic, aged, and leached of many
> nutrients. *****Farmers must then add fertilizer (which they often
> cannot afford), or move on to the next patch of forest, perpetuating the
> cycle of slash-and-burn.
So what are the population gonna do/ live off blowpipes and squirrels?
We still think that the people are primative. Know you that they have
cultures that date back before Christ.
By the way farms, such as oilpalm , rubber, vegetables, rice, have been
maintained for years *(almost in its orginal state) and have been very viable
and farmers can afford the fertilizers.

>
> Regeneration is limited by the fragility if tropical seed; most species
> germinate in a few days or weeks. By the time the site has been farmed for
> 2-3 years, and grazed by cattle for 2-3 years, there is little hope of
> regeneration on the barren, dry, and weed-infested land. One third of
> Amazonia’s large ranches have been abandoned, much of it has been claimed
> only to gain the rights to the land so that it can be mined (clearing the
> forest is all that is needed to claim title to land).

Read articles posted on this thread

>
> The UN Food And Agriculture organization blame shifting cultivation by
> landless peasants for causing 50% of tropical deforestation worldwide, and
> names firewood collecting as the second major factor.
So they UN/ us, place the blame......are they gonna feed the 'landless
peasants'?

>
> The impression given is that the forests are ---

> In 1989, the surviving rain forests occupied an area the size of the USA,
> with Florida being deforested every year; in 50 years; gone!***
> need to do to break this vicious cycle. I am firmly convinced that
> sustainability is the key.
>
> 1. Maintain trnatural forest products; rubber, nuts, spices, fruits,
> herbs, oils, fibres, and medicines.***---

>
> 6. Forests *must* be sustainably managed. Forestry companies must either
> replant, or fell only what the forest can replace.
> 7. Find alternatives for pulp and paper production, such as; hemp, coppiced
> tree lots, Kenaf (Hibiscus cannabinus), woodgrass harvesting.
> 8. Encourage small scale Agroforestry.
> 9. Use Indigenous species as much as possible.
> 10. RECYCLE, REUSE, AND REPLANT
>

No word mentioned on who in going to finance the feeding of
millions of people.
We are still assuming that all the people are living in the trees.

>
> Swani
Summary:
So----------the rainforest is very important
and we are distroying it at a very fast rate
we will be missing all the genitical materials
and---------they now should go into 'permaculture'
all for our sake?--------?
they sacrifice (malaria, dengee)and we reap the benifits?...(.oxygen ,
biodiverity, tourist spots, and cool air?)
U have not state who is going to finance the RECYCLE, REUSE, AND REPLANT
Remember too, that genetic materials would not belong to
the countries that the plants/animals originate but rather
to the Companies who discover/invent them!
(the USA have yet to sign the Rio protocol)
Read also on GM.in this NG.
How about the USA, Europe growing back the temperate forests?
Let us turn all the english farmlands back to the beautiful 'Sherwood' forests
that we may have Robins to live in again.

Get Real.
Those tropical countries people are not Idiots!