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Amazon Rainforest Deforestation 'Worst in 10 Years', Says Brazil (bbc.com)
Deforestation of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil has hit its highest rate in a decade, according to official data. BBC reports: About 7,900 sq km (3,050 sq miles) of the world's largest rainforest was destroyed between August 2017 and July 2018 -- an area roughly five times the size of London. Environment Minister Edson Duarte said illegal logging was to blame. The figures come amid concerns about the policies of Brazil's newly elected president, Jair Bolsonaro. During the 2018 election campaign, Mr Bolsonaro pledged to limit fines for damaging forestry and to weaken the influence of the environmental agency. An aide for the president-elect has also announced the administration will merge the agriculture and environment ministries, which critics say could endanger the rainforest. The latest government data says most of the deforestation occurred in the states of Mato Grosso and Para, and marked a 13.7% rise over last year's figures. Mato Grosso is the top producer of grains in Brazil, and critics say expanding agriculture is also encroaching on the rainforest.
It's pretty bad. There are critics who say some species would literally have died out had the environmental agency not taken the limited steps it took over the past couple years
The first step in deforestation is removing the trees - so the logging companies are the initial scapegoats. Once the land is cleared, they can start raising cattle for beef sales - which is what 90% of the deforested Amazon is used for.
Beef eaters are funding the deforestation one purchase at a time: -
https://www.globalmeatnews.com/Article/2018/01/18/Brazilian-beef-exports-keep-on-growing
Deforestation under the previous regime is now blamed on the new President who won't be seated until January 2019. Got it.
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
You'd think they would have the resources to build it back up.
in a year, 79% of one wildfire in California over a few days in terms of destruction of areas.
Biomass lost should be compared and contrasted.
Seems like a double whammy, burning, plus loss of plant life.
Is there a carbon tax on Brazil?
The Amazon's new danger: Brazil sets sights on palm oil
https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2017/jun/29/brazil-palm-oil-amazon-rainforest-deforestation-temer-farming-para-cerrado
Brazil’s ambition to become a palm oil giant could have devastating social and environmental impacts if the move is not carefully managed, say experts
Jorge Antonini takes a palm kernel in his hands and slices it open. Squeezing it between his fingers, the kernel oozes the oily liquid found in hundreds of everyday products, from cakes to chocolate spread.
The scientist is standing on a government-owned farm near the Brazilian capital of Brasília. Here, he and a small group of colleagues from Embrapa, the powerful state-owned agricultural research agency, are trialling different methods of growing oil palms to improve yield.
so basically a square 55 miles on each side.
that's small, tiny. put that on a map of Brazil and get some perspective, you fucking math illiterates.
talk about mountains out of molehills
This seems to be a world-wide trend. What is driving it?
Stab a man twice, shame on him
30+ years of "THE SKY IS FALLING!" consistently proving false, and people waking up to the realities that life really isn't that bad, we're not DOOMED!, and it sucks to have someone else dictate every part of your life. Consider it a bit of a "we want freedom" breakout. Worry about the results, not the "optics" of the action.
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
People are tired of nanny governments telling them what to do and taxing them in ways designed to force them to do it. So they vote.
It doesn't matter if you agree with them or not, or whether they're right or not, or what's best for the environment, that's just the phenomena of what's happening.
The most advanced nations of the planet mostly deforested their nations too. Europe has basically nothing left of the old growth forests outside of some small preserves. The US has a smaller percentage of forest than Brazil and two third of that is fucking timberland ...
So lets not be sanctimonious here, they are in economic dire straits and they need the agricultural land and timber. It's not like anyone is standing up and offering them a couple trillion dollar to buy up most of the Amazon as an official preserve.
What else is he guilty of?
No one is above nature. If you destroy nature, you destroy us all. If you fail to understand this, your life should be taken from you.
the US screwing with the economic stability of the region is the biggest problem. Want folks to care about the environment? Give them a strong enough economy they can think about something besides tomorrow's meal. The US keeps butting their heads in (it's become pretty clear our CIA was responsible for the scandal that let Brazil's right wing depose their left, then there's the crap we did in Honduras, and the entire drug war, and "Banana Republics"....). Meanwhile the US voters keep looking the other way.
Doesn't matter where you are or what you're doing, fix the economy first and folks'll take care of the environment.
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This seems to be a world-wide trend. What is driving it?
The usual: Greed and profit
A handful of worthless people will get mega-rich, the planet (and everybody's future) will get a lot poorer.
No sig today...
-1 Stupid
No sig today...
30+ years of "THE SKY IS FALLING!" consistently proving false
Ever think the regs in place slowed "the sky is falling" ? But if you are young enough you may very well see it happening as these regs worldwide weakened
I remember coal soot covering the all houses in my town once per week when the chimneys of the mills were cleaned overnight. Many kids could not breath the following day and most of these kids were kept in, and yes that was in the US. Imagine how things would be if that was allowed to continue ?
Etc.
In the Ukraine, the people had a "choice" between Russian asshole leaders, and US/EU/NATO asshole leaders.
The US/EU/NATO ones just happened to be open hardcore Nazis with SS rune tattoos and their leader making Hitler salutes on camera.
In Germany, I was able to predict the actions of our local fascist party two weeks in advance for the first year of their existence. Simply by looking at what the US Tea Party did, after the same stage of their existence. It was ridiculously artificial. Literally over night, there were weird guys with US-English accents handing out flyers in all the major cities, and they instantly had 10%. One can't possibly believe that that's not artificial. (For the record: The AfD started out being pro-EU and pro-TTIP! As an extremist FDP. So radical libertarians. Only later did they become nationalist and racist and anti-EU. Since that is the common pattern that our own intelligence agency uses, to destroy anti-government groups, I suspect our BND got into there, and tried to fight it. Fucking it up massively, as always... since they now are a Nazi party.)
Hell, even in Russia, Putin was put in power by Boris Yeltsin after all. Who himself was elected because of $300 million in campaign spending from US (via the world bank), against an opponent who only had $3 million, was called the new Stalin, and harassed during his entire campaign. (Not saying he would have been a good guy. But he definitely would have been better than the epic failure of an alcoholic that was Yeltsin. I think, at the very least, after he ran through Berlin, drunk and in his underwear, and the German secret service had to catch him, every single one of us can agree on that. :)
The list of coup attempts of the US, on Wikipedia, had a table of contents that filled more than one page, last time I checked. (Russia wasn't exactly a good boy either. Their list is also pretty large.)
Yet I don't hate the USA. Let alone the American people. (Or the Russians.) I see no use in hating anything. We're in this shit together, if anything.
If we need to do one thing, it's stop letting anyone divide us!
Dear Americans, I will always stand with you, if push comes to shove.
Dear Russians, Germans, or whatever. I will too.
The only thing I expect, is that you do the same.
...you monkeys! Leave Brazil alone!
The figures come amid concerns about the policies of Brazil's newly elected president, Jair Bolsonaro.
Bolsonaro is so evil that he traveled in time and has been causing deforestation for decades!
30+ years of "THE SKY IS FALLING!" consistently proving false, and people waking up to the realities that life really isn't that bad, we're not DOOMED!, and it sucks to have someone else dictate every part of your life. Consider it a bit of a "we want freedom" breakout. Worry about the results, not the "optics" of the action.
Yeah. Plus, leave Brazil alone!
8000 sq km of rainforest is approximately equivalent of 800 million tons of carbon. US mined billion tons of coal and 400 million ton of carbon equivalent in the form of oid/gas. While there is some chance that if we stop clearing rain forest, it will re-develop, there is no chance that if we stop coal/oil/gas mining, they will be replenished. So in absolute terms, in per capita terms and per capita land basis, USA fossil fuel mining released more carbon than Brazil.
The environmentalists' denial of overpopulation as the real issue puts them in the catagory of Just Another Suicide Cult.
Nice 1 ruskie troll!
Watch everyone report this as if it's under the guy who was elected less than a month ago, instead of under the Labour Party who just lost the election.
Conservative trolls online and in the media pushing their agenda, lifestyle, and culture. Along with little organized opposition on the left and whenever a strong one pops up, they are either killed, jailed, or attacked in the media.
Yep America is the worst yet again.
No, they said that it was beef from Brazil that is causing the issues. That would mean that largest consumers of Brazilian beef are to blame. America imports very little Brazilian beef. OTOH, Hong Kong, China and Europe imports the majority of it. That makes Europe, China and Hong Kong the nations responsible for this, using your logic.
http://beef2live.com/story-wor...
America is 4th highest beef consumer in the world. China 47th.
If you look at just totals, which you seem to like to do. America is the #1 consumer of beef in the world.
50% more than China with less than 1/4 the population.
What a surprise, the American apologist once again dismisses America being the worst, and blames China for doing a small fraction of what America does.
Why?
Beef is a global commodity, it matters little which piece of beef you eat. If you are demanding beef, the supply will come from somewhere.
America eats the most beef, America causes the most demand, America is the biggest problem. (Apart from Brazil being dicks of course)
That is not how global supply and demand works. The totals are the relevant bits. Americans have the most demand so they are mostly to blame for the consumption.
Take away American consumption and Brazil wouldn't be able to even profitably sell it's beef any more as the price worldwide would plummet.
Why lie and pretend the link says 100% increase when it doesn't?
You always do this WindBourne. Show some honor for once in your life.
So like the bullshit over the Y2K supposed problem. All that money and effort put in and then nothing happened, what a waste of resources.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism
America imports NO beef from Brazil. They have ZERO impact on Brazil;s meat market. OTOH, Hong kong, China, and Europe import HUGE amounts from them.
Yet, you continue to blame America for this????? PLEASE.
Even earlier you pointed to America's per capita eating, while ignoring the fact that Hong Kong has DOUBLE what America consumes.
Caffeinated Bacon, you are a true idiot and a liar, to boot.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
The newly elected president will put together the agriculture and environment ministries. Not to protect the environment from big agriculture, exactly the opposite. Also, the military complex that tries to deal with this stuff will be given to the USA (yes, we will be another US occupied country). So we will have less protection and less information about what is happening too.
Yet more lies from WindBourne, Show where HongKong has double America's level?
Beef is a global commodity. All demand influences production simpleton. America's demand is the absolute highest in the world as a total amount and top 4 per capita. Only the profoundly ignorant would think it doesn't affect global demand.
Don't focus on that though. Show that you weren't lying first.
To have such a well run country in charge of a resource as valuable as the Amazon. I'm sure the Brazilians will enjoy their new president, I mean they might not get to vote for another one, but that's the joy of giving a vote to a bunch of idiots.
you're going to tell me somebody is illegally chopping up 3 times the size of London without it being noticed?
that's not a few trees here and there they just secretly drag off, something of that size surely must be noticable and you should be able to act on it.
On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.
The Brazilian Rainforest has one of the worst soils in our country for planting or growing anything. It is NOT used to agriculture, ever, unless for its native indians. The Rainforest is deforested for using its WOOD or for extractions of its resources, including by many AMERICAN companies. So, lets not mix things here, fellas.
The absolute majority of grains and livestock are grown and bred in the center and south region of Brasil, Mato Grosso, Goiás, Paraná.
So, let's not hear BS from people that speak about a place they don't really know.