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What's Driving Forest Deforestation?
Ha - just read this article a few minutes ago myself! No, I couldn't have named the "Big Four" before reading this.
Without reading I'm going to say initially timber, then beef, cotton, soya, oil palm and cocaine.
Thanks, interesting.
Tropical hardwoods are often used to make musical instruments, known as tonewoods. This is because growing near the equator the trees do not experience seasons so do not have annual growth rings.
Tropical hardwoods are often used to make musical instruments, known as tonewoods. This is because growing near the equator the trees do not experience seasons so do not have annual growth rings.
Agreed. Much of the timber is being sent to China, especially from other Asian countries. With any luck now China's growth has slowed and the rest of us have stopped buying so much in the way of consumer goods, China won't need so much timber.
One side effect of deforestation is that the Cambodian tiger has been declared extinct.
One side effect of deforestation is that the Cambodian tiger has been declared extinct.
Population, population & population & a high standard of living.
In 1965 the population of the world was 3.5 billion, it is now
over 7 billion & 2 more billion are scheduled to arrive in
2050. 25% of the rivers do not reach the ocean including the Colorado River, 40% of the land in the world is in agriculture, 1/3 of agriculture water comes from aquifers, the Ogalla Aquifer in the US goes from South Dakota to Texas & will be half gone by 2030, aquifers take a very long time to replenish, Ronald Reagan took the
Solar panels off of the White House that Carter put on, this signal the end of the greatest environmental movement in the history of civilization & corporations spent 1/2 a billion per year to contribute to its demise, & now we have global warming, what can I say? We
have some serious problems.
James Kraus
Knowledge does not bring comfort. Aldo Leopold once wrote
that an ecologist walks in a world of wounds.
James K.
Knowledge sits by itself in books & human minds until it is brought our & shared in the test of community & then it must filter
through & be applied in the realms of politics, economics, science ,religion & culture. We must begin this process & this discussion is one of many places to begin. You & I can do very little without
community, the group, & it will take the world group working together to solve Global Warming!?
James K.
through & be applied in the realms of politics, economics, science ,religion & culture. We must begin this process & this discussion is one of many places to begin. You & I can do very little without
community, the group, & it will take the world group working together to solve Global Warming!?
James K.
Here is something else that is happening. I don't claim to know the science on this, but I suspect that genetically modifying trees is NOT a good thing. Does anyone have more knowledge of this? I received an email about it. See below:
A new genetically engineered ecological catastrophe is coming to the southeastern United States, unless we act now to stop it.
South Carolina-based ArborGen, the Monsanto of genetically engineered (GE) trees, wants “nonregulated status” from the U.S. government for its brand of eucalyptus trees. This would allow ArborGen to plant massive, unregulated GE tree farms that could end up destroying natural forests and habitats, polluting water, endangering biodiversity and wreaking havoc on the environment.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is currently accepting public comments on this proposal. We must speak out to stop ArborGen's request for nonregulated status for its GE trees.
Tell the USDA: No genetically modified eucalyptus trees. Click here to add your name.
Although GE trees are marketed as frost- and pest-resistant, large-scale GE tree production would be disastrous for public health, workers, the climate and the environment. Because tree seeds and pollen can travel hundreds of miles, this genetic material could irreversibly contaminate native trees. Workers and local communities would be exposed to high levels of toxic herbicides and pesticides applied to GE tree plantations. And since many of these fast-growing forests will be clear cut and sold as biofuel replacements and for wood pellet incineration, massive amounts of carbon would be released into the atmosphere, accelerating global warming.1
Activism against ArborGen has been successful before. In 2015, the USDA secretly approved ArborGen's genetically modified loblolly pine tree with no public oversight nor any assessment of the risks it posed to the environment. More than 150,000 CREDO activists signed a petition demanding more government oversight while allies on the ground protested and were arrested in a show of resistance. In the face of mounting pressure, the company quietly revealed it had "moved on to other things."2
The first time ArborGen requested approval of its eucalyptus tree, the public comments were 10,000-to-1 in opposition.3 Let's make sure the USDA hears us loud and clear again that it's time to put an end to this serious threat to our ecosystem and the environment.
Tell the USDA: No genetically modified eucalyptus trees. Click the link below to add your name:
https://act.credoaction.com/sign/no_g...
Thanks for all you do.
Josh Nelson, Deputy Political Director
CREDO Action from Working Assets
Add your name:
Take action now ►
References:
The Campaign to Stop GE Trees, "About GE Trees," accessed May 5, 2017.
Leslie Cantu, "Protesters arrested at ArborGen," The Somerville Journal Scene, Sept. 29, 2015.
GJEP Staff, "Will Donald Trump Impact Future of Genetically Engineered Trees?," The Global Justice Ecology Project, Jan. 12, 2017.
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Post to Twitter
© 2017 CREDO. All rights reserved.
A new genetically engineered ecological catastrophe is coming to the southeastern United States, unless we act now to stop it.
South Carolina-based ArborGen, the Monsanto of genetically engineered (GE) trees, wants “nonregulated status” from the U.S. government for its brand of eucalyptus trees. This would allow ArborGen to plant massive, unregulated GE tree farms that could end up destroying natural forests and habitats, polluting water, endangering biodiversity and wreaking havoc on the environment.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is currently accepting public comments on this proposal. We must speak out to stop ArborGen's request for nonregulated status for its GE trees.
Tell the USDA: No genetically modified eucalyptus trees. Click here to add your name.
Although GE trees are marketed as frost- and pest-resistant, large-scale GE tree production would be disastrous for public health, workers, the climate and the environment. Because tree seeds and pollen can travel hundreds of miles, this genetic material could irreversibly contaminate native trees. Workers and local communities would be exposed to high levels of toxic herbicides and pesticides applied to GE tree plantations. And since many of these fast-growing forests will be clear cut and sold as biofuel replacements and for wood pellet incineration, massive amounts of carbon would be released into the atmosphere, accelerating global warming.1
Activism against ArborGen has been successful before. In 2015, the USDA secretly approved ArborGen's genetically modified loblolly pine tree with no public oversight nor any assessment of the risks it posed to the environment. More than 150,000 CREDO activists signed a petition demanding more government oversight while allies on the ground protested and were arrested in a show of resistance. In the face of mounting pressure, the company quietly revealed it had "moved on to other things."2
The first time ArborGen requested approval of its eucalyptus tree, the public comments were 10,000-to-1 in opposition.3 Let's make sure the USDA hears us loud and clear again that it's time to put an end to this serious threat to our ecosystem and the environment.
Tell the USDA: No genetically modified eucalyptus trees. Click the link below to add your name:
https://act.credoaction.com/sign/no_g...
Thanks for all you do.
Josh Nelson, Deputy Political Director
CREDO Action from Working Assets
Add your name:
Take action now ►
References:
The Campaign to Stop GE Trees, "About GE Trees," accessed May 5, 2017.
Leslie Cantu, "Protesters arrested at ArborGen," The Somerville Journal Scene, Sept. 29, 2015.
GJEP Staff, "Will Donald Trump Impact Future of Genetically Engineered Trees?," The Global Justice Ecology Project, Jan. 12, 2017.
FB Share on Facebook
Post to your wall
Tw Tweet this
Post to Twitter
© 2017 CREDO. All rights reserved.
Even the "replacement" forests that are created to replace a naturally harvested forest have almost no diversity like the original forest they are replacing.
Do you know anything about genetically modifying trees, Robert?
Sounds like a bad idea to me, but I don't have any scientific knowledge about it.
Jan
Sounds like a bad idea to me, but I don't have any scientific knowledge about it.
Jan
Eucalypts are fast growing if they meet the right conditions, especially available water. The wood is very dense which makes it a different proposition to growing poplars, say, which have soft wood that breaks easily if it grows too fast.
I can see an advantage in modifying a tree like an elm to be resistant to Dutch Elm disease. But I am not sure what modifications have been done to this new tree, except that we can expect it will be more resistant to weedkiller. There isn't much that harms or eats eucalypts, except koalas who are permanently drunk from the poisons.
I can see an advantage in modifying a tree like an elm to be resistant to Dutch Elm disease. But I am not sure what modifications have been done to this new tree, except that we can expect it will be more resistant to weedkiller. There isn't much that harms or eats eucalypts, except koalas who are permanently drunk from the poisons.
Palm oil as I have mentioned elsewhere is a major driver of deforestation. The palm trees planted are a comparatively barren environment and local people are forced off their land. Palm fats are very cheap and are being used everywhere as a substitute for butter.
Money Logging: On the Trail of the Asian Timber Mafia
Large and small animals are made extinct through habitat loss and conflict with plantation workers.
Read all ingredient labels. I read the labels on all the boxes of chocolates in the supermarket yesterday. Only one major brand had no palm oil. This was Butlers. Lily O'Brien's had no palm oil in one box but present in a different box. Cadbury's Dairy Milk had palm oil very high on the ingredients listed by weight. The store own brand amazingly had a pack of Turkish Delight thins and one of mint thins which did not contain palm oil. So I will be buying them on the few occasions that I buy boxes. Even the Green and Black organic chocolates had palm oil.
I have posted elsewhere about my experiences trying to buy a butter or dairy spread or olive oil spread that did not contain palm. Kerrygold and Connaught Gold are the only ones I can buy.
Money Logging: On the Trail of the Asian Timber Mafia
Large and small animals are made extinct through habitat loss and conflict with plantation workers.
Read all ingredient labels. I read the labels on all the boxes of chocolates in the supermarket yesterday. Only one major brand had no palm oil. This was Butlers. Lily O'Brien's had no palm oil in one box but present in a different box. Cadbury's Dairy Milk had palm oil very high on the ingredients listed by weight. The store own brand amazingly had a pack of Turkish Delight thins and one of mint thins which did not contain palm oil. So I will be buying them on the few occasions that I buy boxes. Even the Green and Black organic chocolates had palm oil.
I have posted elsewhere about my experiences trying to buy a butter or dairy spread or olive oil spread that did not contain palm. Kerrygold and Connaught Gold are the only ones I can buy.
Clare wrote: "Palm oil as I have mentioned elsewhere is a major driver of deforestation. The palm trees planted are a comparatively barren environment and local people are forced off their land. Palm fats are ve..."
I read the ingredient labels and when possible switch for the brand with no palm oil
I like Paterson's Oatcakes which are made with Sunflower Oil. They switched from Palm Oil a long time ago and they advertise their oatcakes as orangutan friendly. They taste even better than many other brands
I read the ingredient labels and when possible switch for the brand with no palm oil
I like Paterson's Oatcakes which are made with Sunflower Oil. They switched from Palm Oil a long time ago and they advertise their oatcakes as orangutan friendly. They taste even better than many other brands
When you use the right kind of products instead the of the cheapest substitutes to make food it does taste better. Many of the snack foods I ate as a child now look like shiny plastic replicas of what they used to be. Sometimes the ingredients are only used to help the product keep it's appearance. Are there any organizations that list favorable food products to support.
"The Indonesian government filed a lawsuit against palm oil firm P.T. Kallista Alam in 2012 for illegally burning 1,000 hectares (2,470 acres) of the Tripa swamp. Three years later, it was ordered to pay $26 million in fines and reparation. A manager was sentenced to three years in prison. However, the company filed a lawsuit against the government in July and so far no fines have been paid and no prison time has been served."
https://www.yahoo.com/news/ap-photos-...
"The Indonesian government filed a lawsuit against palm oil firm P.T. Kallista Alam in 2012 for illegally burning 1,000 hectares (2,470 acres) of the Tripa swamp. Three years later, it was ordered to pay $26 million in fines and reparation. A manager was sentenced to three years in prison. However, the company filed a lawsuit against the government in July and so far no fines have been paid and no prison time has been served."
https://www.yahoo.com/news/ap-photos-...
Green Palm is an organisation which buys sustainably produced palm oil from farmers who get paid a regular amount of money, not all in one sum on harvest like most.
http://greenpalm.org/
http://greenpalm.org/
https://www.theguardian.com/environme...
Comment from the Guardian on 'certifying destruction' and the loss of orang-utans.
http://www.ethicalconsumer.org/shoppi...
List of palm oil-free products in Ethical Consumer. Quote from them:
"Consumer Power
As consumers we need to use our power at the check out to continue to drive change in the palm oil industry. Pushing companies to buy certified sustainable palm oil is one clear way of doing this.
There is a growing recognition that even if all the big western manufacturers stopped using palm oil, the problems of unsustainable production would not go away.
India and China each consume more palm oil than the EU, and production is projected to increase 50% by 2020. At the same time, Indonesia has just increased subsidies to boost palm oil production for biofuel.
If countries with more developed consumer campaigns turn away from palm oil altogether, the most damaging forms of production may prevail."
Comment from the Guardian on 'certifying destruction' and the loss of orang-utans.
http://www.ethicalconsumer.org/shoppi...
List of palm oil-free products in Ethical Consumer. Quote from them:
"Consumer Power
As consumers we need to use our power at the check out to continue to drive change in the palm oil industry. Pushing companies to buy certified sustainable palm oil is one clear way of doing this.
There is a growing recognition that even if all the big western manufacturers stopped using palm oil, the problems of unsustainable production would not go away.
India and China each consume more palm oil than the EU, and production is projected to increase 50% by 2020. At the same time, Indonesia has just increased subsidies to boost palm oil production for biofuel.
If countries with more developed consumer campaigns turn away from palm oil altogether, the most damaging forms of production may prevail."
I don't believe that sustainable palm oil exists. It is just as ugly as the petroleum business. The only way it can be sustainable if it is is growing in a natural setting where nothing has been done to the land to enhance the yield.
Palm oil is considered sustainable when it does not interfere with it's use as a food. That has absolutely nothing to do with how it is grown. You want to use palm oil, there won't be any more orangutans, as their numbers are not increasing, but steadily decreasing. The palm oil business takes the wild land and changes it into a plantation. To get more palm oil, you need to use more land. The sustainable process is simply leaving some land unaltered for the wild life, but the amount of unaltered land is decreasing. No matter how much they tweak the system to increase the oil yields, which in itself is probably not improving the overall impact of the plantation on the land and life around it, to get the kind of volume they want to produce they will have to use more land.
The sustainable way of doing it is to use land that has been declared to be degraded land. Which is simply old cleared rain forest land that is no longer useful for much of anything. Instead of returning it back to rain forest it is improved by turning the land into a plantation. That allows the the percentage of new rain forest land used for farming to look smaller when compared to the total amount of new land being used for palm oil plantations.
Large scale robust forests do a lot more than look pretty and act as giant carbon sinks. They are fountains of life that can not be duplicated by man that make the planet a healthier place for everything living on it.
In the northeast we have spent the last two hundred years changing large scale functioning forested areas into a checkerboard pattern of discontinuous forested areas that are largely dysfunctional and barren of interconnected living communities of diversity. The final result: superb tick breeding grounds.
"If countries with more developed consumer campaigns turn away from palm oil altogether, the most damaging forms of production may prevail." That works the same way the trophy hunting is used to support wildlife preservation. The only problem is that the hunters kill the best examples of the species, not the worst, as what happens in real life. So the successful genes don't get passed along. When tools are added to the survival of the fittest program, the results have nothing to do with sustainability, only on how long the survivors luck holds out.
Palm oil is also a diesel fuel and while it has a lower production of what is called "total hydrocarbon content" in the exhaust, it has higher levels of other substances in the exhaust that are called carbonyls, such as formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, acetone, and butyraldehyde. The exhaust is composed of very small particles, called particulates, which are difficult to control. They are so fine they can enter the body by simply floating directly through the skin and into the body. The oil itself is highly biodegradeable in water which means the substances it breaks down into will get into the soil and water fairly quickly.
If we insist on using diesel engines, which is a questionable practice in the first place, the best way to produce non petroleum biodegradable diesel fuel is by fermentation using extremely large barrels of bacteria and whatever you wanted to use to ferment it into the fuel. Unfortunately the industry is still in it's infancy and unable to provide vast quantities in a moments notice. Using trees for fuel is the same kind of shortcut we use petroleum fuels for instead of solar or wind based power systems.
One of the main problems is finding things that help the environment rather than harm it when it is used by huge masses of people. The emission cheating software was used by many companies because they all had the same problem, diesel engines are not clean and they are not nonpolluting. Green things that are only used by a few people are of little consequence. The changes have to be carried out by ordinary people which form the bulk of the planet's population. That way the change starts working immediately. Palm oil may just be the last gasping breath of the combustion engine as it is replaced by the electric engine.
Why does palm oil still dominate the supermarket shelves?
https://www.theguardian.com/sustainab...
Palm oil is considered sustainable when it does not interfere with it's use as a food. That has absolutely nothing to do with how it is grown. You want to use palm oil, there won't be any more orangutans, as their numbers are not increasing, but steadily decreasing. The palm oil business takes the wild land and changes it into a plantation. To get more palm oil, you need to use more land. The sustainable process is simply leaving some land unaltered for the wild life, but the amount of unaltered land is decreasing. No matter how much they tweak the system to increase the oil yields, which in itself is probably not improving the overall impact of the plantation on the land and life around it, to get the kind of volume they want to produce they will have to use more land.
The sustainable way of doing it is to use land that has been declared to be degraded land. Which is simply old cleared rain forest land that is no longer useful for much of anything. Instead of returning it back to rain forest it is improved by turning the land into a plantation. That allows the the percentage of new rain forest land used for farming to look smaller when compared to the total amount of new land being used for palm oil plantations.
Large scale robust forests do a lot more than look pretty and act as giant carbon sinks. They are fountains of life that can not be duplicated by man that make the planet a healthier place for everything living on it.
In the northeast we have spent the last two hundred years changing large scale functioning forested areas into a checkerboard pattern of discontinuous forested areas that are largely dysfunctional and barren of interconnected living communities of diversity. The final result: superb tick breeding grounds.
"If countries with more developed consumer campaigns turn away from palm oil altogether, the most damaging forms of production may prevail." That works the same way the trophy hunting is used to support wildlife preservation. The only problem is that the hunters kill the best examples of the species, not the worst, as what happens in real life. So the successful genes don't get passed along. When tools are added to the survival of the fittest program, the results have nothing to do with sustainability, only on how long the survivors luck holds out.
Palm oil is also a diesel fuel and while it has a lower production of what is called "total hydrocarbon content" in the exhaust, it has higher levels of other substances in the exhaust that are called carbonyls, such as formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, acetone, and butyraldehyde. The exhaust is composed of very small particles, called particulates, which are difficult to control. They are so fine they can enter the body by simply floating directly through the skin and into the body. The oil itself is highly biodegradeable in water which means the substances it breaks down into will get into the soil and water fairly quickly.
If we insist on using diesel engines, which is a questionable practice in the first place, the best way to produce non petroleum biodegradable diesel fuel is by fermentation using extremely large barrels of bacteria and whatever you wanted to use to ferment it into the fuel. Unfortunately the industry is still in it's infancy and unable to provide vast quantities in a moments notice. Using trees for fuel is the same kind of shortcut we use petroleum fuels for instead of solar or wind based power systems.
One of the main problems is finding things that help the environment rather than harm it when it is used by huge masses of people. The emission cheating software was used by many companies because they all had the same problem, diesel engines are not clean and they are not nonpolluting. Green things that are only used by a few people are of little consequence. The changes have to be carried out by ordinary people which form the bulk of the planet's population. That way the change starts working immediately. Palm oil may just be the last gasping breath of the combustion engine as it is replaced by the electric engine.
Why does palm oil still dominate the supermarket shelves?
https://www.theguardian.com/sustainab...
Thanks, Robert. I expect you find it as hard as I do to buy products made without palm oil. Keep telling the supermarket and manufacturer what you want.
The recently released 'Paradise Papers' from the Independent Consortium of Investigative Journalists contain this complex tale of heavy international funding for Indonesian deforestation. Followed by tax avoidance, labyrinthine use of shell companies and secretive money trails.
Note that a major use of the wood has been pulp.
The smog produced by the burning has been called a crime against humanity.
https://www.irishtimes.com/business/p...
Note that a major use of the wood has been pulp.
The smog produced by the burning has been called a crime against humanity.
https://www.irishtimes.com/business/p...
https://engage.us.greenpeace.org/onli...
From the above link:
Kit Kat. Colgate toothpaste. Johnson's Baby Lotion. Dove. Doritos. Kellogg's Pop Tarts. Ritz crackers. M&M's. Head & Shoulders.
Almost ten years ago the makers of these products promised to stop buying palm oil from rainforest destroyers. But we discovered these companies aren't keeping that promise.
These companies buy their palm oil from Wilmar — the dirtiest palm oil giant in the world — fuelling destruction, forest fires, and human rights abuses across Indonesia.
Palm oil does not have to come from rainforest destruction. But Wilmar won't change until big companies stop buying its dirty palm oil.
Tell big companies to drop Wilmar before it's too late for Indonesia's rainforests.
From the above link:
Kit Kat. Colgate toothpaste. Johnson's Baby Lotion. Dove. Doritos. Kellogg's Pop Tarts. Ritz crackers. M&M's. Head & Shoulders.
Almost ten years ago the makers of these products promised to stop buying palm oil from rainforest destroyers. But we discovered these companies aren't keeping that promise.
These companies buy their palm oil from Wilmar — the dirtiest palm oil giant in the world — fuelling destruction, forest fires, and human rights abuses across Indonesia.
Palm oil does not have to come from rainforest destruction. But Wilmar won't change until big companies stop buying its dirty palm oil.
Tell big companies to drop Wilmar before it's too late for Indonesia's rainforests.
Thanks, Jimmy.
I don't buy any of those products, as it happens, but who knew Head & Shoulders contained palm oil (and why?)
I don't buy any of those products, as it happens, but who knew Head & Shoulders contained palm oil (and why?)
Wilmar promises to enforce green palm oil policies
Map all of its palm oil suppliers
Use satellites to monitor them
Suspend any suppliers that destroy forests
https://www.ecowatch.com/palm-oil-wil...
Map all of its palm oil suppliers
Use satellites to monitor them
Suspend any suppliers that destroy forests
https://www.ecowatch.com/palm-oil-wil...
The Iceland supermarket chain has a video out, referred to in other threads. A YouTube search for 'orangutan in my bedroom' should find it.
The owner decided after a visit to palm oil plantations that there was no such thing as sustainable palm oil, and directed his store own brand goods to be palm oil free by the end of the next year.
The owner decided after a visit to palm oil plantations that there was no such thing as sustainable palm oil, and directed his store own brand goods to be palm oil free by the end of the next year.
At least if the own brand goods are free of it, consumers have a choice. If all the goods use it, they have no choice.
Cocoa production is removing rainforests even while agreements are in place to limit the practice.
https://e360.yale.edu/features/the-re...
https://e360.yale.edu/features/the-re...
Here's a look inside Zimbabwe, where drought is causing deforestation. The reason is that the one hydropower dam doesn't have enough water, so the power only comes on overnight, so people have to buy wood to cook dinner.
Just as with North Korea, the people are left in darkness due to the actions of their dictator, who could buy outside fuel but doesn't like foreign currency or what power he'd need to relinquish to get it. That's the impression I've got anyway.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa...
Just as with North Korea, the people are left in darkness due to the actions of their dictator, who could buy outside fuel but doesn't like foreign currency or what power he'd need to relinquish to get it. That's the impression I've got anyway.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa...
The rate of Brazil's deforestation has sped up since political leadership changed. Experts warn that when tipping points are reached much of the rainforest could turn to savannah.
https://www.ecowatch.com/amazon-defor...?
More about the policies and illegal logging.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/201...
Here is a site from Brazil.
TerraBrasilis Alertas
Hands up anyone who speaks Portuguese? Well, it's mainly a few graphics, charts and we get the idea. I can work out some of the labels. Cicatriz is a scar, so cicatriz di incendia floresta is probably a scar from forest fires.
http://terrabrasilis.dpi.inpe.br/app/...#
https://www.ecowatch.com/amazon-defor...?
More about the policies and illegal logging.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/201...
Here is a site from Brazil.
TerraBrasilis Alertas
Hands up anyone who speaks Portuguese? Well, it's mainly a few graphics, charts and we get the idea. I can work out some of the labels. Cicatriz is a scar, so cicatriz di incendia floresta is probably a scar from forest fires.
http://terrabrasilis.dpi.inpe.br/app/...#
You don't need to be an environmentalist to want to breathe.
Indonesia's capital Jakarta is experiencing appalling air pollution. The cause is not mentioned in this article, but people are looking for answers.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-08-0...
One major reason is going to be the smoke from burning peatlands. Forests were felled for lumber and to plant oil palm trees. The clearcut areas were burned to stop saplings growing, and burn branches. Peat underneath dried out and smouldered, and can't be quenched.
A story from 2017.
https://news.mongabay.com/2017/11/how...
And 2019.
https://news.mongabay.com/2019/03/no-...
Indonesia's capital Jakarta is experiencing appalling air pollution. The cause is not mentioned in this article, but people are looking for answers.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-08-0...
One major reason is going to be the smoke from burning peatlands. Forests were felled for lumber and to plant oil palm trees. The clearcut areas were burned to stop saplings growing, and burn branches. Peat underneath dried out and smouldered, and can't be quenched.
A story from 2017.
https://news.mongabay.com/2017/11/how...
And 2019.
https://news.mongabay.com/2019/03/no-...
In areas where there are few regulations it is not surprising that situations just seem to arise out of nowhere. The natural world zone we live in is now saturated with our industrial efforts and any thing that will cause scenarios to precipitate out will do so sooner rather than later. It's the same way crystals grow, as the solution becomes more saturated, the sooner and faster the crystals grow.
People still want to believe that the world is a bottomless pit that we can toss anything into it without any sort of consequences. At one point it was, but serving 8 billion people that situation is now in the rear view mirror. Global change is real, the changes are real, and they are not going to stop changing. While the sun continues to rise the same way it does everyday, that no longer carries over to the weather we have, it no longer does the same thing everyday.
People still want to believe that the world is a bottomless pit that we can toss anything into it without any sort of consequences. At one point it was, but serving 8 billion people that situation is now in the rear view mirror. Global change is real, the changes are real, and they are not going to stop changing. While the sun continues to rise the same way it does everyday, that no longer carries over to the weather we have, it no longer does the same thing everyday.
I write poetry in which I combine environmental changes with everyday occurrences presented from a impersonal viewpoint that uses momentum to propel past events into current present time happenings. The past is not forgotten, it is propelled straight into the future that creates the current day's happenings, bypassing whatever moments of now we are occupying.
Here's an odd one.
Mass hysteria among schoolgirls in a restrictive environment is causing tree felling.
You need to read down a bit, but this occurs in Malaysia where the girls are in Muslim boarding schools with very little freedom, and an older religious attitude sees spirits in nature.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-4...
Mass hysteria among schoolgirls in a restrictive environment is causing tree felling.
You need to read down a bit, but this occurs in Malaysia where the girls are in Muslim boarding schools with very little freedom, and an older religious attitude sees spirits in nature.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-4...
Offer more money in carbon credits than they make cutting them down and mass logging will stop.
In CA, the supposed bastion of progressiveness, excuse while I laugh my guts out, the thing is to blame the trees for the fires. It's all the TREES fault you see, not the developers that put homes in a fire-prone ecosystem. Not the planners and Boards of Stuporvisors that approved all these developments in the first place and of course, no one wants to talk about that CA is still building new homes OUT OF WOOD, the same thing cleared off the landscape to "stop the fires". Oh, and yes, gosh, the Board of Forestry and the State Fire Dept were combined into one agency called Calfire. Yes, our Forestry Dept is IN our fire dept. Gosh, no conflict there. So you can at present get state "grants" to log your property of course, for "public safety", but not to save your trees.
In fact, you can practically napalm your property and as long as you call it "fire safety", hey, no problem!
There is some hope but it is the lobbying by the forestry industry and building industry that has CA by the b alls.
Some hope:
https://www.ucapture.com/projects/pro...
In CA, the supposed bastion of progressiveness, excuse while I laugh my guts out, the thing is to blame the trees for the fires. It's all the TREES fault you see, not the developers that put homes in a fire-prone ecosystem. Not the planners and Boards of Stuporvisors that approved all these developments in the first place and of course, no one wants to talk about that CA is still building new homes OUT OF WOOD, the same thing cleared off the landscape to "stop the fires". Oh, and yes, gosh, the Board of Forestry and the State Fire Dept were combined into one agency called Calfire. Yes, our Forestry Dept is IN our fire dept. Gosh, no conflict there. So you can at present get state "grants" to log your property of course, for "public safety", but not to save your trees.
In fact, you can practically napalm your property and as long as you call it "fire safety", hey, no problem!
There is some hope but it is the lobbying by the forestry industry and building industry that has CA by the b alls.
Some hope:
https://www.ucapture.com/projects/pro...
Robert wrote: "I write poetry in which I combine environmental changes with everyday occurrences presented from a impersonal viewpoint that uses momentum to propel past events into current present time happenings..."
Epigrams.
Epigrams.
A side bar article has the exact opposite intentions. Leaked Documents Show Brazil’s Bolsonaro Has Grave Plans for Amazon Rainforest.
Rainfall in the Amazon has been decreasing. Supposedly rainfall in tropical forested areas react to increased carbon dioxide levels by decreasing the amount of rainfall they receive. Apparently above a certain level of high tree density, the forest chemistry interacts with the rainfall. The rainfall overall is increasing so it comes down in other places or redistributes itself in different patterns.
As rainfall decreases in the Amazon it increases over the Andes. India's monsoon totals are decreasing while the rainfall is increasing outside of the monsoon season. At the same time the duration of dry spells is increasing.
It does appear that arid areas are receiving more rainfall in random episodes and areas that are not tropical and are not arid are receiving increasing amounts of rainfall, possibly throughout the entire year.
https://www.ecowatch.com/leaked-docum...
Rainfall in the Amazon has been decreasing. Supposedly rainfall in tropical forested areas react to increased carbon dioxide levels by decreasing the amount of rainfall they receive. Apparently above a certain level of high tree density, the forest chemistry interacts with the rainfall. The rainfall overall is increasing so it comes down in other places or redistributes itself in different patterns.
As rainfall decreases in the Amazon it increases over the Andes. India's monsoon totals are decreasing while the rainfall is increasing outside of the monsoon season. At the same time the duration of dry spells is increasing.
It does appear that arid areas are receiving more rainfall in random episodes and areas that are not tropical and are not arid are receiving increasing amounts of rainfall, possibly throughout the entire year.
https://www.ecowatch.com/leaked-docum...
Virginia wrote: "Offer more money in carbon credits than they make cutting them down and mass logging will stop.
In CA, the supposed bastion of progressiveness, excuse while I laugh my guts out, the thing is to bl..."
Thanks Virginia, good to see another side of the story. Carbon credits are potentially a kind of blackmail situation though. Stop paying and in come the loggers.
In CA, the supposed bastion of progressiveness, excuse while I laugh my guts out, the thing is to bl..."
Thanks Virginia, good to see another side of the story. Carbon credits are potentially a kind of blackmail situation though. Stop paying and in come the loggers.
Proposed changes by Mr Trump, in order to deforest a swathe of Alaskan wilderness.
https://www.ecowatch.com/amazon-wildf...
https://www.ecowatch.com/amazon-wildf...
Books mentioned in this topic
Heida: A Shepherd at the Edge of the World (other topics)The People's Republic of Chemicals (other topics)
The Urban Birder (other topics)
Orangutan: A Day in the Rainforest Canopy (other topics)
A Most Peculiar Malaysian Murder (other topics)
More...
http://www.ucsusa.org/global-warming/...