Cl is correct in this. We also must recognize that indeed the biggest problems are NOT from Third World countries, contrary to popular belief - it is OUR problem, not somebody else's. For example, as mentioned, Brazil has 100 million FEWER people on the same amount of land as the USA - gross figures. BUT, those people are actually MUCH more urban than rural, so there is much more still "natural" land in Brazil than just looking at those numbers. But, of the land being damaged, what of those causes? Globalization. Soy, that goes to China and the USA and Europe. The huge populations in those countries DRIVE the problems in the third world, because the economics revolves around the rich folks. Soy production in Brazil is on a much greater scale than small farmers who cut the forest to eke out a living. In Africa and parts of Asia, where populations are larger, perhaps cutting for firewood is a big problem, but in other parts logging to feed the Japanese and Chinese markets are more important.
So, no matter how you look at it, the conservation problems follow the money. So, the solution is to follow the money to the source of the problem. Jim Cara Lin Bridgman wrote: > The thing that bothers me about most of these sorts of humans vs > environment discussions is how the focus tends to be on population--as > if we could just solve the problem of third world population growth, > then everything would be hunky-dory. It tends to turn our biggest > environmental problems into 'somebody else's problem.' > > CL > > Please note my new-old email address: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > Cara Lin Bridgman > > P.O. Box 013 Phone: 886-4-2632-5484 > Longjing Sinjhuang > Taichung County 434 > Taiwan http://megaview.com.tw/~caralin/ > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -- James J. Roper, Ph.D. James J. Roper Ecologia e Dinâmicas Populacionais de Vertebrados Terrestres ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Caixa Postal 19034 81531-990 Curitiba, Paraná, Brasil ------------------------------------------------------------------------ E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Telefone: 55 41 33857249 celular: 55 41 99870543 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ecologia e Conservação na UFPR <http://www.bio.ufpr.br/ecologia/> Econciência - Consultoria e Traduções <http://jjroper.googlespages.com> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
