From: John Clancy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Fw: DEATH SENTENCE FOR AMAZON RAIN FOREST
Date: Sun, 21 Jan 2001
NOTE: As the world races toward environmental oblivion, the
"leaders" of Brazil are speeding toward the destruction of the
world's remaining lungs as they prepare to eliminate the massive
amazon rain forest. Woe to all citizens who are complacently
dreaming of a decent future for themselves and their offspring. RR
Death sentence for the Amazon
Scientists say $40bn project is set to destroy 95 per cent of
rainforest by 2020
By Steve Connor, Science Editor
19 January 2001
The most detailed investigation of the fate of the world's greatest
tropical rainforest estimates that as little as 5per cent of the
Amazon may remain in its pristine, wild state by 2020.
This pessimistic scenario is painted by a team of Brazilian and
American scientists who have analysed how the delicate Amazon
ecosystem will respond to a new $40bn road development project.
Although the Amazon now accounts for about 40 per cent of the
Earth's rainforest, the scientists believe that within 20 years this
will have dwindled alarmingly as a direct result of an ambitious
scheme, known as Avanca Brasil, to "Advance Brazil" by building
roads, railways and hydroelectric dams.
The scientists accuse the Brazilian government of fast-tracking the
project by keeping out environmental agencies � including its own
Environment Ministry � thus accelerating logging and deforestation.
"Once a road or highway is built, a Pandora's box is opened which is
almost impossible for a government to control," said William
Laurance, of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama,
who led the study. "Once you build a road into a pristine forest you
start an inevitable process of illegal colonisation, logging, land-
clearing and forest destruction."
Using satellite pictures, the team developed computer models to
predict the course of forest destruction based on what has happened
to the Amazon over the past 20 years of road building and
development.
"We used the past as a guide to the future. We looked at the entire
network of roads and highways in the Amazon to see how deforestation
occurs in the region of a new road," said Dr Laurance. "There's
really nothing that has been done that approaches the scale of what
we've done. Our computer model is very comprehensive."
The study, published today in the journal Science, shows two
possible scenarios: "optimistic" and "non-optimistic" futures. Both
suggest that the Amazon will be drastically altered by current
development schemes. Under the less optimistic scenario, more than
95 per cent of the Amazon will lose its untouched status and 42 per
cent of the forest will be totally denuded or heavily degraded by
2020. Even under the more optimistic view, well over half of Amazonia
will no longer be in a pristine state and about 30 per cent will be
lost forever.
The Amazon is already experiencing the most rapacious destruction
seen in any rainforest in the world, with the loss of almost 5
million acres a year. However, the Avanca Brasil plan will increase
this rate of loss by between 14 per cent and 25 per cent each year,
according to the study. "At stake is the fate of the greatest
tropical rainforest on Earth," the scientists say.
Dr Laurance said that road building is by far the most potentially
destructive aspect of the development programme because of the way it
fragments the rainforest into smaller and increasingly unviable
segments. "To eat a pie efficiently you chop it into smaller pieces,
which is what these development projects have been doing to the
Amazon," he said.
Several international and domestic attempts are under way to
preserve the Amazon, including a $340m grant from the G7 nations, but
these efforts "pale in comparison to the scale of the ongoing and
planned development activities" � currently funded to the tune of
$40bn from 2000 to 2007, the scientists say.
<http://www.independent.co.uk/cgi-
bin/click.pl?loc=http://www.telme.com/indedig/>
Related links: <http://www.extremescience.com/AmazonRiver.htm>Amazon
river| <http://www.mbarron.net/Amazon/bigmap.htm>Large map of the
Amazon| <http://www.mbarron.net/Amazon/factfile.htm>Amazon facts|
<http://www.mbarron.net/Amazon/wildlife.htm>Amazon wildfife|
<http://www.mbarron.net/Amazon/gallery.htm>Image gallery|
<http://www.encyclopedia.com/articles/00408.html>Amazon Encyclopedia|
<http://www.bigchalk.com/cgi-
bin/WebObjects/WOPortal.woa/27/wa/BCCorpDA/generic?page=DolphinsMain&
type=RivDolph>Amazon river dolphins|
<http://www.robinsonresearch.com/S-AMER/THE_LAND/Amazon.htm>The
mighty Amazon| <http://jajhs.kana.k12.wv.us/amazon/rsize.htm>Amazon
data comaparison|
<http://library.thinkquest.org/21395/graphics/climate/>The Amazon and
climate|
<http://library.thinkquest.org/21395/graphics/climate/tropics.html>Cl
imate and the tropics|
<http://library.thinkquest.org/21395/graphics/deforestation/>Deforest
ation|
<http://library.thinkquest.org/21395/graphics/deforestation/fit.html>
Where do we fit in?|
<www/legal.shtml>© 2001 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd. " JC
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