1/40th of the World’s Rainforests Cleared in 5 Years

A satellite image shows where the dark green pristine forest areas in the Brazil rainforest are being encroached upon by the light green and brown deforested areas.

I am so sick of having to save the rainforest. Really, it boggles my mind that there are still people out there who think it’s okay to cut it down. It’s amazing that some people just don’t care. We’re screwing over the planet a few acres at a time. That’s why news like this is so very depressing.

From Seattlepi.com:

The remote-sensing work lead by Matthew Hansen of South Dakota State University says that from 2000 to 2005 alone, we managed to chop down 2.5 percent of the world’s rainforests. That’s 1/40th of the whole!

Hansen and his team used Landsat photography to measure the forest loss — meaning they didn’t have to reply on notoriously incomplete estimates from governments, which in some cases don’t even know the clearing is going on.

This new research shows that Brazil accounts for nearly half of global deforestation. Brazil alone! Since Brazil is a ‘developing country’, they’re exempt from the Kyoto treaty and thus have no motivation to protect the ‘lungs of the world’. They’re trying to build their economy through cutting down rainforest to plant fields for sugar cane and biofuels, as well as for logging.

It seems like well-off countries need to step in to help Brazil’s economy in a way that doesn’t sacrifice the rainforests. And, consumers need to stop buying Brazilian wood. There are plenty of alternatives out there.

The world without rainforests will not be a pleasant place to be.

Link [Seattlepi.com]
Photo credit: NASA Earth Observatory

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