hello bart,
strange to hear THAT from you, who seems to come around in this
world more than most of us:
>This is perhaps a good point at which to remind people that Patrick
>Moore of Greenpeace recently held a news conference during which he
>rather thoroughly debunked most of the hysteria regarding the alleged
>disappearance of the Amazon rain forest. Moore, in conjunction with
>some other environmentalists and the Brazilian Ministry of Environment
>(?)
even stranger. it was this same ministry, that told us in 1995 of
ENORMOUS losses in their rain forests (source available on demand,
but i will have to do a search on several of my cd-roms.)
>In the end, the actual rate is many orders of magnitude less than the
>numbers set forward by rain forest activists.
i don't know the percentages given by activists, but here are
numbers from scientific sources:
International Comparisons Worldwide
76% of original primary forest worldwide destroyed by late 1980's
(Postel and Ryan 1991 from various sources).
ca. 50% of original area of tropical forest worldwide destroyed
(Postel and Ryan 1991 from various sources).
55% of original coastal temperate rainforest worldwide logged
(Kellogg 1992). North and Central America and Caribbean
41% of original coastal temperate rainforest in North America
logged (Kellogg 1992).
48% of original primary forest destroyed in Canada by late 1980's
(Postel and Ryan 1991 from various sources).
60% of oldgrowth forests in Canada lost to logging (World
Resources Institute 1992).
57% of original coastal temperate rainforest in British Columbia
logged (Kellogg 1992).
ca. 66% each of Atlantic salt marshes, prairie wetlands, and
Pacific estuarine marshes in Canada destroyed (Ryan 1992).
>90% of southern Mexico's rainforest destroyed (Ross 1992).
45% of Mexico's remaining forest significantly disturbed (The
Nature Conservancy 1986).
60% loss of primary forest in Guatemala (The Nature Conservancy
1989b).
98% loss of dry forest in western central America (Jordan 1987;
McLarney 1989). Virtually all dry forest in West Indies destroyed
(Ray 1992).
>99% of original forest in Puerto Rico destroyed by 1900,
although coffee plantations covering 9% of island contained
remnant individual dominant trees (Brash 1987; Weaver 1989).
75% loss of primary forest in Jamaica (The Nature Conservancy
1989c).
South America
37% of original primary forest destroyed in Brazil by late 1980's
(Postel and Ryan 1991 from various sources).
10% of Brazilian Amazon forests destroyed (Ryan 1992).
98.5% of Brazilian Atlantic coastal forests destroyed (McNeely
etal. 1990).
40% of original primary forest destroyed in Peru by late 1980's
(Postel and Ryan 1991 from various sources).
29% of original primary forest destroyed in Venezuela by late
1980's (Postel and Ryan 1991 from various sources).
74% of original primary forest destroyed in Columbia by late
1980's (Postel and Ryan 1991 from various sources).
ca. 50% of mangroves cleared in Ecuador (Ryan 1992).
58% of original coastal temperate rainforests in Chile and
Argentina logged (Kellogg 1992).
Africa and Madagascar
65% of original wildlife habitat lost in Africa south of the
Sahara (IUN/UNebr.P 1986a).
44% of original primary forest destroyed in Zaire by late 1980's
(Postel and Ryan 1991 from various sources).
70-80% of original forest, savannah, and wetlands in Nigeria
destroyed (World Resources Institute 1992).
70% loss of mangrove forests in Mozambique over last 20 years
(World Resources Institute 1992).
>90% of natural vegetation of Madagascar destroyed (Raven 1986).
75% loss of forests in Madagascar (World Resources Institute
1992).
Asia
67% of original wildlife habitat lost in tropical Asia (IUCN/UNEP
1986b).
94% of original vegetation of Bangladesh destroyed (WRI, IUN, UNP
1992).
58% of original primary forest destroyed in Papua New Guinea by
late 1980's (Postel and Ryan 1991 from various sources).
57% of original primary forest destroyed in Indonesia by late
1980's (Postel and Ryan 1991 from various sources).
>75% of mangrove forests destroyed in India, Pakistan, and
Thailand (Ryan 1992).
99% of original primary forest destroyed in China by late 1980's
(Postel and Ryan 1991 from various sources). Australia and New
Zealand
95% of original primary forest destroyed in Australia by late
1980's (Postel and Ryan 1991 from various sources).
15% of original coastal temperate rainforest in Australia logged
(Kellogg 1992).
76% of original primary forest destroyed in New Zealand by late
1980's (Postel and Ryan 1991 from various sources).
72% of original coastal temperate rainforest in New Zealand
logged (Kellogg 1992).
(literature avail. on request)
is this greenpeace-guy looking for a job at freeport-mcmoran in
new orleans, from which even the own government had to cut 100
mio in federal insurance due to international protests from the
united nations or did he get lost in dark south american city
brothels full of loggers returning from the rain forests and
listened to what they told him when he was on his 10th glas of
whisky ??
klaus
---------------
klaus wiegand
+-[Quote of the day, powered by k. wiegand]----+
| |
| "The choice of an MBA's reading material |
| is a matter of time and taste. The reason |
| why some of us have not yet got around |
| to reading Anna Karenina may simply be |
| because we don't like Dickens." |
| from a Letter to the Editor, |
| the Toronto Globe and Mail |
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