On 27 Jun 00 18:00:35, Roberto Verzola wrote:
>You say "most highly publicised numbers are goofy", without citing the
>numbers. This is not acceptable. When you accuse, be specific, so the
>other side can defend themselves. What are those numbers? Where were
>they publicized? We'll look at the numbers, compute "many orders of
>magnitude less", and then see for ourselves which numbers are "goofy".
I myself have heard numbers like 4 football fields a second, 10
football fields a second, 13 football fields a second, and so on,
tossed out in conversations and appeals (by music groups, amongst
others) about Amazon forest loss. Moore apparently was reacting to
similar, and perhaps even more extreme, claims.
Define a football field as half a hectare (100 x 50 metres, more or
less). Current cutting rates are on the order of 10,000 square
kilometres per year, in a forest complex of roughly 5 million square
kilometres. That is roughly 4 football fields per minute, or 28 square
kilometres per day, which seems like a lot, until you realise it
amounts to about 1/4 % of the forest complex annually.
The extreme claims by *some* activists (using the numbers in my first
paragraph) work out to 240, 600, and 780 football fields per minute. In
round numbers, two or three orders of magnitude greater than current
rates.
I heard *clips* from Moore's press conference. The best thing for
anyone interested in more details is to contact Moore's outfit
themselves --- the only address I have seen is 4068 West 32nd ave,
Vancouver, BC, V6S 1Z6. Film maker Marc Morano has apparently
produced a video with Moore's help, available from 888-200-8273. I have
not seen it, as I have no television, but it is supposed to contain
some of the satellite imagery used by the Brazilian Ministry of the
Environment.
Bart
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