Just three remarks here :
1) The rate of destruction is not stable but rather increasing from year to
year.
2) Even if the destruction were the same from year to year, the damage would
be compounded since the total forest is smaller year by year.
3) It is far from certain that man will be able to cut the full 5 million
square kilometers. A small rainforest is an ecological inconsistency. Once
enough has gone, the rest may disappear from itself.
John
----- Original Message -----
From: Bluestem Associates <bluestem@webserf.net>
To: <sanet-mg@ces.ncsu.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, June 27, 2000 11:13 PM
Subject: Amazon numbers
> 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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