Deforestation a major cause of global warming
Bob Morris @ May 14th 2007 12:44 - Category: Climate change
Slash and burn practices of foresting in many countries produce more greenhouse gases each day than eight million people flying from NYC to London.
Thus, stopping the loggers is a prime solution for climate change.
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4 Responses to “Deforestation a major cause of global warming”
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DJ on 14 May 2007 at 7:17 pm #
Part (but not all) of this problem stems from poverty and overpopulation. There are slash-and-burn farmers who have been using these methods for generations (sometimes centuries). But as population grows, the impact of the forests is greatly increased. And the farmers have no money to try (or in some cases even learn) new agriculture practices.
In Sri Lanka, not far from the Sinharaja rainforest, I met a Buddhist monk who, with funds donated from the UK, was helping some of these farmers convert to sustainable practices, thereby saving hundreds of acres of rainforest.
However to be accurate, in some countries there are also unscrupulous loggers who have no excuse except their own greed.
Bob Morris on 14 May 2007 at 7:36 pm #
It’s not just small farmers. Slash and burn is done on an industrial scale in Indonesia. Huge fires. Big money.
Joe Hartley on 15 May 2007 at 7:18 am #
Are there any data on the mix between big and small farmers using slash and burn? I would think that larger outfits would be more likely to harvest whatever timber is available rather than incinerating it.
Bob Morris on 15 May 2007 at 1:31 pm #
http://www.american.edu/TED/indofire.htm
It is important to note that most of the forest fires in Indonesia are man-made. Much of these fires have been and continue to be set to expand its palm oil, wood pulp and other rubber industry.
http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/briefings/indonesian_forest_fires.html
Forest fires are burning out of control in forest, plantations and scrub-land chiefly in Sumatra and Kalimantan (the Indonesian part of Borneo); it is now estimated that up to 1 million ha is burning. The fires have originated from timber and plantation companies burning land (often illegally)