NAME: RAINFRST DESTRUCT Brf description: NYT: damage far worse than prev estimates --Harel ################################################################## [Send the 1-line message GET RAINFRST DESTRUCT ACTIV-L to] [LISTSERV@UMCVMB.BITNET for a copy of this file. ] [Send GET ACTIV-L ARCHIVE ACTIV-L to above address for a ] [listing with brief descriptions of other files available] - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ================================= Loss of Tropical Forests Is Found Much Worse Than Was Thought ================================= By Philip Shabecoff, Special to the New York Times Friday, June 8, 1990 NY Times ================================================ Study Sees Climate Peril and `Tragedy' for World ================================================ "WASHINGTON, June 7 -- Tropical forests, which play a vital role in regulating the global climate, are disappearing much more rapidly than previously estimated, an international research group said today. Each year recently, 40 Million to 50 million acres of tropical forest, an area the size of Washington state, has been vanishing.... "The rate of loss, measured in most countries in 1987, was nearly 50 percent greater than the last global estimate, prepared by the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization in 1980, according to the Institute. `"We were startled to uncover this rate of global deforestation' said James Gustave Speth, president of the institute.. `We were saying we were losing the forests at an acre a second, but it is much closer to an acre and a half a second'... "Senator Patrick Leahy, Democrat of Vermont and chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, said in a statement: `This is the first reliable data we've had on tropical deforestation in 10 years. A situation we knew was bleak is now shown to be truly horrendous.'... "The report, `World Resources 1990-91,' prepared [by the World Resources Institute] in collaboration with the United Nations...was based on remote sensing date from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Landsat satellites... "Since preagricultural times, the report said, the world has lost about one-fifth of all its forests, from more than 12 billion acres to under 10 billion acres...Brazil, with the largest remaining tropical forests area, is also experiencing the worst losses -- between 12.5 million and 22.5 million acres [per] year... Myanmar (formerly Burma)is loosing 1.7 million acres per year, more than 500 times the 1980 estimate by the Food and Agricultural Organization. India, according to the data, is losing its forests at the rate of 3.7 million acres per year. Large areas legally designated as forest land `are already virtually treeless,'... ================================= N O T E : ================================= Re: "Each year recently, 40 Million to 50 million acres of tropical forest, an area the size of Washington state, has been vanishing..." and "Since preagricultural times, the report said, the world has lost about one-fifth of all its forests, from more than 12 billion acres to under 10 billion acres..." The 10 billion figure refers to *all* forests; in pasting together excerpts from the article, I missed: ------------------------------------------------------------ "The group said 1.9 billion acres of TROPICAL FOREST remained" ------------------------------------------------------------ So the rate is roughly 50M/2B, or about 2.5% [1/40] of all rainforests on planet earth are destroyed each year (going by 1987 rates)... I don't [*some* people will still want to think of these as "small" figures, not realizing that maybe 5% or 10% per year could well mean "too late" by the time we know what hit us.] ================================= E N D O F N O T E ================================= "The group's report said that in nine major tropical countries, the estimates of total annual losses of tropical-forest acreage were about four times as high as estimates from the years 1981 to 1985...however, in Brazil, the rate of deforestation declined in 1988 from 1987, largely because the levels from the latter year were the highest on record for that country" ------------------------------------------------------------------ Estimated annual loss of tropical forest in nine key countries (in Thousands of acres) ------------------------------------------------------------------ 1981-1985 estimates Recent Estimates Vietnam 161 427 Thailand 437 981 Philippines 227 353 Myanmar (Burma) 254 1,673 Indonesia 1,482 2,224 India 363 3,707 Costa Rica 160 306 Cameroon 198 247 Brazil 3,657 19,768 [From: U.N. Food & Agriculture Organization;World Resources Institute] ------------------------------------------------------------------ "The disappearance of tropical forests is regarded by environmental experts as one of the most serious global environmental problems. Through photosynthesis, the forests absorb huge quantities of carbon dioxide, the most important of the gases that are accumulating in the atmosphere. Many scientists believe that carbon dioxide, if not kept in check, will cause a significant warming of the earth in the next century, through a process known as the greenhouse effect "As tropical forests shrink, their capacity to absorb carbon dioxide declines, thereby hastening the onset and increasing the magnitude of the warming phenomenon. Moreover, as the vegetation from the cut forests decays or is burned, it emits more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. "The tropical forests also contain the largest and most diverse population of plant and animal species of any habitat in the world. As the forests vanish, so do many of these species, many before they ever have been discovered, named and analyzed for possible use by human beings. Tropical forest generally have infertile soil because most of the nutrients are in the vegetation, not the soil. Thus, when these forests are cleared they tend to regenerate very slowly, if at all." "the World Resources report also contains a new index of countries that are the greatest net contributors to the atmosphere of carbon dioxide, chlorofluorocarbons and methanes, the major gases contributing to global warming. The U.S. and S.U. are the first and second-largest net producers of these greenhouse gases, the report found, adding that if the European Community were considered a single country, it would rank second behind the U.S. But the next three countries on the index, surprisingly, were developing nations: Brazil, China and India" ################################################################## [I've re-ordered some of the excerpts from the original article --HB] ################################################################## Originally appeared as: Activists List #11, R-forest ALERT Satuarday, June 9, 1990 ================================= To get a file named ABC XYZ from the archiver (all file names are two words separated by a space), one sends the 1-line message GET ABC XYZ ACTIV-L to: LISTSERV@UMCVMB.BITNET ================================= ################################################################## For more information about ACTIV-L or PeaceNet's brochure, send inquiries to harel@dartmouth.edu ################################################################### # Harel Barzilai for Activists Mailing List (AML) # ################################################################### To join AML, just send the message "SUB ACTIV-L " to the address: LISTSERV@UMCVMB.BITNET; you should then receive a message confirming that your name has been added to the list. 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