Amazon Deforestation Accelerates

[All Seeing Eye]

The destruction of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil has accelerated for the first time in four years, Brazilian officials say.
Satellite images show 11,968 sq km of land was cleared in the year to July, nearly 4% higher than the year before.
The government said the figure was unsatisfactory but could have been a lot worse if it had not taken action against illegal logging.
High commodity prices had allegedly tempted farmers to clear more land.

LINK

When is common sense going to kick in? The Amazon is only so big, it's a finite resource and it's the lungs of the world. I know the world needs wood but what would people rather have, wood or oxygen to breath? and i'm talking about legal as well as illegal logging here.
There needs to be major worldwide investment in planting new trees because the way things are going we're heading for a global catastrophe. Also I think we need to see about using alternate materials for construction other than wood.

 

[Holdfast]

Well, they wouldn't use up the trees so quickly if they didn't make & sell so many books...

 

[All Seeing Eye]

Well, they wouldn't use up the trees so quickly if they didn't make & sell so many books...

Indeed, why don't they just bring out cheap portable flat screen devices that can have memory sticks inserted into them so you can read the books. I mean why buy a book when you can buy a memory stick with the information on?

I understand the need to have actual books but we can just have Libraries for that, store the actual books in Libraries but when you come to buy a book sell them as memory sticks.

Also the device I mentioned, they could have it in the shape of a book and a decent size which you can open up like a book and it has a screen on each side of it (similar to a nintendo DS but bigger and a lot better) and in the bottom corner of each screen you have a turn page touchscreen button and there can be an option to jump to a specific page number.

 

[Mallory]

Trees are a renewable resource, just like any other crop. Yeah, they take 50 or 60 years to get back to where they were before the harvest, but the point is that you can have a sustainable harvest by not being greedy. You just have to be sure that you're not over harvesting and that you replant for what you take. Here, by law, you have to plant at least two new trees for every one you cut down.

 

[tharpdevenport]

You can have sustainable harvest, but the ecosystem will never be what it was and the inhabitants will go bye-bye, which includes animals that might have been hunted for food or commercial resource.

And some trees takes longer to grow to points where they are viable for use, and not every tree can be used, and different types of trees for different types of commercial use don't grow as fast.

And these people aren't going to realize their problem until they've pulled an Ester Island.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Do they use trees from the Amazon to make paper? I didn't think tropical trees were used for that. I thought they were just clearing that land for agriculture.

Something else I heard, but I'm not sure about: Good quality paper can be made from hemp, but it's illegal to grow it in the United States because of its relation to Marijuana. Perhaps somebody else knows more about that....

 

[Locutus of Bored]

Well, they wouldn't use up the trees so quickly if they didn't make & sell so many books...

Indeed, why don't they just bring out cheap portable flat screen devices that can have memory sticks inserted into them so you can read the books. I mean why buy a book when you can buy a memory stick with the information on?

By the way, e-reader devices already exist. They sell them at Amazon.com even!

 

[All Seeing Eye]

^ It's not the same as what i'm suggesting.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

You're right. It's even simpler, and I picked that one because it was from Amazon.com, since the joke flew right over your head.

It's one of numerous examples, including ones similar to what you suggest.

 

[Jadzia]

Do they use trees from the Amazon to make paper? I didn't think tropical trees were used for that. I thought they were just clearing that land for agriculture.

Well that's what I thought.

So what happens when the rainforests are gone? Will we all slowly suffocate as the oxygen isn't regenerated as fast as it's consumed?

Because let's be aware, on the primordial earth there was no oxygen in the air. But plenty of CO2. The oxygen only came about because of early oceanic lifeforms extracted the carbon from the CO2 to grow and reproduce. The oxygen was a byproduct. It took millions of years for the oxygen levels to grow high enough for more advanced life to form, like primordial plants and trees, which further extracted carbon from the air with photosynthesis.

All this carbon became biomass - the carbon based matter that the plants are made of.

So basically, where are we at now?
Almost all of that carbon that was removed from the atmosphere exists now in the form of biomass (trees and animals) and fossil fuels.

By destroying that biomass, and burning the fossil fuels, you return things to how they were.

We rely on forests to regenerate oxygen. Where is the tipping point at which they're making oxygen slower than we're burning it? And how long would it take to burn all the atmospheric oxygen if there were no forests?

 

[All Seeing Eye]

since the joke flew right over your head.

Let me explain something to you, even though it was meant as a joke it was still a damn good point which is why I replied to it seriously.
Are you saying that the paper in books aren't made from trees? well?

and my book device is far better, simpler and would be cheaper and more available for people who would want one. Like I said, it would actually be like a book and have a screen on each side representing pages, and when you click to turn the page it will enact a graphic that makes it look like the page is turning.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

Let me explain something to you, even though it was meant as a joke it was still a damn good point which is why I replied to it seriously.

Uh huh.

Are you saying that the paper in books aren't made from trees? well?

Yep, that's exactly what I said. Well read.

and my book device is far better, simpler and would be cheaper and more available for people who would want one. Like I said, it would actually be like a book and have a screen on each side representing pages, and when you click to turn the page it will enact a graphic that makes it look like the page is turning.

Already exists. Perhaps you can invent something else, like some sort of powered winged aerial vehicle that allows man to fly.

 

[All Seeing Eye]

Are you saying that the paper in books aren't made from trees? well?

Yep, that's exactly what I said. Well read.

Hot Diggity Damn!

Already exists. Perhaps you can invent something else, like some sort of powered winged aerial vehicle that allows man to fly.

You still don't understand, I said that books should no longer be sold like they are in shops and should be sold as memory cards and even though there are devices out there that are similar mine is different. A car is a car but there are many types of different cars available to purchase .

DO YOU UNDERSTAND NOW?

and yes maybe I will design "some sort of powered winged aerial vehicle that allows man to fly" because even though a plane is a plane and planes have been invented already there are thousands of different designs and they all have specific functions and are designed for different reasons. I'll design a plane that can go from flying in the air to moving under water and that can fly into space and back.

 

[Holdfast]

Well, they wouldn't use up the trees so quickly if they didn't make & sell so many books...

Indeed, why don't they just bring out cheap portable flat screen devices that can have memory sticks inserted into them so you can read the books. I mean why buy a book when you can buy a memory stick with the information on?

 

[All Seeing Eye]

He doesn't understand that one is capable of understanding and taking a joke but also twisting it around and making it into a serious discussion.
Books at the end of the day do account for large amounts of deforestation joke or no joke.

 

[Captain X]

The Amazon is being cleared to make room for growing crops, mostly the sugar cane Brazil uses to fuel its cars, not to make books. The trees they clear are either burned (very wasteful), or made into lumber (though mostly they are just burned). Most paper and lumber within the US is made from trees grown in tree farms, not old growth forests.

 

[Hoser]

Ah Brazil, is there anything you won't cut down?

 

[IJD GAF]

I blame vegetarians.

I'm only half joking. Almost all that cleared land is going toward soy production.

 

[Thespeckledkiwi]

Ah Brazil, is there anything you won't cut down?

Apparently crime from what my friend says...it's scary in Brazil.

 

[Hoser]

I blame vegetarians.

I'm only half joking. Almost all that cleared land is going toward soy production.

That's SO harsh.
'cuz we always said 'This way they aren't clearing forest for cows!!'

DANGIT. STICK TO THE NUTS!