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Pastimes : THE SLIGHTLY MODERATED BOXING RING -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lazarus_Long who wrote (913)	3/3/2002 9:58:07 AM
From: E	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 21057

It sure is. Unless you figure that five million square kilometers of dense, oxygen- and water vapor-producing jungle aren't important to the world climate. Studies in China show that ozone pollution has reduced the production of crops by 20 to 25 .... A new study, this time about the effect of the particulates caused by burning as opposed to chopping the trees down: 09:53 18 February 02 Damian Carrington, Boston Half of the Amazon rain forest is being damaged by the pollution caused by forest burning, a new study has revealed. Previous concerns about the world's largest rain forest have focused on the burning itself, which has now destroyed 14 percent of the forest's five million square kilometres. But the new research shows that half of the remaining pristine forest is being degraded by the gases and particulates released by the burning. Paulo Artaxo, who conducted the work with colleagues at the Universidade de São Paulo in Brazil, told New Scientist: "This is causing a profound effect on the health of the ecosystem - there is no doubt about it." The pollution caused by burning will also impact on the Amazon forest's critical role in the global climate, affecting the production of water vapour in the tropics. Daniel Rosenfeld, at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, points out that particulate pollution has an immediate impact and is also a concern across the world: "Greenhouse gases will dominate climate change in the long term but we should give similar priority to what happens to climate in this generation as a result of particulate pollution. We have a very different climate to what we would have if we had kept our atmosphere clean." Shade and light Artaxo's work calculates for the first time the amount of the sunlight absorbed by the pollution caused by forest burning. The 150 Watts/m2 of heat absorption is equivalent to an average cooling on the ground of 3 °C. The average cooling caused by greenhouse gases is less than 3 Watts/m2. The cooling is produced by tiny aerosol particles in the air which have a very significant effect on photosynthesis. In some places there is 40 percent reduction in the total radiation that would have reached the surface, says Artaxo. A second effect is the poisoning of vegetation by ozone, a phytotoxic gas produced by burning. Natural levels of ozone are no higher than 15 ppm, says Artaxo, but in affected areas in Amazonia [ozone]levels are nearly seven times higher. The ozone can travel up to 1500 kilometres from the site of the burning, meaning vast tracts of untainted forest are affected. "Other studies in China show that ozone pollution has reduced the production of crops by 20 to 25 percent," he adds. Amazonia has suffered tremendous land use changes in last 20 years, says Artaxo, but one programme Brazil is currently promoting to tackle the problem is to persuade farmers to cut down forest, not burn it. An additional agricultural benefit of this is that, if the felled vegetation is left on the ground for 12 to 18 months, its nutrients leach into the soil rather than being lost to the air. This research was presented at the American Association for the Advancement of Science's 2002 annual meeting in Boston. 09:53 18 February 02 newscientist.com

To: Lazarus_Long who wrote (913)	3/3/2002 10:28:44 AM
From: E	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 21057

It isn't only the forest in the Amazon that's being destroyed. But maybe we don't need forests on this planet?: FOREST CONSERVATION NEWS TODAY Indonesian Rainforests Pulped to Extinction February 24, 2002 OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY by Forests.org Indonesia’s rainforests are on their deathbed. A new report from FOE UK indicates that the Indonesian pulp and paper industry is liquidating ancient forests at such a rate that shortly they will be gone. Given the scale of Indonesia’s logging industry, the crass and flagrant flaunting of the rule of law, and the diminished state of the resource, it is meaningless to pursue reform of commercial forestry as the primary forest conservation strategy. It is too late. Yet powerful and well financed conservation efforts continue to stress “sustainable” commercial scale forestry as the means to conserve Indonesia’s and the World’s remaining ancient forests. Corporate NGOs emphasize commercial scale certified forestry of primary old-growth forests as a key part of the solution, and the World Bank continues to pursue failed efforts to improve policing and monitoring of the rainforest liquidation sale. Commercial scale logging of Indonesia’s primary old-growth rainforests must come to an end. This is the case for all the World’s remaining ancient forests, but is particularly true in Indonesia, which is likely to soon lose essentially all intact and contiguous lowland rainforest expanses. Such logging can end now, while there are still substantial rainforests to provide critical ecosystem services; or logging can end when there are no large, contiguous, intact rainforests and the country is ecologically destitute and without hope. Indonesia’s rainforests will only be conserved to any meaningful extent if all commercial scale logging ends now. The World’s conservation organizations and financiers should stop aiding and abetting the final destruction of the World’s last rainforests. FOE has formulated a good campaign that highlights the pure evil and idiocy of making paper from ancient rainforests. This must end. g.b.