ACTION ALERT
World's Forests Burn
7/19/98
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: World's Forests Burn/Action Alert #138
Source: Rainforest Action Network
Status: Distribute widely accredited to source
Date: July 1, 1998
In countries around the world this past year, massive fires have raged
out of control, destroying millions of acres of ancient forest in what
appears to be a planetary meltdown.
In what is believed to be the largest fire in the history of the
Amazon, flames destroyed millions of acres in Roraima, in northern
Brazil. An estimated 56,000 settlers lost their annual crops, and
many of Roraima's 32,000 indigenous people were left without adequate
food or water.
In Mexico, fires have devastated nearly one million acres of land
since January - including significant portions of the country's last
remaining virgin cloud forest. In Indonesia, fires have been burning
non-stop since late 1997, destroying over 300,000 acres and shrouding
much of SE Asia in smoke.
Besides destroying irreplaceable old growth rainforests, the fires
pose an enormous risk to people living in or near the affected areas.
Thousands of people are suffering from respiratory diseases as a
result of smoke-filled air, and outbreaks of malaria have increased
significantly. The prolonged fires and droughts have ruined countless
crops and caused rivers and wells to dry up, making food and water
scarce long after the fires die down. Malnutrition has become a
common problem, and the threat of starvation persists in the areas
hardest hit by forest fires.
In Brazil, where poverty and overpopulation are forcing people further
and further into the Amazon, small fires set by farmers to clear land
burned out of control due to the unusually dry conditions created by
El Nio. Similar scenarios have fueled fires in Indonesia and other
parts of the world, where logging and mining roads have brought the
situation to a critical point. As more roads are being cut into
forests, loggers, ranchers, and farmers-all of whom use fire to clear
land- are now able to access previously remote forest interiors.
Global climate change, which may have worsened the scorching effects
of El Nio, is also creating conditions that foster fires. As human
emissions of greenhouse gases have continued unabated (due largely to
deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels), average global
temperatures have been steadily rising. If present emission rates
continue, there will be vast repercussions for the global climate,
including an increase in the frequency of drought in tropical areas.
The fires and droughts that we are witnessing now in Brazil, Mexico,
Indonesia, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Russia, Africa, Canada and
Florida may be a sign that we are already well on our way to a climate
nightmare in the 21st century. Common sense tells us to expect more of
these disasters as our planet's ecosystems are devastated-and at every
juncture, we see logging and fossil fuels as primary contributors.
We must demand that our corporations and governments meet the
seriousness of the situation by making changes to stop global warming.
World Bank funding has been behind many commercial logging and oil
operations rainforest countries. The Bank has since enacted a policy
against funding logging in tropical forests; but tragically, in the
face of global conflagration, The Bank is considering easing this
policy, and aggressively continues to fund new fossil fuel projects.
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
Please write to World Bank president James D. Wolfensohn; let him know
that you hold The Bank responsible for establishing policies that will
ease, not exacerbate, climate change.
If we ever hope to curb the threat of climate change, the World Bank
cannot backslide on tropical forests. In fact, the funding ban must
be expanded to disallow logging in any old growth or primary forest
anywhere. Also, The Bank must develop a similar policy restricting
funding for new fossil fuel operations, and start investing in
renewable alternatives.
Write to Mr. James D. Wolfensohn, World Bank, 1818 H Street NW,
Washington, D.C. 20433. Here is a sample letter:
Mr. Wolfensohn,
Over the course of this past year, catastrophic fires have destroyed
millions of acres of precious rainforests, all over the world.
In Indonesia and Brazil commercial logging operations are largely to
blame, so this is no time for The Bank to backslide on its policy
against funding logging in tropical forests. Rather, I urge you to
strengthen The Bank's ban to include logging in any of the Earth's
remaining old growth or primary forests.
Likewise, since burning fossil fuels turns our skies into a furnace
and worsens the conditions that are causing forest fires, I urge you
to implement a policy against investing in any new fossil fuel
projects.
It is time to invest in renewable alternatives before it is too late
to stop global climate change, and deforestation.