The following article raises an interesting point - whether humanity can do something it has never done before. Can humans control our avarice and growth to maintain ecological sytems that have great value because humanity needs them to live? Every rainforest in the world would make someone rich if it were cut down. But rainforest are human habitats required for our being. We will evolve or die, taking much of this Earth's fascinating and sacred biological life with us.

Brazil: Battle for the heart of the rainforest

Sister Dorothy Stang's murder is a reminder that the financial benefits of Brazil's jungle outweigh the political will to preserve it...

Posted by Dr. Glen Barry | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

China's demand for timber threatens the existence of the largest relatively intact forest wilderness on the planet found in Russia. Indeed, as predicted decades ago, China's development to Western standards of crass materialism and wasteful resource use threatens all forests found throughout the world. Have no fear though - WWF is there to certify the plunder is done in an orderly fashion.

The Standard - Industry plunders forests - Top Stories

Increasing demand for wood by China's booming construction and furniture industries is endangering huge areas of Russia's Siberian forests, despite pledges by the respective governments to protect environmentally-sensitive areas...

Posted by Dr. Glen Barry | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Panama's government is accelerating efforts to build a road through the Darien Gap - one of Central America's last great rainforest wildernesses. There will always be a somewhat reasonable excuse to wipe out the Earth's last rainforests and other vital ecosystems. Money can almost always be made for a select few by liquidating natural ecosystems. At some point destroying terrestrial, oceanic, atmospheric and hydrological ecosystems leads to ecological collapse. It is only after a critical threshold has been reached - such as has happened in the Philippines, Indonesia and elsewhere - that the land, water and air can no longer support affluent life for more than a few. Perhaps the Darien gap can be destroyed and the ecosystems of the region remain intact. Or maybe it is the proverbial straw that will break the ecosystem's back, leading to climate change, drought, more deforestation and lack of other critical services provided to humanity by intact rainforests. The well-being of future generations of Panamanians is best served by keeping the Darien gap natural, and stopping road construction.

Posted by Dr. Glen Barry | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (1)

While no one should doubt that forest management activities can not lose money and continue for long, the search for the holy grail of sustainable forest management seems to always mention ecological sustainability as an afterthought if at all. Bottom line: primary forests must be made off-limits, first time harvest forever reduces them. Activities that seek to sustainably manage planted and regenerating natural forests are welcome. Even in the latter case, economics must be secondary to environmental considerations, and if harvest can not occur profitably, the forests should be left standing and untouched.

U.N.: Economic Viability Critical for Sustainable Forest Management

Economic viability, including the environmental and social benefits deriving from forests, is a pre-requisite for wider adoption of sustainable forest management practices, says a new report by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization.

Posted by Dr. Glen Barry | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

It has just been reported that the United States intends to block Tony Blair's G8 initiative combating illegal logging. Intensive industrial logging - both legal and illegal - destroys ecosystems and livelihoods throughout the World. Particularly in tropical rainforests, a timber mafia has emerged which is raping, pillaging and plundering ecosystems and local peoples.

Forests.org has been instrumental in bringing this to an international audience over the past decade, and international efforts to address this ecological and human rights crisis have been intensifying. Into this moment of opportunity and hope for the world's forest habitats and their peoples comes President Bush.

The Toxic Texan is apparently not content with destroying the climate, prolonging release of toxic mercury into the air and heavily logging U.S. forests to make them "healthy". How could the self-proclaimed World leader be against US moves to ensure that timber is legitimately produced and forest ecosystems protected?

Posted by Dr. Glen Barry | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Atmospheric and terrestrial ecosystems are tightly coupled, largely mediated by water exchange. From such interactions emerge self-regulating systems that maintain the conditions conducive for life. This is Gaia.

Reuters AlertNet - Australian scientists prove less trees, less rain

Australian scientists have found that deforestation along the Amazon River in South America was reducing rainfall and causing climate change in the region.

Posted by Dr. Glen Barry | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Time is running out for Rimbunan Hijau, as their particular brand of heavy industrial logging threatens to cut their financing options.

GreenBiz News | Citigroup Leans on Logging Company to Clean up Its Act

Citigroup, the U.S.-based financial institution, now requires Southeast Asian timber client Rimbunan Hijau to obtain independent, third-party certification. The company has won praise from forest protection advocates, human rights activists, and socially responsible investors for its proactive, constructive engagement to help end endangered forest destruction, rampant illegal logging, and related human rights abuses in Southeast Asia.

Posted by Dr. Glen Barry | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

China is following the capitalist path to riches - including exporting its environmental problems. The world can not supply enough timber - nor oil, natural gas and other resources - for China to industrialize to the extent it wants. What we are witnessing is the building of a huge economic bubble that is draining the Earth's ecology and will soon pop - leaving neither economic gains or ecological systems. There are no easy answers, but a global set of rules regarding acceptable national patterns of resource use would be a start.

KR Washington Bureau | 02/28/2005 | China protects own timber while smuggling rare woods

NANXUN, China - China's voracious appetite for timber is threatening exotic forests as far away as Brazil, West Africa, Indonesia and Russia's Far East. Much of the timber bound for Chinese sawmills comes from countries where illegal logging is rampant. Environmental groups are sounding an alarm, saying the trade in illegal timber fosters corruption and encourages the devastation of some of the globe's most fragile regions.

Posted by Dr. Glen Barry | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)