Rain-Forest Damage Much Worse Than Thought

[Ouchyfish]

WASHINGTON - Loss of trees in the Brazilian rain forest is much worse than had been thought, according to a new study. Losses in clear-cut areas where all trees are removed have been monitored by satellite observations, but those were not able to detect the cutting of individual trees in areas where others are left behind.

Now, a more detailed satellite observation system is able to detect selective logging, and the findings show much more widespread timber harvests than had been thought, according to a report in Friday's issue of the journal Science.

Annually, selective logging disturbs an area totaling about the size of Connecticut, according to lead author Gregory Asner of the Carnegie Institution of Washington and Stanford University.

"Selective logging negatively impacts many plants and animals and increases erosion and fires. Additionally, up to 25 percent more carbon dioxide is released to the atmosphere each year, above that from deforestation, from the decomposition of what the loggers leave behind," Asner said in a statement.

Illegal logging was even discovered in some protected national reserves, parks and indigenous lands, the researchers found.

"We expected to see large areas of logging, but the extent to which logging penetrates deep into the frontier is much more dramatic than we anticipated," said co-author Michael Keller of the U.S. Forest Service.


http://www.sciencemag.org

[Tikker]

you mean people continue to do stupid destructive things to the earth, even after they've been told not to?

what a shock

"The aliens came from a far distant world
on a large yellow ship that blinked as it twirled.
It rounded the moon and entered our sky.
We knew they had come but we didn't know why.
Bright the next morning with noisy commotion
the ship slowly moved over the ocean.
It lowered a tube and drained the whole sea
for transport back to their galaxy.
The tube then sucked up the clouds and the air,
causing no small amount of earthling despair.
With nothing to breathe we started to die.
"Help us! Please stop!" was the public outcry.
A hatch opened up and the aliens said,
"We're sorry to learn that you soon will be dead,
but though you may find this slightly macabre,
we prefer your extinction to the loss of our job."

[KILL]

I'd like to share a revelation that I've had during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species. I've realized that you are not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment. But you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed and the only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet. You are a plague.

[Tikker]

matrix?

[KILL]

agent smith!

[Adivina]

Sadly enough, its a pretty damn true speech too.

[Phlegm]

As shown through out historty, the Earth will adapt to the changes to its surface.

[Gidan]

Yes the earth will adapt. At one point the earth was uninhabitable. No one is saying the earth will suddenly go away because of this. The concern is that the earth will change to the point the human life will not be able to live here.

[Phlegm]

Yes the earth will adapt. At one point the earth was uninhabitable. No one is saying the earth will suddenly go away because of this. The concern is that the earth will change to the point the human life will not be able to live here.

So perhaps the tree huggers should change their "Save the Planet" slogan.

[Goose_Man]

Maybe we should go war against Brazil they are the true WMD!

[Gidan]

Yes the earth will adapt. At one point the earth was uninhabitable. No one is saying the earth will suddenly go away because of this. The concern is that the earth will change to the point the human life will not be able to live here.

So perhaps the tree huggers should change their "Save the Planet" slogan.

"Save the Planet" does not mean what you are making it out to mean. Its an attempt to save the planet in a state that its inhabitable. They do not think the earth is just going to be gone one day. Many of those same tree huggers are the ones talking about the past states the earth was in. An ice age for a popular example, could we survive it? sure would things change, you bet.

Save the Planet = Preserve the planet in its current state (last thousand years not as in how it is today)

[Kramer]

so why should the tree huggers change their speech? people are fucking up a planet and making it potentially uninhabitable by humans.... so they should ....shut up.... rrrriiiiight...

[Phlegm]

so why should the tree huggers change their speech? people are fucking up a planet and making it potentially uninhabitable by humans.... so they should ....shut up.... rrrriiiiight...

They make it sound like the planet need saving. Which it doesn't. Perhaps they should change it to "Preserve the Planet".

[Eziekial]

I'm chopping down a tree in my backyard this afternoon so hold your breath.

[Phlegm]

I'm chopping down a tree in my backyard this afternoon so hold your breath.

The guy who bought a house 3 doors down from us took down 3 big trees recently because he didnt want to clear the leaves on the ground or in his rain gutters.

[Captain Insano]

You know what I find funny... How many eco-freaks have lots of kids... I've always noticed that... They eat their fancy tofu and drive Prius's's's and talk shit to everyone but then they have like 5 or more spawn.

I think those people are full of shit. I'll stop driving a gas guzzling sports car and conserve when I can shoot 4 of your 5 kids in the head to stop them from using resources.

We wouldn't have to protect the planet of all these white trash, eco freaks, nagroze and mexicans would just stop godamn breeding.

One extra eco-consious human being wastes way more resources than a single person who eats steak, burns wood for heat and drives like 3 SUV's.

There is no godamn reason why anyone needs more than one child.

[Spacewoman Spiff]

Rain Forests are the devil! We've got to kill the devil!

[Phlegm]

There is no godamn reason why anyone needs more than one child.

Like the military, you need redundancy in case one fails.

[Thon]

ya guys we've got to quit cutting down the rain forest, once tree's are gone, they're gone!

[Captain Insano]

lawl.. ya we don't need trees... we need to find a way to make paper out of oil.... the world's best renewable resource!

[Jimmy Durante]

[Adivina]

lawl.. ya we don't need trees.

Who the fuck needs oxygen anyway!

[Spacewoman Spiff]

Not me! Fuck trees!

[Captain Insano]

lawl.. ya we don't need trees.

Who the fuck needs oxygen anyway!

You can burn oil for oxygen... Just ask GW and Halliburton!