permaculture

["Lawrence F. London, Jr." <london@metalab.unc.edu>]

Part of a thread on deforestation in the Amazon rainforests found in
sanet-mg mailing list - Pointed comments by Klaus on the need to preserve
the rainforests and species diversity therein. LL

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 28 Jun 2000 10:59:04 +0200
From: Klaus Wiegand <WIEGAND@lufa-sp.vdlufa.de>
To: sanet-mg@cals.ncsu.edu
Subject: Re: Who is scamming whom

hello bart,

>The major point of my first post is that because the Amazon forest
>is largely a post-glacial phenomenon, it is disingenuous to say
>that the health of those soils is inexticably linked with the
>forest. In the humid tropics, most organic matter is stored in
>*living* plants, rather than in the soil.

i guess nobody is arguing about the quality of rainforest soils.
the value of these forests lies somewhere else: on, in and under a
single average tree in the dense venezuelian rainforest you'll find
more species than in the millions of square miles of russian
boreal forests and the tundra. and a road 100 miles deep into the
rainforests (fixed with diesel/oil) means a soon following logging
and cultivation by people, who had none of ANY business there
before. and i never heard of ANY license, which was granted
without BIG, BIG slush-money (i do not talk of these small hand-
greases usual in these countries for the small people).


the estimated number of 20 extinguished species per day certainly
are a guess and debateable (noone could counterproove, if someone
said: 10 or 30), but these are number games just like my
percentages given. what matters, are the behinds. up to three years
ago i did delta-flying. some said, that it is still possible at 50
miles windspeed / h, some said it isn't. some tried and won and
some tried and lost. among those, who tried, you never found
someone with a family and children. which meant: it might be wise
not to overstress one's luck for one's own advantage, if you think,
that you have a certain responsability for others. and it might be
wise not to destroy these forests just for money. and the
logging companies usually are companies from abroad...


forests: chechozlovakia was a country widely covered by forests.
then came industry and the burning of the trees. if today you could
put ALL the tress together, you would have no problem to trespass
that area in 20 minutes by a comfortable footwalk. illness #1 among
the checzs: asthma.

  ---------------
   klaus wiegand

  +-[Quote of the day, powered by k. wiegand]---+
  |                                             |
  | "The caribou love it. They rub              |
  | against it and they have babies.            |
  | There are more caribou in Alaska            |
  | than you can shake a stick at."             |
  |    - George Bush, on the Alaska pipeline    |
  +---------------------------------------------+

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Lawrence F. London, Jr. Venaura Farm ICQ#27930345
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