u were all tired of breathing anyways

[Guest guest]

Amazon forests not doing well

 

If Amazonian rainforests are, as the old saying goes, the lungs of

the world, then our respiratory outlook is not good. The forests

face a trio of threats. There are fire and logging, as poor farmers,

cattle ranchers, and agribusinesses clear land for crops or cattle.

Then there's " dieback, " whereby the forest vegetation dies from lack

of water, which is driven by drought, which is driven by climate

change, which is driven by excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere,

which is exacerbated by fire, logging, and dieback in the Amazonian

rainforest. Ah, such tangled webs we weave. Attempts to break the

cycle have been inauspicious. Last year, Brazil's Workers' Party,

led by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, suspended logging

licenses in an attempt to slow deforestation of the Amazon. In

response, loggers and their allies rioted, blockaded a major highway,

burned buses, threatened to seize an airport and dump poisonous

chemicals in rivers, and promised that " blood will flow. " The

government vowed not to " cave into blackmail, " and then, uh, caved

into blackmail, restoring the licenses last week. And so the world's

lung cancer progresses, untreated.

 

straight to the source: The Boston Globe, Associated Press, Charles

J. Hanley, 12 Feb 2005

<http://grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=4310>

 

straight to the source: The New York Times, Larry Rohter, 13 Feb 2005

<http://grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=4311>

 

 

40 years in the local store

Got forced out by the supermarket

The price of all your favorite meals

Stays low but now you can’t afford it

Send in the supermarket forces

Stick it on a card to save you cash

They know your details in a flash

Streamlined sets the mental tone

Now everyone’s a shopping clone