The Amazon a threat to our future

[Marks199]

The amazon rainforest is disappearing and may soon reach a tipping point. 

SINCE THE 1970s nearly 800,000km² of Brazil’s original 4m km² (1.5m square miles) of Amazon forest has been lost to logging, farming, mining, roads, dams and other forms of development—an area equivalent to that of Turkey and bigger than that of Texas. Scientists worry this is uncomfortably close to the threshold for tree loss, of between 20 and 25%, beyond which deforestation begins to feed on itself, turning much of the Amazon basin into drier savannah known as cerrado. Under Jair Bolsonaro, the right-wing president of Brazil who was inaugurated in January, the Amazon appears to be rushing towards that tipping point.

The deforestation rate had slowed between 2004 and 2012, when the government beefed up its environmental protection agency, Ibama, and an international Amazon Fund was created to pay for conservation projects. But it began ticking up again after a weakening of environmental legislation and budget cuts during Brazil’s recession of 2014-2016. Between August 2017 and July 2018, Brazil lost 7,900km² of Amazon forest—nearly a billion trees. This year’s figure is almost sure to be higher. Preliminary satellite data showed that 920 km² were cleared in June, 88% more than the same month in 2018. In July 2,255 km² were cleared, a startling 278% more than the same month last year (see chart). 

 

Taken from the economist

My main questions: Will we have time to react and save the ozone?

What if more presidents like Jair Bolosonaro appears like this and exploit the only natural resources that it has. I feel this like a threat to the future because with the temperature rising and with that, the consumption of drinkable water across the entire world which is only three percent.  It could cause war through the entire world for water.  I think all universities should protest not only against war but also against the deforestation.

Edited August 22, 2019 by Marks199

[Leo Gura]

Trump of the South is a problem.

But from what I understand ozone is not a problem. The problem is excess carbon.

[DocHoliday]

Man, this is actually making me quite sad and genuinely concerned. I mean, this really isn't just a minor problem.

All I can hope for is that this catastrophe (which is really what it is, imo) pushes us collectively a lot more and a lot faster into SD stage Green. It's beyond freakin' necessary at this point that we make some goddamn (greater) advancements in that regard.

[Marks199]

@DocHoliday But the average citizen of the world isn't at stage green it's a problematic disbalance between the stages because some countries are concerned about the problematic of nature meanwhile others don't like Brasil could people of Brasil which are at stage blue do anything green. Some citizens are more concerned than others.

[DocHoliday]

@Marks199 Well, yeah, that's why I said that I hope this greatly accelerates the advancement of the stages:) It almost certainly will push many people over the orange/green barrier who are at that point, and who knows what else might result from it. I just hope that this truly opens many people's eyes as to how much growth and progress really is necessary in our current times.

[DocHoliday]

@remember Buying it would be a nice idea, but, as a solution, that's (probably) not systemic enough. At least from my very limited understanding, the best we could do is to radically cut down our collective meat consumption so that these huge forest areas don't need to be logged off or burned for cattle farming and whatnot.

[DocHoliday]

could. Exactly 

[Leo Gura]

4 hours ago, DocHoliday said:

All I can hope for is that this catastrophe (which is really what it is, imo) pushes us collectively a lot more and a lot faster into SD stage Green.

Unfortunately catastrophe will not push people towards Green, it will do the opposite. A serious survival threat will push people down one or two levels.

Which is what we're seeing with Trump of the North and Trump of the South. The angrier people get, the worse leaders they elect.

[Scholar]

No government regulation in the world can do something about the billions of people who demand meat. Where will we put all the cows and farmland to feed the cows when the number of people who want to eat cows and milk are increasing globally?

Most cattle Brazil produces is for China. Good luck telling the chinese to eat less meat, when they are not even eating a fraction of what we eat per capita.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jul/02/revealed-amazon-deforestation-driven-global-greed-meat-brazil

 

The only viable solution I see is greater investment into the research and production of lab-grown meat. It needs to become cheaper than regular beef as soon as possible. Meanwhile we have people advocating people to buy pasture raised products instead of factory farmed ones, which require far greater land use and therefore in most cases far greater amounts of deforestation. The solution cannot be "better and more sustainable farming", the solution is a complete replacement of cattle farming. This cannot be achieved through cultural advancement because the greatest markets have not even yet developed, which will be China and India.

Edited August 22, 2019 by Scholar

[DocHoliday]

13 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

Unfortunately catastrophe will not push people towards Green, it will do the opposite. A serious survival threat will push people down one or two levels.

@Leo Gura I guess it can go both ways, depending on the level of consciousness of the people that are either directly affected or "just" emtionally touched by it. But, of course, if it's a serious, serious threat, it's highly unlikely people will take the higher consciousness route.

[Cocolove]

Iceland used to be a huge forest, but stage red vikings deforested the whole thing in the 9th century. Now that they are green, they have got it from i think 0.5 to 2 % forest. It will take hundreds of years to restore it. 

This may be what happens in brazil.

As long as species do not go extinct, recovery will always be possible. A stage green society would even donate their land

[Jamie Universe]

a little unrelated but this is still important "A byproduct of photosynthesis is oxygen. Scientists believe that phytoplankton contribute between 50 to 85 percent of the oxygen in Earth’s atmosphere." I suppose its important to realize that amazon and deforestation is one side of the coin.

[Harikrishnan]

I heard its raining in amazon. Leo is that you?

[pluto]

13 minutes ago, Harikrishnan said:

I heard its raining in amazon. Leo is that you?

No that was me. Leo is busy with Andromeda Galaxy ATM.

Would be nice if the rest of you help too <3

[effy01]

@Harikrishnan yes be melting snow wash yourself of yourself , mother earth is self conscious

[Scholar]

22 hours ago, remember said:

if we think more lokal than about world meat consumption in general, the question in this situation also is: what alternatives could be introduced instead of cattlefarming and soy production that would work more symbiotic with the rainforrest? be lucrative enough to protect the rainforrest instead of destroying it? in brazil there is already acaii and other fruits that only grow at the boarder of the rainforrest. if enough jobs can be created in the longterm that are involved in preservation of the forrest, there will be no demand to burn the forrest anymore especially if the meat demand is from another continent.

It doesn't really matter though because the meat demand is going to be there, and therefore a forest will need to be cut down somewhere. The meat demand is going up not down, by a substantial amount. By the time China and India will have the same demand per capita as we have, we will use every inch of the planets viable surface for the soy that we feed the cows with. And even that would not satisfy the demand.

If everyone went vegan this instant, we could regrow the forests we have burned down and could use a fraction of the land that we currently use to feed cows to feed us directly instead. The problem would be solved.

But that will not happen, so creating a true meat substitude is paramount.

 

Read this article:

https://ourworldindata.org/agricultural-land-by-global-diets

Edited August 23, 2019 by Scholar

[Zega]

Here's an organization that is helping with the Amazon https://www.amazonteam.org/

[Moreira]

16 hours ago, Fortunate Son said:

Fuck this human society starting all the way from Mesopotamia, Ancient Egypt, Greece, Roman Empire, Middle-age Islam, European Christianity, British Empire and now this Global Modern Consumerist Shit Hole, starting from United states of America, the center of malignancy!

We should stay in forests as hunters and gatherers. At least we respected the environment then and were living in small tribes and communities, not isolated from God and His beautiful creation called Earth.

Always the same story: natives living in harmony with nature until "high society" came with their mechanisation and interests saying: "this is OUR land now". And the natives understood everything except "OUR land". What the fuck is possession? They said: "We are just borrowing this land from our future generations".

And where are the billionaires now, our modern society heroes, our archetypes, our gods? Where are the 100000000000000 trillions of dollars now to save our precious environment? 

Your problem is blaming a entire civilization for the decisions of the psychopath elites who are in power. Do you think the average citizen mentally sane wants the amazon destroyed? Or are the greedy bastard families who own multinationals and giant banks?

[DrewNows]

 

[Rilles]

Stage Orange! Literally! Set the world ablaze! Burn it down!