Amazon. Not the package delivery company. The rainforest being deforested at a rate of 4 acres per minute, primarily to grow animal feed so humans can eat meat.
@alex Huh, I didn't realize the Amazon was doing so well. I expected deforestation to be a bigger problem than that.
@average_random_joe @alex Acceleration could go either way. But with some management, you probably could farm that way indefinitely.
Anyway, the deforestation is mainly done by small subsistence farmers: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0743016717300992
There's no easy solution to that. Heck, I've personally heard from a field anthropologist who studied that area that decreased tribal violence is a major contributor to deforestation, because it has eliminated buffer zones between population groups.
@average_random_joe @alex Historically in most of these places neighbouring tribes constantly waged low-level violence against each other. So between each population group there would be parts of the forest that remained untouched, because entering was deadly. Slash-and-burn agriculture is a traditional practice. But the buffer zones would normally allow the forest to regrow relatively quickly.
Apparently it's mainly been Christian evangelists who have reduced the violence by promoting peace.
@average_random_joe @alex The Sahara greening could really screw over the Amazon: the latter gets enormous amounts of nutrients from dust blown in from the former. More greenery will reduce dust erosion.
@average_random_joe @alex Plants have nothing to do with that problem. Which is increasingly about China anyway.
@pete @alex
It is all about Chyna! The global saviors of the world most in tune with nature and the well being of the planet. They are a Captain Planet of over 1 billion people strong. Who can resist their blessed will to better the planet and our lives.