Remember all those reports that have been coming out lately about how the Amazon rain forest is currently burning down and that SOMETHING MUST BE DONE IMMEDIATELY OR WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE?
Scientists studying satellite image data from the fires in the Amazon rain forest said that most of the fires are burning on agricultural land where the forest had already been cleared.
Most of the fires were likely set by farmers preparing the land for next year’s planting, a common agricultural practice, said the scientists from the University of Maryland.
You know what would be awesome? If there was some kind of profession whose responsibility it was to find out, to the best of its ability, the truth about what was happening in the world. Too bad that's probably never going to happen.
12 comments:
Be careful there, Chris. Slash & burn agriculture, while popular & easy, is a terrible practice & wears productive land out fairly quickly. Once the land poops out, the farmer will want to do it again somewhere new.
Maybe so. But the point is that the rain forest is not currently burning down and all the hysterical articles and reports suggesting that it was were complete crap.
Yeah, I thought it was probably agricultural land burning. Very common worldwide. As UR points out, not the best idea, but not the rainforest burning.
Ok, but when the once rainforest, now agricultural land wears out, goes what goes next? More rainforest.
That should have been Ok, but when the once rainforest, now agricultural land wears out, what goes next?
Well, I didn't claim it was smart agricultural practice. And the smoke from all those fires is detrimental to people living in the downwind areas. When I lived in Cairo, every autumn a vast cloud of smoke descended on the city from pre-planting season fires. But the reports on TV are that the rainforest is what's burning, which is not true at this time.
Be careful there, Chris. Slash & burn agriculture, while popular & easy, is a terrible practice & wears productive land out fairly quickly.
The default ecosystem is tropical rain forest. Rapid biogeochemical cycling has the nutrients stored in the plant life, not the soil. When you cut down the forest, you have savanna or you have trash land. It's doubtful much of this is used for crop production. That people are doing this is an indication of how wretched is the establishment and enforcement of property rights in Brazil.
Rapid biogeochemical cycling has the nutrients stored in the plant life,
Correct. And a great deal of that is carbon that would otherwise be in the atmosphere. What is happening in Amazonia, once known as the Lungs of the Earth, is terrible. We need all the trees we can protect or plant ourselves if for no other reason than to keep the likes of AOC at bay.
And you are also right to point out that what was once rainforest (& productive as such) is not particularly useful for anything else.
once known as the Lungs of the Earth,
It isn't. It's just a metaphor Albert Gore fancies. What's happening in Amazonia is damaging to the interests of people who live in or near Amazonia. (Resource economists have worked on quantifying these matters). They're not conscientious enough to look after their own interests, and the capacity of others to repair that is sharply limited. It's also upsetting to people professionally and emotionally invested in exotic flora and fauna. I don't hold that against them; everyone has their niche interests. A great many of them are hostile to others and their rather more compelling not-so-niche interests.
For what it is worth, I have heard the term used for a lot longer than has been picked up by the likes Al Gore or Leonardo DiCaprio. But, try as I might, I cannot find its genesis.
And I just discovered how to get around the benighted robot-buster.
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