Protecting our rainforests
I was very pleased to discover that Prince Charles has taken an active step towards ensuring we do not loose the world's rainforests with the formation of The Prince's Rainforests Project. Whilst readers may be aware of my scepticism for a lot of political climate change posturing, I think preserving the rainforest is a very worthwhile cause for the following reasons:1) Natural beauty - I think rainforests are spectacular and often unspoilt parts of nature - in England for example, you'd be hard pressed to find any area of land that isn't being "managed" or otherwise mucked around with. The rainforests aren't national parks or anything like that. They are raw and untamed and we should value them immensely.
2) Scientific interest - rainforests have some of the highest biodiversity figures in the world and many of the plants and species already discovered have had extensive medical uses and other benefits.
3) Carbon storage - of course this area is contentious and the amount of carbon released during, for example, a bush fire is huge, however our rainforests do absorb a large amount of CO2.
Unfortunately because these wonderful natural assets gifted to us are so valuable - the soil is rich - at least for a short time after deforestation, the wood can be of excellent quality such as century old or longer mahogany trees and the land cleared can have any number of uses, deforestation is occuring at an extremely fast pace.
We therefore have to work around the world to halt the destruction of the rainforests and give them time to reestablish themselves and expand again.
As the Prince says in this video, rainforest deforestation accounts for more than all the C02 caused by transport around the world. Of course if you ask an eco-warrior what the solution is, because they have been so heavily indoctrinated by the media, they are most likely to blame modern lifestyles.
My opinion however is that we can have a good quality of life and continue to grow if we practice sustainable policies. Google for example are attempting to run their search operation off entirely renewable, non-polluting energy. I do not think we are overpopulated, simply that we need to manage ourselves better. My opinion is that the world could support, if required,
maybe 20 billion people or more if we manage ourselves and the world properly.
Do you agree?
Either way if you visit therainforestsite.com you can give money to the preservation of the rainforest for free by viewing a page of adverts. Though don't get me started on all the questionable activities of the so called "do-gooders." For example I think tagging animals in many cases is cruel and traumatic. Do we really need "big brother for animals?" - it isn't as if nature can manage by herself.
Anyway I'm going to end this post here before I confuse you further. :)
Labels: My philosophy, Politics
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home