Satellite map details a 300 mile logging scar in the Brazilian rain forest

[SVZ]

http://www.googolmaps.com/modules.ph..._Deforestation

[pacific breeze]

That is just too depressing. The world can never have enough McDonald's burgers, tho, right?

[moomies]

How sad is this?

I'm from the countryside of Japan and we used to have lots of trees on mountains there but they were destroyed by development. One area in particular, they removed all the trees to build a resort type of golf course only to go bankrupt and close down. Same thing happened to this ski slope, they built it and closed down because of bad economy. They could at least replant baby trees and try rebuild the forest. Developers are evil. And all the wild animals have lost their habitat e.g. monkeys, racoons, even some bears, so they come wandering around town and mess up people's veggie gardens and farms.

[pacific breeze]

And then people blame the animals and shoot them. Everything for the almighty buck. Those developers should be held accountable and forced to clean up their mess. But that almost never happens because they're all in bed with the powers that be. Raping the environment, which we ALL lay claim too, is one of the few major crimes you can not only get away with, but are amply rewarded for.

[Dean James]

In so many places where this is happening, the govt is in bed with the developers and although laws are in place to prevent it- forests are still cut down.

I feel helpless from where I sit because even if I donate $$ to preserve such places, the likelyhood is they're destroyed anyway.

[SVZ]

Replanting trees is useless though, because they tend to replant the same 3 trees over and over, as opposed to the hundreds if not thousands of previously occuring species.

[moomies]

Sad

But don't feel so helpless, we can do little things like recycling papers. I don't know if this contributes to preserving forest but I don't even buy Xmas trees...

[Dean James]

That's true, we recycle like gangbusters and don't buy Christmas trees either. Try to help where we can, we bring cloth bags to the grocery store, use public transportation and stuff like that.