Diane9247
Humanitarian
Reged: 01/15/07
Posts: 1917
Loc: Californian in Oregon
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If you're not depressed by this vast deforestation, you're a lot tougher than I am. I wonder what we'll see here in 2 years and how much more area the yellow runoff will cover at the mouth of the Amazon.
Edit: In response to Budd1's comment that there must be sadder places on Earth, I've edited my title from "Saddest" to "Sad..." 
I strive for accuracy! 
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Edited by diane9247 (08/03/08 01:24 AM)
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heamit
Master Cartographer
Reged: 10/26/06
Posts: 2333
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Hi diane9247!
You are right, it is terribly sad to see this kind of deforestation on Google Earth.
However I sometimes feel a bit sorry for Brazil in all this, and the flak that they are receiving. think it is important to remember that many of us currently live in completely deforested ex-forest. Vast tracts of the USA and Australia, for example, and certainly virtually all of Europe, were once thickly forested. And we owe a great deal of our current prosperity to the fact that our forefathers (rightly or wrongly) deforested them. We are much more aware of it now, and conscious of the damage we are doing to our planet. But like I said, we can thank our own previous environmental vandalism for the fact that we are now wealthy enough to invent computers, buy one and look at the effects of entirely similar processes happening today.
I'm not saying that I agree with the deforestation of the Amazon! I think it is terrible. I just sometimes feel that Brazil is getting a lot of bad press in all this. I think there are many ways that we can help, every day, to help put an end to this kind of thing for example by not eating at places like McDonalds who obtain their meat (or have in the past) from cleared land in these countries and also by supporting developing countries by buying products from them and trading fairly with them for example by lifting our own agricultural import quotas and allowing free trade.
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Diane9247
Humanitarian
Reged: 01/15/07
Posts: 1917
Loc: Californian in Oregon
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Heamit -
I completely agree with everything in your post. I do flatter myself in thinking I have an unusual perspective, being an Oregon logger's daughter. And grand-daughter. Those guys suffered greatly and have never really recovered from clear-cutting like mad in the '40s & '50s. I remember my dad talking about how it couldn't possibly last at that pace. Most loggers were mad as hell that they weren't allowed, finally, to keep going to the Canadian border.
So, it's taken at least another generation for new forests & tree farms to mature in a money-making way. It will never be like "the old days" again, it just can't sustain that volume of harvesting. I can't help but see a parallel with Brazil now and Oregon in the good old days. Brazil is on an enormous scale, though, and you really can't replant a rainforest. Whole different kettle of fish. Excuse the inappropriate metaphor.
I feel sorry for the Brazilian farmers who have been starved out of the cities and are desperate to feed their families. But, I just think things are too dire NOT to scream about what Brazil is doing. I wish people had screamed way sooner about the N. CA redwoods and the OR forests.
Anyway, thanks for listening.
D.
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heamit
Master Cartographer
Reged: 10/26/06
Posts: 2333
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Hi again 
Thank you for the interesting insights about Oregon. 
A while back I found some interesting shapes cut into a forest in Slovakia. Community member syzygy, who is very environmentally aware, pointed out that these shapes could be due to sustainable forestry practices and arranged to have the thread moved to the Environment forum. If you are interested, have a look here
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Diane9247
Humanitarian
Reged: 01/15/07
Posts: 1917
Loc: Californian in Oregon
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Thanks, I'll take a look. Also some huge areas in far-north CA with clearcuts in a checkerboard pattern. I can think of a couple of environmental/ecological reasons the state makes them do that, but one friend's cynical remark was "so when we drive by on the highway we won't see the full damage!"
Now, on to Slovakia...
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fsev
First Post
Reged: 10/06/07
Posts: 1
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I think that you do not need to go into the center of the Slovakia to find some clearcuts.
There is a plenty of them even in the protected wood park area nearby Bratislava, capitol of the Slovak republic. The wood cutting in this area still continue.
Anybody who can help to stop it is welcome.
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GaianHope
First Post
Reged: 11/21/07
Posts: 1
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Well it's actually a common practice now to clear cut in areas that aren't visible from major roadways, hypothetically because it reduces visual aesthetic value, but I believe it's the out of sight out of mind principle... which is the same logic behind exporting all our waste. If less people see it they face less communal opposition and thus, less money is wasted in law suits and upheld projects..... crafty, but sad.
As for the Amazon pic, I actually shed a tear.... it's like scar tissue on a heart. That area needs to be protected some how (and yes I know, we need to think of the economic condition of the residents too.)
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budd1
Tourist
Reged: 11/19/07
Posts: 2
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hi diane 9247,i am pretty certain that there are sadder places than this on earth .
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geveN
Cartographer
Reged: 03/08/07
Posts: 279
Loc: New Zealand
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I am not very knowledgeable about these things, but down here in New Zealand, in my many weekend drives in the country north of Auckland, the management of green spaces seems done on a well planned schedule.
All hill slopes from the bottom up to the peak are covered with trees grown for commercial use. The vast outlying farmland around the hill is used for agriculture and grazing, mainly for grazing-New Zealand is sheep country!!!
The 'forested' cluster of trees on the hill slopes is cut down one section at one time, and is immediately seeded(?) or planted with fresh saplings; and I suppose there is a law governing this activity that the farmer is not to cut down the other sections of trees untill the new saplings grow into young plants.
I suppose this kind of cooperation and enlightened activity can be expected in a country with a small population (NZ has around 4.3 million people.)
geveN
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geveN
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drtbkdav
First Post
Reged: 11/25/07
Posts: 1
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My guess is that unless someone maintains it, In 20 years you wont be able to pick out this spot from google earth. That forest is the fastest growing forest in the world.
I thought the rain forest should have been totally destroyed by know if you remember the rate that they said it was going back in the 80's. now 20 years later its still vast and mostly untouched!
Just shows you what a bunch of liars the greens are!
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