dmaleny
Tourist
Reged: 11/26/07
Posts: 12
Loc: Qld AUST
|
|
Does the last guy really believe what he's saying or just stirring - it's not a greeny issue at all - it's a global concern. At the rate this type of forest is being removed it is already effecting bio diversity (extinctions) and climate modulations. It is definately not growing faster than it is being removed !!!! The map is clearly showing us that much. 
|
heamit
Master Cartographer
Reged: 10/26/06
Posts: 2333
|
|
Hi drtbkdav and welcome to Google Earth
Quote:
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.
Have a look at Europe. At most of North America. At most of the east coast of Australia.
All of these places were once densely forested.
If you want to go back just a little further, have a look at North Africa! (Sahara).
The fact is that forests do not grow back. The area will either be used for farming or other human exploitation (as in the first couple of examples I gave you) or it degenerates to desert due to erosion (as in the latter). And even in those cases where it does grow back, it will usually not be in the form it once was (due to the destroyed ecosystem as explained by the previous poster) but as scrub land or savanna.
Quote:
Just shows you what a bunch of liars the greens are!
I don't know whether this comment is terribly helpful...
--------------------
Read the News!
What to do about Darfur?
Kiva - loans that change lives. Please check it out!
One interpretation of why the Middle East is broken 
|
Diane9247
Humanitarian
Reged: 01/15/07
Posts: 1917
Loc: Californian in Oregon
|
|
Quote:
Just shows you what a bunch of liars the greens are!
If you look in your Webster's under "hyperbole," you might find the above quoted as an example. 
--------------------
Women for Women International - For the special needs of women surviving war.
Kiva - Small loans changing lives around the world.
Bukavu Foundation - For the Panzi Women's Shelter & other programs in Eastern Congo.
Room to Read - Change begins with educated children.
Edited by diane9247 (08/17/08 11:36 AM)
|
sateliteoflove
Tourist
Reged: 12/02/07
Posts: 21
Loc: Netherlands
|
|
Hi Diane,
Cutting down the Amazon forest is certainly sad. The images however are in many way's similar to large parts of Europe. We cut down most our forests long ago. Unfortunately it gives us little right to speak up against Brazilians. It's a classic dilemma of environmental issues. For the good of us all we should want to conserve the remaining natural forests, but the economic forces are otherwise. In fact we can't have our beefburgers or spicy chicken if it weren't for the cattle grazing and soybean fields in the Amazon.
Which brings me to my real question for this forum. I've included a pin to a place somewhere just south of the amazon forest, in the north of the Mato Grosso. To me it looks like a a pretty dry and deserted place, but there are signs it was once covered in forest. But at regular spaces you see double squares of a light blue/ green colour, and paths leading to it. My guess is they are waterhole for cattle.
Diane, as you know (see my forum discussion 'Inspired by Google Earth') I'm interested in using Google Earth as a source of inspiration for my paintings. But before I start on a new painting I want to know what it is I'm seeing. If I want to get a strong image of a 'sad place on earth' accross I need to be sure this really was primordial forest not so long ago, and that this really is a place where beefburgers to be graze whats left to graze. So: does anybody out there know what this image means?
--------------------
Evert Schut
http:/googleearthart.blogspot.com
|
Valkyrie40
Tourist
Reged: 03/20/08
Posts: 5
|
|
Hi budd1!
I couldn't agree more with you! India is one such sad example of deforestation. This is being looked upon as a national emergency along with saving the Tigers ( numbers of which are dwindling away - caused by deforestation and destructuion of their natural habitat!).
The tree planting programs have taken off with a bang and ended in a whimper as corruption outweighs incentives. 
|
JavaGAR
Explorer
Reged: 10/07/06
Posts: 495
Loc: New York State
|
|
drtbkdav:
The perspective you have provided necessitates a close examination of this topic.
A superficial look at a second growth forest from above may give the impression that it has recovered from clear-cutting. However, undisturbed tropical rainforests are among the most biologically diverse of all ecosystems. When one of these forests is clearcut, a great number of species that depend on the trees for food and habitat are destroyed as well. These include rare orchids, other plants, birds, insects, and many other species, quite likely, some of which have not even been recognized, yet. Many of these tree-dependent species only begin to return after the trees have re-established themselves and are reaching maturity. Once the tree-dependent species have returned, other species that, in turn, depend on them might begin a comeback.
Erosion, leaching of released nutrients, and other physical changes that follow clear-cutting add to the complexity of the recovery situation. As a result of the intricate set of interdependencies involving the physical and biological environment, many types of tropical and temperate forest require a long time for true recovery. During this period, some of the rare species with small natural ranges may become lost forever. People who are unable to appreciate these species for their own sake should remember that a lost species may have been one that had medical or other utilitarian potential.
A recovering ecosystem seen in an aerial photo may not actually be as "green" as it appears. We need to take a deeper look at the systems that sustain us before we engage in uninformed and potentially destructive actions. This is true in one's own community (mine, included) as well as the rest of the world.
Edited by JavaGAR (03/26/08 09:39 AM)
|
Diane9247
Humanitarian
Reged: 01/15/07
Posts: 1917
Loc: Californian in Oregon
|
|
Hi Evert  -
Yes, I believe those are cattle ponds. The odd thing, as you stated, is that one is light and the other darker blue-green. I found another such example in American cattle country (perhaps South Dakota?), but it was very late last night and I didn't think to mark it - though I did think of your question. There were two side-by-side, not quite so perfect as yours, more free-form, but definitely manmade and in known cattle ranch territory. And, one was dark, the other light!  If it was S.D., it was an area that was never forested. If I find them again I'll add them here.
As for your point about expecting Brazil to toe the line, when Europe and the US didn't - I do understand that and agree we shouldn't be self-righteous. But, we humans know a lot more now than we did in the previous centuries. Among the differences: population, which is so far out of control now it is nearly impossible to restrict demand for any resource until it's irretrievable. How can we not try, though?
Brazil has a chance to lead the world in preventing complete deforestation - and I suspect that Indonesia, or the Dem. Republic of Congo, either can't or won't ever do it. They have endless wars and political upheavals to contend with - the perfect atmosphere for a resource free-for-all. Who knows, yet, whether China will have the incentive to conserve resources, much less curb demand. (I read an article today, while waiting for an appointment  , about the massive export of soybeans, which you mention, from Brazil to China.) They are relative newcomers to the practice of consuming and selling all manner of goods and raking in gobs of money, so I don't blame them for thinking "to hell with you people telling us what to do - don't deny us our day!"
I just hope the US, lost in its own quagmire for six years, can join with Europe to use friendly means to change the practice of deforestation around the globe - using themselves as the best examples of what should not be done. It might require that we give up some of the comfy lifestyle and the piles of money we've gained while depleting our resources and much of theirs, in order to assist Brazil, et al., with common-sense resource management.
All very high-blown, and easy for me to say... but I do worry about the very habitability of the earth and hate to see us ignoring the duty that belongs to us all. I don't want to live in one enormous Haiti, the current microcosm of what our great-grandchildren could face.
Quote:
Haiti is one of the many developing countries that has sought to increase its growth and end its cycle of poverty. One of the ways in which it has done this has been by cutting down the forests. Most of Haiti's population live below the poverty line. Nearly 70 percent of all Haitians depend on the agriculture sector, which consists mainly of small-scale subsistence farming and employs about two thirds of the economically active work force. However, extreme soil erosion and deforestation mean that Haiti's environment is one of the most devastated in the world. Only 30 percent of the land is suitable for cultivation, with the result that the majority of the rural poor have a desperate struggle for survival on marginal areas. (From a 1997 ICE Case Study: Deforestation in Haiti, by Kristen Picariello.)
Diane
Edited by diane9247 (03/27/08 12:17 AM)
|
xtaaxt
Tourist
Reged: 03/26/08
Posts: 23
|
|
is there any original woods in Euro?
--------------------
dragon lion art arts dragon dance dragon lion lion costume lion dance
|
heamit
Master Cartographer
Reged: 10/26/06
Posts: 2333
|
|
Hi sateliteoflove,
I agree - it certainly looks like a set of water holes.
This is an interesting and important thread and I like to monitor it.
Not wanting to change the subject or anything : but I find it incredibly curious how the 'newgrowth' trees around this area are spaced. They are not at all haphazard, but very evenly (albeit irregularly) spaced some 50 to 80 feet between each one. It seems most unlikely to me that new growth would regenerate in this manner. One would expect 'clumps' of vegetation determined by the fall of seeds and happenstance. However these trees look almost as though they were sprinkled evenly about the landscape.
While not wishing to deviate from the topic of this thread per se - I do wonder what makes the trees grow back like this? Far apart and with no shrubbery etc in between?
--------------------
Read the News!
What to do about Darfur?
Kiva - loans that change lives. Please check it out!
One interpretation of why the Middle East is broken
|
Pragueimp
Explorer
Reged: 02/20/08
Posts: 193
Loc: Prague
|
|
Hi Heamit
This vegetation pattern is almost certainly due to grazing. The individual trees and groups of trees will be tall enough so that their branches are out of reach of grazing animals. Or they may be thorny or unpalatable species. The area between them will be grazed so that trees cannot regenerate.
This can actually be a very sustainable mixture of forestry and agriculture - enough grazing for livestock with trees producing timber, fruit and nuts. The trees can also offer shade for the livestock.
--------------------
Mark
Environmental English
www.envenglish.com
|
Previous
Index
Next
Threaded
[Re: 
Edit
Reply
Quote
View in Google Earth
View in Google Maps