Eco-War Frontiers: Brazil

Hello out there to all of my loyal followers (all four of you)! Today's topic is set to elucidate the dangerous and pertinent issue of what I call Eco-War Frontiers. Basically, this is an attempt to highlight the fact that there are sensitive areas around the globe where integral natural climates are under the threat of attack by rapid 'modern' development. By 'modern' here I mean the mentality that 'I' should get as much as I can right now for 'me' before anyone else beats me to it.

Over the last decade we have seen the use of the media as a tool to influence public perception, essentially to 'opiate' 'dopiate' and 'terrify' populations into compliance when world governments are acting like nasty greedy bandits and getting up to no good that they know they not should. One salient example of course is the Bush administrations "War on Terror" which really translated into "Now, because we've adequately subjugated you with fear, we are off to go on a romp with our toys, and your sons' and daughters' blood, to wreck shit so that our buddy's company's can make a bunch of money rebuilding it.". Well, thankfully there are no laws prohibiting the linguistic deployment of similar rhetoric in favor of the environment. As such I have coined the term "Eco-War".

I believe that there is a conflict going on across the Earth right now. The combatants? Us: the conservationist/ environmentalists vs. Big Industry {and those enslaved by their advertising budget and lobby wire funds}. An frontier that has not been getting enough media in this campaign is Brazil. Lauded as one of the 'emerging markets' of the world, Brazil threatens to do just that with bloodied hands. Not for want of trying: the government is actually working with moderate diligence to try and regulate and protect perhaps one of the most valuable and vital ecosystems left on the planet: The Amazon Rainforest. Better known as the southern lung of the Earth.

Quick ECO facts about the Amazon:
1. It produces between 15~20% of the Earth new oxygen.
2. It represents a third of the remaining vegetation on the planet.
3. It covers (presently) 2.5 million square miles/ 6.25 million square kilometers (roughly 7 times the size of British Columbia Canada!).
4. It is one of the most bio diverse areas left on the Earth and we currently don't even come close to knowing all there is to learn from the ancient library of Earth wisdom.

Disturbing Truths about what is going on there:
1. Already more than 20% of the Amazon Rainforest has been pillaged, destroyed, devoured and is gone forever.
2. It is being attacked on all sides by constellation of industrial interests. Including: Ranchers (McDonalds anyone?), Loggers (most of it illegal), Farmers, Oil interests and Miners.
3. Between 2000~2006 150,000 kilometers was clear cut {an area larger than Greece}.
4. 60% of all the land cleared is being used by Cattle Ranchers to raise cheap beef (need I say it again?).

What can we do about it?

This is an important question and I have been asked before by friends and students, "Well, Canada is developed... are you now going to tell the developing nations of the world that they can't seek their God given manifest destiny to root up, use and destroy his creation just as your forefathers did in your country to garner prosperity?" And all sarcasm aside this is a very valid point, what gives the most wasteful and energy inefficient countries in the world (USA and Canada are at the top top top of that list; face it guys we are fat, lazy and comfortable) the right to tell others how to manage their resources? I agree with this completely. Unfortunately, we live in a material world. So, if we want Brazil to manage their resources better than we have in the past then we are going to have to pay them for it. This means purchasing carbon offsets that will go towards protecting the Amazon Rainforest (or other like worthy projects). Think of it as a time share in your grandkids future. Of course this is not all that we should do. In addition you should write letters and send emails to your government representatives telling them that you want them to be more active in driving your governments towards trying to make carbon offsets a meaningful global solution. Finally, you should bug all your friends and relatives about this (like I am) and try to encourage them to take responsibility for the carbon that they use that they can't prevent.

If you want to find out more about how to purchase personal carbon offsets the following site has lots of useful information about companies from around the world that provide them, as well as what the projects those companies support are, where they are and how each company and project is rated again Kyoto protocol standards.
http://www.carboncatalog.org/guide/how-to-buy-carbon-offsets/
If you are in Canada or America here's a list of the North American providers.
http://www.carboncatalog.org/providers/north-america/

Here's the Canadian offset company that I just purchased a $100 dollar offset from, amounting to 2.28 tonnes of carbon (roughly the amount that HJ and I used in our flights in China this past winter).
http://planetair.ca/