The Amazon rainforest could begin to die within two years, economist says

The Guardian wrote:Soaring deforestation coupled with the destructive policies of Brazil’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, could push the Amazon rainforest dangerously to an irreversible “tipping point” within two years, a prominent economist has said.

After this point the rainforest would stop producing enough rain to sustain itself and start slowly degrading into a drier savannah, releasing billions of tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere, which would exacerbate global heating and disrupt weather across South America.

The warning came in a policy brief published this week by Monica de Bolle, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington DC.

We must change our ways.

Some more than others !

Those corrupt pollies and their Brazilian and American billionaire puppeteer masters probably already have their 'bolt holes' tucked away in places like Canada and New Zealand,  for when everything starts crumbling around them, and South Amerika is going to hell..

Ben Reilly wrote:

The Guardian wrote:Soaring deforestation coupled with the destructive policies of Brazil’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, could push the Amazon rainforest dangerously to an irreversible “tipping point” within two years, a prominent economist has said.

After this point the rainforest would stop producing enough rain to sustain itself and start slowly degrading into a drier savannah, releasing billions of tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere, which would exacerbate global heating and disrupt weather across South America.

The warning came in a policy brief published this week by Monica de Bolle, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington DC.

We must change our ways.

Do "we" live in Brazil? How do"we" change Brazilian policy?

Maybe the rich countries can buy large swathes of it or rent it in a deal good enough to make it better to leave it alone. If we can only understand if we look after the habitat it'll be good for other species and native peoples who don't wish to join us in our headlong race for more technology damn the cost and ultimately a better world for humanity. All species including humans should have the best life possible, we won't get that by continuing to expand the population as we are disregarding the limited resources on the planet.
Its not just the Amazon of course the other rainforests are being ruined as well.

Vintage wrote:Maybe the rich countries can buy large swathes of it or rent it in a deal good enough to make it better to leave it alone. If we can only understand if we look after the habitat it'll be good for other species and native peoples who don't wish to join us in our headlong race for more technology damn the cost and ultimately a better world for humanity. All species including humans should have the best life possible, we won't get that by continuing to expand the population as we are disregarding the limited resources on the planet.
Its not just the Amazon of course the other rainforests are being ruined as well.

Well, the US is 23 Trillion in debt. Were broke. Maybe the Chinese can buy the Amazon.

Maddog wrote:

Vintage wrote:Maybe the rich countries can buy large swathes of it or rent it in a deal good enough to make it better to leave it alone. If we can only understand if we look after the habitat it'll be good for other species and native peoples who don't wish to join us in our headlong race for more technology damn the cost and ultimately a better world for humanity. All species including humans should have the best life possible, we won't get that by continuing to expand the population as we are disregarding the limited resources on the planet.
Its not just the Amazon of course the other rainforests are being ruined as well.

Well, the US is 23 Trillion in debt. Were broke.  Maybe the Chinese can buy the Amazon.  

Then China could on-sell a 50% stake to India...

And both countries could then claim "carbon offsets"  against their rainforest holdings to help them meet future pollution cutback obligations..

What about Bill Gates?
A few individuals have bought some areas and are battling to keep them safe.

could always declare war on brazil....solves two problems

get control of the rainforest AND reduce the population

win win

Victorismyhero wrote:could always declare war on brazil....solves two problems

get control of the rainforest AND reduce the population

win win

That's really the only way we are going to make a big dent in this whole problem. Western control over these developing countries and large decreases in their population.

Western countries have been decreasing their impact, while places like India, China and Brazil are increasing theirs.

What a load of bollocks!!!

Maddog wrote:

Ben Reilly wrote:

The Guardian wrote:Soaring deforestation coupled with the destructive policies of Brazil’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, could push the Amazon rainforest dangerously to an irreversible “tipping point” within two years, a prominent economist has said.

After this point the rainforest would stop producing enough rain to sustain itself and start slowly degrading into a drier savannah, releasing billions of tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere, which would exacerbate global heating and disrupt weather across South America.

The warning came in a policy brief published this week by Monica de Bolle, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington DC.

We must change our ways.

Do "we" live in Brazil? How do"we" change Brazilian policy?

We need people to speak up, perhaps even travel the world addressing governments and the U.N.

We have a young Girl already doing this !

Ben Reilly wrote:

Maddog wrote:

Do "we" live in Brazil? How do"we" change Brazilian policy?

We need people to speak up, perhaps even travel the world addressing governments and the U.N.

Oh yeah. That will work.

nicko wrote:We have a young Girl already doing this !

And what happened in Madrid a few weeks ago?

nicko wrote:We have a young Girl already doing this !

One will never be enough. We need the global movement that is already building.

A global army of the people, a union to save the planet, could actually do it.

If anti-abortion activists in America can work state-by-state so that in more and more states, abortion is effectively illegal or inaccessible, then climate change activists can work around the world to bend the curve on climate change.

It won't be perfect, it won't happen fast enough to entirely avoid some of the negative effects of climate change, but it could happen.

Ben Reilly wrote:If anti-abortion activists in America can work state-by-state so that in more and more states, abortion is effectively illegal or inaccessible, then climate change activists can work around the world to bend the curve on climate change.

It won't be perfect, it won't happen fast enough to entirely avoid some of the negative effects of climate change, but it could happen.

Yeah. Go protest is different countries, where the right to protest isn't protected.

Start in China, have fun.

Maddog wrote:

Victorismyhero wrote:could always declare war on brazil....solves two problems

get control of the rainforest AND reduce the population

win win

That's really the only way we are going to make a big dent in this whole problem.  Western control over these developing countries and large decreases in their population.  

Western countries have been decreasing their impact, while places like India, China and Brazil are increasing theirs.  

Brazil is not a "developing" country...

Despite the great inequality, rampant corruption, and continuing to ignore environmental protections, human rights and international law --  Brazil remains a "First World" country and a G10 member..

And Brazil is still rated as a "Western" country.

Brazil also has less than 2/3rds the USA's population  --  surely we should be reducing the USA's population,  ahead of countries like Indonesia, Brazil, Pakistan or Mexico ? 

It's time to stop behaving as though the world isn't interconnected, and as if parts of it can get along just fine while the rest goes to hell.

There is no getting around this. Humanity -- all of it, not just Brazilians -- is dependent upon the Amazon: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/08/28/amazon-rain-forest-what-would-earth-like-without-it/2130430001/

Not mentioned in that article is that the Amazon produces about a quarter of the plants used in modern medicines.

People have been saying the above since I was young, from dippy hippies to today's tree huggers, remember Sting and Raioni, although
the charity appears to be dubious now. There have been voices in the wilderness for many years.

Ben Reilly wrote:It's time to stop behaving as though the world isn't interconnected, and as if parts of it can get along just fine while the rest goes to hell.

There is no getting around this. Humanity -- all of it, not just Brazilians -- is dependent upon the Amazon: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/08/28/amazon-rain-forest-what-would-earth-like-without-it/2130430001/

Not mentioned in that article is that the Amazon produces about a quarter of the plants used in modern medicines.

Yeah, that's sorta the idea behind the UN.

Doesn't seem to be working too well.

Ben Reilly wrote:It's time to stop behaving as though the world isn't interconnected, and as if parts of it can get along just fine while the rest goes to hell.

There is no getting around this. Humanity -- all of it, not just Brazilians -- is dependent upon the Amazon: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/08/28/amazon-rain-forest-what-would-earth-like-without-it/2130430001/

Not mentioned in that article is that the Amazon produces about a quarter of the plants used in modern medicines.

That's the problem with concepts of libertarianism, and its related concept of absolute freedom. It presumes a state of no limits, when there are limits in all directions.

Four decades ago, when the ecology movement first started--see, Rachel Carson, Silent Spring (first published in three serialized excerpts in the New Yorker in June of 1962)--the western world began to realize that our founding notion of freedom, or liberty, was flawed. We live on "spaceship earth", and cannot just go around pissing on every wall or tree. (Carson came upon her primary thesis via the adverse environmental effects caused by the indiscriminate use of pesticides, but it soon spread to your idea, Ben, as an interconnected world. Today, the idea has spread to politics, economics and energy). We live in a closed sphere, not a free atmosphere, and there are limits to everything we do.

Unfettered action (liberty or freedom) is not the status of the universe. Liberté, égalité, fraternité, as the French spoke of it, is a self-contradiction, as even fraternity and equality are themselves limits to liberty. We need to rethink our concepts of liberty and freedom, even in social, political and economic terms. Read my signature...that's what it is about.