ROCKMAN wrote:Apparently the Ecuadorian govt was more interested in cashing in then protecting the environment. I suspect a philosophy we'll more commonly see from most govts as we roll further down the PO path. I'm sure they gave their best effort at extortion but it just didn't work. From RigZone:
"Ecuador (AP) — Lawmakers in Ecuador on Thursday authorized the extraction of oil from Yasuni National Park, a pristine Amazon reserve. The president in August announced that he was abandoning a unique plan to persuade rich countries to pay Ecuador not to drill in the Yasuni, saying wealthy nations had failed to pledge enough money. Environmentalists had hailed the initiative when it was announced in 2007, saying Correa was setting a precedent in the fight against global warming by lowering the high cost to poor countries of preserving the environment. Correa had sought $3.6 billion in contributions to maintain a moratorium on Yasuni drilling. But he said Ecuador managed to raise just $13 million. It's unclear when drilling would begin."
IMHO it appears he's set a president that proposing to prevent oil/NG development for the sake of the environment is a hollow threat if there's govt revenue on the line.
radon1 wrote:The would drill it anyway, sooner or later, with or without donations.
n research meant to highlight how the destruction of the Amazon rainforest could affect climate elsewhere, Princeton University-led researchers report that the total deforestation of the Amazon may significantly reduce rain and snowfall in the western United States, resulting in water and food shortages, and a greater risk of forest fires.
The researchers report in the Journal of Climate that an Amazon stripped bare could mean 20 percent less rain for the coastal Northwest and a 50 percent reduction in the Sierra Nevada snowpack, a crucial source of water for cities and farms in California. Previous research has shown that deforestation will likely produce dry air over the Amazon. Using high-resolution climate simulations, the researchers are the first to find that the atmosphere's normal weather-moving mechanics would create a ripple effect that would move that dry air directly over the western United States from December to February.
Specifically, a denuded Amazon would develop a weather cycle consisting of abnormally dry air in the sun-scorched northern Amazon around the equator weighted by wetter air in the cooler south. Research has speculated that this pattern would be similar to the warm-water climate pattern El Niño, which during the winter months brings heavy precipitation to southern California and the Sierra Nevada region while drying out the Pacific Northwest.
The 2003 Lost Creek Fire. I am just below where it says 24 Ave at the top.dohboi wrote:http://earthenginepartners.appspot.com/science-2013-global-forest
The consequences of fires in Siberia, Alaska and northern Canada are very notable.
Graeme wrote:That's great. I'm also doing that here too. I think you've seen that I had my fair share of fights. But mostly I'm bringing news. Something interesting turns up almost daily.
Graeme wrote:If admin notices that visits start to fall off dramatically, they could always change threads to public view back that way it was before. It's up to them.
When the renowned Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado took over family land in the state of Minas Gerais, instead of the tropical paradise that he remembered as a child, he found the trees cut down and the wildlife gone. He was devastated.
It was 1994 and he had just returned from a traumatic assignment reporting on the genocide in Rwanda, he told a meeting of religious leaders discussing climate change in Paris last week.
“The land was as sick as I was – everything was destroyed,” said Salgado. “Only about 0.5% of the land was covered in trees. Then my wife had a fabulous idea to replant this forest. And when we began to do that, then all the insects and birds and fish returned and, thanks to this increase of the trees I, too, was reborn – this was the most important moment.”
Salgado and his family set up the Instituto Terra and have now planted more than 2 million trees, transforming the environment. In doing so, he says, he has found one answer to climate change – as well as creative inspiration.
“Perhaps we have a solution. There is a single being which can transform CO2 to oxygen, which is the tree. We need to replant the forest. You need forest with native trees, and you need to gather the seeds in the same region you plant them or the serpents and the termites won’t come. And if you plant forests that don’t belong, the animals don’t come there and the forest is silent.
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