From: Billy Brown (bbrown@conemsco.com)
Date: Thu May 13 1999 - 13:16:26 MDT
Brian D Williams wrote:
> Most of the land being cleared by peasants in Brazil is to raise
> cattle for export to american fast food chains. Gold fever has also
> taken it's toll.
So which is the problem - the fact that McDonald's will buy cheap beef, or
the fact that the Brazilians are willing to clear-cut their rain forest to
raise cattle? I'd say the latter.
> Mature maybe, old growth... no way. They log on so-called nature
> preserves all the time..
I know - one more example of how well socialist solutions work. :-)
But it only matters for a tiny fraction of the ecology. We've got lots of
30-60 year old timber, which is plenty old enough to form a habitat for
virtually the entire ecosystem. It would be nice if we could also save that
last 1% that needs an authentic old-growth forest, but that isn't in the
same league as the major problems in other parts of the world.
> We have completely dominated our ecosystem, I don't see this as
> enviromentally sound. I agree on Brazil and Bangladesh..
Well, what exactly do you mean by "environmentally sound". Pollution levels
are falling, conservation efforts are growing, and every reasonable effort
is being made to avoid causing damage (along with a lot of unreasonable
efforts). I don't see that it would make sense to do more. It makes more
sense to devote our limited financial resources to developing advanced
technology (which could free us from many of the tradeoffs we currently
face) than to spend even more money trying to preserve a tiny fraction of
the ecosphere that happens to be very vulnerable to perturbations.
> This is the best of the options you've stated, but the answer is to
> set a good example ourselves, something we've been reluctant to
> do....
Again, what exactly do you think we should be doing that we don't? We are
already well past the point of diminishing returns where environmental
spending is concerned.
Billy Brown, MCSE+I
bbrown@conemsco.com
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