Comments on: Brazil: Dwarf Woodpecker, Legless Lizard, and 12 Other New Species Found

By: sschaper

sschaper — Thu, 01 May 2008 15:23:21 +0000

I hope they are setting aside some reserves, and taking up the practice of hedgerows and windbreaks.

As we’ve seen in America, if the animals don’t go extinct, they come back in about 100 years, and that is without the above practices.

By: nick_beyondthetree

nick_beyondthetree — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 15:20:03 +0000

This article highlights an important issue. When many people hear the term “habitat loss” they autmatically think of tropical rainforest. This in itself is no bad thing, as we all know the plight that the worlds rainforests are in. However, it’s important to realise, as the above article informs us, that other habitats are equally under threat. Grassland habitats in particular are in a perilous situation as they are so easily turned into farmland. While the basic nature of the landscape isn’t altered much (especially in the case of cattle farming), the impact that human encroachment has is dangerous. Inevitably, the balance of the environment is altered and this, combined with “population control” (read: hunting) causes huge decreases in the populations of predators, while overgrazing from domestic cattle results in a de-population of herbivores. While smaller creatures often seem to initally benefit, we have no real idea of the long term effects of this kind of farming on the eco-system. Arable farming of coruse causes even more direct damage to the eco-system, with the added ingredient of chemical pesticides. This is happening on a large scale in southern and eastern Africa and, as mentioned above, various parts of South America, and more awareness needs to be raised.

As red pill junkie said, it seems that the rate at which we discover new speicies runs oddly in tandem with the rate at which speicies are added to the endangered list. As long as we contiunue to blindly ruin habitats, it’s not going to change.

By: greywolf

greywolf — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 00:42:18 +0000

I am no longer amazed at the new critters that crop up from time to time! I guess we humans don’t know every thing about this planet and its life forms yet….hmmmmm is Bigfoot next?

By: red_pill_junkie

red_pill_junkie — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 21:18:01 +0000

Wow! some pretty scary stats there. And here I am designing a “lounge veranda” for some luxury apartments in Acapulco, which will be made of wood. What kind of wood? the tropical and cheap kind of course, and whether it comes from a sustainable forest is something my employer doesn’t give a hoot about.

Waiting for the karma police to take me away, I guess

By: Loren Coleman

Loren Coleman — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 20:02:54 +0000

Gringos? Be careful my Mexican friend.

What company owns some of the largest tracts of the Amazon rainforest? It is the Mitsubishi Corporation.

Japan’s average tropical timber import of 11 million cubic meters annually is termed “gluttonous” by critics.

One single steel plant in Brazil making steel for Japanese cars needs millions of tons of wood each year to produce charcoal that can be used in the manufacture of steel. Then, there is the paper industry. One pulpwood project in the Brazilian Amazon consists of a Japanese power plant and pulp mill. To set up this single plant operation, 5,600 square miles of Amazon rainforest were burned to the ground and replanted with pulpwood trees. This single manufacturing plant consumes 2,000 tons of surrounding rainforest wood every day to produce 55 megawatts of electricity to run the plant. The plant, which has been in operation since 1978, produces more than 750 tons of pulp for paper every 24 hours, worth approximately $500,000, and has built 2,800 miles of roads through the Amazon rainforest to be used by its 700 vehicles.Rainforest Facts

By: red_pill_junkie

red_pill_junkie — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 19:37:37 +0000

As the world is desperate for alternative fuels, the brazilians are turning their rain forests into oil palm fields. On the positive side we are finding more new species, too bad that the minute they are discovered, they have to be put in the “endangered” list

BTW, the brazilians are trying to make new laws to restrict the access of foreigners to the Amazon. I don’t know if they are either afraid of Big Pharma corporations looking to profit from new biological prospects for new medicines… or maybe they’re just tired of all the “gringos” going to the jungle to have a taste of ayahuasca brew