Brazil has done deforestation on such a large scale but has it develooped?

Question

Brazil has cut all of its rainforests.It is causing global warming.But has it been worth?Has Brazil develooped on that scale?

Answer 1

Soy farming and industrial-scale cattle ranching are two of the reasons the Amazon is being cut.  Whether or not it was worth it may depend upon whether or not you are employed in those industries.  Apparently to the Brazilian governors getting filthy rich off of the destruction it seems worth the cost.

http://www.wrm.org.uy/subjects/biofuels/...

"The United States will not be able to produce sufficient biomass for biofuel domestically to satisfy its energy appetite. Instead, energy crops will be cultivated in the Global South. Large sugarcane, oil palm, and soy plantations are already supplanting forests and grasslands in Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, and Paraguay. Soy cultivation has already resulted in the deforestation of 21 million hectares of forests in Brazil, 14 million hectares in Argentina, two million hectares in Paraguay and 600,000 hectares in Bolivia. In response to global market pressure, Brazil alone will likely clear an additional 60 million hectares of land in the near future (Bravo 2006)."

"Conclusions

The energy crisis—driven by over-consumption and peak oil—has provided an opportunity for powerful global partnerships between petroleum, grain, genetic engineering, and automotive corporations. These new food and fuel alliances are deciding the future of the world’s agricultural landscapes. The biofuels boom will further consolidate their hold over our food and fuel systems and allow them to determine what, how and how much will be grown, resulting in more rural poverty, environmental destruction and hunger. The ultimate beneficiaries of the biofuel revolution will be grain merchant giants, including Cargill, ADM and Bunge; petroleum companies such as BP, Shell, Chevron, Neste Oil, Repsol and Total; car companies such as General Motors, Volkswagen AG, FMC-Ford France, PSA Peugeot-Citroen and Renault; and biotech giants such as Monsanto, DuPont, and Syngenta.

The biotech industry is using the current biofuel fever to greenwash its image by developing and deploying transgenic seeds for energy, not food production. Given the increasing public mistrust for and rejection of transgenic crops as food, biotechnology will be used by corporations to improve their image claiming that they will develop new genetically modified crops with enhanced biomass production or that contain the enzyme alfa-amilase which will allow the ethanol process to begin while the corn is still in the field—a technology they claim has no negative impacts on human health. The deployment of such crops into the environment will add one more environmental threat to those already linked to GMO corn which in 2006 reached 32.2 million hectares: the introduction of new traits into the human food chain as has already occurred with Starlink corn and rice LL601."

"Clearly, the ecosystems of areas in which biofuel crops are being produced are being rapidly degraded, and biofuel production is neither environmentally and socially sustainable now nor in the future.

It is also worrisome that public universities and research systems (i.e. the recent agreement signed by BP and the University of California-Berkeley) are falling prey to the seduction of big money and the influence of politics and corporate power. In addition to the implications of the intrusion of private capital on the shaping of the research agenda and faculty composition—that erodes the public mission of universities in favor of private interests—it serves as an attack against academic freedom and faculty governance. These partnerships divert universities from engaging in unbiased research and preclude intellectual capital from exploring truly sustainable alternatives to the energy crisis and climate change."

Answer 2

Stop !!!! There is no man that can go into the rain forest and do it much damage. It was there and it will be there when he is dead. I worked in the head waters of the Amazon for 12 years. The oil co spent 1 million dollars a month just trying to beat the jungle back off the roads. Some of the well sites roads were so over groan that on a couple of months we would need to rebuild the road. The last I saw the jungle was winning about 20 to nothing.

Answer 3

You are incorrect.  Brazil has lots of rainforest left.  Your first sentence is wrong and the subsequent sentences continue on that theme.

Answer 4

No I don't believe so they need to stop because I don't want to die from some idiot farmers that want more land for there cows to graze on!

Answer 5

If you lived in a straw hut in Brazil with no food, I think you would also cut down the trees in order to plant food. Do not judge other people in other countries because they want to survive.

Ensuring a democratic government along with a market based system would go a long way in changing this.

Answer 6

No, most of the burning and clear cutting is done for farming or for the timber.

Answer 7

Ok Harry, he's what happens:

I'm from Brazil and that's my source.

Deforestation of the Amazon is against the law in Brazil, but how can you watch over the whole thing? that's the problem they have. When they finally locate the area in which ILLEGAL lumber is being cut, it's already too late.

And it's not the cutting down of the forest that causes global warming. Just so you have an idea, over 90% of the oxygen in the planet is produced by algae, not by trees.

There are many other factors that influence global warming and among those are:

-do you eat red meat? we'll if you're really worried about global warming maybe you shouldn't. Cows produce methane gas (excuse my "french" but the gas comes from their f**t) which is a huge contributor for Global warming.

-do you drive your own car to work? ever think or carpooling, or taking the bus, or taking the subway?

-do you recycle? Here's an easy tip to follow that will help the environment: you know those bottled waters we dring everyday? re-use the bottles! Plastic bottles are one of the biggest polutors there is and when they go to the landfills and get burnet.... well you get the picture.

So don't blame global warming on one action, or one people, or country. It's a human fault and ALL humans have to cooperate, in america, Brazil, China or whereever.

People say save the planet but you know what, the planet will be just fine. we are the ones who are in danger, and the funny thing is we are ones putting ourselves in that situation.

PS: just to complement what JS said in his answer few minutes before mine. The people who cut down the amazon are mere farmers and not the gorvernment. Brazil is very preocupied with the energy crisis as well as the rest of the planet. On those grassfields (which by the way, are very very far from the amazon area) we plant lots corn and sugar cane, because we make fuel out of those two. They are cheaper and natural. also polute much less. What has the US done to stop pollution? I dont know either.... I can actually name things they havent done to help such as signing the Kyoto protocol.