The
increase in average global planetary temperature over the past
century, has been in
the region of one degree Fahrenheit or half a degree
Centigrade / Celsius.
Global temperature has always been highly variable in Earth's
history and many fluctuations have occurred in the past, but this
most recent episode of warming is a metrological anomaly, as it is
quite a large rise. It also coincides with the spread of
industralization, bringing about the supposition that it is the
result of the accelerated Greenhouse Effect caused by atmospheric
pollutants, especially carbon dioxide gas.
Moreover, recent meltings and collapses of the frozen water stores
at both poles, could be presumed a consequence of Global Warming.
Melting of this ice is expected to raise sea levels in the coming
decades.
Natural climatic variations have not been ruled out either, as the
cause of the current rise, but scientists are still assessing
the likely influence of anthropogenic - human-made chemical
pollutants. Assessing this impact on global climate is
problematical, only made worse by the natural variability on both
geological and human time scales.
Established in October 1991, the GCCIP provides an
information link between scientists, both natural and
social, politicians, economists, and the general public,
on the subjects of climate change and air quality. Their
Web site includes a number of essays on related issues
However, the present episode of Global Warming has still left
England approximately 1°C cooler than during the peak of the
so-called Medieval Warm Period, which was between centuries 1000 to
1400.
Tilt
of Earth’s axis turned Sahara into a desert
The
Sahara and Arabia were transformed abruptly from fertile land covered
with shrubs and grasses into a parched desert in a "brutal"
period of climatic change lasting 400 years, scientists have found.
For
once, humans were not to blame: the cause was not farming or
overgrazing, as is usually thought. Scientists reckon that the Sahara
began to turn into a desert after the Earth underwent one of its
periodic changes in orientation, starting 9,000 and finishing about
6,000 years ago. Its tilt lessened from 24.14 degrees off vertical to
its present 23.45 degrees, while the time when the planet is closest
to the Sun shifted gradually from July to January.
Nobody
knows what triggered the changes, but geologists think they were
probably caused by shifts of material deep inside the Earth's molten
core. They altered the pattern of sunshine on the Earth, with profound
effects on many weather systems. The discovery has implications today,
as many climate researchers are worried that gradual changes in the
Earth's temperature caused by global warming will have marked effects
on ocean currents - particularly those that warm Britain.
Before
the change, the northern hemisphere received more summer sunlight,
which amplified summer monsoons. But once the change was over, the new
conditions created a vicious feedback loop between vegetation and
climate. As the African monsoon lessened, plants began dying. As they
stopped retaining water and releasing it back into the atmosphere, the
rains lessened further, until rivers and streams dried up. The Sahara
Desert now covers 3.5 million square miles.
The
discovery emerged from a new computerized climate model made by a team
of scientists at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Change.
"Our
simulations show how interactions between vegetation, atmosphere and
ocean current can lead to relatively abrupt climate changes - a
process that might influence climate in future, too," said Martin
Claussen, the team's leader.
"It
was very severe, ruining ancient civilizations and socio-economic
systems," he added. In the Sahara, "we find an abrupt
decrease in vegetation, from a green Sahara to a desert scrublands
within a few hundred years".
The
ancient civilizations that had lived there - and left rock paintings -
may have been forced to migrate to the more fertile Nile valley and
other river valleys, where great civilizations developed.
Professor
Claussen noted that changes in the Earth's orbit and tilt will
continue to occur. As to their effects, he said: "What will
happen in the future, frankly, we can only speculate."
What is global warming?
Global warming is the rise in temperature of the earth's
atmosphere.
It's said that by the time a baby born today is 80 years
old, the world will be 6 and a half degrees warmer than it
is now.
Greenhouse Effect
Greenhouse
Effect - An effect occurring in the atmosphere because of the presence of certain gases
- Greenhouse Gases - water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, ozone, and
nitrous oxide, that absorb infrared radiation. Short-Wave Light and ultraviolet radiation from the sun are able to penetrate the atmosphere and warm the earth’s surface. This energy is re-radiated as infrared radiation, which, because of its longer wavelength, is absorbed by such substances as carbon
dioxide, instead of passing through. The overall effect is that the average temperature of the earth and its atmosphere is increasing
- the so-called Global Warming or ultimately the Global Ending Syndrome.
The effect is similar to that occurring in a greenhouse, where light and long-wavelength ultraviolet radiation can pass through the glass into the greenhouse but the infrared radiation is absorbed by the glass and part of it is re-radiated into the greenhouse.
The greenhouse effect is seen as a major environmental hazard. Average increases in temperature could change weather patterns and agricultural output. It might also lead to melting of the polar ice caps and a corresponding rise in sea level. Carbon dioxide, from coal-fired power stations and car exhausts, is the main greenhouse gas. Other contributory pollutants are nitrogen oxides, ozone, methane, and
chlorofluorocarbons.
Find out how the
greenhouse effect works, why the Gulf Stream might change and
how experts think it might get worse.
Climate Change
From:
Benny J Peiser To:
cambridge-conference Date: 30. January 1998 16:47 Subject: CC DIGEST, 29/01/98
New
Evidence for Major Punctuation of Global Climate at the
Pleistocene / Holocene Boundary
From: Clark Whelton The New York Times Science Section, January 27, 1998 If Climate Changes, It May Change
Quickly. William K. Stevens
"...A
growing accumulation of geological evidence is making it
ever clearer that in the past the climate has undergone
drastic changes in temperature and rainfall patterns in the
space of a human lifetime, in a decade or in even less
time."
"....In
uncovering one of the latest pieces of evidence of abrupt
climate change, American scientists led by Dr. Jeffrey P.
Severinghaus of the University of Rhode Island examined
climatic clues taken from corings of ancient ice in
Greenland. "
The
Severinghaus team determined that when the world began its
final ascent out of the last ice age more than 11,000 years
ago, temperatures in Greenland initially spiked upward by
about 9 to 18 degrees F. -- at least a third, and perhaps
more, of the total recovery to today's warmth -- in, at
most, mere decades and probably less than a single decade.
They also found that the impact of the sudden warming had
been felt at least throughout the Northern Hemisphere.
"That amount of heating, coming so quickly, is
astounding," said Dr. Richard Alley of Pennsylvania
State University, a member of the study team. Another recent
study, by Dr. Peter deMenocal, a paleoclimatologist at
Lamont-Doherty, examined clues in Atlantic Ocean sediments
off sub-tropical North Africa. He discovered that every
1,500 years or so since the end of the ice age, ocean
temperatures there have fluctuated wildly and abruptly.
"In a cold phase, they fell by 5 to 15 degrees, and
seasonal rains on the continent were severely curtailed --
all within no more than 50 to 100 years, and possibly less
(the sediment analysis is not fine enough to tell). Then, in
another 1,500 years, the picture reversed just as abruptly,
causing flooding rains and creating widespread lakes in what
is now theSahara.
"The
transitions are sharp," Dr. deMenocal said.
"Climate changes we thought should take thousands of
years to happen occur within a generation or two,"
at most. The changes may have wreaked havoc on nascent
civilizations in Africa and the Middle East. "It was
certainly something that would have rocked somebody's
world," Dr. deMenocal said.
Learn More, Be More
The futility of waste.
Deserts are basically wastelands; most were once green and flourishing rainforests.
All deserts grow a bit more each year.
In theory, they may one day take over the whole planet, that is if
other catastrophes do not beat them to it.
TheSahara.Net
is
a PROPOSAL
to try and Terraform the Sahara Desert; to reclaim
it for the benefit of the Planet. To produce
a new Rainforest and Ocean.
Desertification of
the world spreads every day. This will attempt to redress the
balance, by replacing lost natural habitats.
The Rainforest Planting Program
The most frequent example in this publication
is the
Luquillo Experimental Forest, which could be a model for protecting and
managing tropical forests worldwide.
Greenhouse Effect - An effect in which radiation from the sun is transmitted through the atmosphere to the earth’s surface, where it may be reradiated as longer wavelength infrared radiation. As some of this infrared is absorbed by carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, a heating effect occurs (global warming). A similar effect occurs in greenhouses. See also
pollution.
Forests
of the Tropics
One
of the biggest dilemmas concerning Global Warning is the cutting down of the
Rainforest. The Sahara Supposition recognizes this fact and clearly acknowledges
that THREE
thousand acres of life-giving plants are still eaten away by some circumstance every
single hour of
every single day, and even though there has been over TWENTY years
of serious debate and concerned lobbying against such actions, IT STILL
CONTINUES. AND WILL CONTINUE ! ! !
We
fervently believe that the cutting down of the Rainforest will not stop and will
not slow either. It will continue until some point where there is such a
significant incident, like simply the trees will run
out,
or
perhaps
maybe, a 90% annihilation of humankind, will occur, before it does. Whichever
scenario comes first will stop it.
Therefore,
the Sahara Supposition recommends that its
PROPOSAL
to try and Terraform the Sahara Desert; to reclaim
it for the benefit of the Planet; to produce
a new replacement Rainforest and Ocean, is strongly considered by all concerned.
Rainforest
The
planet Earth's tropical forests encircle the globe in an area either side of the
Equator The equatorial forest is surprisingly diverse, ranging from abundant rainforest to
waterless savannas and includes millions of species of plants and animals. The
tropical forest
once covered over 15 billion acres. In recent times, however,
they have been cropped at a brisk rate to make room for agriculture and to obtain
valuable hardwoods and their many valuable by-products.
Between 1985 and 1990,
over 210 million acres of tropical forest were destroyed in the name of commerce and human
greed and ignorance.
Some chopped trees have been found to be up to 1000 years old; such huge trees will not
be seen again for many generations.
Three
thousand acres of life-giving, oxygen producing plants are eaten away by some
circumstance every hour of every day. That
is FIVE acres destroyed for financial gain every time this clock
sweeps by. And it will NEVER Stop !!!!
The
Sahara Supposition Proposal
May
we respectively suggest that the "World
Governments"obtain funds to purchase a large amount of Desert to
ecologically manage it for the benefit of the whole planet? The idea
is to take this area, and through terraforming, turn it into a
new State, a new Country; one that is made up of a vast new Rainforest
and a vast new
Ocean of Fresh Water.
A
New Habitat for all Endangered Species.
"Sahara"
is an old Sanskrit word - Sagara - meaning Ocean.
Learn More, Be More
Study highlights global
decline
Learn
More, Be More
A
New Africa - A New Rainforest - A New World Let's Stop Global
Warming.
Let
us imagine, if we can, that how poignant it would be, if say in one
million years time, some advanced alien culture was to visit this
third rock from the Sun. Simply to explore a most insignificant solar
system to find that there was scarcely, any actual evidence that the
human animal had ever existed.
The planet Earth may truly be doomed as far
as Humanity is concerned. But we still continue to race ever further nearer a
point that may reach an Extinction Level Event. The
Forest, especially the rainforest are our only
life-line
to oxygen, but we destroy them like some marauding adversary.
Santo
Bains, a young innovative professor of Oxford University and his
now famous revelations have been quoted in the House of Lords on this
matter:
Lord Avebury: " My Lords, have the Government had an opportunity of evaluating
the evidence made public in the 'Equinox' programme on Channel 4 last
week, (June 2001) based on the research of Dr Santo Bains at the University of
Oxford? It revealed that at two points in the world's history there have been
catastrophic releases of methane hydrates from the ocean floors which came at a
certain point in the warming of the oceans, raising the temperature of the Earth
by some 8 degrees. Does the Minister take this seriously? If so, should there be
a far more drastic programme for the reduction in carbon emissions than we have
seen so far? "
Santo
Bains has said that:
"
The World would be a nasty place to live in without the Rainforests.
"
Three
thousand acres of life-giving, oxygen producing plants are eaten away by some
circumstance every hour of every day. That
is FIVE acres destroyed for financial gain every time this clock
sweeps by. And it will NEVER Stop !!!!
This web-site is about The Sahara Desert and
a $200-300 Billion
ecology supposition that we could Terraform it and make it into
something most valuable for this planet Earth and the Global Environment.
However, it may not be just useful, it might be imperative for all
water-drinking creatures, and this Third Rock.
It
maybe said that $2-300B is too much but we will soon discover within
the decade that the most destructive, dreadful, negative World Trade
Center atrocity will cost at least $1,000,000,000,000.
And Why?
That
is 1,000 Billion dollars. How stupid is the human animal to waste so
much for so little return. Waste so much to have only more suffering
entrenched on the human soul as their only reward.
Our part in the aid of Africa and the planet Earth, will be to create a new Ocean
of Fresh water and a Rainforest to be new lungs for Mother Earth, to replace all
that has been destroyed in the Natural World in the last 50 years. Create custom
built cities, that are super energy efficient; models for the rest of the world
to follow. Create New Age industries, for a New Africa to at last develop for
itself in a way that many have hoped it would, for the last hundred years.
Africa
is the most blessed continent on Earth in terms of minerals, resources
and hope. This continent and its people should be leading the world,
not just accepting that that they are the victims.
Moreover,
many supporters of the Sahara Supposition from all around the globe,
have said that there are many arid, barren patches that could be
reclaimed. Australia and the USA are classic examples of this.
Take the Test to see if you
are an Environmental Taker !
This
is how the TAKERS treat our planet. One dumped car is
nothing. In the scheme of things it
does not matter, but if all the millions of cars that are scrapped each year ended
up like this where would we be? The irony is that this vehicle is so old it is
probably worth ten times more than when it was abandoned.
This site is about
a PROPOSAL to try and Terraform the
Sahara Desert; to reclaim it for the benefit of
Humanity.
Desertification of
the world spreads every day.
This
supposition will attempt to redress the balance.
The
futility of waste. Deserts are basically wastelands; most were once green and
flourishing rainforests. All deserts grow a bit more each year. In
theory, they may one day take over the whole planet, that is if other catastrophes do not
beat them to it.
TheSahara.Net
is
a PROPOSAL
to try and Terraform the Sahara Desert; to reclaim
it for the benefit of the Planet. To produce
a new Rainforest and Ocean.
Desertification of
the world spreads every day. This will attempt to redress the
balance, by replacing lost natural habitats.
FIVE
ACRES OF RAINFOREST GONE AT EVERY SWEEP
The
Earth's largest satellite, the Moon. The way the environment is continually
ravaged maybe in one thousand years time Earth will become more like the Moon.
Let us imagine,
that say in one million years time, and if desertification continues on its
same path. Will most of the planet Earth look like this? And that there is scarcely, any actual evidence that the
primitive human animal had ever existed.
Let us imagine, if
we can, how poignant it would be,
if say in one million years time, some advanced alien culture was to visit
this third rock from the Sun. Simply to explore a most insignificant solar
system to find that there was scarcely, any actual evidence that the
primitive human animal had ever existed.
The
Sahara Supposition is a Proposal
to produce an exciting New
Rainforest, that will effect the whole Global Environment. A Plan that may, with the help of everyone, reverse the
present environmental damage.
The
Sahara Supposition is a Proposal
to produce an exciting New
Ocean of Fresh water, that will effect the whole Global Environment. A Plan that may, with the help of everyone, reverse the
present environmental damage.
Without
Photosynthesis
we would not have oxygen to breathe OR proteins to eat. In sunlight green
plants use this energy to produce oxygen and proteins through Photosynthesis.
It
is said that a football pitch size, of healthy life-giving green
is being destroyed every second and that during any year, a Rain
Forest the size of Great Britain itself, is laid waste. This is
mainly due to logging.
Great
Britain presently releases up to 300 million tons of raw sewage into
the seas around its coast each year. This Sahara strategy could
be negotiated as an initially free service to encourage the halting of
pollution to the Mediterranean Sea, local water tables and the
Atlantic and Indian Oceans et al. However, an eventual charge for this
disposal could go some way in paying for this facility in the long
term.
Almost
90% of the world’s fresh reservoirs are essentially locked away in
the ice caps and there they must stay.
In
the major cities of India, due to rising population and ageing
infrastructure, drinking water-pressure has halved in the last five
years. It is predicted by some that it will run out, especially in
Delhi, in the next ten years. This means that a city with millions of
citizens will have NO water. No water to wash with, no water to
process food and serve industry, let alone to drink to stay alive.
The
UK Lottery Organizers, Camelot have worked out that from the year 2000 to
2100 the British public will spend up to £530,000 Billion, (
Nearly $800,000 Billion), on the National Lottery.
What
would the cost of Terraforming the Sahara Desert Cost ?
New
York uses one and a half billion gallons of fresh clean water every
single day, and this consumption rises every single day. The United
Nations proclaims that by 2025 over 5 billion people will face fresh
clean water problems and shortages. This compounds all the other ills
that go with the intake of tainted drinking water. Nevertheless, you
might say that 25 years is a long way away, so why worry.
Experts
predict that although water may eventually be our downfall, in that
most of us may drown, they also envision that if there is a World War
III, it could be waged over fresh supplies of the substance. Within
twenty years, we foresee that most modern western homes will have some
kind of purifying desalination system in their homes. The main
wedding gift will traditionally become one of these units because
people will soon realize that without clean drinking water we have
nothing
In
1997, it was recorded that over 50% of the world’s population lacked
proper sanitation and. over 20% lacked good drinking water The correct
and moral use of this human waste will change this statistic forever
and be a blueprint for the future.
Experts
predict that water may eventually be our downfall, because we have too
little to drink or that we will drown in it, you chose. But how do we treat it?
We treat it with total disrespect and take it totally for granted.
“We
ask, who is responsible for the destruction of our lives, our resources and the life of the
next generation?”
-- Benyamin Tawaakng, indigenous Dayak leader jailed for organizing protests against oil palm
plantation multinational PT London Sumatra (LonSum)
When
World Wildlife Fund researchers discovered the world’s most biologically diverse area in a
Sumatran lowland rainforest last February, their awe quickly gave way to outrage. The
Indonesian government has designated this area a “production forest,” and logging there is
already underway.
Throughout the 17,000-island Indonesian archipelago, forests are being felled at the
record-setting rate of 2 million hectares (5 million acres) per year. Lowland tropical
forests, which are richest in biological diversity, are going fastest. On the large
island of Sulawesi, all lowland tropical forests are gone; if current trends continue
Sumatra’s will be cleared by 2005 and Kalimantan’s by 2010.
What’s driving this unprecedented destruction? According to a new report by World Resources
Institute, “Deforestation in Indonesia is largely the result of a corrupt political and
economic system that regarded natural resources, especially forests, as a source of revenue to
be exploited for political ends and personal gain…Indonesia today is a major producer of
logs, sawn wood, plywood, wood pulp and paper as well as such plantation crops as palm oil,
rubber and cocoa. This economic development was achieved with virtually no regard for
the sustainable management of forests or the rights of local people.”
As many as 65 million people (population estimates vary) live in Indonesian forests and depend
on them for their livelihoods, combining shifting cultivation of rice and other food crops
with fishing, hunting, and gathering of non-timber forest products such as rattan, honey and
resins. They rely on the forests for medicinal plants and herbs, and their knowledge of local
ecosystems is unique and irreplaceable.
Forest-dwelling peoples throughout Indonesia are organizing to defend the forests and their
communities from a government that wants to turn all forests into sources of capital. One of
the government’s main schemes to accomplish this is by converting natural forests into oil
palm plantations. Oil palm plantations already cover more than 3 million hectares (7.5 million
acres); a total of 30 million hectares (75 million acres) of natural forest are slated for
conversion. This is almost 1/3 of Indonesia’s remaining forests.
“Conversion” is a euphemism for massive deforestation rife with corruption and human
rights abuses. Some national and multinational companies have obtained licenses to plant oil
palm having no intention to do so; they clear the forest solely for the timber profits and
move on to clear more. After the disastrous forest fires of 1997-98 that sent smoke clouds
around the globe, the Indonesian government accused 176 companies of illegally setting fires
to clear brush; of these, 133 were oil palm companies.
Typically, forest peoples are not consulted or informed about company plans; bulldozers
suddenly tear through their forests and farms, wiping out rich biological and cultural
diversity to establish huge monoculture plantations. As a crop, oil palm requires massive
amounts of fertilizer and insecticides. Soil erosion, loss of soil nutrients and
watershed disruption result as the land is carved with drainage ditches. Threatened, harassed
and jailed for their protests, indigenous Indonesians are appealing to world citizens to help
them stop the injustices and the expansion of the oil palm plantations by cutting off the flow
of international funds to the most abusive companies. Who is the primary financial
backer of these companies? The world’s largest financial institution and one of the most
powerful corporations on the planet: Citigroup. While major European banks have adopted
investment criteria proposed by Indonesian and international NGOs, Citigroup has refused to do
so. At Citigroup’s annual meeting in April, indigenous Indonesians sent a message
stating, “We have told you before, but no one from Citigroup has done anything to stop the
bulldozing, the fires, the imprisonment of the people, the military abuse, or the loss of our
lands and livelihoods.”
This Global Response Action was issued at the request of and with
information provided by Sawit (Oil Palm) Watch (www.sawitwatch.org);
Telapak (www.telapak.org); and Rainforest Action Network
(www.ran.org).
Countless
Billions of tons of carbon dioxides are stored in a myriad of ways, one of
the most significant is in the vegetation of the rainforest. But the gradual
increase of the greenhouse gases will raise the temperature of the planet.
[The year 2000 was a warmer year than 1998, which was the record then.]
As the Earth's climate warms there is a great danger that the Rainforest
will get less seasonal rain and actually go through a yet unforeseen
unprecedented dry season.
If this happens the
carbon-dioxide absorption process will stop;
the vegetation Photosynthesis will
stop and leaves will fall and carbon
dioxide levels will increase significantly, increasing
Global Warming that will again make this new dry season longer, and BANG!!!
The balance will tip.
By
2051 we now believe, informed by scientists around the World who have declared that the balance will
be overturned and our home world will be thrust into a time when
temperatures will be some 10 degrees hotter than now. Ice at the poles will
melt and methane that lies at the bottom of deep cold oceans in a billion
tons of sediment will be released adding to the increasing problem. In
geological terms this consequence has been expressed as being INSTANTANEOUS.
Due to the raised temperatures,
millions of liters of fresh water will flow into the North Atlantic and the
Ice-Caps melt. Fresh water is much different than salt-water, and ocean currents,
especially the Gulf Stream, will slow to nothing and this
will ironically place us into an Ice Age within 30 years. And Humanity will almost be
wiped out, as it suffers it first Ice-Age for over 20,000 years.
Roughly
two thirds of all the world's
forests are in the Tropics, the area between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic
of Capricorn. Abundant growth is generally more prolific in the
areas furthest away from the frozen poles. This huge area that encircles our
planet is best known for its rainforests with the green flourishing, steamy
jungles and towering trees, with dense lower levels of smaller trees,
shrubs, and vines.
Tropical forests are surprisingly
assorted. In addition to the rainforest there are also mangroves,
wet forests, dry
forests, swamps and savannas and wetlands. This long list however, gives only a slight indication
of the true multiplicity of the Natural World of vegetation. One study by the
Food and Agriculture
Organization, [ FAO ], a department of the the United Nations, considered over
20 countries in tropical
America, and nearly 40 tropical Africa, and 15 in tropical Asia. They recognized
a myriad of different
types of tropical forests, such as, broadleaved trees, open and closed canopy forests,
and conifer forests, with closed forests and mixed forest grasslands, and
declining forests
where crop growing agriculture has made substantial inroads.
The
major remaining areas
of Tropical Rainforest are in Brazil, Indonesia, Congo and Malaysia. Rainfall
generally exceeds 60 inches, that is about150 cm each year and can be as high as 400 inches
or 1000 cm. Lowland rainforest are among the
world's most fruitful of green plant natural production. Enormous trees can
grow to 200 feet, that is 60 m in height, whilst supporting thousands of other species of plants and
small animals. Mountain rainforest grows at high elevations where the climate
is too windy and wet for most advantageous tree growth.
Mangrove forests grow in
the swampy, tidal-regions; a no-man's land between water bodies and the shore.
They are regularly considered
part of the rainforest composite. Roots of mangrove trees help also to stabilize
the shoreline and trap sediment and decaying foliage that play a part in this ecosystem
production.
Dry Forests
Most
huge areas of tropical Dry Forests are found in Australia, India, Central and South America, the Caribbean,
Mexico, Africa, and Madagascar. Dry forests by virtue of their name receive low rainfall
each year and this is around 15 inches or 38 cm. They are thus so named and accommodate
species evolved to be acclimatized to meager rainfall. Trees of dry tropical forests are usually
smaller than those in rainforests, and many lose their leaves during the dry
season. Although they are still remarkably varied, dry forests often have fewer
species than rainforests per se and plants are miniatures of larger cousins.
We must ask ourselves what are the best conditions for well sustained life.
Savanna is a transitional
group of trees between forest and grassland; the Savanna replaced many forests when
the climate
changed after the last ice-age. Here, vegetation struggle for moisture and nutrition
and are often quite scattered and tend to
be evolved to cope with grazing, dry periods and sporadic bushfires.
Bushfires are obviously much more widespread in the dry season but if fire
does not happen,
trees eventually will begin to grow again and the savanna is converted back to dry forest.
Such is the fine line between survival and death, conversely with
too much fire or grazing, dry forest becomes Savanna.
Changes not only in
environment but in the different types of environment are caused through a various
number of reasons that takes in all elements of evolution. Humanity's hand in the unnatural destruction of the
rainforest can only lead to humanity's own possible destruction,
or at least a scenario very near to an Extinction
Level Event.
The
destruction of the Rainforest will vastly increase carbon dioxide levels,
polluting the atmosphere . At present the Amazon and other forests along
with the oceans just barely soak up all the fossil fuel carbons which we produce as it is.
Extinction
Level Event.
Countless
Billions of tons of carbon dioxides are stored in a myriad of ways, one of
the most significant is in the vegetation of the rainforest. But the gradual
increase of the greenhouse gases will raise the temperature of the planet.
[The year 2000 was a warmer year than 1998, which was the record then.]
As the Earth's climate warms there is a great danger that the Rainforest
will get less seasonal rain and actually go through a yet unforeseen
unprecedented dry season.
If this happens the
carbon-dioxide absorption process will stop;
the vegetation Photosynthesis will
stop and leaves will fall and carbon
dioxide levels will increase significantly, increasing
Global Warming that will again make this new dry season longer, and BANG!!!
The balance will tip.
By
2050 scientists around the World have declared that the balance will
be overturned and our home world will be thrust into a time when
temperatures will be some 15 degrees hotter than now. Ice at the poles will
melt and methane that lies at the bottom of deep cold oceans in a billion
tons of sediment will be released adding to the increasing problem. In
geological terms this consequence has been expressed as being INSTANTANEOUS.
Ironically,
due to the raised temperatures, ocean currents will slow to nothing and this
will place us into an Ice Age within 30 years. And Humanity will almost be
wiped out.
On
May 13, 2002, Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri called for
a temporary moratorium on logging in Indonesia in an effort to halt
illegal logging and save what's left of the country's remaining
forests. According to the World Bank, Indonesia will lose all of
its forests in the next 15 years if the government does not act
quickly and strongly against deforestation activities.
FIVE
ACRES OF RAINFOREST GONE AT EVERY SWEEP.
According
to the World Resources Institute, Indonesia has lost forty percent,
or 64 million hectares, of its original forest cover in the last
fifty years. The rate of deforestation is accelerating, from 1
million hectares destroyed each year in the 1980s to a current 2
million hectares' loss per year. Indonesia's lowland forests harbor
the country's highest biodiversity and timber value. At current
rates of forest loss, the region of Sumatra's lowland forest will be
gone by 2005, and Kalimantan's lowland forest will have been
devastated by 2010.Citigroup, North America's largest financial
institution and RAN campaign target, is a key financial backer of
Indonesian rainforest destruction via palm oil plantations and pulp
and paper operations. It is business partners with Indonesian palm
oil company, London Sumatra (Lon Sum), a company that has been
implicated in bulldozing and burning vast areas of forests, as well
as violating the human rights of indigenous peoples. Citi-group is
also a top investor in Asia Pulp and Paper (APP), one of Indonesia's
largest and most destructive pulp and paper operators. American
consumers also play a central role in the destruction of Indonesian
forests. Major forest products distributors such as Boise, Georgia
Pacific, and Home Depot profit from Indonesian forests' devastation.
Woods such as Lauan and Ramin from these forests permeate the
American market in the forms of plywood, tool handles, flooring, and
furniture.
VALUE
OF TROPICAL FORESTS
All forests have
some value, both economic
and ecological. The Global Environment, factored with Ecology, which is the study of the relations of organisms to one another and to their
surroundings, is the most
important continuing situation that we have to take into account when thinking about the
rainforest. But as a whole group, we do not; Humanity's destruction of the world's natural
eco-base will be our biggest repentance and it is not that far away when we will
all realize this.
Three
thousand acres of life-giving, oxygen producing plants are eaten away by some
circumstance every hour of every day. That
is FIVE acres destroyed for financial gain every time this clock
sweeps by. And it will NEVER Stop !!!!
In the short term tropical
rainforests are very important to the global economy. The rainforest covers
just over 5% of the Earth's land area, but contain the greatest majority of the world's plant and animal genetic resources.
The multiplicity of life is astounding and species run in the billions
worldwide.
It
has been discovered that the rainforest of Puerto Rico, to name but one group, includes
more than 550 species of trees in 70 different botanical families.
In
any rainforest there
is a diversity of other life forms, shrubbery, grasses, herbs, mammals, birds,
reptiles, amphibians, insects, not forgetting bacteria and other micro-species.
A rainforest, one inquiry suggested is that the tropical rainforest
may contain as many as 40 million different kinds of plants and animals, most
of which are scarily insects. Globally, if we could weigh all insects and all
humans, it would be found that
insects have up to FOUR times the massed body weight to that of humans. Come the
Extinction
Level Event, what species will remain
to proliferate our planet?
Wood and Other Products
The
main and most obvious reason that the rainforest is being cut down at about one
acre each second is that it bestows
upon us many valuable harvests, that include rubber, fruits, nuts, meat,
rattan for making cane like furniture, medicinal products, floral greenery, timber,
fire-wood, and beauty. Rainforest areas abound with such wealth and not only are
they utilized by natives hunting and fishing, they also make available income and
jobs, for hundreds of millions of people in small, medium, and large
industries around the world.
Tropical
forests are noted for their beautiful woods; four important commercial
woods are mahogany, teak, melina, and okoume.
Tropical forests are
habitat for tribal hunter-gatherers and there have been many different tribes;
they are usually called Indians or indigenous natives. Nobody knows for sure how
or when these original inhabitants arrived, maybe they have always been there.
There are upwards of a thousand or more forest tribes around the world and their
lifestyle has been relatively unchanged
for centuries. Many are now close to extinction. Circa 1900, Brazil had over
one million Indians but today, there are less than 200,000. Nearly 100 of these
human communities living in the rainforest have just disappeared; that is
one tribe per year. They are usually hunter-gatherers or hunter-gardeners,
and depend on the forests for their livelihood, water, fuel and other wealth.
They build their homes from saplings, sticks, mud and leaves. They have their
own religious beliefs and customs.
Many
medicines and drugs
come from the tropical rainforests, found only in plants found there. Some of the best known
are, quinine, a drug used for malaria; curare, an anesthetic and muscle
relaxant that can paralyze, and sometimes used in surgery; and rosy periwinkle, a treatment for Hodgkin's disease
and leukemia. Research has identified many other potential chemicals that may have
future value in treating many other maladies such as arthritis,
hepatitis, insect stings, fever, coughs, and colds. Many more maybe there but
are still undiscovered. Think how many new species of plants have been destroyed
by deforestation and think what potential those chemical bearing plants might
have had.
Environmental Benefits
Tropical
rainforest does more
than counter to local climatic conditions; rainforest also influence the climate.
Through transpiration, the massive amount of vegetation in rainforests restore
huge amounts of water back into the atmosphere. This increases precipitation and
humidity, and also cools the air for miles around. Using the process of photosynthesis tropical forests replenish the
air by breathing in carbon dioxide and breathing out oxygen. By changing carbon they
help keep the atmospheric carbon dioxide levels low and actually and
ironically work against the global
"greenhouse" effect.
photosynthesis The chemical process by which green plants synthesize organic compounds from carbon dioxide and water in the presence of sunlight. It occurs in the *chloroplasts (most of which are in the leaves) and there are two principal series of reactions. In the light reactions, which require the presence of light, energy from sunlight is absorbed by *photosynthetic pigments (chiefly the green pigment *chlorophyll) and converted into chemical energy. In the ensuing dark reactions, which can take place either in light or darkness, this chemical energy is used in the production of simple organic compounds from carbon dioxide and water. Further chemical reactions convert these compounds into chemicals useful to the plant. Photosynthesis can be summarized by the equation:
CO2 + 2H2O ? [CH2O] + H2O + O2
Since virtually all other forms of life are directly or indirectly dependent on plants for food, photosynthesis is the basis for all life on earth. Furthermore virtually all the atmospheric oxygen has originated from oxygen released during photosynthesis.
Forests also
regulate water flow in streams and rivers. Trees slow down the potential deluge of tropical
downpours. They hold the water in abeyance, stored in their trunks and leaves
but also on the leaves themselves. water is also slowed down by soaking into the
soil, when trees are cleared, rainfall
runs off the land more quickly, contributing to floods and greater erosion.
DEFORESTATION
Prior
to the dawn of agriculture about 8,000 years BC, forests and open woodland covered about 15
billion acres of the land globe. Over these millennia over 30% of natural
forest has been lost. According to a 1982 study
by FAO, about 30 million acres of tropical forests are cut
each year; this is nearly an acre every second.
FIVE
ACRES OF RAINFOREST GONE AT EVERY SWEEP
Reasons for Deforestation
There
are many reasons why the rainforest is being depleted at such a phenomenal rate.
The first is logging for timber; rainforest to the greater extent has taken many
decades to grow and a huge tree holds a lot of very value wood. But you cannot
use a tree in its original state it has to be trimmed and processed. Raw wood
trimmed into an appropriate shape can be sold off very lucratively and all the
waste material can be used for fuel for burning. The space left can be turned
into agricultural land and used to grow crops but usually it is used to grow
grass. Cattle are then grazed on this land to grow beef, but the cattle can be
voracious as there are usually too many cattle to the acre than is resourceful
and the land can be eventually laid bare. The land is then left fallow and falls
into a dry savanna like state. It is very difficult and would take much needed
money and time to return these areas back to rainforest.
Forced
change to a sedentary agricultural state is an even greater threat to tropical forests.
Today immense areas that once
supported the rainforest are now mostly occupied by poor farmers
and ranchers or by commercial farmers who produce sugar, cocoa, palm oil, and
other products.
In many
equatorial countries
there is a serious shortage of firewood. For millions of rural poor, some survival
depends on finding enough wood to cook the daily meal. Every day more of
the forest is destroyed, and the distance from home to the wood fuel increases.
Not only do people endure by having to spend much of the time in the just searching
for fuel, but the whole area suffers
also.
Harm
is greatest in dry tropical forests where
firewood collecting converts more forest to savanna and grasslands.
The
international demand for tropical hardwoods runs at around ten billion dollars
each year. This just exacerbates an ever growing problem. It even resembles the
poacher who kills a great elephant just to steal its ivory tusks.
We
are stealing trees for wood, and that is killing a planet.
Endangered Wildlife
The
Rainforest is a naturally intertwined ecosystem of foliage and flora based
around the tree. A multi-system that has evolved in accord over millions of years.
The worldwide loss of the rainforest encompassing thousands
of species of birds, insects and animals that are threatened with extinction
is an obscenity at the very least.
Orangutans
(Pongo pygmaeus)
are totally dependent on small and isolated ppiece of land
within the tropical forest that still remain in Borneo and Sumatra, Indonesia. Orangutans live most of their
lives perched in the
forest canopy where they feed on leaves, figs, nuts and other fruit, and
insects. Old large trees of the forest support woody vines that serve
as aerial ladders, this allows the animals to move about, build their nests, and
forage for food. When the old forests are cut, orangutans disappear.
The largest of all primates,
the gorilla, is one of man's closest relatives in the animal kingdom. Too large
and clumsy to move about in the forest canopy, the gorilla lives on the forest
floor where it forages for a variety of plant materials. Loss of tropical forests
in central and west Africa is a major reason for the decreasing numbers of mountain
gorillas (Gorilla gorilla). Some habitat has been secured, but the future of
this gentle giant is in grave danger as a result of habitat loss and b> poaching.
POACHING
The
destruction of the Rainforest through logging seems bad enough when it
comes to the reduced habitat for wildlife. But consider poaching, many
tons of endangered animals such as the gorillas, monkeys, porcupine and small deer
are killed in the rainforest every day in Africa for food. We think
that this is an obscene practice but then
those of the rich West live only a short distance from a supermarket,
so it is hard for the rainforest poacher to empathize with our
thoughts on extinct animal life.
Every
part of the Tiger is used.
Poachers,
or forest bush-meat hunters, kill wild endangered animals indiscriminately;
they do it to make money, but also to feed many people who would
otherwise have no meat at all to eat. It is easy for us just to say
that they should not do this but if we care, countries of the West
should make other arrangements to feed this population with other
meats.
The
Sahara Supposition is akin to a New Noah's
Ark and goes to the very root of its implications and ambitions.
Today, Rainforests
and Oceans
are either being destroyed at an inconceivable rate or are being
polluted on a scale that in point of fact increases every day. The
Sahara Supposition wishes to reclaim relatively an otherwise unused
area that will replace only a small part of the Natural World that
has been destroyed in the Global Environment in the last 30 years by Humankind.
It
would want to take to this area as many species of foliage as necessary, and replant them, and nurture them in an area that will be free of human destruction.
It
would want to take to this area as many species of animal, especially rainforest animals and protect them and make them free of poachers.
The jaguar (Leo
Onca), a
resident of the Southwestern United States and Central and South America, is
closely associated with forests. Its endangered status is the result of hunting
and habitat loss.
The
Puerto Rican parrot (Amazona vittata), a medium-sized, green bird with blue
wing feathers, once inhabited the entire island of Puerto Rico and the neighboring
islands of Mona and Culebra. Forest destruction is the principal reason for
the decline of this species. Hunting also contributed. Today, only a few Puerto
Rican parrots remain in the wild and their survival may depend on the success
of a captive breeding program.
In addition to species that
reside in tropical forests year round, others depend on such forests for part
of the year. Many species of migrant birds journey 1,000 miles or more between
their summer breeding grounds in the north and their tropical wintering grounds.
These birds are also threatened by tropical forest destruction.
This
website will shows how current forest practices can help stem the tide of forest
annihilation while providing
valuable forest products for people. The tropical forests of Puerto Rico, which
were abused for many decades, were already badly depleted by the late
nineteenth century. Widespread
abandonment of deficient over stressed agricultural lands has allowed natural reforestation and
planting programs to create a patchwork of private, Commonwealth, and Federal
forests across the Sahara Desert.
&
The
wood is mahogany, but it's also known as "green gold". For good reason. One log
earns an astonishing $130,000 by the time companies like Stickley furniture transform it
into the solid mahogany dining tables for sale in such places as family destination Colonial
Williamsburg./font>