Media release - October 21, 2005
On the heels of news that the Brazilian Amazon is experiencing its worst drought in 40 years and today’s study showing that the rainforest is disappearing twice as fast as previously thought, Greenpeace warned that Americans are a major culprit in the destruction of the Amazon.
View of a mahogany tree from below in the province of Acre in the Amazon.
"This study and the drought really hit home the need for the
United States to act," said Pamela Wellner, senior forest
campaigner for Greenpeace. "We are the largest consumer of wood
taken from the Amazon. We are also the largest contributor to
global warming pollution in the world. The world's
greatest rainforest is in peril of being turned into a dry
savannah - all because of our greedy appetite for exotic wood and a
national dirty energy program. The United States must
stop the trade in
illegal logging and
reduce our dependence on fossil fuels."
Today's
study by the Carnegie Institution at Stanford attributes the
new deforestation numbers to selective logging, which involves
picking out individual trees such as mahogany and other valuable
hardwoods. Until now, only large swaths of clearcutting were used
to calculate rates of deforestation, and the impact of selective
logging had not been assessed. With
more sophisticated satellite imagery and analysis, Carnegie
Institution scientists discovered that an additional area the size
of the state of Connecticut is destroyed every year, and that this
additional deforestation contributes another 100 million tons of
carbon dioxide to the atmosphere.
"Our results show that selective logging, which has been
unaccounted for in previous satellite studies, is a major
contributor to forest disturbance in the Amazon," said
Dr. Gregory P. Asner, who authored the study.
The Amazon drought is a result of a vicious cycle created by the
combined effects of
global warming and
deforestation. Cutting and burning trees, and the rotting of
the debris left behind causes the release of massive amounts of
carbon dioxide and other global warming pollution. In addition,
the unshaded ground heats up in the tropical sun and creates more
dry hot air, amplifying the drought.
Since 1999, Greenpeace has exposed
illegal logging in Brazil and revealed the connections between
Amazon logging and timber companies around the world. A U.S.
addendum to the 2003 report,
State of Conflict, showed that millions of dollars were fueling
the illegal logging trade.
Greenpeace is available to comment on this issue and can provide
video and photos of the Amazon, including shots of illegal logging,
deforestation and drought.