Amazon Forest Destruction Spiked Again In 2003 - 04 - Up To 10,000 Square Miles - ITV

[hatrack]

The amount of land cleared in Brazil's Amazon rainforest rose sharply again in 2003-2004. The Brazilian environment ministry said destruction of the world's largest tropical forest rose to 10,088 square miles in 2003-2004 from 9,496 square miles a year earlier.

As Brazil grabs an ever larger slice of global agricultural trade, environmentalists are worried that the expansion of soy and cattle farming in the Amazon will be impossible to stop.

The worst year for Amazon destruction was 1994-1995, when 11,216 square miles was cleared. The 2003-2004 figure is the second largest amount of land cleared.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's government adopted an action plan last year to protect the Amazon after the 2002-2003 figure represented the previous second highest level.

EDIT

http://www.itv.com/news/6186e2e08866475ef7abd93f39af0d64.html

[Richard D]

1. This is such a disaster. . .

. . . because of so many reasons. I've walked in the jungle with a native versed in the use of the herbs. Every step has many different plants, some that only grow in one small area. Most are unknown to Northern science. Each acre of land can have hundreds if not thousands of unique species of plants and animals in it. One acre can have more different species of trees than the entire north American continent. Many are medicinal. One can only weep at the loss of the millions of species that were unique to those 10,088 square miles. And that just for one year. For cheap hamburgers. Our decedents will hate us.