"you liberals" Copyright Sean Hannity 1998, all rights reserved.

However, if you are offering your services, I'm not saying I'm accepting them, because that would not be legal, if you see what I'm saying. What's it gonna cost me?

Does anyone know what percent of the original rain forest now remains, and/or if any of it is preserved under the Brazilian government's protection?

Which orignal rain forest, Dax? The one the existed before the Olmecs cut large swathes of it down? The one the existed before the Toltecs cut large swathes of it down? The one the existed before the Mayans cut large swathes of it down? Or the one that grew back and is now being cut down by modern Brazilians?

You know that there's no way to devine the extent of the 'original' rainforest, Law. Mesoamericans had no way of mapping anything. Nor did they have the means to cut large swathes of it. Besides that, forests continually renew themselves, as you know.

However, Amazonian rainforests are now being cut down at an alarming rate--alarming to people who care about the environment and the amount of clean air a rainforest provides the world.

But the thread is about farming in deforestrated areas of the Amazonian rainforest. If Americans are farming deforestrated areas, they have to be adding chemicals to that land, unless they use biochar methods of replenishing the earth.

If Americans are, as Aint has said, farming cleared rainforest areas then they are, again as Aint has said, representatives of the US. I would hope that those representives of the US would teach rather than simply take.

Biochar is not being used in the rainforest. Exactly how it was done has been lost. The current farming technique is slash-and-burn, with fertilizing sometimes used to extend the time before the land is completely sterile. (Its the rain!) If Americans are farming there, they are either using slash-and-burn (deforesting) or have purchased an already farmed area and using a lot of fertilizer, which will only defer for a while the day when they will have to abandon their farm and find a new area to deforest.

Not exactly...the thread is about the broader environment and Mankind's place and role in that environment. Farming in deforested areas is being used as a salient in that discussion.

Implicit in your statement is that people who are not "alarmed" by such cutting do not care about the environment or the putative amount of clean air a rainforest provides to the world. That is little more than an attempt to falsely claim the moral highground for your side of the discussion and to cast the opposition as somehow immoral or degenerate. In point of fact, some of us are not overwrought about the forest clearing because we know that the environment changes, forests come and go and come again....People need to eat as well, Liz, and farming in former forested areas is one way to provide that food. As it happens, I think we ought to take a go slow approach to such clearing because I think there exists a strong likelihood that valuable plant and animal resources are being lost before they can be properly exploited. As for the clean air argument...its a false one, Liz. Grasslands are far more effective than rain forest at serving as the "lungs of the planet." In point of fact, the oceans are infinitely more effective that rain forest or grasslands. The entire "lungs of the planet" issue is a fabricated one intended to instil fear for the purpose of modifying behavior. I thought you were opposed to such fear mongering?

Incidently, why is it that when a foreign national comes to the US and opens a business he or she is not deemed a representative of their country but if an American goes anywhere and does anything its suddenly a part of US policy?

That's the one!

Because that's the double standard we live by. It's OK to call a duck a duck everywhere but here.

LEM's mayor, Oziel Oliveira, had this to say when asked if Americans were welcome to farm in Brazil, "Absolutely. They're turning into Brazilians."

Volumes.

Brazil is a bunch of bullshit and from there just to get a driver's license or a state ID you have to go to 3 places. It is not like here where you just show 2 forms of ID.

Because U.S.A. rules!!!


Attempting to modify people's behavior by instilling fear and terror in them is very wrong, and should never be used to accomplish goals or preserve power. I think that's something we can all agree on.

I don't know how much rain forest is left, and how much is being destroyed on a daily basis, but apparently there are enough people in the world who don't care to make clearing a viable option.