<< [Previous]
APOCALYPSE NOW? IN GODS ARMY
HOSTILITIES, A MEANS TO AN END?
CORRUPTION BEHIND CLOSED DOORS
SO MUCH HORSE MANURE
CASTRO A LIFE ON A KNIFE EDGE
THE EVE OF DESTRUCTION
THE SAD BOOK OF BEIRUT
JUST A DROP OF WATER
[ - More Blogs] >>
|
THE EVE OF DESTRUCTION
What is 2.7 million square miles 2240 miles across and holds more spices of fish than the entire Atlantic Ocean? Where can you find 8% of the plant species used to treat cancer? What eco system produces 20% of the world’s oxygen and disgorges 8,000 billion gallons of fresh water, one fifth of the total fresh water on the planet every day into the Ocean? Where could you find 1500 different species of plats, over 700 hundred different species of tree, 400 species of birds and 150 species of butterflies in any typical square mile? The answer is of course the Amazon rainforest. A dense matted jungle of enigma and mystery that has existed for millions of years quietly protecting the Earth from becoming another Mars or Venus. Most life on earth exists by a slender thread of accident [though some would say scientific arrangement] that has enabled Man and all of the living species on Earth to survive almost anything that the universe can throw at it. The Amazon has in no small part been responsible for our continued presence here but that is changing at a dramatic rate and by 2050 there will not be enough of the rainforest left to curb our excesses and regulate the atmosphere, provide fresh water and keep the world cool enough for man to live upon.
The Amazon forest is larger than many countries, the land that it occupies would be equal to 75% of the USA or 80% of Australia or if you had 25 UK’s handy they would fit comfortably inside the forest. It accounts for 40% of the landmass of the South American continent. We know less about what goes on there than we do about the Moon by comparison yet for at least a century we have been clearing the forest for Mining, Farming, Housing, Road building and more recently hydro electric projects there size of which staggers the imagination. As the population of the area grows the avarice for the land occupied by the forest increases exponentially. The rainforest is now only four fifths of the size it was at the end of World War Two, one fifth is already destroyed and beyond recovery. The current rate of destruction has been in progress since 1990 and every year another 18,000 square kilometres [11,250 square miles] of the forest ceases to exist, it equates to a piece of ground the size of a football pitch being cleared each and every second. The vegetation that grows in the Amazon basin accounts for one third of the total vegetation of the world that grows on land and that one fact should be enough to point out the folly of the clearances. All plants [including trees which by the way are really the descendants of prehistoric ferns] breathe two distinctly different gases, oxygen and carbon dioxide. During daylight they take in carbon dioxide and exhale if that is the correct term, oxygen. By night they take in Oxygen and return carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, which is why flowers are left in hospital wards by day yet removed at night. Our atmosphere is more than 77% nitrogen but the level of oxygen contained in the remaining 25% allows every animal species of life on Earth to breathe by day and by night such has been the surplus of nature’s production until now. [21% oxygen: 1% argon: 0.04% carbon dioxide with trace elements of water vapour]
The destruction of the rainforest has reduced the amount of younger vegetation to a point where its ability to cope with the vast excesses of carbon dioxide during the day has reached the point of serious compromise. The younger trees and plants tend to use more carbon dioxide than their older counterparts and as the ground is cleared the tendency has been to clear what is easiest first, e.g. The younger less established trees.
This has left the older vegetation in place but their consumption of carbon dioxide is much less than the younger growing trees. So on the one hand the fast oxygen producing plants are gone whilst on the other the slower oxygen producing plats are left intact. This can only have but one end result, the reduction of available oxygen in the atmosphere of the Earth. Fifty years ago the Oxygen production of the forest would have accounted for close to 25% whereas now it has reduced to barely 20% but the tragedy does not end there because this only takes account of daylight hours and at night those same oxygen producing trees and plants then start pumping out carbon dioxide. They are not in a hospital room and cannot be moved to a place where their detriment to the atmosphere can be controlled out. The consequence of the destruction is a definite increase in carbon dioxide in our atmosphere.
The current drive to reduce our dependency upon fossil fuels is to a large extent aimed at the “Individual” who is held responsible for much of the production of carbon dioxide by callous use of carbon based fuels yet the one feature on Earth that has protected man from his excesses is being squandered away whilst the world is being told that is all their fault.
The truth is a little more complex, it is true that the use of fossil fuels has contributed to the problem but it is also true that the means to counteract the disregard for the air we breathe is being destroyed on a daily basis and whilst the means to regulate the amount of carbon dioxide in the air is diminishing no amount of correction for what has been called “Global warming” will have any chance of success.
There are some thirteen different countries that are sovereign to the continent of South America; nine have Amazon rainforest within their borders. None of the nine can afford to ignore the development of the land because they are mostly developing countries with a growing population with need of food, power, employment and most of the modern day benefits enjoyed in the Northern hemisphere. By the same token the other countries of the world ignore at their peril what is taking place in South America and to a lesser extent Central Africa and South East Asia [all have rainforest under threat] because it is the Northern hemisphere that has the larger population and therefore they are the largest contributors to “One” of the components of the cause of “Global warming” whilst the Southern Hemisphere has the means to control the effects of the phenomena by not decimating the rainforests and thus control its effect.
Neither part seems able to arrive at a solution that will reverse the overheating of the Earths atmosphere and that is exactly what is happening. The rainforest can no longer cope with the carbon dioxide in our atmosphere because there simply is not enough of it to be effective any more and as the levels of carbon dioxide raise the heat from the sun stays “Trapped” inside the atmosphere of the Earth causing a constantly rising average temperature. The effect is a portent of the end of mans time on this planet.
The hurricanes suffered by the USA are becoming more frequent and more violent, in order for a hurricane to make the transition from tropical storm to hurricane force a surface temperature of 80F[26C] is required in the Atlantic Basin at sea level. In the past such a temperature may have been reached once or twice in a season, now it is becoming the norm so violent storms are becoming more frequent.
It is almost impossible to believe that a rainforest, which is known to actually create weather systems of precipitation could suffer the effects of a drought but that is what is happening inside the forest right now. Parts of the Amazon jungle are in their second year of drought, long established trees have sunk roots deeper than ever before to find the water table which is dropping. Some trees are defoliating and dying as a direct consequence of the lack of water. The transition from Rainforest to desert has already begun and where the Amazon River once disgorged 8000 billion gallons of fresh water a day [more than 60 times that of the Nile] the production of fresh water is diminishing.
The Rainforest is at this moment perched upon the eve of irrevocable destruction and man cannot recreate it. The effect of its loss will be a massive change in average world temperatures triggering the meltdown of the northern icecap first, that will be catastrophic enough causing a rise in sea levels in the Northern Hemisphere that will change the maps considerably, Holland will cease to exist, Belgium will be but a fraction of its present form, East Anglia in England will return to the sea and London
will be 40 or 50 feet under water so there will be a need for a new capital of the UK.
The Thames will return to its prehistoric role as a tributary of the Rhine. Denmark will become an island and probably Scotland will fare the same, The Baltic will increase to almost twice its size and the loss of land will start territorial wars. Famine will be commonplace because the land we use to grow food will be flooded and drinking water? There will be very little.
Vast inland seas/lakes will form in the USA cutting the country in half centred on the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. The extreme storms will increase in both frequency and ferocity.
That is just the beginning; the Southern Icecap will also melt but later. Antarctica holds ten times more water locked in its ice that the Arctic and man will have nowhere to go.
It is not too late to salvage something from our folly but radical thought is required now! The forest can be saved [or what is left of it] but it will mean that the Northern Hemisphere nations will have to massively support the Southern Hemisphere financially, and yes the individual will have to play a part too by modifying how they travel, what power is used and take responsibility for their actions which always have a consequence…in this case a “Dire Consequence”.
Bob Dylan once wrote: ”Tell me again my friend that you don’t believe we are on the eve of destruction” When the water is lapping at the kerbstones outside your house or it is so hot in the night that it is impossible to sleep, will anyone believe it then?
JP.
|
|
|
©2000 - 2012 Individual Authors of the Blog. All rights reserved by authors
|
[ Control Panel ]
Last 100 Blogs
|
|
