Amazon Forest Area Equal To New Jersey Clearcut In 2004 - Reuters

[hatrack]

BRASILIA, Brazil - "An area of Amazon jungle larger than the US state of New Jersey has been destroyed this year and work on a new highway is mainly to blame, environmental group Friends of the Earth and the government said on Wednesday.

The preliminary figures, based on satellite images, alarmed environmentalists because they suggest that Amazon destruction has surpassed its second-highest level reached in 2002-2003.
The data is based on a satellite system which has been monitoring Amazon deforestation on a test basis. The government's yearly figures, released in March, are based on data from a different satellite system.

The images indicated that from 8,920 square miles to 9,420 square miles (23,100 sq km to 24,400 sq km), or an area bigger than New Jersey, was cut down this year, said Joao Paulo Capobianco, the government's secretary of biodiversity and forests. "That number could be bigger or smaller, or the same, we will know in March," Capobianco told Reuters. But he said these figures and other indications made it clear there was no decline in deforestation this year. "Either we have stabilized the rate or there is a small increase," he said.

If confirmed, the total figure for this year's deforestation will be above the 2002-2003 level of 9,170 square miles (23,750 sq km), said Roberto Smeraldi, head of Friends of the Earth in Brazil. The figure was especially worrying because it showed that for the first time in history Amazon deforestation rose despite a slowdown in agriculture during the year, he said."

EDIT

http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/28393/story.htm

[tk2kewl]

1. this is the kind of shit that just makes me want to throw up my hands

:(

[Kool Kitty]

2. ...or just throw up, period.

Jeez. :puke: