Amazon Watch: Focusing World Attention on Biodiversity

What is the single most tangible and immediate effect of our devotion to fossil fuels as the source of the world’s energy?  It’s probably disease.  Because of the oxides of sulfur and nitrogen, as well as the heavy metals and radioactive isotopes that are spewed into the atmosphere as a result of burning coal, peoples of the Earth are getting sick and dying at unprecedented rates.

But, as we all know from what we read, the long-term effects, e.g., climate disruption, ocean acidification, and loss of biodiversity, are probably more ruinous—even though they take place on a larger time scale.

Here are a few facts on the issue of biodiversity that I’ve repurposed here from a recent newsletter from Amazon Watch, which begins with this attention-grabbing quote from biologists Rodolfo Dirzo and Peter Raven: “The loss of biodiversity is the only truly irreversible global environmental change the Earth faces today.”  

• Walking through the Amazon, we encounter more species of trees in a 30-minute time period than we would if we walked across the entire continent of North America.

• It’s more than just trees that are at stake – the Amazon is home to over 2.5 million insect species, tens of thousands of plants, and 2,000 birds and mammals.

• To date, at least 40,000 plant species, 2,200 fish, 1,294 birds, 427 mammals, 428 amphibians, and 378 reptiles have been scientifically classified in this region. And there are thousands more that have yet to be formally documented, along with myriads we have yet to even encounter.

• Resource extraction and the resulting deforestation is destroying the biodiversity of the Amazon and threatening to wipe out countless species.

• Amazon Watch works to prevent expansion of oil drilling and industrial development throughout this region. Such projects always begin with the creation of roads, whether the industrial expansion is from oil drilling in Yasuni National Park in Ecuador or mega-dams in the Brazilian Amazon.

• Roads enable access to untouched areas, bringing massive deforestation and more threats to Amazonian cultures. In fact, 95 percent of deforestation in the Amazon occurs on land less than five kilometers from a road.

As I’ve noted many times in this blog, these folks at Amazon Watch play to win.  Godspeed.