 Treehugger has an article posted which discusses the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest. They state that according to Greenpeace, "Police started investigating the suspect hackers in April 2007, swooping in a couple of months later to arrest 30 ring leaders. One is still in jail - the intermediary who brought the hackers and the loggers together - and in total, 202 people are facing prosecution."
How upsetting!
A total of 107 companies are being sued for $833 million for the illegal logging and smuggling of nearly 1.7 million cubic meters of timer - the equivalent of 780 olympic pools full of felled trees.
I did some extra reading and found some more stats and news regarding this situation to keep you more abreast of what is happening out there.
It turns out with all this happening the Brazilian government is planning to make it easier for people to continue chopping down even more of the trees. Brazilian national congress prepares to vote on a change to the country's forest code which could massively increase the amount of legal logging that will be allowed. This will be an increase of 20% of a property allowed to be chopped to 50% allowance! It is almost like they are saying we understand why you are breaking the law and we're going to help you out. But if this continues to happen you might as well just kiss the rainforest goodbye.Labels: brazil, greenpeace, rainforest |
