Geodebates

Deforestation in the Tropics - does it matter?

As you go home tonight look around and see how many trees you can see. It won't be many I'll  bet and yet with the exception of a few mountains in Scotland all of Britain is capable of growing trees. Up until several thousand years ago that is exactly how it was. Historically Britain has cleared its trees for settlements, agriculture and wood resources. The demands of the Navy 300 years ago were so substantial that Acts were passed to prevent felling of trees for other purposes in many parts of Britain.

Today Britain has only a small amount (about 7% say some estimates) of land covered by trees (much of this is in Wales and Scotland, so the figure for England is even less). Facts such as these must be remembered when we lecture the Third World about saving the rainforest.

Many Third World countries have significant debts to the First World and a population that has expanded and wants to increase their standard of living. The selling of wood and the clearing of land for agriculture provides a good way for governments to tackle these issues. This process is known as development and trees are seen as a resource to use by he people.

What are the reasons for protecting the rainforest? The main one seems to be to prevent more carbon dioxide getting into the atmosphere, but if we really want to cut carbon dioxide then the USA and Western Europe needs to cut its own consumption of resources and begin conserving energy. Measures such as walking to school instead of going by car will help, and are your parents some of the 70 % of people who go to work by car?

If trees are so important and useful for soaking up carbon dioxide why isn't Britain re-afforesting? Especially when we have a food surplus and pay farmers not to grow food.

Surely we don't need to worry about diversity any more? Now that we have genetic technology we can manipulate genes, as we want. We are already seeing the early benefits of this with genetically modified food.

If the First World wants to protect the rainforest economic measures (freeing up debt, paying for rangers and protection, etc) are going to be necessary and even then they may not work.