Amazon rainforest may become a desert in two years

source: http://news.independent.co.uk/enviro...cle1191932.ece

The vast Amazon rainforest is on the brink of being turned into
desert, with catastrophic consequences for the world's climate,
alarming research suggests. And the process, which would be
irreversible, could begin as early as next year.

Studies by the blue-chip Woods Hole Research Centre, carried out
in Amazonia, have concluded that the forest cannot withstand more
than two consecutive years of drought without breaking down.
Scientists say that this would spread drought into the northern
hemisphere, including Britain, and could massively accelerate
global warming with incalculable consequences, spinning out of
control, a process that might end in the world becoming
uninhabitable...

__________________________________________________ ____________

source: http://news.independent.co.uk/enviro...cle1191880.ece

The waters of the rivers of the Amazon Basin routinely fall by
some 30-40 feet- greater than most of the tides of the world's
seas - between the wet and dry seasons. But last year they just
went on falling in the worst drought in recorded history...

....on average, an area roughly the size of Wales is cut down
each year...

Dr Antonio Nobre, of Brazil's National Institute of Amazonian
Research, told the floating symposium... of unpublished research
which suggests that the felling is both drying up the entire
forest and helping to cause the hurricanes that have been
battering the United States and the Caribbean...

Brazilian politicians say that the country has so many other
pressing problems that the destruction is unlikely to be
brought under control, unless the world helps to pay for the
survival of the forest on which it too depends. Calculations
by Hylton Philipson, a British merchant banker and rainforest
campaigner, reckon that it will take $60bn (£32bn) a year,
less than a third of the cost of the Iraq war.

The scientists insist there is no time for delay. "If we do not
act now", says Dr Fearnside, "we will lose the Amazon forest
that helps sustain living conditions throughout the world."

__________________________________________________ ____________

Coincidentally, NASA has just cancelled a satellite that was
going to detect soil moisture of our planet: http://tinyurl.com/res5k
....and deleted the phrase "to understand and protect our home
planet" from its mission statement: http://tinyurl.com/gt35w
__________________________________________________ ____________

My comment: Mane, tekel, fares.

Your headline does not reflect the news article linked to. The news
article claims that in two years, the Amazon could start to become a
desert. That is not the same as "becoming a desert" in two years.

Global warming threatens 12 US parks:
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2234598

On 24 Jul 2006 14:04:59 -0700, "
wrote, or quoted, in part:

Studies by the blue-chip Woods Hole Research Centre, carried out
in Amazonia, have concluded that the forest cannot withstand more
than two consecutive years of drought without breaking down.

My first response to such a claim would be:

Evidently, you must have forgotten to read to the part of the study
which explains why, in all the years the Amazon rain forest has existed
in the past, two consecutive years of drought have not happened there,
and it is not a desert already.

But the lowering of the river level was unprecedented, and the cause is
in novel human action - logging of the Amazon. Perhaps the Amazon is
that fragile. Certainly, I *am* worried about the peat bogs in Russia.

I just don't understand why we haven't switched over to nuclear power
already. It would kill two birds with one stone.

Reduce contributions to global warming - and stop money from getting to
terrorists.

If nobody needed to buy any Middle East oil, we wouldn't have as much
fighting to do in Iraq.

John Savard
http://www.quadibloc.com/index.html
_________________________________________
Usenet Zone Free Binaries Usenet Server
More than 140,000 groups
Unlimited download
http://www.usenetzone.com to open account

John Savard wrote:
I just don't understand why we haven't switched over to nuclear power
already. It would kill two birds with one stone.

Reduce contributions to global warming - and stop money from getting to
terrorists.

If nobody needed to buy any Middle East oil, we wouldn't have as much
fighting to do in Iraq.

Hhmmm...could have something to do with the Leftist imaginary
President, Martin Sheen and the rocket scientist he runs with, chaining
themselves to the gates of
nuke facilities around the nation.

Although I note that many in the enviromental movement now are
pro-nuke...after actually educating themselves *gasp* and finally
figuring out that if we have nukes we aren't burning coal which is the
REAL boogeyman.

All the MASS confusion !!!!!! And it's ALL caused by people with BIG
MOUTHS
screaming about things they know NOTHING about.

It's this way one year......another way the next.......

But they are always so SURE of their actions.....and when they find
they had been wrong....they NEVER admit their mistake.

"John Savard" wrote in message
...


I just don't understand why we haven't switched over to nuclear power
already. It would kill two birds with one stone.

Reduce contributions to global warming - and stop money from getting to
terrorists.

If nobody needed to buy any Middle East oil, we wouldn't have as much
fighting to do in Iraq.


I seriously doubt that. If you think people in the Middle East (which
includes Nigeria and Venezuela g) hate us now...just wait until we stop
buying billions of dollars of their major cash crop.



--
Terrell Miller


"Stupid inventions often demonstrate as much ingenuity as the inventions
that change the world"
- Bob Fenster

I seriously doubt that. If you think people in the Middle East (which
includes Nigeria and Venezuela g) hate us now...just wait until we stop
buying billions of dollars of their major cash crop.

Without those billions of dollars, their ability to wage war (and to
export their ideology) will be severely curtailed. Let then hate, as
long as they can do little or nothing about it.