Dear Reader:
First, I wish to thank wholeheartedly hereby (Blog in The Mundo.es) all friends from Spain who have complimented me on my birthday last April 3. It is very gratifying to know that the affected network is still intact and continues to add new people to the cause of environmental conservation, especially young people who rely on their ability make a difference in your environment.
( Image: Jane Goodall kisses a female chimpanzee near Nanyuki, 110 miles north of Nairobi - December 6, 1997 - Photo Jean-Marc Bouju, FILE)
In this regard, as part of the educational program Roots & ; Shoots (Roots and Shoots) are preparing for the Global Youth Summit (World Summit of Young), which will be held this month in Florida, United States, which will assist young people representing 100 countries, including two young English. Among the various issues to be worked is of course the Climate Change, for each delegation to make its contribution on the local effects and possible solutions.
few months ago, the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a report predicting an alarming number of consequences produced by this phenomenon in the world, including droughts, floods, low crop yields, forest fires and ocean acidification. It seems that all the creatures of the web of life will be affected in one way or another by these changes.
As primatologist, I am concerned especially the prediction that between 20% and 30% of species will be threatened by a high risk extinction. We know that most of the world's species live in tropical forests. These forests are threatened by large-scale commercial exploitation and the growing number of poor people destroying the forests for charcoal or for subsistence farming.
A relatively new danger is the growing enthusiasm for biofuels. In Africa, Asia and Latin America, forest areas were reserved for conservation are converted into sugar cane plantations or oil palm, with the aim of producing fuel ethanol plants or biodiesel. The irony of cutting down forests for biofuels is that forests store a significant portion of carbon. If these trees are felled and burned, the oxidation of carbon released into the atmosphere billions of tons of carbon dioxide.
tropical rainforests in Africa, Latin America and South Asia are particularly important in this regard. Tropical deforestation contributes annually to two billion tons of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere, compared to 6 billion tons from fossil fuels. Saving these forests would not only prevent the release of carbon currently stored in them, but also allow them to continue absorbing carbon in the future.
While population pressure can not be quickly reversed, nor the logging and mining industry, there is much we can do to save these forests. The core of a successful strategy involves working not only with national authorities, but also and perhaps more importantly, with local people to raise the standard of living, especially in areas close to forest reserves. Providing technical assistance to farmers to increase their income, education, young people, health care to families and economic investments in ecotourism, these rural communities can become the protectors of the forest, not its destroyers.
Governments of the United States and other developed countries have a particular responsibility to promote these programs. Not only are Western nations the greatest consumers of oil, timber and other carbon-generating industries, but have economic power to bring about change in countries with fewer resources.
Developed nations have the opportunity to enable developing countries do not make the same mistakes as them, when they finished with their own forests and many species their own territories in the frantic race for economic development. Investing more in environmentally sustainable development can save valuable species, help prevent the escalation of global warming and increase global security. Help preserve the forests of developing nations is in line with our own interests with them.
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