154 Square Miles Of Amazon Forest Leveled In September - But Hey, It's Down By A Whole 1/3 From 9/08

[hatrack]

Brazil lost 400 square kilometers (154 square miles) of Amazon jungle in September, but deforestation slowed by a third compared with the same month last year, according to official data released Wednesday.

Environment Minister Carlos Minc said the speed at which the vast Amazon rain forest was being stripped was down 32 percent, based on satellite imagery from the government's National Space Research Institute.

Brazil's government has made the fight against Amazon deforestation a priorities. Much of the fragile woodland is burnt down by ranchers and farmers, releasing into the atmosphere massive amounts of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas.

Brazil is expected to present the results of its efforts at a major UN climate change meeting in Denmark next month, which will try to come up with a successor treaty to the Kyoto Protocol.

EDIT

http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Amazon_deforestation_slows_Brazil_999.html

[Maestro]

1. Good gawd!

So when will it stop? The harm that destroying the Amazon will wreak on the Earth is tremendous!

[enid602]

2. records

Rio de Janeiro State just celebrated its 20000th homicide in just two years. Brazil continues to break all sorts of records.

[itsrobert]

3. I'm glad they got the Olympics

:sarcasm:

[enid602]

4. Chicago

I am too. I am thrilled that the citizens of Chicago wanted to improve their rail system rather than focus on the Olympics. Chicago is much too fine a city to have its neglected, inadequate transit system. Good on them.