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WHERE HAVE ALL THE FORESTS GONE?

© Gay Klok

FIRE, FIRE, BURNING BRIGHT

This article was written two years ago. Unfortunately, it is as true today as then.

To bring it up to date, I will quote from yesterday's "Mercury" newspaper [March26th 2000] -

"HUGE ICEBERG BREAKS AWAY" is the headline and apparently the largest ever iceberg has been found to have broken off the Antartic coastline, reported by US scientists.

Quote - "The large oblong chunk - 295km long and 37km wide - has come free of the main body of ice at the Ross marine ice shelf

The iceberg is much larger than the one that broke away in October and created a shipping hazard for ships in the Cape Horn area. That icemass was 66km long and 18km wide

The US research centre said the new iceberg may soon be adrift in the Ross Sea. The iceberg is located between 160 and 180 degrees longitude on the South pacific side of the Antarctic continent

It poses no immediate threat to Australian or New Zealand waters

Tasmania, the closest state to the South Pole, is 2650km from Antarctica [my comment - Whew!! that's lucky!]

Scientists are baffled over the reasons behind the recent creation of the icebergs. One theory suggests global warming is the primary cause of the ice break-up" end of quote

Perhaps if Tasmania does have the iceberg crashing over us, it will help the changing weather effects we are discovering in our gardens. We have had two of the mildest and driest weather conditions on record for the last two years

Every day, as we eat our breakfast, we are greeted with the small paragraph on the third page, that the forests in Burma, Thailand, Indonesia, South America, Sumatra are burning burning bright The reporter goes on to tell us this is due to the El Nino effect which has brought drought to our lands before and will again. Yes, the papers also inform us that the scientists report that El Nino came earlier last year and is lasting longer this year. The fires are set by the poor farmers clearing their land, as they have done for generations, to give them food and so manage to form more generations. So, what was different last year? In past years, the farmers were astute enough to light their fires with the knowledge that the rainy season was coming and the downpour would douse his flames.

In 1997 and in 1998, the rains never came and the result has been that the World has lost ancient forests and the fauna and flora that were sheltered and sustained by the environment the trees provided. The rare orangutan already drastically threatened of Sumatra is left with no where to live, his sustenance vanished. The atmosphere became so thick with smoke that it killed people in neighbouring countries and planes crashed because they were not able to see the mountain right before their noses.

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