Suggested reading:
The Reason Why
The Brazilian congress is now voting on a project that will reduce the Amazon forest to 50% of its size. It will take 1 MINUTE to read this, but PLEASE put your names on the list and forward this on as instructed below.
First, some facts: the Amazon rainforest is responsible for the generation of 20% of the oxygen that we on this earth breathe, 30% of the world's freshwater is contained within the Amazon basin, 60% of the cancer fighting drugs used today are derived from plants that can only be found within the Amazon rainforest.
The area to be deforested is 4 times the size of Portugal and would be mainly used for agriculture and pastures for livestock. All the wood is to be sold to international markets in the form of wood chips, by large multinational companies. The truth is that the soil in the Amazon forest is useless without the forest itself. Its quality is very acidic and the region is prone to constant floods. At this time more than 160,000 square kilometres deforested with the same purpose are abandoned and in the process of becoming deserts, meaning that this proposal is in the short-term interests of a few, & in the long term interests of none.
Please copy (cut & paste) the entire text into a 'new e-mail', put your complete name in the list below, and send to everyone you know. (DON'T JUST FORWARD IT - AS IT WILL THEN END UP WITH ROWS AND ROWS of '>'s - which discourages people from sending on)
If you are the 400th person to sign please send a copy to.....
