posted July 28, 2004 03:31 PM              

as the world spirals into oblivion.....

posted August 08, 2004 01:14 PM            

The farmers and loggers don't seem to care for the endangered species they are killing off in droves. There is nothing more terrifying to an animal than trying to escape a burning forrest.

What irks me the most is that we can do something about this.

In California this has been done on a smaller scale. Organizations and private citizens began pulling their money to purchase large lots / acreage of land. They pay the going price of what the developers could get for the land - usually they do this with the states consent for added protection. The land is then zoned to ensure NO houses can be placed on it and it is then considered a wildlife refuge for hundreds of years.

I would like to see the same thing done in the Amazon and other countries where they are depleting the resources. If we could get the UN (yeah, I highly doubt they give a rats butt) or another organization, like Greenpeace, the ELF..etc.. to pony up some money to purchase the land (they would also need the foreign gov to be on board) for what the farmers could get from the land selling the resources to companies.

The land would then be held in trust - for example; If a 100 square mile area could bring in $2 million dollars and would take 60 years for the trees to regrow - then the cost for that parcel would be $2 Million and no one could touch the land for 60 years.

The bigger problem is that the foreign governments would need to be in compliance. I do not believe, even with the UN, that greed would subside and they would comply with these conditions. Instead, I believe they would sell the land to the organizations and STILL allow the illegal logging anyway.