Where There Is a Need, There Is a Way - When Disaster Strikes - page 15

“ The rainforests of the Amazon, the Congo basin and Indonesia are thought of as the lungs of the
planet. But the destruction of those forests will in the next four years alone, in the words of Sir Nich-
olas Stern, pump more CO2 into the atmosphere than every flight in the history of aviation to at least
2025. ” —Daniel Howden, “Deforestation: The Hidden Cause of Global Warming,” Independent , May
14, 2007
Over 50 percent of the world's forests have already disappeared, and much of the rest are
threatened. Deforestation annually contributes approximately 25 percent of all global green-
house gases, nearly double the 14 percent that transportation and industry sectors each contrib-
ute (Howden 2007). Additionally, the forests of the world are a critical part of the weather
cycle as well as the carbon-oxygen cycle. Each large mature tree acts as a giant water pump, re-
cycling millions of gallons of water back into the atmosphere via evaporation from its leaves or
needles. It has been estimated that a single large rainforest or coniferous tree has an evaporative
surface area roughly equal to a 40-acre lake. When the trees are decimated in a region, a pro-
cess called “desertification” tends to occur downwind because the trees are no longer there to
pump groundwater back into the atmosphere to fall back to earth as additional rainfall at some
downwind location.
5. The Global Food Crisis: Soils, Weather, and Water
“ 'World food prices have risen 45 percent in the last nine months and there are serious shortages of
rice, wheat and [corn],' Jacques Diouf, head of the Rome-based U.N. Food and Agriculture Organiz-
ation (FAO), said at a major conference in New Delhi yesterday. . . . World Bank President Robert B.
Zoellick said earlier this month that nearly three dozen countries face social unrest because of sur-
ging food and fuel prices. For the countries most at risk, 'there is no margin for survival,' he said. ”
—David R. Sands, “Global Food Riots Turn Deadly,” Washington Times , April 10, 2008
For the first time since the “green revolution” started, our world is producing less food each
year, yet its population continues to rise as we lose more topsoil, arable land, and have less wa-
ter for irrigation. Climate change is currently contributing more to losses than technology is to
gains. In 2008 and 2009, food riots threatened the stability of many governments. In 2010 ex-
tended droughts in the breadbaskets of both China and India threatened the food supply for
over one-third of the world's population.
6. Overpopulation