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Humanity Has Flipped the Amazon Forest from Carbon Sink to Source

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Re: Humanity Has Flipped the Amazon Forest from Carbon Sink to Source

#21

Post by DennisP »

nine_k wrote: post #13
ArnoVW wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I could be wrong, but I belief that the issue is bigger than that. If you live in the US and drive a car or eat meat, you are likely to be co-responsible. Soy culture is used to create a cheap protein feedstock for the meat industry. Modern car fuel contains ethanol (10% in the EU). The ethanol is produced by having micro organisms convert biomass. The idea being that you use the short carbon cycle (already in the ec…

If you live in the U.S. and drive a car and eat meat, you are very unlikely eating illegally-raised Brazilian beef, or consuming illegally-mined Brazilian gold. Most likely, you eat U.S.-raised beef and burn gasoline from oil that comes from the U.S. or Middle East. Surely you are adding to the global warming, but it has nothing to do with Amazonian forest being illegally cut. In Brazil, most if not all cars run on e…

You make it sound like Brazilian beef is some little boutique thing. We don't eat much of it in the US because we are a giant beef producer ourselves, but Brazil is the world's largest beef exporter, by a significant margin.

https://www.statista.com/chart/19122/biggest-exporters-of-be...

Re: Humanity Has Flipped the Amazon Forest from Carbon Sink to Source

#22

Post by Valmar »

danparsonson wrote: post #4
DoingIsLearning wrote: post #2

* Consumers eating JBS beef and consumers buying exotic wood and consumers buying gold from illegal mining have flipped the Amazon Forest from Carbon Sink to Source. This collective blamming becomes tiring when the actions are self-contained in a small group of people.

That small group of people are responding to demand aren't they?

The thing is, they're still responsible for cutting down the Amazon.

The "responding to demand" is a complete cop-out. Stop blaming the consumer for the actions of the greedy.

I wouldn't be surprised if the consumer very often isn't even aware of the sources of the materials for a lot of the stuff they buy. And it doesn't help that the consumer is all too often worried about stuff that immediately affects them, leaving them no time or energy to worry about stuff that's they're not immediately aware of.

It's like blaming the consumer for the ridiculous amount of plastic corporations use for packaging when that's all that's available 99% of the time.

Re: Humanity Has Flipped the Amazon Forest from Carbon Sink to Source

#25

Post by creamynebula »

nine_k wrote: post #13
ArnoVW wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I could be wrong, but I belief that the issue is bigger than that. If you live in the US and drive a car or eat meat, you are likely to be co-responsible. Soy culture is used to create a cheap protein feedstock for the meat industry. Modern car fuel contains ethanol (10% in the EU). The ethanol is produced by having micro organisms convert biomass. The idea being that you use the short carbon cycle (already in the ec…

If you live in the U.S. and drive a car and eat meat, you are very unlikely eating illegally-raised Brazilian beef, or consuming illegally-mined Brazilian gold. Most likely, you eat U.S.-raised beef and burn gasoline from oil that comes from the U.S. or Middle East. Surely you are adding to the global warming, but it has nothing to do with Amazonian forest being illegally cut. In Brazil, most if not all cars run on e…

Pretty much all cars here run on gasoline.

Re: Humanity Has Flipped the Amazon Forest from Carbon Sink to Source

#26

Post by ratww »

Valmar wrote: post #22
danparsonson wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That small group of people are responding to demand aren't they?

The thing is, they're still responsible for cutting down the Amazon. The "responding to demand" is a complete cop-out. Stop blaming the consumer for the actions of the greedy. I wouldn't be surprised if the consumer very often isn't even aware of the sources of the materials for a lot of the stuff they buy. And it doesn't help that the consumer is all too often worried about stuff that immediately affects them, leavi…

> It's like blaming the consumer for the ridiculous amount of plastic corporations use for packaging when that's all that's available 99% of the time.

Oh, that's a huge pet peeve of mine. In some places I lived it was impossible to buy produce without plastic bags because the stores force you to use their own bags. Also you have to put different vegetables on different bags. Otherwise you can't buy.

Sure one can argue that I could just boycott all the supermarkets in my city, but those people forget that I also have to fucking eat.

Re: Humanity Has Flipped the Amazon Forest from Carbon Sink to Source

#27

Post by yodelshady »

danparsonson wrote: post #4
DoingIsLearning wrote: post #2

* Consumers eating JBS beef and consumers buying exotic wood and consumers buying gold from illegal mining have flipped the Amazon Forest from Carbon Sink to Source. This collective blamming becomes tiring when the actions are self-contained in a small group of people.

That small group of people are responding to demand aren't they?

Contract killers are responding to demand, but we don't let them legally practice their trade.

Re: Humanity Has Flipped the Amazon Forest from Carbon Sink to Source

#29

Post by [deleted] »

creamynebula wrote: post #25
nine_k wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you live in the U.S. and drive a car and eat meat, you are very unlikely eating illegally-raised Brazilian beef, or consuming illegally-mined Brazilian gold. Most likely, you eat U.S.-raised beef and burn gasoline from oil that comes from the U.S. or Middle East. Surely you are adding to the global warming, but it has nothing to do with Amazonian forest being illegally cut. In Brazil, most if not all cars run on e…

Pretty much all cars here run on gasoline.

[deleted]

Re: Humanity Has Flipped the Amazon Forest from Carbon Sink to Source

#30

Post by praptak »

The headline is unnecessarily sensationalist. A mature forest is never a carbon sink. Trees can only store so much carbon before there is no more room for them to grow.

Obviously, burning a forest is still bad from the CO2-in-atmosphere point of view. Not because you have destroyed a carbon sink but because you released carbon from an existing carbon reservoir.

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