(08-24-2019 09:39 AM)ausowl Wrote:  

(08-23-2019 10:14 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  

(08-23-2019 06:46 PM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  I don't remember your drop-dead issues. But as you know, my biggest issue is climate change. It stuns me that no one is talking about the fires in the Amazon. The Amazon produces 20 percent of our planet's oxygen. Have we had one single comment from Trump on the fires? The U.S. should be leading the fight to try to squash the destruction of the rainforest.

I'm reading now that the vast majority of the fires are simply farmers burning off already cleared fields. The Amazon doesn't get a winter, so fields are burned off to kill bugs and pests. I've also seen statistics that show the rate of deforestation has risen slightly in the last few years, but is still well short of where it was a few decades ago.
I've also read something to the effect that this is a Brazilian/Chinese plot to increase their soybean production to replace the beans from the US. Good luck with that one. The economics of Amazon farming don't really support that--poor soil, poor transportation infrastructure, and no winter to kill off bugs makes the Amazon one of the most expensive places in the world to farm.

My cattle raising relatives think it's for grazing land. Variation on the soybean conspiracy theory.

The Amazon is not a great place for either. Poor soil, not great transportation infrastructure (you have the river, but you have to get it to the river first), no winter to kill of bugs and pests. Some of the highest production costs in the world, all-in.