Post subject: Reply to americans about the amazon forest
nesrocks
He/Him
Player (247)
Joined: 5/1/2004
Posts: 4096
Location: Rio, Brazil
Sorry for the bad translation on some parts, i got the message in portuguese. ------------------------- During a debate on an american university, the ex-governor of brazilian's capital city Distrito Federal, current education minister Cristovam Buarque, was questioned about what he thought of the internationalization of the Amazon Forest. The young american made the question expecting an asnwer from a humanist and not a brazilian. This was his answer: "In fact, as a brazilian i would simply be against the internationalization of the amazon forest. Despite the fact that our government doesn't have the proper care with that treasure, it is ours. As a humanist, feeling the risk of enviromental degradation that the forest is going through, i can imagine it's internationalization, as also of all other important things to human kind. If the amazon forest, under an humanist point of view, should be internationalized, we should internationalizate also the petroleum reserves of the whole world... The petroleum is so important for the wellfare of humankind as the forest is to our future. Even so, the owners of the petroleum reserves feel they have the right to raise or lower the extraction of petroleum and raising or not it's price. Likewise, the funds of the rich countries should be internationalized. If the amazon forest is a treasure for all human beings, it can't be burned by the will of an owner or a country. Burning the forest is as bad as the unemployment caused by the arbitrary decisions of the markets especulators. We can't let that the financial reserves be used to burn whole countries in the euphoria of especulation. Even before the amazon forest, i would like to see the internationalization of all big museums of the world. The Louvre can't belong only to France. Each museum of the world is a guardian of the most beautifull things produced by the human geniosity. We can't let that culture treasure, as the natural treasure of the amazon, be manipulated and destroyed by the will of a proprietary or a country. Not long ago, a japanese milionaire decided to bury himself with a painting of a great master. Before that, that painting should have been internationalized. During that meeting, the United Nations are having a discussion of the milenium, but some presidents of certain countries have had difficulties to participate because of embarassments on the border with USA. That's why i think that New York, as the home of UN, should be internationalized. At least manhattan should belong to the whole human kind. Such as paris, venice, rome, london, rio de janeiro, brasilia, recife, every town, with it's especific beauty, it's world history, should belong to the whole world. If the USA want to internationalize the amazon forest, because of the risk of letting it on the hands of brazilians, we should then internationalize all the nuclear warfare that is on the hands of the USA. Because they have already shown that they are able to use those weapons, provoking destruction thousands times bigger than the burning of the forest in Brazil. I defend the idea that we should internationalize the forest reserves of the world in exchange for the debt. We shal start using that debt to make sure that every child of the world has the oportunity to EAT and to go to school. We shall internationalize the children, treating them, all of them, no matter where they were born, as a treasure that deserves the care of the whole world. Poor children of the world as a treasure of mankind, they shouldn't live. As a humanist, i accept to defend the internationalization of the world. But as long as the world treats me as a brazilian, i'll fight so that the amazon be ours. ONLY ors."
Joined: 3/25/2004
Posts: 459
Free Mandela.
Post subject: Mmmm . . . In-jokes . . .
Joined: 5/17/2004
Posts: 106
Location: Göteborg, Sweden
Don't look at me. I voted yes... But more seriously and less swedishly; two wrongs don't make a right. That France won't give away the Louvre even though they, from the humanist standpoint taken in the article, should is not a valid excuse to be equally pig-headed. I can certainly understand feeling that the forest belongs to Brazil, not the world. I can't understand feeling that the forest does belong to the world, but keeping it private out of what amounts to simple spite.
Post subject: Re: Mmmm . . . In-jokes . . .
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Joined: 5/3/2004
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Ah, but the analogies don't hold true. There are purely socioeconomic (note, this does not mean monetary or monetarily motivated) arguments to support the internationalization of the Amazon rainforest. Before I go on, let me note that I have no idea if this is actually happening. I'm fairly current on events and I can't recall reading or hearing anything about the "internationalization" of the Amazon rainforest. I'm not even sure what it means in this context. I will for the moment assume it means relinquishing custodianship of the rainforest to a foreign entity. That being said, large forest reserves play a significant role in the fixation of carbon, which is a great help to those life forms that breath oxygen and not carbon dioxide. Another benefit of this carbon fixation is a lessening of the greenhouse effect. Another benefit of large, mostly unexplored forest reserves is the huge mass of undocumented life forms that live within them. The vast majority of pharmaceuticals come from compounds that were derived from a naturally occuring compound. You might wonder how this can be true since in the past few years almost every new drug on the market was derived from computer simulated compounds. The reason why is that each year since computer modeling has become the dominant force in pharmaceuticals, the number of new drugs on the market has sharply and steadily decreased. This is a fact. Computer modeling is not as efficient at producing new drugs as is finding and modifying exotic compounds that exist in nature. Large drug companies are just starting to take heed of research pointing this out and it is expected such companies will soon reinvest a large portion of their research and development budgets into exploration. All of these things I have just described are benefits of the rainforest itself that no one pays for. Something such as petroleum, which is a natural resource as well, is really better thought of as a commodity because it is bought and sold, and there are no externalities associated with crude oil when it is still in some reservoir in the ground. Various museums around the world are wholly artificial and so a comparison to a forest makes no sense. Take care not to accidentally adopt Communist viewpoints in your rage; all historical indicators point to Communism not being a viable socioeconomic system (at least for humans). Now, if the Brazilian government is incapable or unwilling to properly care for the Amazon rainforest to ensure that the benefits associated with the rainforest continue to benefit mankind far into the future, it is their responsibility to relinquish control to some foreign body that will. Is it true that the countries accusing Brazil of not properly caring for the rainforest have depleted or destroyed their own globally beneficial natural resources, such as trees, fish, clean air, and clean water? Oh, absolutely. But that doesn't mean Brazil has the right to knowingly repeat those blunders and transgressions of the past.