WWF says 50 percent of Amazonian rainforest gone by 2030; carbon dioxide emissions from deforestation will equal 2 years of total worldwide emissions

In Bali, the WWF released a report concluding that half of the Amazon rainforest would disappear by 2030 and would release 100 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere as a result, or twice the annual emissions of all countries combined.

At the Clinton Global Initiative earlier this year, primate scientist Jane Goodall said that crops growing for biofuels is damaging rain forests in Asia, Africa and South America and adding to the emissions blamed for global warming. “We’re cutting down forests now to grow sugarcane and palm oil for biofuels and our forests are being hacked into by so many interests that it makes them more and more important to save now,” Goodall said.

Last week, at the Americas Conference in Miami, former Brazilian Minister of Agriculture Roberto Rodrigues pointed out that sugar cane does not grow in the Amazon region, and that Amazonian rainforest is not being destroyed in Brazil for sugar cane cultivation. “It is an absurdity to suggest otherwise”, Rodrigues said.

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