corourke
Donor
Half the Amazon Rainforest to be Lost by 2030
According to this article, half of the Amazon rainforest will be gone by 2030. That's quite a bit, and really upsetting, but it got me thinking: could this have happened earlier?
For this to be a really meaningful discussion, it has to be a deliberate action of a state, corporation, or other human entity, not some natural or human-caused event that got out of control, like a meteor or huge fire.
I think the most likely scenario would be an alt-Brazil that really required raw materials and space. If South America had been home to a state that developed a real international significance as a world power, I could see the Amazon being destroyed faster in order to a) build ships (in the age of sail), b) build houses, c) free up land for settlement, farming, and mineral extraction
If sugar were to become extremely valuable, for example in a world where ethanol was used as a fuel, then perhaps the rainforest would be cleared to provide land for huge sugar plantations.
Your thoughts?
According to this article, half of the Amazon rainforest will be gone by 2030. That's quite a bit, and really upsetting, but it got me thinking: could this have happened earlier?
For this to be a really meaningful discussion, it has to be a deliberate action of a state, corporation, or other human entity, not some natural or human-caused event that got out of control, like a meteor or huge fire.
I think the most likely scenario would be an alt-Brazil that really required raw materials and space. If South America had been home to a state that developed a real international significance as a world power, I could see the Amazon being destroyed faster in order to a) build ships (in the age of sail), b) build houses, c) free up land for settlement, farming, and mineral extraction
If sugar were to become extremely valuable, for example in a world where ethanol was used as a fuel, then perhaps the rainforest would be cleared to provide land for huge sugar plantations.
Your thoughts?