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| My Adirondack chair made from 100% recycled plastic |
The Amazon rainforest, which covers 2.1 million square miles, produces 20 percent of the oxygen in our planet's atmosphere. It’s been called "lungs of the planet.”
Rainforests are being destroyed at a pace of 8 million hectares per year. (source)While there are natural fire starters, such as lightning strikes, three quarters of cleared forest has been from farmers, purposefully setting fires to the rainforest to make more room for cattle grazing. The rest is from infrastructure projects, logging and mining – much of it illegal.
NOT that legal or illegal OR the death of the planet much matters to Brazil’s Trumpian President Jair Bolsonaro He’s made it clear that protecting the rainforest is not one of his priorities
Bolsonaro believes that an excess of protected land has hampered Brazil’s economic development, and he supports development projects like a highway and hydroelectric dam in the Amazon.Sound familiar?
What can I do? I'm not Brazilian – I can't vote this planet assassin out. I can't fight the fires down there. I feel helpless!
There are things we can do from here like:
STOP eating beef or, at least, limit your cow consumption to once a week. If no one’s buying the meat, less forest will be set on fire for those poor future Big Macs, etc. to graze on. If you abso-gotta have that burger, try a turkey burger (less fat AND turkey is a great source of B6 and niacin, fuel for energy production) or even a black bean burger. Honest to fuck, veggie burgers have come a long-ass way from their near tasteless McBurgeresque beginnings- Use wood alternatives for your flooring, furniture and other timber “needs.” There’s hemp, bamboo (it’s a grass, not wood), plastic ‘wood’ (made from recycled plastic), Cork (made with bark rather than the core of a tree) and nutshells (really!).
- Plant some damn trees. Don’t got a yard? Consider sending a few shekels to the awesome org’s who will plant ‘em for you like One Tree Planted (One dollar. One tree – A non-profit organization focused on global reforestation) or Trees for the Future.
- Don’t use paper OR plastic to tote your groceries home. Bring a reusable shopping bag from home. Don’t have one? BUY one. They’re cheap and wicked fashionable. Coco loves them and not just because her pic graces one of 'em (thank you Celeste!)!
There really IS stuff we can all do to help stall the destruction of the planet BUT we gotta do it and start NOW.
We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children.
