rainforests what is going wrong
- This is a preview of the essay.
To view the full text you must login!
Money in the Rainforest rainforest fact sheets
The destruction of the rainforests is one of the most pressing environmental issues of our time. Even though we live far away from them and most of us have never visited them, many of us contribute to their destruction through our buying habits. More importantly, our own government and transnational corporations are often involved in the destruction, either directly or by financing ill-advised "development." The destruction of the rainforests should remind us of the unbalanced excesses of our society's consumption and an urgent need to live more lightly on the Earth.
International Development Banks
Before "development" (e.g. logging, mining, oil drilling and clearing large tracts of land for cattle ranches) can occur, the necessary infrastructure must be put in place. Highways must be cut through the virgin rainforest in order to gain access to mineral rich areas. Dams that drown vast areas must be constructed to generate the power needed by industry and for the workers brought in to run the new operations.
The capital to finance these huge projects comes primarily from multinational corporations and international lending agencies such as the World Bank, whose policies were, until recently, anathema to the preservation of the forests and indigenous peoples...