Opinion: The Amazon rainforest is still burning and we're all in danger (via latimesopinion)
“On the seventh day, “ so says the Old Testament, “God rested.” A major reason the Almighty could afford to relax is that he created plants on the third day, approximately 3 billion years ago, designed to sustain Earth’s protective atmosphere forevermore. Until quite recently, these plants — trees in particular — have been doing God’s work to near perfection, inhaling carbon dioxide in silent service to nature and mankind, playing their providential role as “the lungs of the planet.
As the Brazilian forests burn, then, we are witnessing not just another devastating forest fire but the destruction of nature’s age-old shield against the warming of the planet. It’s happening at the same time that warming’s effects are mounting:, record high temperatures, dying coral reefs, melting glaciers, increasing floods and droughts.
Over the last half-century, as carbon emissions have increased dramatically, the earthly trinity of these tropical forests has also increased its rate of carbon sequestration. It is almost as if the, urging themselves to try harder to accomplish their preordained mission, sensing they are losing the battle.
Another way to think of the tropical rainforests is as our global commons. The forest trinity represents the three places on Earth we all have a vested interest in defending — a gift from God entrusted to us as stewards. All member nations at the G-7 meeting in France in August, save one, seem to grasp what is at stakeFinancial support for sustaining tropical forests needs to become an international responsibility and a priority.
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