Shrinking Amazon fuels paranoia of invasion

[dArKeR]

Ecologists sounded the alarm. The Amazon rainforest is disappearing at the fastest rate in nearly a decade. But the outcry left many Brazilians suspicious.

They say the protesters don't really care about saving the world's largest wilderness -- they want to steal it from Brazil.

Sprawling over 4.1 million km2, the Amazon covers nearly 60 percent of Brazil. Largely unexplored, it contains one-fifth of the world's fresh water, oil, diamonds, gold and untold other mineral and biological riches.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2005/07/07/2003262547

[Massacure]

1. The biological riches are the crown gem of the Amazon.

There are so many substances in the Amazon that could be made into drugs and instead they are just burning the forrest down.

[suneel112]

2. One fifth of the world's oil ?

That's a great way to get repukes onboard about saving the Amazon. In addition, the Amazon is so biologically rich that it may actually create oil at a significant rate (compared to places like Saudi Arabia, and the likewise) so in a few million years, the oil supply in the Amazon may actually replenish.

Now that's no alternative to renewables, nuclear, and efficiency, but it will definitely get the attention of the repukes.