Getting the bathroom fixed has been a bit of a nightmare and not having regular access to blogging left me with a few things I wanted to write about.
While I have been very tough on Lula - and will continue to be - on his shortcomings with regard to his policies on the environment, this is unquestionably a good step:
In an unprecedented move against rogue cattle ranchers in the Amazon, the Brazilian government has seized livestock grazing there illegally, the new environment minister announced Tuesday.
Officials carted off 3,100 head of cattle that they said were being raised on an ecological reserve in the state of Para, in an operation intended to serve as a warning to other ranchers grazing an estimated 60,000 head on illegally deforested land in Amazonia, the environment minister, Carlos Minc, said.
“No more being soft,” Mr. Minc told reporters in the capital, Brasilia. “Those that don’t respect environmental legislation, your cattle are going to become barbecue for Fome Zero,” he said, referring to the government’s food program for the poor.
Mr. Minc said the cattle would be auctioned in two weeks and the proceeds go to Fome Zero, as well as to health programs for indigenous peoples and to finance cattle removal operations.
This is a huge step in the right direction. What is even more astonishing is that this is taking place in the state of Para, arguably the state where those with means have amongst the greatest contempt for the law. It speaks to the need for Brazil's federal government to play a greater role in these sorts of actions. Leaving this up to states like Para will change nothing.
I do share the following caution, however:
“This can be a good way of at least showing the government is concerned about the contribution of ranching to the problem of deforestation,” said Peter May, associate director of Friends of the Earth Brazil. “It’s an important strategy, but if they do it just once and then never do it again it will be seen as a media event.”
If this is a one-off effort it accomplishes nothing. So much needs to be done.
The dream of a restored Everglades, with water flowing from Lake Okeechobee to Florida Bay, moved a giant step closer to reality on Tuesday when the nation’s largest sugarcane producer agreed to sell all of its assets to the state and go out of business.
Under the proposed deal, Florida will pay $1.75 billion for United States Sugar, which would have six years to continue farming before turning over 187,000 acres north of Everglades National Park, along with two sugar refineries, 200 miles of railroad and other assets.
It would be Florida’s biggest land acquisition ever, and the magnitude and location of the purchase left environmentalists and state officials giddy.
This is nearly three hundred square miles, a size nearly equivalent to the land area of New York City. I'm giddy just thinking about it. I grew up for much of my childhood in Miami and spent many a Boy Scout camping trip in the Everglades. There are few places in this country where you can see such a broad spectrum of wildlife. This statement almost brings tears to my eyes:
"This is about putting it back to the way it was in the 1890s,” Mr. [David G.] Guest [ a lawyer for Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund] said. “What will happen is that if you come back here in 20 years, it will look indistinguishable from the way it looked before the white man arrived.”
Wow!
Comments