Hello all.
This is a blog about rainforests. It is about their beauty, the people and animals that live in them, the resources being extracted from them, and their overall importance. It is about those destroying it for profit, and those fighting to save it with all that they are. It is about heroes and villains. North and South. The global and the local. The tree and the forest. It is about biodiversity and economy. Government and anarchy. Community and exploitation. Climate Change and Carbon Secuestration. This is about soy, palm oil, lumber, gold, oil, and cattle. This is about money and rights. This is about health and faith. This is about inequality. This is about justice. Perhaps it’s even about right and wrong.
This is a blog to keep you in the know about what is going on with one of the most crucial facets of our global ecoystem, when the media can’t seem to provide consistent information about the topic. This is to shed light on a huge issue kept in the dark.
This is about Brazil and Bolivia, Ecuador and Indonesia, Peru and the Congo, Uruguay and Gabon, Colombia and Cameroon. This is about how the rainforest has everything and nothing to do with these countries.
Who is Rudi Putra? In what products can we find palm oil? How is my cheeseburger linked to deforestation in the Amazon? How is deforestation a social justice issue, and not just an environmental one? How is globalization and capitalism linked to the rapid destruction of global forests? What does REDD+ stand for?
These are some of the questions I hope to answer with this blog. Ideally, you will walk away slightly more informed, slightly more driven to make a change, or slightly more inclined to have a pertinent discussion with a friend or a colleague. Together, we can help raise awareness of this issue, and start making progress towards protecting our global forests and the rich natural beauty, resources, and cultures that they contain.
Happy Reading!
-Austen B
What's in a Rainforest? 