Nothing physically devastates the Earth like poverty because an individual or community's urge to eat today trumps concern for the future of the environment, even with the knowledge that one's activities are destroying any hope of sustainability and one will shortly return to the previous state of desperation.President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has encouraged farmers to cultivate already damaged areas rather than clear more land. About 20 percent of Brazil's share of the Amazon, the world's largest rain forest, already has been razed.
Environmentalists say runoff from sugar mills will pollute the region regardless, and since it's cheaper to raze virgin forest than recover already denuded land, illegal deforestation will be hard to control once Amazon sugar farming wins broad support.
They also worry that financial success for sugarcane crops will prompt farmers to plow deeper into the Amazon.
I submit that relieving poverty might be the single most effective protection of the Earth.
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