---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sun, 28 Sep 1997 02:51:36 -1000
From: Patrick Mazza <[log in to unmask]>

PLEASE REPOST THIS MESSAGE!

The connection of rainforest destruction and El Nino in the current
environmental disaster in Southeast Asia is a defining event. It is an
utter paradigm for the new kind of environmental disaster - not localized
with one specific cause but widespread and connected to a complex series
of global events. It reveals our interconnectedness, the way different
forms of environmental destruction are feeding each other synergistically
to create a whole that is greater than the sum of the parts.

The issue that really draws all of them together is climate change. Kevin
Trenberth of the National Center for Atmospheric Research has calculated
that the current spate of El Ninos would occur naturally only once every
2,000 years. So we must look at greenhouse gases as a potential cause, he
says.  (Geophysical Research Letter 1.1.96). On top of this, it is
estimated that one-third of all greenhouse gases now entering the
atmosphere are as a result of rainforest destruction, according to Dr.
Richard Gammon of University of Washington Joint Institute for the Study
of Atmosphere and Oceans. Increased fossil fuel use in booming Asia is, of
course, a proximate factor in climate change.

We are not seeing the climate change connection made in the mass media
coverage of the Asian smog or El Nino. I strongly urge each of you on
these lists to write letters to the editor, call editors at newspapers and
television stations, and tell them that to responsibly do their jobs they
must bring this factor to the attention of their readers and viewers.

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