|
══════════════════【立報】═══════════════════ |
| 教 育 專 題 深 入 報 導《2005-05-27》 |
| 本期內容 | |
| ◎ 一手環保一手發展 巴西總統陷兩難 | |
| ◎ 牛排肇禍 熱帶雨林倍速消失 | |
| ◎ 2005年南美亞馬遜河雨林實況 | |
| ◎ 台灣立報徵文啟事 | |
| 一手環保一手發展 巴西總統陷兩難 | |
| 策劃、編譯■成怡夏、趙中麒 | |
|
President is torn between preservation and growth 在多年的經濟蕭條後，巴西總統魯拉目前在保護雨林的渴望和追求經濟發展壓力間搖擺不定。在2002年的選舉中，他以提倡環境保護作為政見，同時承諾會提供土地給40萬佃農。他不但承接了巴西極惡劣的經濟衰退問題，也得償還國際貨幣基金會（IMF）的龐大國際負債。 在政治現實的壓力下，魯拉有責任將巴西從蕭條帶向經濟成長，也因此，分析家認為，他無法信守保護雨林的承諾，默許伐木者與大型農場繼續發展。魯拉在選後很快就表示：「我們不能把亞馬遜河流域視為另一個世界、是個無法觸及的地方、任何人不能從中獲利。」 從某個層次看，魯拉是成功的，去年他引進了緊縮的財政政策，巴西國內的經濟成長了5.2％。然而它的成長卻和破壞雨林脫不了關係。伐木業、礦業、農業和牧業都是經濟成長的驅動力。農業甚至被稱為經濟成長的「綠錨」。巴西去年在甚至超越美國，成為全世界最大的牛肉產地。 巴西外交部長艾文頓．法格斯最近表示：「要同時做到環境保護與經濟社會成長，是個相當複雜的挑戰。」 （資料來源http://news.independent.co.uk/） |
|
| （回目錄） | |
| 牛排肇禍 熱帶雨林倍速消失 | |
| 策劃、編譯■成怡夏、趙中麒 | |
|
摘要 熱帶雨林的頭號兇手是牛排？為了餵養牛隻，畜牧業需要大量土地種植黃豆，有「地球之肺」美譽的亞馬遜熱帶雨林也因此正以驚人的速度消失中。麥克‧麥卡錫（Michael McCarthy）指出，布萊若‧瑪奇（Blairo Maggi），一位擁有百萬家產的農夫，同時也是巴西最頑固的政客，是造成熱帶雨林面積快速減少的始作俑者。 布萊若‧瑪奇（Blairo Maggi）掌握巴西黃豆生產命脈。一般民眾叫他黃豆之王。不過環保人士卻稱他雨林殺手。全球畜牧業需要大量黃豆作為牛隻飼料，為了廣大市場，瑪奇大肆伐林遍植黃豆，成為毀滅雨林的主因。 麥卡錫指出，根據一份環保團體的調查報告，隨著全球黃豆市場持續3年的上漲行情，巴西雨林的消失範圍已達全球第三大面積。超過一萬平方英哩的熱帶雨林，相當於比利時的國土範圍，都因種植黃豆而被砍伐殆盡。瑪奇的黃豆生產企業就在馬托格羅索（Mato Grosso）州，是全球最大的黃豆生產公司，而瑪奇同時也是該州州長。 對瑪奇來說，雨林消失沒啥好遺憾的。2003年，他擔任州長的第一年，雨林的砍伐速度就比以往快兩倍。他表示，雨林消失40％根本不算什麼，也不需大驚小怪。他個人對此不覺得有任何的罪惡感。他認為熱帶雨林是個比歐洲大陸還大、尚未發掘的處女地，因此不必杞人憂天。 對於瑪奇這樣的說法，許多人幾近抓狂的反對。佔地410萬平方公里的亞馬遜雨林，覆蓋巴西國土一半以上，其存在是地球生命得否延續的關鍵。亞馬遜雨林向來被稱為地球之肺，因為她製造了大部分地球生物所需的氧氣。 對於瑪奇的黃豆產業，一種被普遍接受的看法是，為了種植黃豆以供應畜牧業所需的飼料，合法與不合法的砍伐已經毀了將近20％的雨林。當西方國家皆完成農業轉型，並興起保護其國內自然資源的意識時，巴西仍將廣大雨林視為可任意使用的資源，也難怪黃豆產業會強強滾。 現在，歐洲每年所需要的黃豆有65％是從巴西輸入。另一個造成黃豆生產火熱的原因是，中國自改革開放以來，創造出許多中產階級。這批中產階級追求高級料理，認為餐桌上擺滿許多肉類，是高檔的象徵，使得中國對肉類的需求大增，為了大量飼料以飼養經濟性動物，強化了對黃豆的需求。就算瑪奇沒有環保意識，自貶身價淪為全球畜牧業飼料的提供者，也讓許多人不悅。 黃豆產業的火熱，受到環保主義者強力抨擊。英國綠色和平組織執行長約翰‧索文表示：「那等於是將雨林變成飼料，這不是什麼令人炫目的魔術，是非常嚴重的一件事情。」在2003年以前，連續8年，雨林的消失速度比較和緩，但2003年，一年就砍掉2萬5千5百平方公里的雨林，砍伐速率上升了40％。2004年，透過衛星照片以及其他資料，又消失了2萬6,130平方公里。雨林消失的速率並沒有因為巴西當局的保護雨林計畫而減緩。環境部長馬麗娜‧施維亞（Marina Silva）表示，環保團體的報告似乎有些言過其實，不過，政府會「盡其所能的，透過制度化的方式對抗這種情形；政府會有持續的，有效的行動，並且讓各部會都動起來以改善雨林的消失狀況。」 綠色和平組織的亞馬遜專員保羅‧亞達利歐（Paulo Adario）說，雨林的消失是一場悲劇，顯示出巴西政府根本不把保護雨林當一回事。事實上，施維亞這種空洞、近乎宣言式的說法，正突顯了巴西政府官員對雨林消失所可能造成的全球環境危害，欠缺危機意識。 瑪奇老兄的黃豆產銷事業，去年淨賺6百萬美金，他不認為未來會有任何的限制政策影響他的黃豆產銷生意。他已經開始計畫未來10年，在馬托格羅索拓墾比現在還要多3倍的土地以種植生產黃豆。事實上，他的公司去年就已經宣佈，將用兩倍的地方進行黃豆種植產銷。 現在對巴西來說，黃豆產銷是非常重要的產業。農業產品是該國首要輸出項目，黃豆則是主要的出口產物。目前政府大力鼓吹黃豆出口，將黃豆的外銷看作是賺取外匯以清償外債的手段。從1960年代開始，巴西政府就開始鼓吹黃豆種植，以使對植物油的需求可以自給自足。但是，黃豆的使用範圍愈來愈廣，種植量愈來愈多，在巴西南方以及大西洋沿岸均有全商業化的農場，專門產銷黃豆。 過去，農技師相信，種植黃豆不會威脅雨林的生存。因為黃豆種子不是在任何的氣候跟土壤條件中都能存活。不過，隨著基因改良，新品種的黃豆出現了。這些新品種快速擴張了種植黃豆的農田的面積。原來主要種植地均在北方，但新品種黃豆對熱帶氣候更具適應力，使得南方許多雨林棲地也成為黃豆的種植場。 1995到2004年期間，在巴西的中西部，種植面積已經增加了77％，使得馬托格羅索成為最大的黃豆產地。現在，黃豆正伴隨著人類的幫助快速向雨林入侵中，點燃了摧毀雨林的引線。何時這場黃豆跟雨林的棲地爭奪戰才會停止，恐怕得取決自許為萬物之靈的人類何時才能覺醒，不再暴力的殖民土地；何時才能銘記西雅圖酋長那美麗的宣言，善待地球這個美麗的母親。 （資料來源http://news.independent.co.uk/） 原文?搟?搟?搟 It is stark. It is scarcely believable. But the ruthless oblitera-tion of the Amazon rainforest continues at a headlong rate new figures reveal - and today we reveal the man who more than any other represents the forces making it happen. He is Blairo Maggi, the millionaire farmer and uncompro-mising politician presiding over the Brazilian boom in soya bean production. He is known in Brazil as O Rei da Soja - the King of Soy. Brazilian environmentalists are calling him something else - the King of Deforestation. For the soya boom, feeding a seem-ingly insatiable world market for soya beans as cattle feed, is now the main driver of rainforest destruction. Figures show that last year the rate of forest clearance in the Amazon was the second highest on record as the soy boom completed its third year. An area of more than 10,000 square miles - nearly the size of Belgium - was cut down, with half the destruction in the state of Mato Grosso, where Mr. Maggi, whose Maggi Group farming business is the world's biggest soya bean producer, also happens to be the state governor. Mr. Maggi sheds no tears over lost trees. In 2003, his first year as governor, the rate of deforestation in Mato Grosso more than doubled.In an interview last year he said: "To me, a 40 per cent increase in deforestation doesn't mean anything at all, and I don't feel the slightest guilt over what we are doing here. We are talking about an area larger than Europe that has barely been touched, so there is nothing at all to get worried about." Many people violently disagree. The survival of the Amazon forest, which sprawls over 4.1 million sq km (1.6 million sq miles) and covers more than half of Brazil's land area, may be the key to the survival of the planet. The jungle is sometimes called the world's "lung" because its trees produce much of the world's oxygen. It is thought nearly 20 per cent of it has already been destroyed by legal and illegal logging, and clearance for cattle ranching. But the soya boom has dramatically stepped up the pace of destruction. It began on the back of the BSE crisis in Britain, when the feed given to cattle suddenly became a matter of intense public concern. Cattle feed producers around the world switched to soya as an untainted source. The boom was intensified by the fact that Brazil - in contrast to the US and Argentina - did not go down the GM route in its agriculture, so when most European countries went GM-free, it was from Brazil that they sought their soya bean supplies. Eu-rope now imports 65 per cent of its soya from Brazil. A further impetus to the boom is coming from China, whose emerging middle class wants to eat more and more meat - so the demand for animal feed is soaring.The soya boom is bitterly criticised by environmentalists. "It is turning the rainforest into cattle feed. It is gross," said John Sauven, head of the rainforest cam-paign for Greenpeace UK. It first showed up in the deforestation figures in 2003, when after falling or staying steady for eight years, the rate of de-struction leapt by 40 per cent in a single year, from 18,170 sq km to 25,500 sq km.Since then the rate has stayed at its new high level, with 24,597 sq km cut down the next year, and, as the figures released yesterday by the Brazilian environment ministry showed, from satellite photos and other data, no less than 26,130 sq km of rainforest was cut down in the 12 months to August 2004. This was a further leap of 6 per cent on the year before and caused immense dismay, not least because President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's government adopted an action plan last year to protect the Amazon. The Environment Minister, Marina Silva, who is from the Amazon state of Acre, said the figure was high, but promised the country would "work to fight this in a structured way, with lasting and effective ac-tion, involving all sectors". Greenpeace's Amazon co-ordinator Paulo Adario said the scale of the destruction was a tragedy, and showed that defor-estation was "not a priority for the Lula government". Mr. Maggi, whose company grossed $600m last year, does not see the future as one of restricted soya plantings. He has called for a tripling of the amount of land planted with soy-beans during the next decade in Mato Grosso, and his company announced last year that it intended to double the area it has in production. How demand for soya drives the destruction The production of soya beans is now a vital industry for Brazil. Agribusiness is the country's number one export earner, and soya is the principal commodity. The current government under President Lula actively promotes soya export as a means to earn foreign exchange for debt payments. From the 1960s, the Brazilian government promoted soya cultivation so Brazil could become self sufficient in vegetable oils. Soya was increasingly planted on large-scale, fully mecha-nised farms in the south and the states on the Atlantic coast. In the past, some agro-engineers believed soya would never threaten the rainforest, because of climatic limitations and soil conditions. Soya was thought to be "as adaptable to conditions of the tropical climate as a panda bear to the African savan-nah". However, the development of new varieties has enabled the rapid expansion of soya plantations north, into the tropical states where the rainforest is situated. Between 1995 and 2004, the area cultivated with soya in-creased by 77 per cent in the centre-west, with Mato Grosso be-coming the single biggest producer. Now soya is rapidly ad-vancing from all sides toward the heartland of the Amazon, fu-elling massive deforestation. |
|
| （回目錄） | |
| 2005年南美亞馬遜河雨林實況 | |
| 策劃、編譯■成怡夏、趙中麒 | |
|
▲巴西現有40萬名佃農。 ▲亞馬遜雨林每16平方英哩內有750種樹木，125種哺乳動物，400種鳥類，以及100種爬蟲類。 ▲若維持現在的生產成長速率，2020年之前每年造紙工業將會消耗掉40億噸的樹木。 ▲每建立一座紙漿工廠，就會破壞5千6百英畝的雨林，同時每天消耗2千噸的木材供工廠發電之用。 ▲22％的巴西人口位在貧窮線以下。 ▲巴西有一千萬失業人口，而整個勞動市場有8千9百萬勞工。 ▲若以目前的速率繼續砍伐森林，估計40到50年後雨林就會消失。 ▲巴西每年有270萬英畝的雨林遭破壞。 ▲巴西雨林面積占全世界現存的雨林之33％。 ▲亞馬遜流域的雨林已有17.3％遭破壞。 ▲雨林消失後，每天將有137種動植物絕種。 ▲一棵亞馬遜流域的樹上面住的螞蟻種類，與整個布列顛群島的螞蟻種類一樣多。 ▲巴西每年收入的40％用來清償負債。 ▲有2千萬的人把亞馬遜盆地當成家鄉，其中包括了4百個原住民族群。 ▲所有的原木料中有70％最終成為無法利用的木屑。 ▲全世界已有50％的森林消失。 ▲巴西一座鐵工廠就要消耗一百萬噸木材供發電之用。 ▲根據巴西政府統計，整個亞馬遜地區的20％，即一億公頃的土地，被人非法持有。 （資料來源http://news.independent.co.uk/） |
|
| （回目錄） | |
| 台灣立報徵文啟事 | |
|
本報誠徵閱讀經驗分享，歡迎教師、家長及學生分享經驗，題材包括如何推動學生閱讀、啟發學生閱讀興趣、學生閱讀心得或小書評，文長500～1500字皆可，投至fiveguys@ms19.hinet.net，凡經採用，敬奉薄酬。 |
|
| （回目錄） | |
|
參觀立報： |
http://www.lihpao.com |
|
寫信給小編 e-mail： |
fiveguys@ms19.hinet.net |
|
立報地址： |
台北縣新店市復興路43號一樓 |