Say It Ain't So Already

Brazil shreds laws protecting its rainforests

Brazil has taken a big step towards passing new laws that will loosen restrictions on the amount of Amazon rainforest that farmers can destroy, after its lower house of parliament voted in favour of updating the country’s 46-year-old forest code.

In a move described as “disastrous” by conservationists, the nation’s congress backed a bill relaxing laws on the deforestation of hilltops and the amount of vegetation farmers must preserve. The law also offers partial amnesties for fines levied against landowners who have illegally destroyed tracts of rainforest.

This is a photo of the Amazon rain forest per the article above.

This is a photo of the Amazon rain forest I knew as a kid:

(That river?  It’s the Amazon.)

The Brazilians who chop their forests down are people who have no other means of survival, so they turn to logging.