Ebonie+and+Karolina+OpEd


 * Deforestation and Petroleum Use: Say Goodbye to Our World's Most Important Carbon Sinks**

The slaughter of tropical forests has slowed, but millions of acres a year are still being harvested to get at the oil in the ground beneath.

That reliance on oil -- which continues despite energy bills passed in 2005 and 2007 -- is a major cause of climate change (not to mention the gradual disappearance of the brown-headed spider monkey and a plethora of other species) (any count?).

The 2005 bill required electric companies to produce 10 percent of their electricity from renewable sources (wind, water, solar) before 2010 -- and gave billions in subsidies, tax breaks and loan guarantees to dirty energy sources.

This is like scolding your dog for begging, but then slipping it scraps (of filet mignon) under the table.

The 2007 bill was supposed to take those scraps away. But it continued government subsidies for the petroleum industry.

Meanwhile, there's a plan (WHERE? BY WHOM?) to reduce oil consumption 1 million barrels a day by 2015-- but no method for enforcement. What if you had an important assignment, but no teacher to whom to turn it in? Would you do it?

Global deforestation has slowed from 16 million hectares a year in the 1990s to 13 million hectares a year in the last 10 years, but resource extraction is still a threat. The related problem -- too much CO2 in the atmosphere -- is made worse when trees disappear. Those trees blotter up carbon dioxide. Their loss means the loss of a major storage facility -- what's called a carbon sink. Finally, tropical forests, which make up only 7 percent of the Earth's surface, harbor more than 60 percent of the world’s known species.

Maybe it's time for Congress to enact legislation that  helps preserve precious global resources, and not only for oil industry giants. There are future generations to think of.

And the brown-headed spider monkey.