Now you see the far-sighted wondrousness of the Bush administration and the Democratic Congress. Immigrants come here for jobs and homes, but that causes them to increase their use of carbon and greenhouse gases, causing global warming. Can't have that. The solution: "Let's wreck the mortgage market and wall street. If that doesn't discourage them, we'll wreck business (and their employment opportunities) by taxing the hell out of it. Then they'll go home!" Steven A. Camarota and Leon Kolankiewicz explain how this works.

Immigration to the United States significantly increases world-wide CO₂ emissions because it transfers population from lower-polluting parts of the world to the United States, which is a higher-polluting country. On average immigrants increase their emissions four-fold by coming to America.

And if that wasn't clear enough:

Of course, if immigrants had remained in their home counties they would still have produced some CO₂, but as we will see, their output would have been a great deal less because immigration represents a large-scale population transfer from the less consuming, less industrialized, and less CO₂ emitting parts of the world to one of the highest consuming, most industrialized, high CO₂ emitting parts of the world - the United States.

Got it.

Amazing what you learn on the 'net. Isn't it?

b

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Almost there. Sorry about this.

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Now, wasn't that worth Scrolling down here?

This graph was created in 1998 from data compiled by Micheal Mann and his collegues appearantly showing that the recent temperature increases are a severe exception to the natural climate events of the past 1000 years. It later appeared in the IPCC report of 2001.

Unfortunately, the graph prior to the 19th Century is not that reliable. Note the vast grey area, indicating the margin of error allowed in the temperature estimates. This is unacceptable! Clearly more research should have been done to better pin down the exact global temperatures and reduce the error margins. Since there was such a wide margin of error, the graph is useless as a guide to judging the actual global temperatures. We know there was a Medieval Warm Period (MWP: 800 to 1400 AD) and a Little Ice Age (LIA: 1500 to 1800 AD), but you really cannot see those periods on the hockey stick graph as depicted here.

This is a better representation of those periods, showing different temperature readings from various studies:

You can SEE the periods and how some of the temperature readings dip noticeably during the transition from the MWP to the LIA. It's not much, because those events were only affecting the polar areas of the Northern Hemisphere, not the equatorial regions or the Southern Hemisphere. But they DID happen! Thus the original "hockey stick" graph is misleading in its appearance.

The shaft of the "hockey stick graph" is useless, but the blade is accurate because it was based on actual temperature readings. Here are the recent temperature increases in greater detail:

Denialists have made a great deal about how the global warming "scam" was based on the flawed hockey stick graph. But this is incorrect. In fact, the science behind global warming is based on the known properties of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. It is amazing that denialists have never done experiments to disprove the heat retaining properties of the supposed greenhouse gases, for that is indeed the only way they can discredit the case for the man-made global warming hypothesis. So why have they not done this? Because they can't!

It's time to toss out the hockey stick of Dr. Mann and find more accurate data! Ironically, by doing so, we can make the case for doing something about global warming that much stronger!

The story contains all the usual elements of an innovation case study, such as the visionary leader battling against all odds, experimentation with unlikely materials (plastic bottles and tyres instead of bricks), ongoing improvement of the prototype, experiences of failure upon failure, the gradual build-up of a base of supporters over time, and the arrival of recognition at last. But what the film particularly excels at is the vivid portrayal of the multi-layered nature of innovation and the epic scale of the conflict between the crushing forces of identity and the playful but fragile manifestations of difference.

What first seems like a few hippies mucking about (quite literally) in the middle of nowhere suddenly becomes a threat to the State. Standards and regulations are found to be broken, licenses are revoked, armed men of the law descend. Free experimentation has to give way to conformity, as the now outcast architect tries to follow all the regulations by implementing the grid that the law demands. Those familiar with Heidegger's notion of Enframing (Gestell) will not fail to see the awesome force of a technology of standardisation imprinting itself on the landscape as our architect tries to knock out identical dwellings suburbia style, in order to convince the powers that be that he is playing by the rules. "I'm shakin' the tree, boss!" as Cool Hand Luke would say.

Then the battle moves on to the corridors and the floor of the state legislature as it becomes a linguistic wrangle over a draft bill aimed at enabling architectural experimentation and protecting it from the excesses of the planning code. It is a battle to convince the guardians of the standard that the breaking of the standard should be tolerated and even protected. While our entrepreneur is entirely driven to innovate by and for a global cause (that is the threat of global warming), he is not even allowed to utter those two words in front of senators who do not consider it either a matter of fact or a matter of concern. Ultimately it takes the Asian tsunami but especially the economic fallout of Hurricane Katrina to help the bill pass through the legislature after a number of failed attempts.

In this sense the film is all about innovation: locally with building materials, construction techniques and sustainable living, but also globally with legislation and communication (by way of this film, for instance) to address a global cause for concern.

Arctic sea ice now 28.7% higher than this date last year - still rallying

7 hours ago by wattsupwiththat. 

10/14/2008 7,064,219 square kilometers

10/14/2007 5,487,656 square kilometers

A difference of: 1,576,563 square kilometers, now in fairness, 2008 was a leap year, so to avoid that criticism, the value of 6,857,188 square kilometers can be used which is the 10/13/08 value, for a difference of 1,369,532 sq km. Still not too shabby at 24.9 %. The one day gain between 10/13/08 and 10/14/08 of 3.8% is also quite impressive.

You can download the source data in an Excel file at the IARC-JAXA website, which plots satellite derived sea-ice extent:

Watch the red line as it progresses. So far we are back to above 2005 levels, and 28.7% (or 24.9% depending on how you want to look at it) ahead of last year at this time. That’s quite a jump, basically a 3x gain, since the minimum of 9% over 2007 set on September 16th. Read about that here.

Go nature!

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="96" caption="Anthony Watts"][/caption]

Cheers Comrades

;)

350.org supporters are on the ground with Power Vote at tonight's debates in New York to present Obama and McCain a giant ticket to Poland. Think of it as a prize for the election's winner - like a trip to Disney Land, but way more important (and way colder).

Our team will post updates from the action here on the blog this evening, so check back. In this post is an early pic  of the ticket from a cell phone camera. In the meantime, keep the invites coming - and if you've already signed, pass on the invite to your friends and family.

Congrats again to all our friends and allies for breaking the 20,000 mark in style!

I heard some jazz on PBS and the African American part of the jazz sounded very familiar to me. The Hispanic Jazz was very Cuban sounding, more so, then it sounded like it (the jazz) was from Mexico. I never got the skinny on what I was listening to but it sure sounded good to my very untrained ears.

If the bad of yesterday could be topped, it was topped today. I find that this typing relaxes the stress so I am doing this as much for me as my paultry, but high quality, readership. That is part of the reason I write this blog relentlessly, except when I have serious writer's cramp or get invited to watch wildlife somewhere.

I love the symbolizm of Montana.There are Native Americans on horseback, elk or cowboys, even bears. I saw more cows in Western Florida, by far, than I ever saw in the vast range of Montana. As a young man I remember a picture I hung wherever I lived, until I was married, it was a Charlie Russell watercolor reprint, I brought in Great Falls, Montana called, "When Blackfeet meets Sioux." Another print I had, was called, "Free Trapper". Another one, I do not know what the print was titled, had a mountain man type of character getting ready to shoot a grizzly in a mountain pass, in the Bob Marshall Wilderness, the Great Bear Wilderness or just North in Glacier National Park.

What I know now would make that picture hard to swallow, but not over 20 years ago, I really did not know any better.

In Maryland I love the symbolizm of the Chesepeake Bay, especially the use of Blue Crabs. I remember as a youth in Chincoteague, Virginia, eating a softshell crab sandwich, and it sure tasted great. I still remember that feast 38 years later. I do not know if there are still softshell crab sandwiches, but at the time, it sure was good. As an older teen in Ocean City, Maryland I remeber Crab Cakes, and they were sure good.

 As a youngster I remember going to camp near Saint Mary's, Maryland and throwing chicken gizzards on the end of a string and catching enough Blue Crabs, in a net, to have a very sloppy meal. It sure was good and I would have recommended that to anyone.

Fossils near the Calvert Cliffs were for sharp eyed youngsters, like shark's teeth. Not now!!! Read your Calvert Cliffs regulations before you collect any fossils. At the time there were no regulations. That has all changed now, and rightfully so!!!

From my reading the bay has changed a lot since then. But it is way worth saving; Global Warming through pollution.

Matt

By the blogowner, honestclimate, October 16, 2008

Scientists advise that the kangaroo is in danger from global warming, but have no fear because Ross Garnaut has advised that eating skippy will actually combat climate change...

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/10/081015120734.htm

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24428038-601,00.html

John McCain is up to 133 lies.  Heroes don't lie.

Want a decent return on your investments?  Elect Democrats.  Seriously.  If you had invested $10,000 under Democratic presidents only since 1929 (Ds & Rs have held the post for 40 years each since 1929), your investment would have grown to $300,671.  If you had invested $10,000 under Republican presidents only since 1929, your investment would have grown to only $11,733.  That's pretty sad.  Okay, so Herbert Hoover was included in the Republicans and he screwed up the economy almost as bad as George Bush has.  So if Hoover is thrown out, your $10,000 investment would have grown to ... $51,211.  That's a crappy return for 36 years' investment.  The average annualized return under Republican presidencies: 0.4% including Hoover, 4.7% not including Hoover.  The average annualized return under Democratic presidencies: 8.9%.  Don't ever let a Republican get away with saying they're better for capitalism.  It just isn't true.

A new solar research facility will open in Aurora, Colorado.  SolarTAC, or Solar Technology Acceleration Center, is the second facility created by the Colorado Renewable Energy Collaboratory.  The Colorado Center for Biorefining and Biofuels opened July 1.  The U.S. needs to end its use of fossil fuels in the near term.  R&D is important - getting technologies into the market is just as important.

CO-04 Democratic candidate Betsy Markey was profiled by Council for a Livable World.

The economic downturn took drilling away as a CONservative weapon in this year's election.  Just remember: they won't let up next year.

Mark Udall issued a warning to the Bush administration over oil shale drilling.  Due to the incredible resources such drilling require, it's obviously not viable in the short-term.  With a global recession and damped demand for fossil fuels, it's not viable any time soon.

Retail sales plunged to the lowest level in three years as consumers cut way back in September.  The Federal Reserve noted that economic activity was depressed across the country.  The markets responded by shedding over 700 points again.  The thing to glean from all of this is the system has to work out the kinks.  Credit availability has been yanked.  Consumers have been forced to spend less because their incomes haven't risen in real terms in decades.  They're up to their eyeballs in credit card debt and their home equity has been tapped.  The solution to this crisis is rooted in making new jobs available to Americans and paying them better to do what they're already doing.  Invest in the people and their infrastructure and the economy will be righted quite nicely.  It took a lot to get into this mess.  It's going to take a lot to really get out of it.

In response to Al Gore’s call for rapidly moving the country off carbon-emitting energy sources, those innovators in the Googleplex have released their own national energy plan that takes the nation off petroleum and coal by 2030 while cutting greenhouse releases in half.

The company cites the U.S. Department of Energy on wind jobs, a burst of 292 gigwatts representing 476,000 jobs. It’s a benefit Texas will be reaping the benefits of in the near future, as our already strong wind presence increases with a recently approved $4 billion transmission-line expansion for renewable development in West Texas.

Kicking solar up to 28 gigawatts by 2016 — another aspect of Google’s 2030 plan — would lead to an additional 440,000 jobs, a private contractor found.

But there’s potentially a major crimp in the hose of plenty. And it looms in the higher energy prices waiting to meet us as we cross the energy divide.

After a new president is sworn in on January 20, one of the first issues they will certainly tackle is the national energy policy. Both candidates are supporting cap-and-trade legislation for reducing carbon emissions by American industry. However, neither showed for the pivotal Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act vote this summer.

Despite problems in the bill — hundreds of millions to the coal industry and indirect benefits to nuclear power — it represented the most significant stab at necessary carbon reduction to date.

There are serious differences between an Obama or McCain presidency on cap-and-trade’s fine print. The Obama camp’s energy policy would require carbon credits to be auctioned off from the get go (pdf). A portion of those earnings to be used to help pay for biofuel and clean-energy development research.

McCain wants to give away, or greatly discount, that first round of pollution credits, allowing the “lowest-cost” compliance options, according to his website.

Neither has the poor firmly in mind when it comes to this massively important shift in energy policy.

One thing their handlers should be doing is digging deep into the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities’ take on this last climate bill — specifically cap-and-trade’s needed low-income assistance.

Virtually any path forward from here, with tightening global demand on petroleum and the double-edged nature of our oil addition becoming ever clearer, will see energy rates rise for Americans. Even the DOE says increased domestic drilling will not drop our pump prices until 2030 — and then it will be minimal, if at all.

So, how will we help the poorest among us cross this sure-to-be-turbulent energy divide? One way is to factor it into cap-and-trade, says the CBPP.

Our analysis, using an approach developed by the Congressional Budget Office, finds that even a modest 15 percent reduction in greenhouse-gas emissions would cost the poorest fifth of Americans an average of $750 a year per household.  These households have average annual incomes of only about $13,000.

The $750 figure is the cost before any action is taken to mitigate these effects and is a measure of what would happen if low-income households were left on their own to cope with the effects of higher energy prices.  (It is not an estimate of the impact of any particular legislation.)

Some opponents of cap and trade legislation have claimed that such legislation is inherently harmful to low-income consumers. That claim is false.  But to avoid that outcome, a significant share of the allowance value must be set aside for low-income consumers and delivered through effective mechanisms.

The group estimates that 14 percent of cap-and-trade’s earnings will offset the spike in energy rates. A good amount more will be needed if we are going to assist those whose incomes are in the more middling range.

To be fair, Obama has other assistance in place that factors in: job retraining and manufacturing sector retools, green jobs for returning vets. But nothing directly computed for weathering certain energy cost increases.

The McCain plan is lighter on specifics. Though I can’t help but think “Drill, Baby, Drill” has something in the way of job creation behind it, I worry like a feral momma cat how the attack on domestic petrol jives with his planned carbon reductions.

Climate refugees don’t tend to be those clinking their crystal on the rising seas. Something for Bob Schieffer at this final presidential debate? I would hope so.

:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

From Canada Free Press, October 15, 2008

Another Dissenter: Finnish Scientist who was former Greenpeace member says ‘no proof’ CO2 is driving global temps!

Dr. Jarl R. Ahlbeck is lecturer of environmental technology and a chemical engineer at Abo Akademi University in Finland who has authored 200 scientific publications and hold four patents. Ahlbeck is a former member of Greenpeace and the Finnish socialist party DFFF. Bio here

No significant global warming since 1995

by Jarl R. Ahlbeck The writer is D.Sc. and lecturer at Abo Akademi University, Finland

The recovery of the earth’s climate from the little ice age started about 200 years ago, but the concentration of the atmospheric carbon dioxide started to increase significantly as late as in the 1950s, probably due to rapidly increased burning of fossil fuels.

The climate recovery is still an ongoing process today. A natural warming rate of roughly 0.5 deg C /100 years has been the baseline for more than 100 years, but both short (a few years) and long (20 years) fluctuations around the baseline have occurred for natural but highly speculative reasons, for example a rapid warming in the 1930s followed by a cooling period, and recently again warming until about 1998.

According to the UK climate panel IPCC, this last warming period has been forced by increased carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere. There is however no proof of that and the theory of how carbon dioxide influences the global mean temperature is complicated and unreliable. And if the global temperature again starts to increase slower than the natural long-term trend of 0.5 deg C/100 years, or even starts to cool, we can be quite certain that the recent faster warming trends have been natural too.

Read the rest, click below link
http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/5582

I bet that there will be a flurry or angry blog posts denouncing the police for infiltrating these ratbag groups.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="420" caption="Angry: Representatives of some of the targeted groups, which included battery hen protesters. Photo: Jason South "][/caption]

Deputy Commissioner Simon Overland said all of the intelligence group's work was monitored and subject to strict internal guidelines which guarded against inappropriate invasions of privacy or improper file collection. There was no limit on how long police could keep files on individuals or groups, he said.

The Security Intelligence Group's priorities are counter-terrorism, protection of dignitaries, strategic threat assessments and the monitoring of "issue-motivated groups".

An Age investigation can also reveal:

■ At the request of police, the State Government quietly amended the Freedom of Information Act in 2006 to prevent any document created by the police covert and intelligence unit from being released. This means people may not be able to access their personal files created by this branch of police.

■ A request was made by Victorian intelligence group officers for radio station 3CR to hand over program notes belonging to presenters sympathetic to the pro-Tamil cause in Sri Lanka based on allegations that their program was being used to raise money for a terrorist group.

■ Sydney Olympics intelligence director Neil Fergus said a small number of state police intelligence officers who worked for him in 2000 had collected and distributed intelligence in an improper fashion.

Liberty Victoria president Julian Burnside, QC, said police infiltration breached privacy and might require greater oversight by an external body.

"I wonder how many people would feel comfortable that they were referred to in a police document, however innocuous. I don't think the police have asked: to what extent are we invading people's privacy? And what are we gaining from doing so?" Mr Burnside said.

You know it must take a very determined copper to immerse themselves into the mire of leftard thinking and to convince the target groups that they are just as nutty and off the planet as so many of the uber-left activists investigated by these covert operatives are. I dips me lid to the brave police officers who make the sacrifice for our safety.

Cheers Comrades

;)[polldaddy poll=999424]

From the Tim Blair Blog, October 16, 2008

http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/timblair/index.php/dailytelegraph/comments/choose_your_world

William Mitsch of Ohio State University and colleagues found that the tropical wetland in Costa Rica accumulated around 1 ton of carbon per acre [2.63 t/ha] per year, while the temperate wetland in Ohio accumulated 0.6 tons of carbon per acre [1.4 t/ha] per year.

"Finding out how much carbon has accumulated over a specific time period gives us an indication of the average rate of carbon sequestration, telling us how valuable each wetland is as a carbon sink," said Mitsch. "We already know wetlands are outstanding coastal protection systems, and yet wetlands continue to be destroyed around the planet. Showing that wetlands are gigantic carbon sequestration machines might end up being the most convincing reason yet to preserve them."

Mitsch says that while wetlands are a natural source of methane - a potent greenhouse gas - from decomposition, CO2 sequestration appears to balance net carbon emissions.

"A big issue in wetland science is how carbon sequestration balances against the release of greenhouse gases," Mitsch said. "Methane is a more effective greenhouse gas than is carbon dioxide in terms of how much radiation it absorbs, but it also oxidizes in the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide does not degrade - it is an end product. If you take that into account, I think wetlands are very effective systems for sequestering carbon."

Mitsch conducted the study with graduate student Blanca Bernal, who presented the findings Wednesday at the Geological Society of America meeting in Houston.

The National Center for Atmospheric Research, working with federal agencies and universities as well as the insurance and energy industries, will examine how global warming may affect hurricanes in the next coming decades. The goal of the project is to better inform coastal communities, offshore drilling operations, and other interests that could be affected by changes in the intensity and duration of hurricanes.

Using a supercomputer, the study will use a combination of global climate and regional weather models to look at hurricane activity in unprecedented detail. Researchers are targeting the hurricane-prone Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea to assess the likely changes, between now and the middle of the century, in the frequency, intensity, and paths of these incredibly powerful storms. 

The new study follows two major reports, by the U.S. Climate Change Science Program (CCSP) and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), that found evidence of a link between global warming and increased hurricane activity. 

Improved understanding of climate change and hurricanes is an especially high priority for the energy industry, which has a concentration of drilling platforms, refineries, pipelines, and other infrastructure in a region that is vulnerable to severe weather.  For example, Hurricanes Gustav and Ike damaged offshore oil production and several refineries, disrupting gasoline supplies.

Did you know that most hurricanes start life as areas of rough weather and thunderstorms in the tropics. Many of these disturbances, or tropical waves, produce little more than heavy rain and gusty winds. But if a tropical wave succeeds in spinning into a complete circle of winds rotating around an area of low air pressure at its center, it's given the name tropical depression. When a tropical depression's peak sustained winds reach 39 miles per hour, it's called a tropical storm.

As a tropical system strengthens, its winds spiral inward, concentrating moisture near the center. This spiraling, a result of Earth's rotation, can't happen near the equator. To benefit from the curving winds produced by the Coriolis effect, a storm needs to be at least 300 miles north or south of the equator.  When a tropical storm maintains wind speeds of at least 74 miles per hour, it's known as a hurricane, at least in North and Central America.

From Zo Tobi, SSC organizer extraordinaire: The "Clean coal" lobby was handing out BAND AIDS as a solution to our energy crisis. We couldn't make this up. Since we've seen them at every debate- we were ready for them this time. As soon as they set up their table to give out stickers and pens we got a whole crew together to march over to the table and stand next to it with the truth about coal. Our homeless polar bear even had a little chat with the coal execs.

From Josh Tulkin, Power Vote acting Field Director: Dorm storms, polar bears debating coal execs, more Power Vote t-shirts than campaign shirts, over 900 Power Vote pledges before 4 p.m., the stickers are everywhere, the volunteers are everywhere. There's no question that at Hofstra Power Vote already won the debate tonight! It started this morning with 30 volunteers and we now have more than 60. The movement broke through here today. Everyone wants to be a part of this. For me personally, it has been reinvorgating to get out of the office and see what amazing work everyone is doing. We all need to pause and get energy from how amazing this movement is. Gotta go now. MSNBC's starting Hardball and we gotta hold up the Power Vote banner...

From Watts Up with That?, October 14, 2008

10/14/2008 7,064,219 square kilometers

10/14/2007 5,487,656 square kilometers

A difference of: 1,576,563 square kilometers, now in fairness, 2008 was a leap year, so to avoid that criticism, the value of 6,857,188 square kilometers can be used which is the 10/13/08 value, for a difference of 1,369,532 sq km. Still not too shabby at 24.9 %. The one day gain between 10/13/08 and 10/14/08 of 3.8% is also quite impressive.

You can download the source data in an Excel file at the IARC-JAXA website, which plots satellite derived sea-ice extent:

Watch the red line as it progresses. So far we are back to above 2005 levels, and 28.7% (or 24.9% depending on how you want to look at it) ahead of last year at this time. That’s quite a jump, basically a 3x gain, since the minimum of 9% over 2007 set on September 16th. Read about that here.

Go nature!

Read more click below link
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2008/10/15/arctic-sea-ice-now-287-higher-than-this-date-last-year-still-climbing

Here's the full relevant text from Thomas Jefferson's Notes on the State of Virginia, query VII (1781):

A change in our climate however is taking place very sensibly. Both heats and colds are become much more moderate within the memory even of the middle-aged. Snows are less frequent and less deep. They do not often lie, below the mountains, more than one, two, or three days, and very rarely a week. They are remembered to have been formerly frequent, deep, and of long continuance. The elderly inform me the earth used to be covered with snow about three months in every year. The rivers, which then seldom failed to freeze over in the course of the winter, scarcely ever do so now. This change has produced an unfortunate fluctuation between heat and cold, in the spring of the year, which is very fatal to fruits. From the year 1741 to 1769, an interval of twenty-eight years, there was no instance of fruit killed by the frost in the neighbourhood of Monticello. An intense cold, produced by constant snows, kept the buds locked up till the sun could obtain, in the spring of the year, so fixed an ascendency as to dissolve those snows, and protect the buds, during their developement, from every danger of returning cold. The accumulated snows of the winter remaining to be dissolved all together in the spring, produced those overflowings of our rivers, so frequent then, and so rare now.

Cold temps in Oregon break 118-year-old record...

Alaska glaciers grew this year, thanks to colder weather...

Glaciers growing in Alaska. Put down the sandwich and give us a comment, Al.

Sharyland and Rio Grande City hit the turf this past Friday at Rattler Stadium. Complete gallery here.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="Sharyland's Ricky Mata (15) evades a Rio Grande City defender."][/caption] [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="RGC's rushing offense attack goes head-on with Sharyland's Sean Peterson (81)."][/caption]

According to Mario Menezes, of Amigos da Terra, Brazil looses 1.8 million hectares of Amazon forest every year, and around 70 and 80 per cent is because of cattle ranching. Brazil already exports 300,000 tonnes of beef per year (41% of which from the Amazon) which is more than any other country.  This injection of cash in to the cattle industry will create further destruction.

The Amazon is home to 75 million cows and Bertin Ltda slaughters up to 5,400 cows a day. However, with the use of this loan and others, they aim to double their capacity, which includes expanding their facility in the heart of the most deforested area of the Amazon. By expanding this slaughter house, they will, without question, encourage farmers to clear more forest to raise more cattle. Much of the land in that area is illegally cleared.

The Amazon rainforest is home to a fifth of the world's plant and animal species and more than 200 indigenous cultures. As the forest is destroyed, we loose hundreds of species each year, indigenous people are forced off their land, the impacts of poverty is exacerbated, and carbon is being released in to the atmostphere - a major contributer to climate change. We are loosing the 'lungs of the earth' and we will all suffer as a consequence.

Brazil's biggest importers of beef include the UK.  And remember, one of the other main drivers of Amazon destruction is soy, 90% of which is fed to animals raised for meat in Europe and China.

Be part of the solution. Stop eating meat and dairy, and ask others to do the same. In the grand scheme of things, it's really not so much to ask.