Global issues closer to home than we think

THE latest figures show the rate of forest clearance in the Amazon last year was the second highest on record.

The loss was equivalent to the size of Belgium. A further distressing statistic shows that, since 1997, up to 69,172 sq miles of rainforest have disappeared in Brazil, an area equivalent to 78% of the size of Britain.

In 1997, the amount of forest lost was just over 5,000 sq miles against 10,088 sq miles in 2004.

Deforestation is happening at an alarming rate, and the reason for the rush to chop down the forest is to grow soya beans for cattle feed.

To put the figures in context, Brazil has over 1.6 million square miles of rain forest, which is over half of the country's land area, and views are passionate on the merits or otherwise of this onslaught.

To conservationists, this is a crime against humanity.

The rain forest is seen as the lungs of the world because its trees produce so much of the world's oxygen.

One culprit was identified for this rape of the forests in a major exposé carried out by the London Independent.

The man in question is Blairo Maggi, a millionaire farmer who is driving Brazil's soya bean production boom. In commercial circles, he is benignly know as the King Of Soy but environmentalists have counter-dubbed him the King of Deforestation.

However, we in Europe cannot rush to judgement on Senor Maggi. Why? Because over 60% of the soya exported by Brazil is going to fatten European beef.

Since the BSE scare, farmers and beef producers have been forced to find alternative feed for livestock to produce the beef we consume.

On that basis, if we take the rain forest issue as seriously as global warming, then it can be argued that eating beef has become not just a health risk, but a huge moral issue as well.

So in future, every time we put a forkful of soya-fed beef in our mouths, we might have a twinge of conscience about the implications of that act for Brazil's rain forests.

This is a huge dilemma for Brazil and for the rest of the world. Brazil's president is stuck between the need to preserve the rain forest while at the same time endeavouring to do all in his power to develop the Brazilian economy that has suffered years of depression.

His major difficulty is that, after introducing tough fiscal policies, the economy grew last year by 5.2% but that growth is inextricably linked to the devastation of the country's forests.

How we create wealth through economic growth without doing damage to the environment or to others is becoming a huge dilemma.

Global warming was one of the other huge issues of our time that the G8 Summit in Gleneagles had great difficulty coming to terms with last week.

It agreed, however, that the more we push for growth, the more we are contributing to global warming at least that much was acknowledged.

The promised $25 billion boost in annual development aid to $50bn by the G8 last week led some activists to conclude the rich world was still not committed to the real steps needed to end African poverty.

That doubling of aid is due to take place over the next five years.

Meanwhile, one of the very real issues for Africa is the subsidies paid to the food sector by the US and Europe.

The $50bn aid promised to Africa per year is roughly similar to the EU's annual farm subsidy Budget which allows farmers produce goods for more than they can sell them on the open market.

With EU aid, they can dump products in poor countries across the world, depriving millions of an even modest living standard in the process.

These conflicts hammer home that every cause has an effect, that every subsidy probably costs a life, and that every steak eaten has ecological consequences.

These are huge issues and they are much closer to home than is often realised.