I believe we have reached a crucial point with Asia. Aspiring to become World leaders and lured by the spoils from rampant economies their hunger for resources has only just begun. This is a sobering situation. The populations generally have a poor attitude to environmental protection as well. How tragic. Having said that I believe we must continue the fight and use the power of the Web to achieve a degree of balance. We cannot afford to relent.

The Chinese are also planning to drill for oil off Cuba's coast about 40 miles from Key West which will further threaten the Gulf and Florida as well as Cuba .

Thanks for your opinions Glen.

This issue has now jumped a paradigm where good natured people do the right action.

I would again ask you and our colleagues to aspire to long term self interest and to bring to the attention of Chinese NGOs and their influential contacts through organizations such as WWF, Conservation International and Greenpeace, irrespective of the romantic and pure ecological views you and I hold. A semblance of sanity is preferable to disaster by not being pragmatic at this point in time

The concern with the PRC needs to be addressed with a cultural philosophy which we can all aspire to and the record of progress the environmental movement is achieving in Yunnan (province), as an example, and to develop this with Wahlia in Indonesia....remember those Indonesians who are wanting to work in alienated work environments which were once forested regret within six months their comments....like the newly acquired apprentice who leaves home thinking working with the mafia will help him and his family. Their wish for the return of the forest environment becomes urgency within a year of destroying it once the palm oil or similar has been produced. The idea that the conversion of a million year old forest to another environment is sustainable is just “pie in the sky” thinking. It is difficult enough in the relatively post glacial soils of the Palearctic region but in the tropics permanence is only when there is natural forest interceded with the slight variation leading to resuccesional processes, and only when all the ecological and biodiversity inputs are present.

We must not despair; that leads to oblivion and we cannot allow this to happen. You and forest.org is the voice of the people the wildlife and the forest of these wonderful lands…..we need to readapt methods to suit the end need. Re-enlighten all who need our support with new ideas…….let us redirect the resources of the natural forests and successionary forests of Indonesia with the very day to day economies of local communities who still are the most popular sector of their society who need to forest for their survival.

As destructive logging is undertaken by the criminal fraternity across the Indonesian provinces which have some form of forest cover, causing massive deforestation of Indonesia those only who benefit are the mafia gangs and their ecoterrorist methods of destroying the life processes which are not only destroying the romance of the forests but the very resources 80% of the people of these areas require to survive. It is this aspect which needs to be addressed and to be broadcast to the world in support of the work of the Borneo Initiative…of small scale sustainable actions. The “don’t deforest” is a slogan which turns no heads to the criminals of Indonesia where civil society is so corrupt that only action whereby employment for many can be redirected to 21st Century needs economy and not exploitative market export economy.

(I shall leave your wits to interpret a needs economy).

There are other factors I was researching years ago for my PhD studies. This included the hypothetical economy in nature of the real value of living resources to real needs of quality and sustainability. To be succinct we need to turn to reassess the “monetary” needs of action by the biodiversity and added it to the some total of economic input/outputs. Paul Hawken, Hunter and Amory Lovins have characterised this reality in Natural Capitalism, but it seems the idea has yet to come to fruition. I have mentioned this to you and I know you are totally engrossed and doing a wonderful job at forests.org (plus) but it is very wise to use the references here to support the relevance of a “natural biological capitalism” to promote the ideas as mentioned above. This situation need not be so destructive if the ideas behind it can be promoted. If you want I can help here because it is about time that the world was given a real lesson in economics and we need a truly global broadcast media to promote these paradigm ideas and realisms.

Don’t despair.

Your Colleague,

Nigel.

Dear Dr.Barry :
There is certainly no reason whatsoever for you to apologize ! Who could have foreseen this Kow Tow through the Indonesian Government ? It is truly disgusting to see this and to realize how even the industrial nations around the world are creeping towards Beijing in order to curry favors from the Chinese Government just for money causes, although "Communist" (are they ??) China ignores Human Rights to an almost unbearble extent....
Best regards,
Gerhard L. Mueller-Debus
Frankfurt a.M. (Germany)

I have forwarded this message to every list-serve that I am on. Time to get
the Olympic authorites over here involved. All this for a two-week TV show!

We have met the invasive species, as he is us. (Apologies to Pogo.)

John T. Burridge

Hi Dr Barry,

I'm sure this could be turned into some very bad press for the IOC
with the right handling. It is a complete sham that an Event such as
the Olympics, which is supposed to represent hope for the future and
reconciliation through athletics, is resulting in this kind of damage
being done in its name.

Keep on fighting and I will continue to offer both my financial (what
little that is) and written support.

Best Regards.

James McNaughton

Hi Glen,

I'm deeply troubled by your latest update that Indonesia's Rainforests are going to be further ravaged for the 2008 Olympic Games. Isn't there anything which can be done to stop looting the last remaining rainforsts by taking this up with the IOC? They can't really want to be exposed as being behind this type of looting and should have a vested interest in stopping the Chinese from going forward with their plans. There have to be alternative woods available for the constructions they need (or think they need), I can't believe that tropical hardwoods are the only option. So, instead of sending emails to Chinese and Indonesian politicians, shouldn't they perhaps be directed towards the IOC?

Thanks for setting up all the ecological portals and for distributing the news - even though it very often is news I'd much rather not read....

Take care
Baerbel

I'm sick about this scandalous land: China! one of the most anti-ecological land in the world!!!
I'm trying to avoid buying chinese products, but it isn't so easy!!!

Dear Glen,

Thank you for all your efforts, not just with the Indonesian Forests, but all the other areas you are involved with - I wish I had time to do more, but unfortunately at present I really don't have that much time.

Having read your article below I wonder would it be useful to apply some energy to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) (or whatever it is called) to ensure that all their, at least future projects, are designed to be sustainably designed and not harmful to the balance of the world's eco-system?

What is proposed in Indonesia is bad enough, but often, these massive Olympic structures/ projects involve massive concrete structures and steel works and history tells us that they are far from beneficial long term to the cities where the events are held.

The IOC must draw up specifications for Countries to work out their bids against. Can we change the specifications?

Sorry to put this onto you and your colleagues but I also hope it is helpful.

With thanks and best wishes for a future!

Cllr. Julian Salmon,

England.

Glen,

Why don't you call on the International Olympic Committee to have all
athletic teams boycott the Games in China on the grounds that their actions
are contributing greatly to the decimation of our natural environment? Maybe
you could find something on the Olympics website which states the high
principles on which the Games were founded - and compare these with the
rather low principles - or lack of them that the Chinese are displaying.
There's nothing to lose, is there?

Regards

Diana

Dear Glen Barry,
when China is causing this huge deforestation in Papua for their upcoming Olympic Games, why we don´t try the other way around and claiming this
brutal devastation to the IOC, Int. Olympic Comitee ?
It´s simply unacceptable that China wants to show-up on such important international event as a powerful country destroying forests of other nations. The mighty IOC for sure will find a suitable way to intervein. Or ??
This campain we´ve to start from now on.
Anton

We must be protecting Indonesia's rainforests and for the orangutans, that is there home. Lets not ruin the rainforest for a huge oil palm plantation.

Hi Glen, Ive had a similar experience to you with the NZ govt's decsion to send the rare land snail to extinction.
The Minister of Conservation gave state-owned coal miner Solid Energy every last tonne of coal from under the snail's habitat - this leaves only 0.4 ha free from strip mining, and this will be showered with blast debris and boulders rolling down from above.
Sounds like a re-run of the Indonesian situation - despite concerns from the conservation arm of govt, the $$$ won out.
I had some illusions about this govt, but none now.
P

Dear Glen-

I was afraid of something like this (which I consider
a major leap BACKWARD for humanity). I posted a
message awhile ago under an alias on the Forest. Org
Discussion Board that as Asian economies developed
towards a critical mass there would be less interest
among them in conservation matters and less
opportunity for western conservation pressure groups
to salvage ecosystems there under attack.

Unfortunately, I was right. I still don't see much
signs of respect for life on earth around the world,
especially among Asiatic peoples (I include our own
species in this assessment incidentally--countries
with rotten human rights records like Indonesia and
China usually turn out to have equally reprehensible
environmental track records). Maybe I will be proved
wrong as the jury is still out. But I think not. It's
all terribly sad. I can see now why people become so
cynical. If monsoon Asian lands do become transformed
into wastelands in the next centuryit will be
difficult for some folks to care about the people
responsible for that degradation. And the desired
result of propserity will likely vanish with the
ecosystems.

Well, all this inspires me to push for expanding
NASA's budget--maybe there's other planets we can
escape to so we can get away from nightmares like the
"new Asia.".

Dear Dr. Barry, There's absolutely no need to apologize. Question is: What can we do now? There is an immediate need for a tremendous amount of coordinated publicity around this issue. Where do we start? Chapeau for your work.

All this has to happen unfortunately.
Living according to the capitalistic system is coming to its end. The destruction will be immense: deforistation, nuclear war, famine, diseases, large distruction of natural habitat and dangerous man causes changes in the Earth's eco system causing draughts, floods, super storms etc. etc.. Humans will realise when all these disasters are happing and millions start to die that we will have to change or disappear all together. It is like a smoker who first needs to get cancer in order to understand that the choice and action is his allone

Glen don't give up. You're doing a class job. I'm a teacher in Ireland and when I tell the kids i teach about the orangutans and Indonesia they get really angry. They write letters to supermarkets and politicians etc which is great. Your e-mail alerts are vital to everyone who cares about the environment. So keep on rockin and keep those e-mails coming.

For a moment there, Glen, I too had my hopes raised.

Exeter Friends of the Earth (in the UK) hold a regular stall,
and one of our most successful campaigns is the Palm Oil
Campaign, and the plight of the orang-utan.

To lose this wonderful creature on our watch would be a
shameful dereliction.

The public pressure is there and all we can do
is to try and try to keep up that pressure.

Thanks for all the work that you are putting in to keep that
pressure up. It inspires me to do likewise here in the UK.

Maurice

That's incredibly depressing news... Once the forests are gone the only
things humans will have left to sell it their souls, and by the sound of
it they are selling these already.

Have to hope the Earth is strong enough to fight back... I am with her
100%...

Kind regards
Julie

Do not give up hope Glen, you know we have had our backs to the wall before.

Currently picketing Kimberly Clark, in Huntsville, Ontario Canada with Greenpeace!!!

Hi Glen,

I really appreciate your updates, especially since I am studying Indonesian forests and conservation issues. I am a PhD student at UC Irvine.

I wonder if perhaps the Olympic commiitee is the way in on this horrifying issue - if the Olympic committee condemns the usage of Papuan and Bornaen forests for building Olympic stadiums etc., perhaps it will gain enough negative publicity - perhaps they even have some leverage like reconsidering or something.

Just a thought,
Candice

Sir,

As a European environmental lawyer, I have often been disappointed by the
poor results yielded by our actions. It is like a rear gard defence that
we are loosing gradually.

My only consolation is that in one century from now, some will highlight
the fact that a few enlightned movements did their very best to halt these
unsustainable patterns. Let keep this in mind.

Yours sincerely, Nicolas de Sadeleer

i really feel sick at what there are doing. that country is big enough to hold the game without destroying the rainforest. when will people learn that we need the rainforest to survive