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Shea Gunther

We CAN regrow the rainforest

Willie Smits is a man on a mission to not only save the rainforest but to regrow it.

Thu, Mar 12 2009 at 3:38 PM EST

Photo credit: Flickr user James Rintamaki
The first environmental issue that I became aware of when I was a kid was the need to "save the rainforest". We've been cutting down huge swaths of rainforest all over the world for the past 60 years or so. Trees are cut for their timber, land is cleared for farming, oil drilling, and mining.
 
The conventional thought has been that once rainforest is lost, it's gone forever. I remember reading about the rainforest soil in grade school and how it would quickly get blown away after the land was deforested. Soil takes an incredibly long time to develop, so once a farm or clear cut took down rainforest, it was gone for good.
 
Willie Smits wasn't satisfied with that answer. He brought his obvious genius to bear on the problem of regrowing the rainforest and has had some nearly miraculous results in Borneo.
 
This video of his 22 minute presentation from the TED Conference makes it pretty clear that we can regrow rainforest, something that has could have hugely positive benefits for the world. Rainforests are the planets lungs, sucking up CO2 and pumping out sweet, sweet oxygen. The clouds covering rainforests bounce more sunlight back to space than dark clear cut land and their streams and rivers are important filters, cleaning water that keeps billions of people around the world alive. Well managed rainforests can provide jobs for locals in the form of sustainable agriculture and eco-tourism.
 
22 minutes is a long time in these days of the two minute YouTube blip, but it's well worth it. Check it out.
 
Via Do The Green Thing
 
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anonymous
robert piller CATES. 10/16/2010 07:02 AM

there doesn't seem to be an address. i've watched your vidio and i think you're doing a great job. i've been working on a similar idea but to date no-one's been in touch. if you'd like to receive my ideas please let me know where to send it. we all need to work together and to share them. we can, i'm sure, beat the bad guys

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Eco-entrepreneur on politics, energy and Earth's resources.

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