TROPICAL RAINFORESTS: Disappearing Opportunities
 Home
 What's New
 About
 Contribute
 Submissions
 Rainforests
   Mission
   Introduction
   Characteristics
   Biodiversity
   The Canopy
   Forest Floor
   Forest Waters
   Indigenous People
   Deforestation
   Consequences
   Saving Rainforests
   Amazon rainforest
   Borneo rainforest
   Congo rainforest
   Country Profiles
   Statistics
   Works Cited
   For Kids
   For Teachers
   Photos/Images
   Expert Interviews
   Rainforest News
   XML Feeds
   Chinese
   French
   Japanese
   Spanish
   Other Languages
 Pictures
 Books
 Links
 Newsletter
 Education
 Mongabay Sites
   Kids' site
   Travel Tips
   Tropical Fish
   Madagascar
 Contact



About this site
Providing tropical forest news, statistics, photos, and information, rainforests.mongabay.com is the world's most popular rainforest site. [more]




Global Warming and Developing Nations



Developing nations face a dilemma in the global warming debate. Understandably they want the right to economically expand the fastest way they can, like developed nations have been doing for the past 100 years. Therefore at the Kyoto conference they were the most hesitant to agree to any sort of convention that required them to limit their greenhouse gas emissions. The irony is that developing countries have the most to lose should global warming occur. Many developing countries have neither the resources nor the technology to defend against rising sea levels, increased incidence and ferocity of tropical storms, and expansion of tropical diseases. As developing countries build their economies, frequently heavily dependent on manufacturing and energy-costly industries, they increase the risk that they will be ill-affected by global climate changes. Developing countries face a difficult decision, whether to sacrifice their economic development for protection against possible ecological problems in the near future. However, there may be another alternative: developing energy efficient means to fuel economic development could result in stronger economic progress than relying on fossil fuels. Only time will tell what path developing countries choose.



Continued: Extinction





Unless otherwise specified, this article was written by Rhett A. Butler [Bibliographic citation for this page]


Other pages in this section:
Consequences of Deforestation
Erosion
Loss of Renewable Resources
Atmospheric Role
- - - - -
References
References
References
References
References
Local Climate Regulation
Loss of Species, Disease
Climactic Role
Extinction
- - - - -
Kids version of this section
- Why are rainforests important?
- Climate
- Home to wildlife
- Water cycle
- Erosion control
- Extinction
what's new | rainforests home | for kids | help | madagascar | search | about | languages | contact

Copyright Rhett Butler 1994-2007

"Rainforest" is used interchangeably with "rain forest" on this site.
Same for "rainforests" and "rain forests". "Jungle" is generally not used.





Recent news

Amazon deforestation rate falls to lowest on record
(8/10/2007) Deforestation rates in the Brazilian Amazon for the previous year were the lowest on record, according to preliminary figures released by INPE, Brazil's National Institute of Space Research.


Lowland rainforest less diverse than previously thought
(8/9/2007) While rainforests are the world's libraries of biodiversity, species richness may be more evenly distributed in some forests than in others, reports an extensive new study by an international team of entomologists and botanists. The work, published in the current issue of the journal Nature, has important implications for forest management and conservation strategies.


Experts: parks effectively protect rainforest in Peru
(8/9/2007) High-resolution satellite monitoring of the Amazon rainforest in Peru shows that land-use and conservation policies have had a measurable impact on deforestation rates. The research is published in the August 9, 2007, on-line edition of Science Express.


More rainforest news