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Chapter 5:
The opening quotation is found in Josè Ortega y Gasset's Meditations on Quixote (1914), from The Columbia Dictionary of Quotations, New York: Columbia University Press, 1993.
E.O. Wilson, (The Diversity of Life, Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press, 1992) estimates that two-thirds of the world's rainforests lie on "wet deserts."
Attenborough, D. (The Living Planet, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1984) suggests that the loss of large mammals in Southeast Asian forests may be a threat to Rafflesia epiphytes.
The Sumatran rhino population is estimated in Morales, J.C. et al., "Mitochondrial DNA Variability and Conservation Genetics of the Sumatran Rhinoceros," Conservation Biology Vol. 11 No. 2 (539-43), Apr 1997.
Van Oosterzee, P. (Where Worlds Collide, New York: Cornell University Press, 1997) provides an overview of moundbuilders' nest building behavior.
The description of Amazonian reptiles comes from Clark, L., The Rivers Ran East. New York: Funk and Wagnalls Company, 1953.
Ross, E. ("Droppings From On High: In Tropical Forests Nothing Goes to Waste," Discover Magazine. California Academy of Sciences, Summer 1996) discusses mimicry among ithomine butterflies.
Forsyth, A. and Miyata, K. in Tropical Nature, (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, Macmillan Publishing Company, 1984) describe army ants and the other species that have come to depend on exploiting insect life stirred up by the ant columns.
The scenario for a world without insects is derived from Erwin, T. L., "Biodiversity at its Utmost: Tropical Forest Beetles," Biodiversity II. Reaka-Kudla, Wilson, Wilson, eds. Joseph Henry Press, Washington D. C. 1997.
E.O. Wilson notes that the only species to suffer extinction should humans disappear are the mites that live in human hair follicles and sebaceous glands (The Diversity of Life, Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press, 1992).
The magnification of leaf-cutter ants is presented in an information packet from International Expeditions 1993.
The beneficial pruning of leaves by leaf-cutter ants is mentioned in Morgan, R.C. "Leaf-Cutting Ants," Backyard Bugwatching, No. 13, 1991.
"Rainforest" is used interchangeably with "rain forest" on this site. "Jungle" is generally not used.
Recent news
Beef consumption fuels rainforest destruction (02/16/2009)
Nearly 80 percent of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon results from cattle ranching, according to a new report by Greenpeace. The finding confirms what Amazon researchers have long known – that Brazil's rise to become the world's largest exporter of beef has come at the expense of Earth's biggest rainforest.
How to save the Amazon rainforest (01/04/2009)
Environmentalists have long voiced concern over the vanishing Amazon rainforest, but they haven't been particularly effective at slowing forest loss. In fact, despite the hundreds of millions of dollars in donor funds that have flowed into the region since 2000 and the establishment of more than 100 million hectares of protected areas since 2002, average annual deforestation rates have increased since the 1990s, peaking at 73,785 square kilometers (28,488 square miles) of forest loss between 2002 and 2004. With land prices fast appreciating, cattle ranching and industrial soy farms expanding, and billions of dollars' worth of new infrastructure projects in the works, development pressure on the Amazon is expected to accelerate. Given these trends, it is apparent that conservation efforts alone will not determine the fate of the Amazon or other rainforests. Some argue that market measures, which value forests for the ecosystem services they provide as well as reward developers for environmental performance, will be the key to saving the Amazon from large-scale destruction. In the end it may be the very markets currently driving deforestation that save forests.
Amazon rainforest damage surges 67% in 2008 (12/20/2008)
The area of rainforest in the process of being deforested — razed but not yet cleared — surged in the Brazilian Amazon during 2008, according to new figures released by Brazil's National Institute for Space Research (INPE). The announcement comes shortly after the Brazilian government reported a 4 percent increase in forest clearing for the year. Using an advanced satellite system that tracks changes in vegetation cover INPE found that 24,932 square kilometers of Amazon forest was damaged between August 2007 and July 2008, an increase of 10,017 square kilometers -- 67 percent -- over the prior year.
Cutting deforestation can fight climate change, reduce poverty and conflict (09/24/2008)
Forest conservation can play a critical role in efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and alleviate poverty, said a prominent group of politicians, development experts, and environmental NGOs meeting in New York City to discuss U.S. climate policy.
Future threats to the Amazon rainforest (07/31/2008)
Between June 2000 and June 2008, more than 150,000 square kilometers of rainforest were cleared in the Brazilian Amazon. While deforestation rates have slowed since 2004, forest loss is expected to continue for the foreseeable future. This is a look at past, current and potential future drivers of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon.
