Prince Charles has described the widespread logging in the world's rainforests as "crazy" saying its halting would be a major contribution to preventing climate change.
Prince Charles has used a BBC interview to call for an end to logging in rainforests. Photo: Logs. Credit: Claire L. Evans/flickr
Speaking in an interview with the BBC to mark the broadcaster's World Service's Amazon Day, Prince Charles said: "When you think they [rainforests] release 20 billion tonnes of water vapour into the air every day, and also absorb carbon on a gigantic scale, they are incredibly valuable, and they provide the rainfall we all depend on."
However he acknowledged that rainforests provided an important source of income to some of the world's poorest people and claimed a way had to be found to make the trees more valuable alive than dead.
"The trouble is the rainforests are home to something like 1.4 billion of the poorest people in the world," the prince told the BBC.
"In order to survive there has to be an effort to produce things which tends to be at the expense of the rainforest. What we've got to do is try to ensure that those forests are more valuable alive than dead."
"At the moment there's more value in them being dead. This is the crazy thing," he said.
He added that governments, businesses and consumers throughout the world must be educated and convinced of the rainforest depletion problem saying that, "Halting deforestation would be the easiest and cheapest way in helping in the battle against climate change."
"Waiting for all the new technologies to come on stream is not going to be soon enough," he said adding that if nothing was done to prevent deforestation, there would be "far more drought and starvation on a grand scale."
Climate experts say the felling of large tracts of rainforest for timber, food and more recently bio-fuel, is releasing more and more carbon into the atmosphere, contributing to the global warming crisis.
The prince, who is well-known for his advocacy on environmental issues said mechanisms had to be put in place to pay poorer countries to keep the rainforests standing.
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Ted AMay 16th, 2008 - 17:00:53
This is fromt he same guy who wanted to be a tampon at one point in his life!
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Ted AMay 16th, 2008 - 17:00:53
This is fromt he same guy who wanted to be a tampon at one point in his life!
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