Hello friends, it's the Environment Show and welcome.
While cutting in Brazil's tropical forests has declined, the destructive effects have increased.
From satellite photos, a NASA scientist has seen the edge effect.
Also this time, an 800-number computer service.
And the next generation gets ready to lead.
Before putting your all into saving the ozone layer and the oceans and the soil.
And it's just got to be a thing that you can't be taught it.
You can be, but it doesn't have as much going you.
You got to be born with it.
Some of the stories coming your way this time on the Environment Show, a national production,
made possible by Hemings Motor News, the national Bible of the old car hobby, monthly from Bennington Vermont.
And by the JM Kaplan Fund of New York, and this is Bruce Robertson.
Not as much of Brazil's tropical forests have been cut as once thought.
However, the effect of the cutting that has gone on is far worse than previously thought.
The cause of this ironic discrepancy is the edge effect.
Says Dr. Compton Tucker, a research biologist and tropical forest expert at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.
When we talk about edge effects, we're talking about a boundary between the forest and between the Jason areas of deforestation.
And in this boundary zone, you have a very different situation with regard to light, with regards to temperature, with regards to humidity.
You have, for example, a much greater possibility that when blowing across the open area, which has been deforested,
will cause physical damage, knocking down trees.
Many of your tropical trees are not very deep rooted.
And then also within this boundary zone, you have a tremendously easier access to the forest by non-forest animals,
such as goats, cows, pigs, cats, and especially by humans.
And you tend to have in these boundary zones or in these edges a very different population of animals,
and especially of larger animals and birds, simply because you have as much as you're accessed,
are accessed from non-forest animals into the edge.
Tucker says the edge effect is created by any number of human activities, including, of course, logging, but there are many others.
Actually, any type of deforestation causes an edge effect where you would have the building of a road, for example,
or where you would have logging, or where you would have the clearing of an area, which would then be put subsequently into pasture,
or some type of agricultural activity.
And it simply is the edge between where the forest remains and where the recently deforested area starts.
And you could also have this from pipelines, you could have this from airstrips, you could have this from mining operations,
any type of forest disturbance, which results in the removal of the trees, which were formerly there.
In fact, seeing the edge effect in the aggregate is the importance of the recent research conducted by Tucker.
Tucker and University of New Hampshire scientist Dr. David Skol published results of their studies in a recent edition of the journal Science.
Until now, says Tucker, we had not been calculating the edge effect into our assessment of tropical forest damage.
And as we said at the beginning though, there is irony here, more in a moment.
To gather his information, Tucker went to a very highly placed source.
David Skol and our co-workers and I started this work in 1988, in late 1988.
And we first developed some fairly thorough and very efficient satellite based techniques,
coupled with ground verification within Brazil, where we could distinguish areas of tropical forest from areas of deforestation.
We then used satellite data covering this 2 million square mile or 5 million square kilometer area to then quantify for this large area,
which is the entire Amazon based in a Brazil.
What the deforestation was and where we had remaining forest, and most importantly where we had these areas of deforestation,
and how they were organized in terms of their latitude and longitude.
On the basis of this, we were then able to calculate where we had fragments of isolated forest and also to calculate the edge effect.
So from these satellite photos, what emerged was a rather different picture of human activity and its effect in the tropical forest.
Most importantly says Tucker, we now realize we have not been seeing the big picture.
It's important if we're talking about effects upon biological diversity to consider these three components.
First, the deforestation per se. Secondly, these forest fragments which are isolated by deforestation,
and thirdly to focus upon the edge effects from deforested areas into adjacent areas of forest.
As we studied the effect of deforestation on the biology of a forest, then we need to bear in mind where the trees are being cut,
in other words, the pattern of cutting, how many trees are being left standing in that pattern,
and how that pattern determines the edge effect.
Tucker says cutting many small patterns may be more detrimental than cutting fewer but larger patterns.
For example, if you have an area which is 10 miles by 10 miles, which is deforested, and if this occurs in a square area 10 miles by 10 miles,
if you have a one mile edge effect which extends from the deforested area into the adjacent forest,
and you add up the deforestation plus the edge effect, you would have, of course, 100 square miles of deforestation
plus 43 miles or 43 square miles of edge effect.
If you have the same quantity of deforestation, 100 square miles, which is distributed as 10 strips,
each of which are 10 miles long and one mile wide, and then we're to add up the total deforestation plus this one mile of the edge effect,
you would have a total effected area of about 350 square miles.
So the pattern of deforestation is a paramount importance in determining the actual magnitude of these edge effects.
This scientific analysis is particularly interesting in light of the current debate over logging practices in the Pacific Northwest,
where the leading options being considered include either clear cutting, in other words the larger patterns,
or selective cutting, the smaller patterns.
With the smaller patterns, more roads are needed, bringing a far greater stress factor to the forest.
Tucker says as strange as it may sound, clear cutting is actually better.
I'm not an advocate of total clear cutting, but simply to say that if you're going to harvest an area,
it's extremely important to leave quite a few trees standing within the areas which are harvested.
Secondly, to concentrate these areas in large areas and not have them be distributed as a sum of many much smaller areas.
Now for the real shocking revelation emerging from the recent study.
It's quite ironic that in the study that we've found two things.
The first was the actual rate of deforestation within the Amazon or Brazil was about one half to one third.
What many people had been estimating three or four years ago for the same time period.
If you at the same time consider what the effect of the deforestation is upon the isolation of forest fragments
and plus the edg effect which we've just discussed.
This results in about three times the total effected area of the deforestation per se.
When you look at the total biological effect of the edg effects of the deforestation and of the isolation of forest fragments,
this number is then fairly similar to what people had formally assumed was the total rate of deforestation.
It's quite ironic that even though we found this much lower rate of deforestation directly,
when you consider these indirect biological effects upon biodiversity,
the total effected area is very similar to previous estimates of deforestation.
Seeing from space then through the satellite photos, actually less of the tropical forest has been cut
than previously reported from the ground and what is more says Tucker,
the Brazilian government has succeeded in slowing the rate of what cutting there is.
However, as we have just heard, the impact of that cutting, including now this edg effect,
is equal to what we had thought was happening when we thought much more of the forest was being cut.
So what was at first good news is now, well, no news.
Dr. Compton Tucker, a research biologist with NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland,
his report compiled along with Dr. David Skola at the University of New Hampshire
was published in a recent edition of the journal Science.
This is Bruce Robertson.
I'm now for a telephone call to Burlington, Vermont, 800-326-5463.
Good morning, Eko.
This is Sharon speaking.
Yes, I help you.
Good morning, Sharon.
Looking for Hans Keller, please.
Sure, can I tell him this call?
This is Bruce Robertson.
Just a minute, please.
Thank you.
We listen to a little classical music in the background here on hold.
This is the number of Eko line, a new computer service run by an organization called Together Foundation.
Hans Keller is the director, see if we can get him here.
Eko line, good morning.
This is Hans Keller, the director of Eko line speaking.
How can I help you?
Yes, hello, Hans.
This is Bruce Robertson from the Environment Show.
We just heard about your service and wanted to find out some more about it.
I guess first of all, what is this service we're calling?
Perhaps I should give an explanation of what the possibilities are on the line.
Okay.
And so perhaps I should start by explaining why to have the line to start with
and explain that the line is really a parallel product to what's called Together Network,
which is the electronic networking system.
About 90% of the people in the United States don't have access to a personal computer,
there is a modem where they can tap into this type of information.
So by nature of those statistics, we are establishing a situation again where some people have access
to information in some other stone.
And so we have decided to create this 800 line specifically to be very democratic about
providing the service that's available and the information that's available out there
to provide that to the regular user that normally would not be able to have instant access
to this type of information.
So what's contained in this database on your end?
Okay.
In the database, we have about 60,000 records now.
And the records are kept by Project, Project Names, Organization, Organization Names,
keywords that describe a project toward an organization.
We have last names in there.
We have cities in their state, country, etc.
So we have this huge database sitting there and the search can really be based on the various
criteria which are one keyword.
So you can look up something on the atmosphere and come up with the organizations or projects
that deal with that specific topic.
And we provided then with the phone number and the address of who you can contact in order
to get the information you need.
We understand the database itself,
fonts is based on research and information contained in your new catalog which is called
Who's Who in Service to the Earth?
That in self is an invaluable resource.
My question is how did you assemble that database, which as we said serves as the basis for
this computer database?
Okay. Over a span of years, when I was starting to recognize
that so many wonderful things were happening around the world.
That was a businessman and from being a businessman, I went to North Carolina
on almost impulse to build an ecological village.
And when I built that ecological village and you know, that can be a subject of a completely
different discussion, then I realized that people were doing many things around the world,
but they didn't know of each other.
And I started to accumulate information just to show what was all happening around the world.
Okay? And that resulted in the first edition of Who is Who in Service to the Earth,
which then resulted in the second edition which you have in your hands.
And this second edition now has 8,000 projects and organizations of very basic stuff of what
people are doing for a sustainable future.
Yeah, you've been on the year now for only a short while already.
What sort of responses have you been getting?
What are some of the typical questions from the callers?
For example of questions on ecoline.
How can I help to save the planet?
It says a nine-year-old child, okay?
So we input it there in the computer children and then we find somebody that
is having special material available for a nine-year-old kid on what they can do specifically,
though we told the child that's the number to call.
What projects does the American Forestry Association have?
So we put in their American Forestry Association and say they're working on this and this and that.
And here's the number you can contact them directly.
See you cannot find the American Forestry Association if you don't know where they are.
That's the weird thing.
This way our phone system is only somebody has an 800 number.
You cannot find somebody if you hear about them or a friend tells you about.
I have one for you, Hans.
I sort of already know the answer but this will sort of test the database.
Let's pretend I don't know.
I'm looking Hans for a name, a man named Wes Jackson.
Well I've been reading an article about him and I wanted to find out more about what he's
researching all about and wanted to get in touch with him.
And now I'm just recognizing I have about 20 Jackson on there.
So let's quickly, he's with the Land Institute.
Going to say that the other piece of information I have is that he's with the Land Institute.
Not sure where it is.
Well now that's even better.
You see I just put in Jackson.
I got now 20 Jackson in front of me.
And I just happen to remember that he's just landing soon.
But I'm going now back to my original screen.
I put in Jackson and on their organization, right, I'm going to put Land Institute, just land.
I don't have to put.
So my little screen says now organization, land,
last name Jackson.
And now I'm hitting search and he took exact two seconds.
It's there now and it says Wes Jackson Land Institute,
land institute here is the address 244 Series Waterwell Road,
Salina Kansas, zip code USA 9138235376.
To help transform agriculture in order to protect the long-term ability of
the earth to support a variety of life and culture,
an educational research organization which conducts research.
Then I would say, is that what you're looking for and you would say yes, sir or no, sir?
And now I would say we're keeping track of the colors where,
where did you get information about us?
Can I input your name and then we keep your post of what Ecolinus do it?
Hans Keller, director of Ecoline, a project of Together Foundation,
speaking to us from Burlington, Vermont.
Together Foundation is a nonprofit organization being run in conjunction with the University of Vermont.
Together Foundation disseminates information in three ways.
Through the catalog, who's who and service to the earth?
Together net, a computer network you may tap into with your own personal computer and modem
and Ecoline, this 800 service where student volunteers operate computers for you
to answer your many questions.
The number is 1-800-Ecoline.
This is Bruce Robertson.
There is nothing more disappointing than discovering an insect infestation in your flower or vegetable
garden, all your hard work planting literally being eaten away.
Well Larry Sompke, the environmental gardener says we don't have to stand by and watch.
He says there are several very effective steps we can take.
Let's go down to the garden and find out.
I'm going to stretch this down just kind of a length stretching, that's a boy.
Hello Larry, how are you doing today?
Bruce, hi.
Well, we're down here in the garden today, my son, six-year-old son, Henry and I.
And we're just covering up some pumpkins that he planted.
He and his Cloverbud 4-H group planted two hills of pumpkins this year,
so they can have some pumpkins for Halloween.
But you know, pumpkins are the kind of a plant that can attract a lot of bugs.
So we want to take a non-chemical approach to keeping those bugs away.
Prevention is the best cure for controlling pests in the garden.
So what is this material?
It sort of looks almost like gauze.
Well, it is much like gauze.
I think it's a polypropylene spun fabric.
It's called row cover or floating row cover.
It's very easy to find in most garden centers or a lot of catalogs carry it.
And you simply open it up out of the package and just stretch it out and lightly drape it over your young
pumpkin plants in this case.
And what that will do is provide a barrier.
That's why it's called an insect barrier.
It'll keep the all kinds of moss and caterpillars and nasty bugs away from the pumpkins
so that they don't get in there and lay their eggs and start hatching out all kinds of nasty bugs that will
eat your pumpkins.
What about emitting sunlight and rain?
These things, I said it's a woven fabric so sunlight gets in,
rain gets to penetrate through and actually what will happen, I used this last year over some
green beans.
As they grow, it will just sort of puff up.
The plants have plenty of room to grow and you don't wait it down real heavy.
Just wait it down with some light rocks like Henry and I just did.
And then as it grows, it'll start to puff up.
And the only time you really, really have to take it off is when the pumpkins bloom
because then you do want the bees to get in there.
You want to take it off during the day so that the bees can get in there and pollinate the plants.
Then you can just put it right back on and it'll keep on growing and then at some point
you can just take it off and the plants are nice and healthy and they're not going to get attacked
by bugs.
All right now, prevention of pests is probably obviously the best route to go but what if you already
have insects or slugs or worms or whatever?
Yeah, they're pretty tricky.
They come pretty quick.
Another product that's on the market that's widely available now is
dietamaceous earth.
And this is really for insect crawling insects like ants and roaches and slugs.
People get a lot of slugs in their garden.
And this is something that really helps stop them because it's ground up ancient fossils.
And to them it's razor blades.
They hate to crawl over it.
Soft belly creatures hate to crawl over this stuff.
And so they'll vacate.
Just the other day I put some down on an ant hill, an extremely active ant hill and they left.
They were gone immediately.
Of course there's nothing toxic about it so there's no damage to you or wildlife or any
beneficial insects that are around in the area.
Well it seems you've got a good arsenal for keeping out and preventing your pests in your garden.
Once again back to work Larry.
Yep thanks a lot and we'll be looking into something else next time.
Take care.
Larry Sompke, the environmental gardener, author of beautiful easy gardens.
Sompke keeps his fossil dust in the garden shed at his home in Hollowville, New York.
This is Bruce Robertson.
In Minnesota, school children from all over the state recently gathered at the Minnesota Zoo
for the second annual Kids Earth Summit.
Young people focused on world environmental issues and ways to protect and conserve the
earth's resources.
Also attending the event was Minnesota's Senator Paul Wellstone.
From Minneapolis, Lee Jackson filed this report.
Although five-year-old Jordan wasn't quite sure what the fuss was all about,
most to attended the second annual Kids Earth Summit knew exactly why they were there
to help save the earth.
Senator Paul Wellstone introduced as an EIP or environmentally important person
praised students' efforts.
He said their concerns haven't gone unnoticed all the way to the White House.
The vice president said to me, he said, I remember Paul, when you were at the Earth Summit in Rio,
you had a suitcase from Kids for Saving Earth.
You had a suitcase of dreams.
He said, you keep coming up with all these great ideas.
And I said to him, Mr. Vice President, these great ideas don't come from me.
They come from young people in Minnesota because the young people in Minnesota, the kids,
they care about the environment, and all of us are going to make sure that we protect the environment.
You agree?
Young people said current efforts to make the Earth cleaner and greener aren't enough.
Zacharada, an eighth grade student, says instead of just talking about the Earth's problems,
people need to really commit themselves to finding solutions.
Before putting your all into saving it, the ozone layer and the oceans and the soil,
and it's just got to be a thing that you can't be taught it.
You can be, but it doesn't have as much going you.
You got to be born with it.
10-year-old Alicia, on the other hand, knows exactly what kind of world she wants to grow up in.
She's taking matters into her own hands to make the Earth a greener place for everyone.
I plant trees in my backyard in my own.
We go out in the woods and we find plants and flowers and stuff when we water them.
So they grow.
Just about everyone came away from the second annual Kids Earth Summit with something to think about,
from how the Madagascar Hissing Cockroach helps produce oxygen,
two better ways to recycle everyday household items.
Wellstone left with another so-called bag of dreams.
Student letters addressed to President Clinton urging him to work extra hard toward making the
world a better place for all children.
Lee Jackson reporting from Minneapolis.
Well, that's our report on the Environment Show this week.
We hope you will join us next week at this same time.
The Environment Show is a program about the environment, the air,
water, soil, wildlife, and people of our common habitat.
For a cassette copy of the program, call 1-800-767-1929,
ask for the Environment Show program number 183.
The Environment Show is a presentation of national production solely responsible for its content.
Dr. Alan Shartock, executive producer, this is Bruce Robertson.
The Environment Show is made possible by the JM Kaplan Fund of New York
and by Heming's Motor News, the national Bible of the Old Car Hobby, monthly from Bennington, Vermont.
