In case you were wondering whose fault all this is...............this humanitarian disaster in Burma.....
It's us. Us as in, Americans.
"What?" you say. "How can it be our fault?"
Well not to worry, PRI's "The World" explains it all for us.
Burma's mangrove forests (4:45)
Burma's mangroves have buffered the country from the worst effects of natural disasters. Now that the mangrove forests have been cleared away to make way for shrimp and fish farms, cyclones like the one that struck days ago are even more devastating. Anchor Lisa Mullins gets details from Jeffrey McNeely, the chief scientist for the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.
If you listen to the audio, at the 3 minute mark Jeffrey McNeely explains that the poor Burmese have cut down the mangroves because of us. "....areas where the mangroves have been destroyed to make shrimp ponds so that Americans can get cheap shrimp at the various fast food restaurants."
There you go!
Mangrove "forests" are more commonly referred to as "swamps" -- coastal, sea-level, swamps.
ReplyDeleteNo mangrove swamp anywhere in the world has ever *slowed* a storm surge, much less *stopped* one in its tracks.