Sir, – Brazil needs to make a living as we all do.
The Amazon rain forest produces 20 per cent of the oxygen in the atmosphere. It absorbs countless billions of tonnes of CO2. As we pay oil-producing countries for the oil they happen to sit on, why don’t we pay Brazil and the others for their oxygen and carbon capture? Oil is useless without oxygen and dangerous without carbon capture. These rain forest products are much more valuable than beef, so merit a much higher price.
If we did this, Brazil and others would be mad to destroy the forest for beef or anything else. And it would be worth their while to restore the forest already cut down to sell even more of its valuable products.
It would be an all-round win-win situation. – Yours, etc,
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JOHN A BURKE,
Blackrock, Co Dublin.