Tech | July 08, 2011 | 42 comments

Agent Orange being used to clear Amazon rainforest

source: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2011/07/vietnam-era-weapon-being-used-to-clear-the-amazon.php

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JanforGore
Agent Orange is one of the most devastating weapons of modern warfare, a chemical which killed or injured an estimated 400,000 people during the Vietnam War -- and now it's being used against the Amazon rainforest. According to officials, ranchers in Brazil have begun spraying the highly toxic herbicide over patches of forest as a covert method to illegally clear foliage, more difficult to detect that chainsaws and tractors. In recent weeks, an aerial survey detected some 440 acres of rainforest that had been sprayed with the compound -- poisoning thousands of trees and an untold number of animals, potentially for generations.

Officials from Brazil's environmental agency IBAMA were first tipped to the illegal clearing by satellite images of the forest in Amazonia; a helicopter flyover in the region later revealed thousands of trees left ash-colored and defoliated by toxic chemicals. IBAMA says that Agent Orange was likely dispersed by aircraft by a yet unidentified rancher to clear the land for pasture because it is more difficult to detect than traditional operations that require chainsaws and tractors.

Last week, in another part of the Amazon, an investigation conducted by the agency uncovered approximately four tons of the highly toxic herbal pesticides hidden in the forest awaiting dispension. If released, the chemicals could have potentially decimated some 7,500 acres of rainforest, killing all the wildlife that resides there and contaminating groundwater. In this case, the individual responsible was identified and now faces fines nearing $1.3 million.

According to a report from Folha de São Paulo, the last time such chemicals were recorded in use by deforesters was in 1999, but officials say dispensing the devastating herbicide may become more common as officials crack down on the most flagrant types of environmental crime.

"They [deforesters] have changed their strategy because, in a short time, more areas of forest can be destroyed with herbicides. Thus, they don't need to mobilize tree-cutting teams and can therefore bypass the supervision of IBAMA," says Jerfferson Lobato of IBAMA.

While Agent Orange was originally designed to clear forest coverage in combat situations, its use became a subject of controversy due to its impact on humans and wildlife. During the Vietnam War, the United States military dispersed 12 million gallons of herbicide, impacting the health of some 3 million, mostly peasant, Vietnamese citizens, and causing birth defects in around 500 thousand children. Additionally, the chemical's effect on the environment have been profound and lasting.

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42 comments // Agent Orange being used to clear Amazon rainforest

  • p122345
  • EmileZ
  • keithponder
  • cherry5000
  • nikonwilly
  • WagonMaster
    • +1
      WagonMaster  

    • Ah, good old Agent Orange. The gift that keeps on giving, and giving, and giving...until you die from some horrible disease. Ask the Vet who's a victim of Agent Orange. Hell, ask ME !!

    • 11 months ago
  • Wyley_Wombat
  • WagonMaster
  • 20thsieclefox
    • +2
      20thsieclefox  

    • is money really worth it in the end?? This is terrible.
      reminds me of this saying:
      ONLY AFTER THE LAST TREE HAS BEEN CUT DOWN,
      ONLY AFTER THE LAST RIVER HAS BEEN POISONED,
      ONLY AFTER THE LAST FISH HAS BEEN CAUGHT,
      ONLY THEN WILL YOU FIND
      THAT MONEY CANNOT BE EATEN.

    • 11 months ago
  • AJILIVIZION
    • +4
      AJILIVIZION  

    • There's this side of me that I try to keep locked away. It's stories like this that has it burning to get out. This part of me wants to gather a team of experienced soldiers and woodsmen. My team would capture three people involved with this operation of spraying Agent Orange in the Amazon; one person in possession of and distributing the compound, one person involved with carrying out the spraying of the Agent Orange, and last, but certainly not least, an executive of the company profiting from this scheme. From there, we take them to next spot designated for spraying and tie them up to the mid-level (the understorey layer). After their accomplices have sprayed them down, we deliver them to a major media outlet, with a flash drive containing a video message. It would be a warning to all corporations, from top to bottom, that unless they would intend on suffering the same consequences as these three, they had better start respecting and caring for the environment. Maybe some executives and middle level businessmen and women would hesitate to take the warning seriously. But I'm willing to bet that their wives, husbands, children, parents, aunts, uncles, friends and everybody else would be thoroughly concerned. People all around the world would have their realities shaken. It would force people to change their perceptions on the idea of a throw-away planet. Everyone would get serious about adjusting their own consumption habits. This part of me really is begging to be let out. The only reason I fight it is because I want the world to change its ways based on a foundation of love and not fear. Things like this fill me with so much anger. GrrrRRRrrr...

    • 11 months ago
  • hombre76
    • +1
      hombre76  

    • Oh I love how these idiot fucks dont realize the lifespan of the chemical they spray that will be in the ground water for decades to come that their fucking cattle will drink and they will eat the cattle .... OMFG how fucking ignorant could you posibly be. Also Agent Orange is not a comon chemical some one in the US military is selling that shit out on the black market, though why we even have stock piles of it still is beyond me.

    • 11 months ago
  • figgdimension
  • hombre76
  • treewolf39
    • +4
      treewolf39  

    • What the Hell is wrong with Humans? It is an awful poison that causes cancer and birth defects. It has been used right here in Oregon over 40 years ago until the people fought back and made the forest service stop; because it was contaminating all the water and fucking up the country folks.

    • 11 months ago
  • nikonwilly
    • +1
      nikonwilly  
    • treewolf39:

      The people who make up the corporations who are responsible for this misery and death are nothing but evil and why they are allowed to live and continue this is beyond all reasoning.
      Evil men make evil laws to protect evil deeds....?
      When we decide enough evil has been committed...and it would appear we haven't yet ,maybe we will stop them.

    • 11 months ago
  • cherry5000
  • wolfess
  • Wyley_Wombat
  • wolfess
    • +1
      wolfess  
    • Wyley_Wombat:

      My husband was over there in '71; I got pregnant right after he got home and Jamie was born Oct. 6, and died 2 days later of cancer. Our 2nd child (born 5 years later) is severely retarded. Now my husband has diabetes/ chronic kidney failure (just started dialysis) and congestive heart failure (got a pacemaker a month ago) and he's only 60. Two years ago he was getting radiation for prostate cancer, now he has trouble urinating, and the combo of radiation and cancer compromised his bones so when he slipped on the ice 2 winters ago it broke his hip.

      These big corps should be burned off the face of this earth for what they do in the name of one more dollar!

    • 11 months ago
  • Wyley_Wombat
    • 0
      Wyley_Wombat  
    • wolfess:

      Sorry to hear about your husband. I was there in 70 and so far my contact has not caused anything severe. I still get fired up when I think of the complete indifference corporations show to life in the quest for making a profit. They made a big issue in the run-up to the Iraq invasion about the use of chemical agents on the local population and yet they forgot the fact that we sprayed AO on our own troops and then told them it was "harmless". Every time I hear of someone who was affected by this, it makes me forget I am basically a pacifist.

    • 11 months ago
  • wolfess
    • +1
      wolfess  
    • Wyley_Wombat:

      Tell me about it! If corps are now 'people' shouldn't we be able to find the corp guilty of murder and wipe them off the face of the earth? The pond scum that own these corps are so anxious to use their new 'personhood' and yet no enterprising lawyer has thought to make a name for him/herself by trying a corp like Monsanto for murder -- seems to me like a damn good way to get those corps to decide they don't want 'citizens united' after all.

    • 11 months ago
  • cherry5000
  • dugdog47
    • +1
      dugdog47  

    • Early man walked away as modern man took
      control.
      Theirminds werent all the same, to conquer
      was his big goal,
      So he built his great empire and slaughtered
      his own kind,
      Then he died a confused man, killed himself
      with his own mind.
      Go!
      Were only gonna die from our own
      arrogance

    • 11 months ago
  • JanforGore
    • +4
      JanforGore  

    • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJxb7CY13uc

      The scope of what this military has done in collusion with Monsanto, Dow and a few other companies is beyond words. And now, we see it again in a place that will once again leave the same legacy. And I agree, any rancher caught using this to defoliate the Amazon should be charged with murder. How Monsanto and Dow are still in business is only a testament to the vile, evil, soulless greed that pervades this planet like the cancer they spread. So only through telling people the truth about the past of these companies can we have an impact on the present. They now use these war chemicals to spray on our FOOD and dare to call it sustainable agriculture! The only way to stop this is to never be silent and boycott the crap out of them!

    • 11 months ago
  • queenofit
  • 20thsieclefox
  • Wyley_Wombat
    • +3
      Wyley_Wombat  

    • There are 14 medical conditions linked to this shit, and those are the ones that are known. The compound is also persistent, staying toxic for a long while. It took years before the VA finally admitted that this stuff caused problems. I have a friend who was hit with the spray who has recurring sores on his legs that never completely heal. I myself was indirectly exposed working in a defoliated area. The people who sold this compound and those who are spraying it on the Amazon, referred to as the climate control center for the planet, should be forced to shower with it.

    • 11 months ago
  • Frosty46
  • Frosty46
  • dugdog47
    • 0
      dugdog47  

    • That is extremely sad. I was hoping to
      Visit the Amazon someday. Mother nature is going to be so pissed. Maybe if we fuck up our country to the point it's uninhabitable, our Chinese masters will let us keep it.

    • 11 months ago
  • wolfess
    • 0
      wolfess  

    • Well, you know how I feel about this -- I lost my children to this criminal negligence. When in the FUCK are we ever going to learn? Don't answer that ... as long as we have reptards and DINOS we never will! Al Gore where are you?

      Power to the Peons!

    • 11 months ago
  • nobsartist
  • JanforGore
  • nobsartist
  • queenofit
  • JanforGore
  • Frosty46
    • 0
      Frosty46  
    • queenofit:

      mONSANTO?---------assholes of the universe----just guessing actually. I'll do some digging and get back---Was half right, Monsanto and Dow are to blame, Better Dying Through Chemistry my ass!

    • 11 months ago
  • alexsmith01
  • JanforGore
  • wolfess
    • 0
      wolfess  
    • alexsmith01:

      The 'brake' in your sentence is actually brEak ... notice the subtle difference?
      Next -- what do the companies ... gain from doing this? Wait for it ... wait for it: $$$$!

      If you have nothing better to do with your time than post inane comments like this one you might as well hang it up and move on over to fox-so-not-the-news!

      Power to the Peons (of which you: alexsmith01 are so NOT one)!

    • 11 months ago
  • JanforGore
  • JanforGore
    • +3
      JanforGore  

    • I have to admit as I read this I teared up. I simply cannot fathom what people are thinking. I do know this, greed is killing us all a little bit more every day and it is now poisoning the lungs of the Earth. I don't know if Monsanto is involved in this, but I am going to find out.

    • 11 months ago
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