David Ransom reaches a conclusion that will not please everyone. Look at the balance sheet. Clearing the Amazon produces hardwoods which are essential for nothing. Dams flood the forest to generate electricity to make aluminium for throw-away cans.
Iron ore is dug out of the ground to be sold at throwaway prices.
Diseased cattle stroll about farting their greenhouse gases into the atmosphere to pander to a particular dietary preference in the cities. Rivers are polluted with deadly mercury to produce gold that is smuggled out through Uruguay to languish in the vaults of Swiss banks. The mass of the people of the Amazon are corralled into poverty, fearing for their lives. Indigenous people are persecuted to the verge of extinction. Well, says Philip Fearnside, one of the top scientific authorities on the Amazon, who works in Manaus, it s a question of who is profiting.