1. sheril
  2. Deforestation And The Death Toll

Deforestation And The Death Toll

By sheril on May 7, 2008.

Myanmar ranks #4 in the world for annual forest area lost per year. Between 2000 and 2005, the country lost, on average, 466,000 hectares per year which puts their annual deforestation rate at 1.45% based on FAO statistics.

Given deforestation results in higher flooding and erosion rates and mangroves serve as important buffers against storm surges, I'm wondering to what degree Myanmar's serious deforestation played a role in the tremendous loss of life from Cyclone Nargis...

i-a74689dc07df6295175769a6baade923-cyclone1.png

Tags
hurricanes

More like this

Mangrove Destruction Magnified Burmese Tragedy
tags: Environment, Cyclone Nargis, Myanmar, Burma, Mangrove, Rhizophora species, Shrimp Farming, Fish Farming Mangrove, Rhizophora species, in Cuba. [larger view]. I've written about the importance of mangrove forests before, and about the environmental disasters and human tragedies that result…
Indonesia: Fastest Rate of Forest Destruction on Planet
tags: South Pacific Islands, Indonesia, rainforest destruction, environment Southwestern region of the island nation, Indonesia. The pale land mass to the bottom, right is Australia while the pale region to the upper left is southeast Asia. Image source. Partially because many species of my…
Another Week of GW News, May 11, 2008
Sipping from the internet firehose... This weekly posting is brought to you courtesy of H.E.Taylor. Happy reading, I hope you enjoy this week's Global Warming news roundup (skip to bottom) Top Stories:Nargis, Melting Arctic, Antarctica, Late Comments Food Crisis, Food vs. Biofuel, Food Production…
Tsunamis and Mangroves: The Shrimp Connection
tags: Environment, tsunami, earthquake, Indonesia, Mangrove, Shrimp Farming Note: Originally published on 2 January 2005. Nominated for the 2005 Koufax Award for "Best Individual Post". Indonesian Mangrove. All the survivors agreed that 26 December 2004 was an idyllic morning, indeed, it was a…

Miss Sheril,
I think the loss of life in Burma is as related to deforrestation of the coasts as the destruction of New Orleans in Katrina is related to the loss of wetlands. If you just look at this picture of the Lousisana coast, you can clearly see the pnkish outlinf of New Orleans, with little green around it to offer protection from storm surge. One would hope that national level emergency managers would actually think about this stuff, and be as active in calling for change as the environmental community has. Sadly, one would be wrong.

http://www.esl.lsu.edu/demos/modis/modis-diversions-highres.jpg