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Sadly the massive population increases of humans and their never ending quest for more land has had a huge effect on the land, forested and wilderness and the animal populations.

I have read reports by British officials in Tanganika in the 1950's highlighting the destruction of woodlands by the Masai grazing their livestock. Now they are spread throughout Tanzania. Along with local villagers grazing livestock, cultivation, timber for firewood, huts, dugouts etc.

Then go to Asia. In Borneo there are few areas of original rainforest. Many of us have timber in our homes from there. There has been massive rainforest destruction for palm oil plantations. I flew in a helicopter from Jakarta to Central Borneo across the Java Sea and in West-Central Kalimantan (Indo Borneo) some areas only palm plantations could be seen to the horizon. Couple that with slash/burn, deforestation and you get the picture.

In China the tussock grass would be six to 12 inches above the grass in the Inner Mongolian grasslands, the desertification significant, resulting in major dust storms. If you go from China to Mongolia you will be amazed at the wildlife in the latter. China has huge areas of desert, flying over it is somewhat similar to Australia.

On top of this, the insatiable desire for food and animal products. I have sat across from a woman wearing a Snow Leopard Stole in Hohhot (Inner Mongolia) at dinner in the middle of winter and been offered a tiger skin outside the silk market in Beijing (I used to live next door to it). I have nearly been caught in snares in Tanzania. Can't blame the hungry locals wanting food.

Throw in the massive pollution of our waterways in Asia and the air and you get the picture of how we are truly screwing up our planet. A real positive of spending a fair bit of time in and around rivers and lakes in Tanzania was how clean they were compared to Asia. People there really respected the water, especially given the seasonal nature of it I think. In parts of Asia everyone shits in the rivers, build there toilets out on them.

Makes one a little depressed. I do miss some of these places, particularly Tanzania where I spent a reasonable bit of time in the bush, often unarmed!

Cheers, Chris

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