Amazon Road
Congratulations to the team of U.S. senators who are attempting to block construction of the road through the Amazon basin that the Japanese are funding (“Senators Vow to Fight Japanese-Funded Amazon Road,” Feb. 4, Part I). Japan’s lack of natural resources and desire for easy shipment of the supplies should not lead to the destruction of one of the earth’s major sources of oxygen.
Many animals indigenous to the jungles will be displaced. In addition, once the road opens, rare tropical animals will be in danger of extinction due to hunters’ increased accessibility of the area.
It is understandable that the residents of the remote villages in the jungles of Peru and Brazil would be in favor of the road, but, as Douglas Jehl points out in his article, the governments of Brazil and Peru would allow further development and foresting for economic purposes, given the incentive. It would only be a matter of time before the rain forest disappeared completely if this were the case.
The Japanese have already despoiled many other tropical rain forests, and they should be stopped before they transform the world’s largest into a “concrete” jungle.
CHRIS KURIMOTO
Canoga Park
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