The Leonard Lopate Show

It's time for high-profile biological scientists to stop blaming smallholder farmers for deforestation when the main drivers are usually cattle ranching, industrial large-scale agricultural, and legal and illegal logging. Slash and burn agriculture, as Mr. Cousteau refers to it, can be sustainable and even lead to increased diversity in rainforest structure. We need to stop blaming poor people for environmental degradation when developed country consumption patterns are really responsible.

The Brazilian currency is the Real.

the Brazilian currency is the real (pronounced HEY-OUW)

Mr. Cousteau actually doesn't blame the small/poor farmers by stating that they are using slash and burn techniques for farming. He merely points it out as part of the problem due to their need to feed their families. There is already enough abandoned scorched land in Brazil that can be used sustainably for farming needs instead of continuing the practice of cutting virgin forest for pasture... but it seems easier to just cut more down. What Mr. Cousteau is saying in this interview is that, as consumers (especially developed countries), we are all responsible for making the daily choices to buy or not products made from unsustainable practices, in this case from the Amazon forest.

What's worse. "Pressing the snooze button" while the "lungs of the planet" (the Amazon rain forest) are destroyed at a rate close to that of a chain smaoker's actual lung deterioration.....or......

a group like the Taliban dynamiting a few ancient collosal Buddhas?

You decide.