They're tearing down the forests
In the jungles of Brazil
Without a second thought
To all the species that they kill
Dan Fogelberg

Socially the wild Brazilian west has mirrored, and in some cases even surpassed, former frontier excesses in the U.S.. The lawlessness, greediness, and raunchy night music are all there, and, as usual, tainted by booze, broads, and fisticuffs. Settlers often claim their land with a gun, so murder is matter-of-fact, as it was in the west of yore.

But the social ills go beyond guns and VD. There are thousands of kids and not enough schools, or anything else constructive to do for that matter. Imagine the mischief they can get into with all that spare time. Electricity is nonexistent unless you're wealthy, and inflation of 500% means not many are. Such luxuries as clean air and water, health care, and sanitation seem frivolous when you're hungry and homeless. I doubt they're concerned about loss of biodiversity either.

And there are savages in this American West too. The indigenous peoples of Amazonia are being relocated to reservations and shot if they leave. And sometimes the squatters even squat the reservations. The shoot-outs that follow are just as deadly and one-sided as in the heyday of cowboys and Indians, the outcome just as certain.

For conservationists, Rondonia is an ecological nightmare. Over a quarter of the state is clear-cut, converted to small farms and cash crop estates on land that is marginal at best. After slashing and burning the jungle, they have about five years before the soil is exhausted. Then there are two options: they can move back east or clear another tract. And still the forests fall.

Indigenous peoples around the world continue to be maginalized by the relentless assault of Western Civilization. Millions of acres of their home, the rain forest, is being cleared every year for agriculture and timber. At the present clip these forests will be gone by 2050. Gone with the forests will be the greatest biodiversity on earth.