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EARTH'S VANISHING FORESTS by Roy A. Gallant Kirkus Star

EARTH'S VANISHING FORESTS

By

Pub Date: Oct. 30th, 1991
Publisher: Macmillan

At last, a book explaining deforestation that isn't afraid to name multinational corporations as the primary culprits. In just a few pages, Gallant explains why forests (especially rain forests) are vital to the earth's health, leaving plenty of space for fascinating details of rain-forest life (plant, animal, human) as well as the vicious processes of deforestation in Brazil, Central America, Africa, and the Pacific Northwest. Colorful adjectives, interesting syntax, and human-interest elements sprinkled among the factual accounts make the text easy to read. Given the gloomy prospects for primary forests, Gallant's call for humans to leave them alone may be unrealistic; still, nothing else can save them, as his examples of the timber industry's ""voodoo forestry"" make clear. Gallant does balance his account with the perspective of timber workers, beset with corporate production quotas on one hand and environmentalist pressure on the other. Extensive bibliography; glossary; index & photos not seen.