Snorting up the Rainforest: 1 Gram of Cocaine = 4 Square Meters

Health, Plants and Wildlife

Not that that comes as any surprise to those who our Guide to Green Drug Use, but the cocaine habit — indulged by a great many white collar urbanites — is potentially the most destructive thing you can do to the environment from the comfort of you own livingroom — or your favorite nightclub. According to Columbia’s Vice President: each gram of cocaine snorted in the developed world equals the destruction of 4 square meters of the world’s precious rainforests. Ouch.

In a bid to persuade recreational users to drop their favorite party high, Francisco Santos Calderón shared a few figures with senior UK police officials that would hopefully turn off powdery-nosed users with a heart of green. According to the VP’s numbers, about 300,000 hectares of rainforest are

cleared each year for coca farming, and that’s just the beginning. In his own words:

“For somebody who drives a hybrid, who recycles, who is worried about global warming - to tell him that that night of partying will destroy 4m square of rainforest might lead him to assemble another decision.”

Is it naive to think that society will stop snorting cocaine for the environment? Probably. Still, it’s just one more good reason, in a expanded list of really good reasons, not to indulge.

[via Treehugger]

Snorting up the Rainforest: 1 Gram of Cocaine = 4 Square Meters originally arised on Green Daily on Wed, 19 Nov 2008 16:30:00 EST 0.Please see our terms for use of feeds.

 

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[Source] Josh Loposer

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