DISTRESSING NEWS FROM JAVA

After a month in Java , one of our roaming correspondents recently passed through Darwin with disturbing news about the environmental damage taking place there . He has been visiting the island for 20 years and said the extensive logging taking place is alarming. There seemed to be people everywhere with chainsaws and cut down mini buses fitted with industrial engines used as mobile sawmills . In areas where there had once been massive trees , there was now “nothing”. Regrowth in clear felled areas is in turn being quickly cut back to feed dairy cows. Because of the destruction of forests large flocks of birds are raiding rice paddies . Some farmers are switching to growing corn and sugar cane. The pollution of streams is also appalling, according to our informant, with vast amounts of rubbish, including plastic, and extremely high faecal readings . He grimly forecasts that there will be widespread starvation and disease in Java within 10 years .