issue 235 - September 1992 MARK EDWARDS / STILL PICTURES The lie
of the land Further along the trail our tireless investigator
catches up with a family of peasants. 'We're looking for a piece
of land to clear and cultivate, they wearily explain. Clearing
space for human habitation results in environmental problems
like deforestation, desertification and the loss of other
species. Even people who concede that pollution and consumption
may be mostly the fault of the rich often believe that land
clearance really is the fault of rapid population growth among
the poor. The usual story told in the North is that if rural
parents have several children, they must divide up the land into
pieces too small to be worth having when they want to pass it on
to the next generation. So some of the younger generation move
on to clear more land. And since there isn't any good land left,
they farm hillsides where the topsoil erodes easily and washes
away. Or they raze forests, releasing greenhouse gases through
forest fires - and