Effects of Increased Urbanization

In his News of the Week story “Debate continues over rainforest fate—with a climate twist” (23 January, p. 4481), E. Stokstad is correct in saying that “preserving tropical forest would yield multiple benefits: storing more carbon, rather than releasing it from burning, and maintaining habitat. ” However, Wright and Muller-Landau (12), authors of the 2006 paper Stokstad cites, might be mistaken about the effects of increased urbanization. As people move to urban areas, deforestation may decrease, but consumption in other areas (related to increased use of Internet, mobile telephones, cars, and airplanes) will increase. Only when all facets of environmental sustainability (including pollution, overpopulation, resource depletion, and mass consumption) are taken into consideration can we fully assess the sustainability of a certain action. 1. 1. ↵3 1. S. J. Wright, 2. H. C. Muller-Landau, Biotropica 38, 287 (2006). OpenUrl4CrossRef5Web of Science6 1: /lookup/doi/10. 1126/science. 323. 5913. 448 2: #ref-1 3: #xref-ref-1-1 View reference 1. in text 4: openurl? query=rft. jtitle%253DBiotropica%26rft. volume%253D38%26rft. spage%253D287%26rftᵢd%253Dinfo%253Adoi%252F10. 1111%252Fj. 1744-7429. 2006. 00154. x%26rft. genre%253Darticle%26rftᵥalfmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Ajournal%26ctxᵥer%253DZ39. 88-2004%26urlᵥer%253DZ39. 88-2004%26urlctxfmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Actx 5: /lookup/external-ref? accessₙum=10. 1111/j. 1744-7429. 2006. 00154. x&linkₜype=DOI 6: /lookup/external-ref? accessₙum=000236766500001&linkₜype=ISI