I guess it would matter if humans had an influence on the climate either here on earth on on the other planets in our solar system that were warming and are now cooling just like us. I guess if you insulate yourself enough from the real world and scam society for research money, you can even overlook the existance of the sun.

Bob apparently believes habitat loss is a greater threat to biodiversity than climate change.

It's difficult to say what wiil be the greatest threat to remaining rainforest. So far the only cause of rainforest dissaperance has been the habitat destruction. But this impacts climate change that may cause further shrinking of forest cover, that produce more carbon dioxide emissions an so on. This classical positive feedback where result strengthen cause.

What is the greatest threat to rainforests: habitat destruction or climate change?

why separate the two? climate change and deforestation are both facets of the industrial-technological-capitalist system that are not likely to be confronted without radically altering the system. bantering year after year back and forth over the drivers of environmental destruction has gotten us nowhere. while all the wankers from the UN were arguing over emissions cuts in Poland 2008 a single dude snuck into Kingsnorth Coal station and dropped the UK's carbon out 2%. he turned off a turbine.
http://shiftshapers.gnn.tv/headlines/19062/Saboteur_Breezes_In_to_Shut_Down_500MW_Turbine

this is part of what it is going to take. another part is recognizing the faults of our social systems and creating adaptive solutions.

emerging trends and perspectives in systems ecoscience are not reaching through into academic science or real world action. the geosphere-biosphere project (IGBP) has been decades ahead on systems-level perceptions - the IGBP's 2001 A Planet Under Pressure report, for example. will the rainforests dessicate or by cut to death? either way they will be dead and the planet will slip further into positive feedback loops of warming and lose tropical biodiversity.

it really isn't difficult to say what will be the greatest threat to what is left of tropical rainforests. rainforests will continue to vanish as long as humans continue to view "natural resources" from within the defunct ethics of capitalism and civilization. solutions will emerge with the paradigm shift from hierarchal nation-states towards networked, decentralized economies.

dismantle globally, renew locally

Re: Bob

So not even mongabay is free of the climate change denialist think-tank drones any more....sad. Guess they're getting desperate now since no-one listens to them any more..particularly after the Arctic sea ice collapsed..

Bob - every major scientific body in every country disagrees with you. Any particular reason why you, some guy writing comments on the internet, should have understood climate so much better than each of the thousands of scientists that have spent their entire working life studying it?

I completed my PhD in Biogeochemistry and Ecology I am sure long before most of you were born. I have devoted years to climate science and have made a lot of money from government grants. I have lived through the new ice age scare and watched my colleagues rush for the grant money. that was proceeded by the population scare. The population growth models predicted the human race would disappear by 2000. Open you minds people. The science is far from settled. I see some of you support communist thugs and swallow the theology of human caused warming. Heroes do not attack power plants; they attack myths like global warming. I am sure many of you would love to burn me at the stake.
There is no such thing as consensus in science. We do not vote on scientific truths. It must be a proven scientific fact, a theory or a hypothesis to be tested. We don’t vote; we do reproducible experiments and research. The proponents of global warming base everything on their models, which when given 1960 data cannot predict today’s temperatures. They have created a phony money machine.

I am sorry if I has disturbed your sad little website with facts. I am truly appaled by habitat loss by the way. That is something humans can actually do something about.

Bob, you seem to be confused. This article is reporting on statements made by scientists speaking at a Smithsonian symposium -- it is not an opinion piece. Maybe you should read the article before you make personal attacks on the author and the web site.

Bob,

While I respect your right to disagree with other people posting here and certainly your right to disagree with the scientists at the symposium, I would appreciate if you would do so respectfully without resorting to name-calling or baseless accusations.

When you write that well-intentioned scientists--who are as concerned about the fate of the natural world as you are--are 'scamming society for research'or are 'insulated from the real world' or 'support communist thugs' you sound petty and irrational, which in turn affects our willingness to listen to what you have to say.

Science is about debate, but it is very possible, and much more productive, to debate without name-calling and animosity.

Also calling Mongabay a 'sad little website' goes against the fact that the website has well over a million unique visitors from around the world a month.

Jeremy Hance (author of the piece)

if "bob" actually studied biogeochem and climate science perhaps he could share his full and proof of his work with the gang here on mongabay.

no one is out to "burn you at the stake." we're fighting for the last vstiges of nature and wilderness left on planet earth.

the individuals and groups risking their lives and welfare to stop climate change by whatever means necessary are not seeking recognition as "heroes" and the scientists and environmentalists working on these problems are not becoming rich - most of the ones i work with here in the neotropics are very poor by US standards.

if you actually were even remotely connected to ecology or climate science you'd be aware of that.

I think it is important for us to address both of these issues equally, because they are both extremely significant.

Fred Smilek is the acting president of the Society to Save Endangered Species. It was founded two years ago by Fred Smilek along with his two best friends Charles and Jonathan.

Email- Fred_Smilek@yahoo.com
Webpage- http://sites.google.com/site/fredjsmilek/