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badly needed crops,
firewood becomes scarce.
Animal dung , needed for
fertilizer, is increasingly
burned for fuel. The
resulting poor crops drive
farmers lo clear still more
land, further exacerbating
the fuel shortage.
The Earthscan report
estimates that a 5- to
20-fold increase in tree
planting, depending on the
area, is required lo solve
the problem. But such
increases, says the report ,
are " lar beyond any realistic
possibility" for many
countries.
Human lllness
Linked
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ToDrugged
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-j
Livestock
z
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w idespread use of
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antibiotics to stimulate
Firewood:
TheOther
Energy Crisis
lnternational lnstitute for
Environment and
Development, based in
London), forests in
underdeveloped countries
are disappearing faster than
they can be replaced. And
that in spite of a
growth in farm animafs is
being bfamed for the
development of
drug-resistant bacteria in
humans.
Nearly 50 percent of the
antibiotics made in the
~
United States, for example,
i
are fed to farm animals. In
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Sorne alternate fuels are
available, but only lo those
who can afford them. For
the majority of the Third
World, the report concludes:
"The depletion of formerly
free firewood supplies
means that fuel joins food,
water and housing on the
list of basic needs that are
satisfied inadequately and
with great trouble."
Consequently, "Poor
people in much of Africa.
Asia and Latín America will
be able lo cook their meals
only at tragic cost for
themselves and the
environment. ' ' •
strains of bacteria and permit
more resilient organisms to
flourish.
Drug manufacturers and
meat producers have long
insisted there was no
evidence that resistance
could be passed from
livestock to humans. Recent
T
he energy crisis over oil
that rocked the industrial
West in the early 1970s is,
to sorne degree, only a
distan! memory. But in much
of the Third World, a fuel
crisis is raging out of
control.
$1
00-million-a-y~ar
reforestation program
sponsored by the World
Bank. In many poor nations,
firewood supplies more than
90 percent of fuel needs.
1983 $270 million worth of
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antibiotic food additives were
~ ==~~~-'--~~iiijiiiiiiii
sold.
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According to a report
entitled Fuelwood: The
Energy Crisis That Won't Go
Away, published by
Earthscan (part of the
May 1985
The main cause of
deforestation in the Third
World is the creation of new
farmland. As new land is
cleared of trees to plan!
Medica! scientists have
long suspected that animals
fed a steady diet of
antibiotics with their feed
were potential factories for
drug-resistant bacteria.
Antibiotics destroy weaker
investigations by the U.S.
Centers for Disease Control ,
however, have renewed
efforts to restrict use of
antibiotics for farm animals.
New leads emerged from
11 severe cases of
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