Online petitions

[Derek McMillan]

This is the text (omitting the name list) of a petition which I received from a friend. It prompted me to inquire.

*How many of these petitions are genuine? I have heard tell of many hoax ones.

* Are there more effective ways of putting pressure on using the internet. (I am not suggesting virus attacks or hacking!)

Derek McMillan

This is an online petition to the Brazilian

government, asking them to review a recent decision

concerning their rainforests:

Brazilian congress is now voting on a project that

will reduce the Amazon forest to 50% of its size. It

will take 1 MINUTE

to read this, but PLEASE put your names on the list

and forward this on as

instructed below.

The area to be deforested is 4 times the size of

Portugal and would be mainly used for agriculture and

pastures for

livestock. All the wood is to be sold to international

markets in the

form of wood chips, by large multinational companies.

The truth is that the

soil in the Amazon forest is useless without the

forest itself. Its quality

is very acidic and the region is prone to constant

floods. At this time

more than 160,000 square kilometres deforested with

the same purpose are

abandoned and in the process of becoming deserts,

meaning that this

proposal is in the short-term interests of a few, and

in the long term

interests

of none.

Please paste and copy the text into a 'new e-mail' put

your complete name in the list below, and send to

everyone you know. (DON'T JUST FORWARD IT AS IT WILL

THEN END UP WITH ROWS AND ROWS of '>'s)

If you are the 600th person to sign please send a copy

to:

fsaviolo@openlink.com.br Thank you for your help.