Arthur Golden and Matt Miller

Late in 1993, San Diego Union-Tribune journalists traveled to Central America and Southeast Asia to investigate the clear-cutting of tropical rain forests. In the following viewpoint, published February 2, 1994, Union-Tribune staff writers Arthur Golden and Matt Miller argue that unabated rain forest cutting—much of it by loggers and migrant farmers who harvest valuable mahogany—is damaging precious rain forest areas. Such deforestation, the authors assert, is responsible for devastating floods and mudslides that have killed thousands of people. According to Golden and Miller, officials fear that rain forest cutting will cause irreversible environmental damage.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. According to Golden and Miller, how much of the world’s rain forests are destroyed annually?
2. Why are some rain forests less endangered by deforestation than others, in the...