Dr. James Fitzsimmons

Just paving it.

Just like, we don't want to have to deal with this, right?

So they pave over it.

And the forest that they do keep, they manage it.

So they cut down everything that they don't want in the forest, kill everything they don't want, and they leave everything that's there.

So the forest that is there, a lot of times will have like, you know,

you know, tropical fruits in it that they like, or, you know, there might be game that they like that's there, right?

But they get rid of everything that they don't like.

And so we think of the forest as being pristine.

It's not.

Um, and, and yeah, that does alter weather patterns.

Um, you know, I was working, uh, in the early 2000s, I was working in this place, uh, called Sapotebo Ball.

Uh, it's, it's today, you know, it's today known as Sapotebo Ball.

Way back in the day, it was called Heeschweetz.

Uh, it was a rough translation of that as Jaguar Hill.

Right.

And, um, I was working in the town there and the people in the town, um, had gotten there, whatever it was, maybe, uh,

20, 30 years, it wasn't an old town, 20, 30 years ago.

And they had chopped down a whole bunch of forests.

And if you talk to the old timers, they would be like, yeah, I remember when it used to rain.