ABSTRACT
L aking back, the years of 1998 and 1999 were not particularly auspicious in environmental terms. For instance, the
world witnessed an explosion in the number and scale of flooding or diminished rainfall and wildfires in tropical, temperate and boreal forest alike. In the southern United States, Central America and Bangladesh, El Nino related weather patterns and the resulting flood caused much destruction. In Russia, Australia, Brazil, Alaska, Indonesia, Thailand and Rwanda and even in the United States wildfires, due to diminished rainfall, were recurrent headlines.
