Evil pencil makers!

The Informed Reader (B8 today) quotes from Nov. 22's New York Review of Books. According to Duke University biologist John Terborgh, the rain forests are in danger from fire (hmmm...yes, wet wood makes a lot of smoke, i.e. nasty greenhouse gases) and sudden climate change. Predictably, loggers increase this chance of fire by "creating a path for sunlight and providing extra kindling on the ground."

Well, what do you think happens if wood dries? It burns and presto! we've lost another pristine rain forest. But since (according to Them) we've gone through a couple ice ages already and therefore a couple dry periods (without rain forests, perhaps?), what's so bad about this one?