From an environmental perspective the Amazon is negatively affected from the burning of the trees which is polluting the biggest rainforest in the world with Carbon dioxide (Co2). Also, a lot of nutrients are being lost from deforestation and high quality soil is being wasted. Desertification is slowly happening in the Amazon and other rainforests. If deforestation continues the rainforests will start to lose bodies of water, as well as vegetation and wildlife. There are many problems that the rainforest biome encounters.
Geography 101 13 July 2013 The Deforestation of the Amazon The deforestation of the Amazon is going to have catastrophic consequences. The legal and illegal results of chopping down trees in this great wetland, has dire consequences that our generation may not suffer but future generations will. “The Amazon is a vast region that spans across eight rapidly developing countries: Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana, an overseas territory of France. The landscape contains: one in ten known species on Earth; 1.4 billion acres of dense forests, half of the planet's remaining tropical forests; 4,100 miles of winding rivers, 2.6 million square miles in the Amazon basin, about 40 percent of South America” (“Amazon”). So you ask, why does it matter if we chop down a few trees?
With the depletion of the forest that converts the carbon dioxide into oxygen it has monumental negative effects on the planet as a whole. “Eleven developing countries recently linked to 82 percent of the carbon dioxide buildup due to deforestation will likely come under the greatest pressure for change: Brazil, Indonesia, Colombia, Cote D’Ivoire, Thailand, Laos, Nigeria, Vietnam, Philippines, Myanmar (Formally Burma) and India”. (“cooper”) One of the major locations deforestation is in the south Asian country Thailand. “Located wholly within the tropics, Thailand encompasses diverse ecosystem, including the hilly forested areas of the northern frontier, the fertile rice fields of the central plains, the broad plateau of the northeast, and the rugged coast along the narrow peninsula.”(“Thailand”). Since the formation of the country Thailand
Some of which include, global warming, destruction of habitat, and soil erosion. Global Warming has gradually increased over the years and the destruction of the Amazon is one of the reasons why. Steve Schwartzman, director of tropical forest policy for the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), discussed how much the Amazon actually plays a part in all of this. He states that, “About 15 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions come from tropical deforestation – more than from all the worlds’ cars, trucks, trains, ships and airplanes combined.” Rapid climate change is one of the biggest threats when dealing with the rainforest because so much of our Earths supply of greenhouse gases comes from it. The EDF is concerned that if more of the Amazon is cut down and global warming continues to be on the rise, the remaining rainforest will soon turn into a savanna.
The largest tropical rainforest in the world, the Amazon, is being rapidly destroyed. The reasons are many, and little is being done to prevent this. The use of chemical defoliants and the attempt of building a road through the Amazon has done horrific damage to the rainforest. Logging is a part of the reckless destruction of the beautiful rainforest. Cattle ranching contributes greatly to the demise of the amazonian rainforest.
The reason I chose to write essay on this topic is that I can acknowledge people on what really is happening to rainforests and advise them to realize how this problem might affect them in the present and in the future. Throughout fifty years, the rainforests ’ percentage of Earths’ surface had surprisingly decreased from 14% in the first ten years, 6% in the following twenty years) and finally dropped to 2% in the previous ten years throughout forty years’ information gathering. This fact has well reflected the problems that may have come from different causes. But the most vital causes are from human as to be seen rapidly from deforestation. However, these are just part of the whole process of rainforest destruction.
Organizational Method: Topical Topic : Rain-forest General Purpose: To inform Specific Purpose: To inform my audience about the two major cause rain-forest being destroyed. Central Idea : The area of rain-forest on earth is getting smaller, the reasons lead to this situation are deforestation and global climate change. INTRODUCTION: I. Rainforest are forests characterized by high rainfall, with definitions based on a minimum normal annual rainfall of 1750-2000mm. A. Around 40% to 75% of all biotic species are indigenous to the rainforests.
The Amazon Rainforest is and has always been a miraculous and extremely marvelous wonder of the world. It is the home to native Akawaio Indians (exactly how many is unknown), 358 mammal species, 15 percent of the world’s primates, as well as over 55,000 species of plants. Currently, 24 species of mammals and 1,000 plant species are threatened to extinction largely and mainly because of mass deforestation. Columbia's Amazon Rainforest is well over 55 million years old, has had human inhabitants both living in and visiting there for as far back as man can remember. Although old and beautiful in its existence, it is also very dangerous.
Trees grow up to 40m high, break through the low cloud layer and gain the sunlight. The leaves have tips that curve downwards so the rain drips off. The undergrowth will spring up wherever light reaches the forest floor and fallen leaves and plant matter rot swiftly to provide the nutrients that the rest of the plants require. The region is home to about 2.5 million insect species, tens of thousands of plants, and some 2,000 birds and mammals. One in five of all the birds in the world live in the rainforests of the Amazon.
(Wikipedia, 2012). The second theory is that the overpopulation caused deforestation (Tom Sever, NASA Archeologist) and then a drought made it hard to sustain life. The second theory has more evidence to support the theory, in fact decades of research has shown that “the Maya had completely transformed the land they lived by turning jungles into vast area of plains, filled with cities, farms and an ever growing