Deforestation In The Amazon Rainforest

Words: 708
Pages: 3
Open Document
Deforestation
Introduction:
Around 31% of land on earth is covered by forest but over 150,000 square km are lost each year to deforestation. Forests are usually cleared to make way for agriculture, logging for timber and urban development. Forests are also lost due to fires and degradation via climate change. Deforestation is a main issue in tropical rainforests, the habitat of most of the world’s biodiversity. Places like the Amazon rainforest in South America have lost over 17% of the forest in the last 50 years. Above that 75% of land animals and plants are habituated in forest and with the increasing rate of deforestation, in the next hundred years, all of that habitat could disappear. This report will investigate the factors of deforestation, …show more content…
Thus the increasing need for farmland and pastureland is evident. With cities also expanding, the lack of space for such farmland is causing the push to cut down forests to make space.
• Logging
As the world’s population grows, as well as a need for food, the need for housing, wood and paper products are growing. Logging operations cut down many hundreds of thousands of trees each year. Loggers create roads into forests in order to move in machinery and transport the timber out of the forests, these roads decrease the likely hood of the forest ever growing back after being cut down.
• Fires
Whilst fires can be beneficial in rejuvenating bushland in places like the Australian bush, fires are extremely destructive and destroy millions of acres of forests every year. The same amount is lost to fires as is lost to agriculture and logging combined.
Impacts:
The main impacts of deforestation on the environment are:
• The increase in greenhouse gas emissions
Forests help hold onto carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions, but they become carbon sources when they are cut, burned or otherwise removed. More than 210 gigatons of carbon is held by tropical rainforests alone. Deforestation represents around 15% of greenhouse gas …show more content…
These forests are most vulnerable to deforestation. When forests are cut down these creatures lose their homes, food and water sources and are unable to adapt to live in farmland. They are also more accessible to hunters and poachers. This causes a vast decrease in species population and can also lead to extinction.
The main impacts on people are:
• Destruction of indigenous people’s homeland
As large amounts of forests are cleared away, the habitats of extreme amounts of species are destroyed, the indigenous tribes who depend on them to sustain their way of life are also irreparably damaged. Many of the governments for these nations also attempt to evict indigenous tribes, before the actual clear-cutting begins. One of the pre-emptive effects of deforestation.
• A reduction of water in the atmosphere
The trees help control the level of water in the atmosphere by regulating the water cycle. With fewer trees left, there is less water in the air to be returned to the soil. This causes dryer soil and the inability to grow crops. This is somewhat ironic considering that 80% of deforestation occurs to make way for agricultural reasons.
Show More

Related Documents: Deforestation In The Amazon Rainforest

Deforestation In The Amazon Rainforest Essay

With an estimate of about 10 million types of plants and animals, the amazon rainforest is the largest in the world, and creates about 20% of the world's oxygen. In the Amazon, around 17% of the forest has been lost in the last 50 years, mostly due to forest destruction for cattle ranching ( ). The more trees that are cut down, the less oxygen will be produced and more carbon dioxide will remain in the atmosphere. The Amazon Basin stores approximately 100 billion metric tons of carbon, more than…

Words 866 - Pages 4

Amazon Rainforest Deforestation Research Paper

“Destroying rainforest for economic gain is like burning a Renaissance painting to cook a meal.” -E.O. Wilson (biologist). Rainforest deforestation should be practiced limitedly. They are natural oxygen producers and carbon sinks, it is home to plants, animals, and natives, and water/medicines are found in the rainforest. These are some of the many benefits of rainforests. To start, rainforests are the lungs of our Earth. The Amazon rainforest itself produces around 20% of our oxygen. Furthermore…

Words 449 - Pages 2

Essay on Amazon Deforestation

Deforestation in the Amazon Rainforest The Amazon Rainforest has evolved over millions of years to turn into the incredibly complex environments they are today. Rainforests represent a store of living and breathing renewable natural resources that for years, by virtue of their richness in both animal and plant species, have contributed a wealth of resources for the survival and well-being of humankind. These resources have included basic food supplies, clothing, shelter, fuel, spices, industrial…

Words 1689 - Pages 7

Amazon Rainforest

The Amazon, famous for its immense biodiversity, is the world’s largest tropical rainforest in the whole world. Its rainforest area covers 1.4 billion acres. It is the home to millions of species of plants and animals (“Amazon Rainforest Facts”). It holds 30% of the world’s water supply, metals, and minerals (Kurian). The protection of the Amazon is an unsolved matter. Exploitation of the Amazon rainforest has both a positive and negative impact on the Indigenous people, ecosystem, and climate…

Words 739 - Pages 3

Research Paper On Amazon Rainforestation

Amazon Rainforest Deforestation The Amazon Rainforest, a major rainforest on our planet, is disappearing at an awfully fast rate. The size of 2,000 football pitches is lost during a 90 minute football match, which means more than 5300 square meters a minute. This can’t keep going. Deforestation is destroying the earth’s environment and the lives living on it. The Amazon is one of the most important rainforest on our planet. It contains over half of the planet’s remaining rainforest, and is the…

Words 533 - Pages 3

Rainforests: Amazon Rainforest and Rainfall Essay

John Smith GEO 101 Johnson Tuesday, November 20 Loss of Rainforests Tropical rainforests play a vital role in the planet's natural systems. Current studies are showing that there is a vital relationship between the rainforests and rainfall. The forests regulate climate and weather through their absorption. They act like a sponge while recreating rain and exchanging natural gases in the air. For example, the Amazon rainforest creates 50 to 80 percent of its own rainfall through transpiration…

Words 1007 - Pages 5

international relations paper

species directly corresponds to the environmental threats that put animals in vulnerable positions. The environmental threats: deforestation, climate change, and the extraction of natural resources have resulted in animals becoming critically endangered throughout South America. Deforestation has posed a huge threat to species that live throughout the Amazon. Deforestation, which is the removal of trees in forests, takes place due to the expansion of agriculture for economic development. Poorer countries…

Words 1541 - Pages 7

Amazon Rainforest Research Paper

According to Greenpeace International the Amazon rainforest has the most diverse ecosystem on earth. It comprises of more than 60000 plant species, 1000 bird species, and more than 300 mammal species that are known to the scientific world. There are however countless undiscovered species deeper in the rainforest. For years, Amazon has been affected by concentrated logging, mining and construction, cutting of huge paths through the tropical forest. Deforestation continues to erode the world’s most significant…

Words 1505 - Pages 7

Should We Put The Economy Before The Environment?

Reily R. Jonas Ms. Meredith Haby English I Pre-AP 29 April 2014 Should We Put the Economy Before the Environment? The Amazon Rainforest accounts for more than half the worlds’ plant, animal, and insect species, 20 percent of our oxygen supply, and 80 percent of our fruits and vegetables (Witherbee, Issitt, Warhol). We have been cutting too many trees down and deforesting it. I believe that we should put the environment before the economy, because the economy will not matter if we are all gone. The…

Words 794 - Pages 4

Amazon Research Essay

DESTROYING A LIFE 2 In the many years since the beginnings of the Amazonian deforestation, humans have ignored the problem facing them, that one day they will wake up and realize that they have destroyed all of their natural rainforest and medicinal plants; therefore ruining the chance of Earth’s survival. For what? For the beauty of exotic wood in their homes, or a romantic fire in their hearth. Throughout the next several years, deforestation could pump 200 billion tons of carbon into the atmosphere. Natural…

Words 821 - Pages 4