On the surface, expanding agriculture into the rainforest seems to be a fast and simple way to alleviate hunger and malnutrition, but in reality, the resulting environmental damage--in addition to being intrinsically harmful--would actually worsen the hunger that the expansion is trying to solve. In 2014, Brazil was removed from the UN World Hunger Map, an accomplishment that Social Development Minister Tereza Campello credits to “a mix of public policies and an increased food supply” (“World Hunger Map”). Unsurprisingly, at least a significant portion of the “increased food supply” came from agricultural expansion in the Amazon Rainforest, which currently hosts approximately 200 million cows (“Cattle Ranching”). Unfortunately for Brazil, its accomplishment of ending famine within its borders may be soon reversed. …show more content…
They determined that deforestation would cause a decrease in precipitation that would harm agricultural productivity by up to 34 percent (Kirby). As a result of reduced agricultural yields, the researchers ominously deduce that “‘total agricultural output may either increase much less than expected proportional to the potential expansion in agricultural area, or even decrease, as a consequence of climate feedbacks from changes in land use’” (Kirby). If the researchers’ direst prediction of a decrease in net agricultural output proves to be true, then every acre of agricultural land in the Amazon would actually take food out of the mouths of the malnourished. Even if their worst case scenario does not become true, the people still face an uphill battle against hunger as bigger and bigger swaths of land must be cleared in order to grow less and less food. In either case, the problem of hunger remains
The Amazon Rainforest, being one of the most dense, beautiful, and awe inspiring places of the world, has a lot of intrinsic value. However, by studying data of earth we can see how over the past few decades this has been changing. During the agricultural revolution humans began to grow crops and domesticate animals. In the mid 1790s, the Industrial revolution occurred and brought massive advances in medicine and agriculture. These two revolutions greatly increased earths population. There are about seven billion people in our world today. This number grows by about seventy million people per year, meaning that we are quickly growing in population size. Overpopulation has caused the ecological footprint of humans to greatly increase. The amazon rainforest is also home to many natural resources including fresh water, medical plants, and minerals, which as population increases, we use up more of these resources that can be produced and this causes deforestation. Humans are going into the amazon rainforest and clearing lands at an alarming rate. Earth has a specific carrying capacity. Although humans have changed this more than any other species through our ingenuity, we don’t know when or if we can once
Deforestation poses an alarming threat to Brazil’s Amazon rainforest, and it has been a serious concern for over 40 years. For thousands of years, the abundant, valuable resources in the Amazon were familiar only to the indigenous people of the region. In the 1500’s, before European colonization of Brazil, there were an estimated six to nine million individuals part of different cultures that made up a rich Amazonian society (“History”). Surrounded by the luxuriant rainforest and its natural resources, these indigenous tribes were able to thrive by utilizing the resources without destroying their habitat. After European emigration, the government of Brazil exploited the value of the Amazon’s resources in the twentieth century. In the 1970’s, the Brazilian government discovered the “untapped source of boundless potential” hiding in the Amazon and began using incentives to persuade settlers to develop its resources (Casey). Once economists realized the importance of the resources found within the rainforest, European pioneers set out to transform the Amazon into their home. By endorsing colonization, the government could not only boost the country’s economy, but also gain control over Brazil’s vast territory. The government supported migration to the rainforest and campaigned for the construction of infrastructure (“History”). In concurrence, the development of roads such as the Trans-Amazonian Highway, a 2,000 mile road built in 1972, granted people and machinery entrance to
However, due to more people searching for plots there is greater pressure on the amount of available land. The logging industry is responsible for a relatively small level of deforestation, accounting for 3% in Brazil. Consequently, all these activity contribute together to the rapid loss of what is left of the rainforest and a large proportion of the world’s biodiversity. All of the resources that the rainforest provides could be lost in the next 40 years.
Cargill and Bunge are two American-based food giants that are causing deforestation in the Amazon. “Cargill and Bunge, are the only known agricultural traders.” Hiroko Tabuchi, Claire Rigby, and Jeremy White writers from the New York Times investigated how these food giants are the problem that are causing the Amazon deforestation. In their article “Amazon Deforestation, Once Tamed, Comes Roaring Back.”(2017), Hiroko Tabuchi, Claire Rigby, and Jeremy White informs that the world's largest rainforest the Amazon has rose in
This policy memo addresses the development and expansion of the cattle ranching industry in Brazil, which has contributed to the mass deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon in the last 40 years. It exposes the regional and global consequences to deforestation and provides strategies for the Brazilian government to sustainably manage cattle ranching industries while protecting the future of the Amazon. The rainforest ecosystem is an immense reserve of natural recourses that is far more valuable than the beef produced on Brazilian cattle ranches. Not only does the rainforest create habitat for up to 65% of the world’s biodiversity, but when harvested sustainably, it provides humans with an abundance of spices, foods, oils, medicines
The Amazon Rainforest is a mighty jungle filled with an array of exotic species of wood, like mahogany, and rich natural resources such as gold, copper, tin, and nickel. Naturally, people want to make a profit, but the rainforest’s trees stand in the way. Logging is the main source of deforestation. Every year, millions of trees are cut down to be made into timber. Many times, these logging operations are illegal. These operations will keep exploiting the Amazon for its exotic timber, not caring that many of these species of plants are either rare, or help support rare species and ecosystems. Mining also creates deforestation, but not as severely as logging. Trees are cut down to make way for mining operations that dig for non renewable resources like copper and gold. Trees are also used as charcoal to help produce pig iron. A third cause of deforestation is agriculture. Cattle ranches and soy plantations are created where the Amazon Rainforest once stood. As people expand their farms, they must cut down the areas they now use for farming. Trees are also cut to make space for animal pens. Governments also contribute to the deforestation problem by building roads and creating infrastructure. Although these roads help with communication and navigation, they cut through the rainforest, and often help illegal loggers create new roads from their operations in the jungle to these roads that connect with civilization. All of these factors have helped cut down the Amazon Rainforest. In the past
Deforestation in the Amazon Rainforest not only harms the forest, but it also harms the animals in the forest, the humans outside the forest, and Arctic Animals far North. Deforestation effects all life on Earth in an extremely negative way.
Since the start of the 1970s, an area of the rainforest the size of California has been lost. In the Brazilian Amazon three million acres were lost between 2007 and 2008 (Amazon Rainforest). This is due to the illegal logging, soy plantations, cattle ranching, and other human actives. The forest is being threatened and so is everything that depends on it.
The main reason for so much loss of land is due to all the illegal farming that goes on in the amazon. The only way to detect any illegal activity is with a satellite. This works, but not so well because they only capture half the rainforest because the other half is covered by clouds. The illegal farmers are smart and use techniques that trick the low resolution images that the satellites take. This is why Brazil is stepping up their game and trying a plan. “Brazil is using a plan called Deter B.” Brazil has been improving way to act on the situation. They have more involved and made their forces better in tracking illegal soybean and cattle grazing farms. Brazil has said in a meeting with us the US that deforestation of the amazon is going to stop by 2025 - 2035. With this would take the ban off Brazil's cattle transport to the US. The US would actually help with their legal soybean and cattle grazing farms. Brazil has realized what has been going on but the there re-elected president that wants to build a highway running through the middle of the Amazon. We should preserve our biggest and most important biodiversity in the world. If not it could all be gone in no
“The lungs of the Earth,” the Amazon rainforest is the largest tropical rainforest in the world and is home to a countless number of species (National Geographic, 2015). In 2013 the rate of deforestation in the Amazon rose by 29 percent and was largely observed in the states of Para and Mato Grosso in Brazil (Teixeira, 2014). The latest images taken by NASA’s satellite, Aqua reveals that multiple fires took place in these mentioned regions and were reported to have been intentional in order to clear land area (NASA, 2014). Earlier this year Sao Paulo faced severe draughts and the “drizzle city” was compared to a desert with 20 million settlers facing water cuts (Lean, 2015). Scientists believe the reason for this is the clearing
On the environmental sides, the issues are species extinction and global warming. According to World Wildlife Fund’s website, it states “Amazon is the largest rainforest on the planet, it contains sixty percents of the rainforest of the world, and it is home for ten percents of known species today.” Amazon forest also has a key role in maintaining the carbon dioxide level because the forest is a part of the carbon dioxide and oxygen circulation. If deforestation is continuing worsen, carbon dioxide level will increase dramatically. In Manfred Wiebelt’s article, “Stopping Deforestation in the Amazon: Trade-off between Ecological and Economic Targets?”, Weibet points out the Amazon deforestation is one of the major contributors to the current carbon dioxide emissions, and he states: “concentration levels of CO2 - the principal greenhouse gas - in the atmosphere will increase to 50 percent over the next fifty years.” On the stakeholders side, restricting Amazon land use will cause problems on economic development. In today’s society, people reply heavily on natural resources, and they use forest for agricultural expansion, livestock ranching, logging, and infrastructure expansion. If commercial activities are restricted in Amazon forest, the economic system will hit problems
The Amazon Rainforest is a very diverse and complex place. It provides at least 10% of the world’s known biodiversity and it is the largest rainforest that the Earth contains (Thompson, 2010). Unfortunately, this valuable Earth biome is endangered due to human activities such as deforestation. About 17% of the Amazon rainforest has been destructed (Thompson, 2010). Deforestation leads to an increase in CO2 emissions and in global warming and it decreases biodiversity. This not only has an impact on the Amazon ecosystem, it has an impact on the whole planet. A lot of wealth inequality resulted around the 1970s when the settling of Amazon began which initiated deforestation (Marston, Knox, Liverman, Del Casino & Robinsons, 2013).
The Amazon is currently the largest deforestation front in the world. Deforestation is impacting us as well as a large range of plant and animal species. Every ten seconds, eight football fields of rainforests are destroyed. A variety of scientists that study deforestation have also reported that by 2030, more than a quarter of the Amazon will be gone. If we do our part by supporting the cause to reduce deforestation, we will cause a positive decline in global warming and, as an overall benefit, the cost effectiveness of reducing deforestation will then be able to be used by assisting others around the
The Amazon rainforest is perhaps the richest collection of plant and animals diversity in the world. It recycles rainfall from coastal regions to the continental interior, providing water for Brazil’s inland agriculture. Big industries like Archer Daniels Midland, Bunge, and Cargill have established industrial soy plantations in Brazil that are taking over large plots of land in the Amazon rainforest (Food for Thought). Soy has been popularized in the past decade as a healthy protein substitute for the restricted diets of vegetarians and vegans. In the past 40 years, soybean production has increased by 500% (Soy Benefits). International demand for the soybean has been on the rise, and with it comes an increase in deforestation and
Before South American nations like Brazil focused on reducing deforestation, a 15-year study from the United Nations ranked South America fourth in annual carbon emissions. Once the home of the greatest rainforests in the world, a large percentage of these complex ecosystems have been sacrificed for pastureland. In fact, over 70% of the area’s deforested lands are used for grazing, largely because of the regions beef production (Gaworecki). Why is this such a massive problem? “Because 50% of the Earth’s remaining tropical rain forests are in South America, keeping these forest intact is crucial to controlling climate change” (Pulsipher). Essentially, although across the world from each other, South America’s struggle directly affects the many island nations of Southeast Asia and Oceania.