Deforestation: A Disastrous Future Ahead Essay

Deforestation presents in an abundance of ways, including fires, clear-cutting for agriculture, ranching and development, unsustainable logging for timber, and degradation due to climate change. The foremost reason of deforestation in Latin America is the requirement for food, fuel, shelter, and foreign exchange. Year on year, a space of tropical forest the size of Great Britain is "converted" from an area equal to the size of Europe. Ever since 1950, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), half of the world 's forests have disappeared. “Latin America has lost 37 percent of its tropical forests,” says the FAO. As more and more of Latin American forest are degraded, more and more detrimental effects are being seen. Deforestation is changing a number of resources for tribal groups, altering their way of life, temperatures are increasing at a dangerous rate because of a buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, habitats and species such as plants and wildlife are being annexed due to the destructive effects of deforestation. Deforestation is inarguably helpful to supplying money to countries that sell the products from the forest, but huge wealth being generated from the forests comes with large-scale environmental and social costs. The local residences are not benefitting and the funds are being siphoned out of the region.

Brazil’s rainforests and America’s rainforests are great examples of the negative effect that deforestation has on these specific areas. One of the rising challenges in our rapidly growing world is the destruction of rainforests and how it is slowly ruining the world that we live in. Deforestation has a lot of destructive impacts on the environment that is surrounding us, one of the most important being its effect on the climate. The fast rise in the world’s population, calling for high demand of resources, is only hastening the effects of deforestation, which can hopefully be put an end to through the enforcement of a handful of simple, key, and sustainable solutions.

Over half of the world’s forests have been destroyed in the last 10,000 years. An extensive fire that destroys a great deal of land or property could be thought to help “benefit” the economic or environmental aspects of daily life, but the society is clueless on the harm it is causing. Nearly half of the Earth's original forest cover has already been lost and each year an additional 32 million acres are destroyed. Our world is facing the greatest extinction crisis since the fall of the dinosaurs, 65 million years ago. The future of many of Earth's plants and animals will be determined within the next few decades. Hopefully, it comes as no great surprise to you that deforestation is a major problem in many areas of the world, both in terms of

Human activity can negatively impact on the environment in different ways, which can lead to consequences which are not only bad for the environmental area affected, but humans too. Activities such as causing radiation leaks with nuclear meltdowns and dumping waste are just some examples of how humans can worsen their own environment.

As you are reading this, sixty seconds from now approximately over 100 acres and roughly about 2,000 trees are being destroyed at an alarming rate worldwide. As a result an estimated 140 species of rainforest plants and animals go extinct every day. That is the equivalent of at least 42 million acres of tropical forests in Asia, Africa, and Latin America are lost each year, an area the size of the state of Washington (RFA). Now some may say in a geographical perspective the continents listed above are not in correlation to North America’s natural resources, but it is of vital importance to take swift precautionary methods to help reduce this process before it is too late. Even the most conservative estimates project

Deforestation is an environmental problem everybody gets affected by; but not equally. Cutting down trees and degrading the soil of an eco-system can change it for the worse and leave it unrecoverable. The Amazon Rainforest is a large and very biodiverse ecosystem that stretches across 5,500,000 kilometers. The Amazon Rainforest is not a stranger to deforestation since the late 1960’s. Deforestation in the amazon forest will cripple all organisms that rely heavily on the forest to provide for a sustainable life, while others not directly impacted may benefit from it. Other people may benefit from the deforestation of the Amazon Rainforest from the profit that comes with the use of land for agriculture/livestock. However, the tribes, plants, and animals, that live in the Amazon Rainforest suffer from the loss of Biodiversity, the habitat and resources that are being taken away from clearing forests, and the reduced air quality along with the increased carbon emissions. Deforestation is a process of demolition towards the ecosystem.

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.

There are several world changing events happening right now. However, many of these events are either forgotten or rarely discussed. One of these “forgotten” events is the deforestation of the rainforests. Rainforest deforestation primarily started in the 1970’s, but has since increased. Up until recently, deforestation of rainforests was seldom talked about despite how much it has affected the world. Rainforest deforestation needs more attention because it has occurred for many decades despite the environmental damage, the rainforest is important for the economy, food, and medicinal purposes, it has many adverse effects such as climate change, and there are several projects to reduce deforestation.

Advocates for the preservation of these forests state that deforestation has devastating consequences including social conflict, extinction of plants and animals, and dangerous climate changes, and that local deforestation in these forests are causing damages that aren’t just local, but global. While opponents claim that tropical forests are destined to diminish as it is necessary for the growing human population to clear the natural landscape to make room for farms and pastures, to harvest timber for construction and fuel, to build roads and urban areas and to develop the economies of the often poor countries that surround the equator.

According to many scientific studies, there has been a significant increase in the levels of Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere.5 This increase in greenhouse gases has serious consequences for the region, as well as the rest of the planet. These effects caused by deforestation have led to increased surface temperatures across the region of the Amazon.6 When the trees are cut down, the farmers move into the newly cleared area. These farmers bring livestock with them. These livestock release methane, another greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere. This only compounds the greenhouse effect seen in the Amazon region.7 The trees that were cut down absorbed much of the carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, in the atmosphere. These trees are being replaced by organisms that release more greenhouse gases. Increasing surface temperatures are suspected to be one of the key factors in the continuing drought in Brazil. Since 2014, as shown in Figure 5 there has been an increasing drought throughout Brazil. With some areas experiencing less than 50% of their average precipitation levels. Brazil has begun to push for water rationing in most areas of the country. Climatologists in Brazil fear for the fragile ecosystem of the Amazon, worrying that continuing droughts could permanently damage one of the most important and diverse ecosystems on the

The Earth is losing “upwards of 80,000 acres of tropical rainforest daily.” To put this into perspective this is 1/9 of the size of the state of Rhode Island that is being destroyed daily. Not only is the destruction of the rain forest causing problems for only the organisms living within the rainforest but also for people and industries worldwide. We need to save our rainforests so that we can continue to survive and also help the animals that live within the areas being destroyed. People are cutting these areas down for more development and empty land but causing more harm than good in the long run.

Rainforests are being put at riscks because of mankind and only mankind can help it. In the end if we deforest the world it will have a big impact on the world. For example there will be less trees to give oxygen and stopp carbon dixide. Another side affect is the would

Deforestation has been practiced for as long as humans have colonized and practiced agriculture. The mostly widely accepted definition is “longer-term conversion of forests to some other kind of ecosystem, such as agricultural or urbanized land” (Freedman 2004). The main difference in our age is the scale and rate we are clearing forests and that most of the deforestation today occurs in tropical countries (FOA 2010). In 2003 alone, ten thousand square miles of Amazon forests were destroyed. While deforestation rates are showing signs of slowing, in some countries, most scientists and researchers agree (FAO 2010); our current tropical deforestation practices are only contributing to an unsustainable environment for the future.

Deforestation is one of the most significant issues of our time; considerable measures must be taken to prevent further pillaging of our unique forest resource.

The rate of deforestation is increasing and the tropical forests are falling at approximately 140,000 acres per day (Miller & Tangley 1991: xvi). The forests are crucial to the environment. They are important in minimizing erosion, providing a stable habitat for many animals, and helping to keep the environment clean. Deforestation has devastating effects, not only on the biological dependents within the depleted forests, but also on the surrounding human-populated communities.