Deforestation In The Amazon Rainforest

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.

Today, the total percentage of forest cover of the earth is approximately thirty percent (“Deforestation”). That is about nine percent of the world’s total surface. The largest rainforest is the Amazon River Basin, located in South America. The Amazon is home to many species of animals, insects, plants and trees. Many of the trees and plants in the Amazon produce about twenty percent of the oxygen on earth, and absorb carbon. However, the Amazon is decreasing in size every day due to the ongoing deforestation of the land. Deforestation is when the forest of the land are cleared or destroyed, in order to be used for other actions (“Deforestation”). The Amazon is twenty percent less than it was about forty years ago (Wallace). In just about

Deforestation is defined as: “the clearing of virgin forests, or intentional destruction or removal of trees and other vegetation for agricultural, commercial, housing, or firewood use without replanting and without allowing time for the forest to regenerate itself” (SCRIBD). Deforestation has been a problem in Latin America since the early 1900s and the severity of the dilemma is increasing rapidly. Deforestation not only has consequences for the environment, but also, the indigenous people and the national economy. The logging industry in Latin America is often exploited by multinational companies that are not properly regulated. The land that has provided a home and cultivated indigenous development for centuries is being dissipated rapidly. Due to an exponentially growing global population, there is an increased demand for low priced goods--like timber, crops, and meat. Many Latin American countries value revenue from selling these goods over the health of their local ecosystems. The crisis of deforestation and habitat loss is shifting from a local to global problem. As deforestation continues, global warming escalates worldwide, impacting every country and person. About 15 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions come from tropical deforestation, which is more than from all the world’s cars, trucks and buses combined (Schwartzman). Puerto Rico and Brazil provide contrasting examples of the impact of deforestation. Puerto Rico had an economic and environmental shift

Indigenous rights in Brazil have been very vague throughout the years and were difficult to obtain since many indigenous tribes were seen as an inferior class. There are around 900,000 indigenous people with a total of 240 tribes in Brazil in contrast to the 11 million indigenous people that lived there before the European colonist arrived. It was predicted that 90% died in the first years from diseases that they were not exposed to, such as the flu and smallpox, and the rest who survived the diseases were enslaved. Brazil has one third of the world’s rainforest and half of the amazon forest, but with the expansion of neoliberal policies deforestation has become a serious problem. According to Brazilian authorities, the rubber and cattle industries are responsible for 80% of the deforestation (COHA). This has evidently affected many indigenous communities that lived in the Amazon forest, displacing them from their lands and exploiting them for hard labor. By the 1950s, many predicted that the indigenous population in Brazil would disappear, but they have been able to recover by becoming active in the movement against neoliberal policies and their rights as human.

The most wood valuable are hardwood trees such as mahogany and rosewood. Furniture makers all over the world use the beautiful wood from these trees. These products range from paper to fine furniture. This shows that logger is willing to find these wonderful trees to make good furniture. Logging is the process of cutting and processing trees to produce timber and pulp to supply the world’s markets for furniture, construction, paper, and other product. This shows that the loggers make things for everyone in the world to use every day in their natural lives. Considering the products of deforestation, it can certainly provide an economic benefit, both regional and local in many instances. Timber and paper are created for the whole world to enjoy, and some of the toilet paper, which is used in most households. the loggers use their actions to make other important things than just buildings and house and that they provide an economic benefit to brazil.other things that the loggers do like make toilet paper, timber, and

Architects can in like manner secure rights to surrendered woods arrive essentially by "using" it for no under one year and a day - routinely by seething the neighborhood timberland and setting up a few dairy animals in the range. To cure this wasteful usage of the region, overseers in Brazil should consider laws that farthest point these practices. Then again potentially heads could approve a part of the current laws like the 1996 law that refused Amazon landowners from cutting more than 20% of the forest on their domain. Subsequently, deforestation in the Amazon is especially disturbing and our exercises today will figure out whether Earth will be naturally crushed for the 500 trillion or more individuals that will involve the earth in the midst of that future

As a citizen and a customer, I ask of you to rethink about cutting down millions of trees in Brazil. Not only does it harm the environment, it may harm your business in the long run. The rainforest in South America is very important for the world outside of commercial use. If you continue to clear-cutting the rainforests, the whole world pays the cost.

“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

One of the regulation that Brazilian government and environmentalists put on regulating deforestation is restricting commercial use of cutting forest. In Jeff Tollefson’s article, “Battle for the Amazon,” he states “federal government designated areas in the Amazon basin for protection, cracked down on ranchers, farmers and land speculators, and put pressure on local government, while environmentalists ramped up campaigns against companies that were exporting beef, leather, and soya beans from illegally cleared land”. From here, we see both government agencies and environmentalists have actively put effect on stopping illegal deforestation in Amazon forest, and the result is remarkable. In the latter paragraph, it states “Brazil has lowered its carbon dioxide output more than any other country through a historic effort to slow forest loss. The deforestation rate here last years was roughly 75% below the average for 1996 to 2005 - just shy of Brazil's pledge to achieve an 80% reduction by 2020.” In other words, it can be said that the policy on restricting illegal activities in Amazon forest is workable for stopping deforestation, and government should strengthen the enforcement on

According to Andersen, other countries argue that the understandings of the Amazon rainforest and its functions are still not 100% determined accurately in the global ecosystem and that too much deforestation can cause huge damages to the global life support system. They also argue that the rainforests are much more valuable than the alternative land uses. Other countries also argue that Brazil can get only short-term rather than long-term effects from deforestation which is not worth it (Andersen, 2002). In general, many people are concerned with the overall loss of biodiversity of species due to the Amazon deforestation, as well as the effect of deforestation on overall global warming. Governments usually do not think about the ecosystem and the climate, first they think about the economy. I believe that not only the Brazilian government, but also governments from all countries should pay more attention to improving the ecosystems in their countries by working on the sustainability of their

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

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.

Rainforests have been declining rapidly over the last few decades. There are various factors responsible for this decline, resulting in serious impacts on the environment and the economy. Critically discuss the causes of deforestation and solutions to it.

There are a number of negative effects of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon such as climate change, extinction of endemic species of rich biodiversity and destruction of home of indigenous people. First of all, climate may vary and deteriorate because of deforestation. Especially green house gas emission could have significant impacts on earth residents. Because it is calculated that Amazon rainforest contains about 10% of all carbon in the world, which total release will be disastrous. The deforestation of Amazon is responsible for the most greenhouse gas emissions which are the results of logging and burning of Amazon could have serious impacts to the whole world, including global warming (Butler, 2007). For instance, increase of 0.8 C from 1880 was indicated and especially two last decades of 20th century were hottest ones. Moreover, effects of it can be considerably felt in Alaska, Eastern Russia and Canada, where the double increase of temperature compared with total average was indicated (National Geographic News 2007). Another damage that deforestation could make is runoff of Amazon River. It is estimated that if “widespread deforestation” arise, there will be 20% increase in runoff, which could be