Deforestation In Amazon Rainforest

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.

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

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

In Middle and South America, it is evident that human interactions affect the physical features. The human interaction that affects Middle and South America is deforestation. In 1970’s a period of deforestation began in Brazil with the construction of the Trans-Amazon Highway; the road allowed migrant farmers to grow crops (Pulsipher & Pulsipher 2012). Deforestation continued throughout Middle and South America. The use lodging of hardwoods, extracting minerals, oil, gas, stones and clearing off land for raising cattle, and growing crops has impacted most of the land in Middle and South America (Pulsipher & Pulsipher 2012). The human interaction of deforestation has led to many environmental issues, changes in physical features. There are loss

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.

The Brazilian forest is known to produce around ten percent of the current greenhouse gasses, which contributes to global warming. Deforestation is also the leading cause of loss in forest cover in forests. When there is no forest cover in an ecosystem the soil can become eroded when rain events occur, causing the soil to move downward which causes damage to the habitats. Clear cutting the forest can not only impact the species and plants that are living there, but also the indigenous people that have been living there for

The Amazon rainforest in Brazil is facing high rate of deforestation along with the consequences. In fact, the rate of deforestation has increased by 29% from 2015. The deforestation is done illegally and the Brazilian government has made efforts to minimize the deforestation. An area the size of California has been cleared in the past half century and the government The Amazon Rain forest is responsible for eliminating around 2 billion tons of carbon dioxide. This yearly absorption helps eliminate greenhouse gases and when it is not absorbed it adds to climate change.

When the majority of the population is exposed to the words, “the Amazon”, through some form of written or spoken communications, most likely their initial, instinctive response is to visualize the Amazon rainforest as it is portrayed by a staggering amount of both past and present media outlets. This portrayal tends to be one consisting of a vibrantly colored rainforest, brimming with an abundance of diverse and exotic flora and fauna, and, a thriving and well-balanced collection of ecosystems which is, frankly, not even remotely accurate to the actual Amazon rainforest. Behind its deceptive facade endorsed by television, books, and occasionally even news, the Amazon rainforest occupies many dark truths relevant to degradation of the state of the earth’s various ecosystems and environments. Over the last several decades the Amazon has undergone numerous dramatic and, in fact, damaging changes all of which have been attributed to the area’s extensive deforestation.

During the previous years, one of the biggest threats the world as a whole faces is the destruction of our environment, mainly through deforestation. Deforestation is the destruction of forests in order to increase land usage for agriculture, grazing and urban development. Generally forest clearers cut or burn the trees to clear land. Deforestation is one of the major causes of environmental problems in Brazil with the rate it is developing. Brazil's development is coming at a time when scientists believe that the loss of the Amazon's forests, the Atlantic forest and the Cerrado will affect the way the planet functions. Brazil has the most amount of forest in the world, if the cutting of forests keeps going on this way it will affect the water

“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

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).

Although Brazil has had a reduction in deforestation, this was mainly due to a decline in agriculture markets, other than an increased level of legislature to protect the forests (Brazil's Success in Reducing Deforestation). With the explosion of societies that consume high levels of soy, further deforestation is inevitable unless safeguards are put in place to ensure expansion does not cause more harm to the biosphere (Soy).

Deforestation has been founded as a process which has over the many years become inevitable to societies that see opportunity deemed plausible for economic success, but that may not always be the case for instance here in Brazil. Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon region is continuing to remove vastly forest covered land at alarming rates where recent projects as of late has been established, resulting in negative effects such as overpopulation, food scarcity, and cultural expansion. These rates are on the rise and up to present don’t seem to be making strides in the opposing direction, although stated by some scholars that it’s actually decreasing due to land changing policies. Such actions come both as forms of exportation measures, but also as a form of employment to many indigenous peoples, inheriting these costly projects funded by the Elites and GEM prospering visions to inherit wealth within a struggling export oriented

As previously mentioned this essay will now look at three of the main reasons why deforestation is such a problem in the Amazon Rainforest. One of the major contributing factors is the need for housing and a wider trend of urbanization.

Brazil holds the global warming issue in the palms of its hands and the government of the world’s fifth-largest economy doesn’t seem to care. A recent article featured on usatoday.com states that the destruction of the Amazon rainforest rose 28% from August 2012 to July 2013 after 4 straight years of decline (Sibaja, 2013). I’m sure this may surprise some people because of the widespread concern of global warming and the affect it may have on future generations, but I don’t think the Brazilian government cares or is going to care unless another global superpower (France, Germany, China, United Kingdom, or the United States) presents some form of regulation and oversight to minimalize the emission of carbon dioxide.