Deforestation In America's Rainforests

The causes of deforestation vary in number a few have made a big impact on the problem. The USA's population has increased by over a hundred million people since 1970, more than half of the whole population at the time. As seen many factors come along with a growth in population things such as, a need for more space, and a need for more wood for conventional uses, all contribute to the huge increase of deforestation. With nearly one-quarter of America’s tree canopy existing in our backyards, city streets and parks, our population has a huge responsibility,according to, “United states, plant a billion trees”. The next big contributor to the problem of deforestation in the U.S. is land for livestock. In the U.S. one of the biggest causes of deforestation is land for livestock. The single biggest direct cause of tropical deforestation, is conservation to cropland and pastures, mostly for subsistence, which is growing crops or raising livestock to

However, forests around the world are under threat from deforestation, jeopardizing these benefits. Deforestation comes in many forms, including fires, clear-cutting for agriculture, ranching and development, unsustainable logging for timber, and degradation due to climate change. This impacts people’s livelihoods and threatens a wide range of plant and animal species. Some 46-58 thousand square miles of forest are lost each year, which is equivalent to 36 football fields every minute.

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

Deforestation is the destruction of a wide area of forest land into a cleared land that is used for a variety of reasons. The impact on the environment from cutting down, burning and damaging forests is very detrimental and there are severe consequences for the environment and future generations because of deforestation. According to the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization approximately 7.3 million hectares of forests are being destroyed per year in the world (Bradford, 2015). In this essay, I will explore the impact that deforestation on the environment and I will also look at the actions that are being taken to prevent deforestation. There are various reasons why deforestation is occurring despite its negative effects on the environment. Deforestation can cause very serious environmental problems such as climate change, flooding, loss of habitats as well as others.

Deforestation is the clearing of a forest and/or cutting down of trees for human benefits such as agriculture, wood exports, etc. Deforestation is the cause of numerous environmental impacts such as habitat loss, flooding and soil erosion. It can also cause climate change, by reducing the amount of rainfall and changing the amount of sunlight reflected from Earth’s surface and increases the risk of forest . Tree growth is important for biodiversity because they absorb carbon dioxide which is a harmful greenhouse gas . However, since deforestation reduces natural carbon sinks, it disrupts the balance between oxygen and carbon dioxide in the air causing the amount of carbon dioxide in the air to increase. This poses a serious

Tropical rainforests are the Earth?s oldest, richest, most productive, and most complex living ecosystems. They are located throughout many of the world?s continents including South America, Africa, and Asia and are defined by a few specific factors. Their location must be within the regions of the tropics and they must receive between 4-8 meters of rain per year (compared to about 1-2 meters in the United States). These forests also have no ?seasonality?, which means that they lack a definite dry or cold season of slowed growth.

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

In our world deforestation rate is getting higher day by day. In fact, the rate of

Have your eyes ever set on a barren land where even technology can’t reverse the damage we have caused? We care mostly for the present, but we must never forget to see to the future and in this case the deforestation of the Amazons. “Deforestation is considered the second largest anthropogenic source of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere” (Song et al. 2). Each day we are wiping out miles of trees from one of our most diverse ecosystems in the planet, and one of our largest “lungs” in the world. At our rate of destruction of the rainforest, we would have inflicted in our future a great disservice, as the trees cut down would no longer give us clean air and more CO2 would pollute our air. CO2 can have a negative impact on our health. As we breathe in this air, it can lead to lung cancer and other diseases. By destroying the Amazon ecosystem we could drive many exclusive species that only live in the Amazon to extinction. Will we know the harm we have caused right away? Probably not, but we will definitely find out sooner rather than later. The cause of the Amazon deforestation is due to our need for wood to stay warm, and for developing countries to use it for fuel. Our top priority in conserving the Amazons is the unforeseen environmental impact that can be caused to our planet and to us. “Tropical deforestation also has other negative externalities, such as the loss of biodiversity, erosion, floods, and lowered water levels” (Jusys).

Climate change is such a prevalent topic of concern in modern day that it is important to understand the contributions to it, deforestation being one of them. Deforestation exacerbates the already negative consequences of climate change. Forests play a fundamental role in many different aspects of earth systems and deforestation is decreasing the benefits of forests. Forests cover approximately thirty-one percent of the land cover in the world; however, 46-56 square miles of forestlands are lost each year (World Wildlife Fund). As technology continues to advance and the world increasingly becomes more industrialized, deforestation has the potential to get so extreme it will be difficult to go back and fix the negative effects.

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.

Tropical rainforests are unique ecosystems with specific features that make them a world patrimony. Today about forests cover about 31% of the planet’s land. However, 46-58 thousand square miles of forest is destroyed yearly, equivalent to 36 football fields per minute. Besides its ecological value, they provide several exploitable resources, which make these forests important in an economical perspective. Most tropical rainforests in the world belong to developing countries, where deforestation has been recently occurring at high rates due to the development of agribusiness. Brazil, which can attribute

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

Humans have developed the Amazon rainforest to serve their needs. Deforestation accomplishes short-term human goals such as logging, raising farm animals, crops, mining, etc. According to the U.S. Department of State, deforestation is directly related to climate change. Deforestation not only affects the animals living in the forests, but humans too. Basically all life on earth is impacted.

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.