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.
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
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.
One of the many environmental problems faced today by human activity is deforestation. Deforestation refers to the term used to describe the demolition of woodland, forest cover and plantations to allow space for agriculture, industrialization or for urban uses. Forest clearance “which is associated with extreme local impacts such as loss of habitat, loss of biological diversity and instability of slopes and soils” (Hugget et al: 2004). There are many reasons for deforestation, such as agricultural activities, urbanization, logging, mining and the desertification of land (conserve energy future: 2014). According to the United Nations food and agriculture organization every year almost eighteen million acres of forests are lost and destroyed each year (FAO: 2014). The rapid and ever increasing rate of deforestation makes it very dangerous and distressing and fear of the long-term effects that may be a result if the rate of clearing does not decrease or is controlled. The Amazonian is the largest rainforest in the world, spreading across an area of 1.7 billion acres through Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana. The forest supplies the world with more than twenty percent of its oxygen and is referred to as “the world’s lungs” (tropical rainforest facts). The rainforest is being destroyed at a fast and alarming rate with 2,700 million acres being cleared
The Amazon Rainforest is the largest rainforest and river basin in the world. It covers around 2.1 million square miles of land, and exists in eight different countries and one French Territory. The Amazon rainforest is one of the most diverse places on the planet, accounting for ten percent of all known species, with more being discovered every year. But in this fragile ecosystem, people see opportunity to make money and a lifestyle, sometimes even illegally, trying to profit in the logging, mining, and agriculture industries. However, these industries help contribute to the deforestation of the Amazon Rainforest.
The Denver Academy has recently researched and defined some of the important facts surrounding the Amazon rainforest. In 2017, the Amazon rainforest covers 2.1 million square miles of South America. It is a vast ecosystem home to 10% of the world’s known species (The Denver Academy). They go on to say that the trees are so dense, when it rains, it takes 10 minutes for the water to break through the forest roof. The destruction of this habitat could lead to extinction of these species, and have devastating impacts all over the world from the loss of the lungs of the earth. While it is mainly concentrated in Brazil there are also large portions of the rainforest in Peru and Colombia, so many populations and economies are directly affected
Approximately two-thirds of the Amazon rainforest and one-third of the remaining rainforest in the world is in Brazil. The Amazon is home to ten percent of the total known species worldwide, making Brazil the most biodiverse country in the world. However, deforestation and land conversion in Brazil are prevalent issues and a threat to the biodiversity, endangered species, and indigenous people that live in the Amazon.
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.
It has been noted that in the early 1970s the Brazilian Amazon covered 4,001,600 s.q. km. However, as of 2015, the remaining coverage has decreased to roughly 3,331,065 s.q. km. This indicates a total forest loss of 670,535 s.q. km in the short timeframe
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.
Tropical Rainforests are located nearest to the Earth’s Equator; they take up 7% of space on the earth’s surface. Tropical Rainforests are found in places like South America, Africa, South East Asia, and Australia. Tropical Rainforests are viewed as natures global powerhouses, this is due to the amount of 60-160 inches of rain that they produce each year, which then gets distributed all over the planet. The constant rain combined with the warmth of tropical rainforests which ranges from 21°-30° Celsius makes a habitable environment for many species’.
The Brazilian Rainforest is one of the most unique, vast, and diverse regions of the world. To get a general idea of the diversity of the Rainforest, it makes up a total of one-third of the world forests (more than four million square kilometers), it contains half of the total number of named species in the world (eighty-thousand plant species, 1,500 fish species, and one-forth of the 8,600 bird species), and is the world largest holder of genes (Library 138-139). To say the least, the Brazilian Rainforest is one of the most important natural resources we, as humans, know. It would seem that this knowledge, alone, would also make the Brazilian Rainforest one of the most protected land areas on Earth as well. However, the situation is
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.