Deforestation: Destroying one home at a time
January 7, 2009
In my last blog about the impact cows and the livestock industry in general has an the ecological community, I mentioned the growing problem of Brazilian rain forest deforestation. As soon as i read about this problem, i was instantly intrigued. How bad is it? Whose being affect? What are the Up sides? Does it really need to stop? I began my search.
To truly understand how big of a problem this specific deforestation case actually is, I thought I would research the Brazilian/Amazon Rainforest itself. It turns out that the Amazon rainforest spans over nine South American countries and a baffling 1.7 billion acres of land. Thats about 1,545,454,545.454 foot ball fields ( yeah I actually took the time out look up
that useless, but mildly interesting fact.) 60% of which is in the country if Brazil. The Amazon represents over half of the planet’s remaining rain-forests, and it comprises the largest and most species-rich tract of tropical rain-forests in the world. Two-and-a-half acres of Amazon Rain forest contain over 750 types of trees, more than all of North America. Another interesting fact i discovered about the amazonian rain forest was that 1 in 10 species alive today live there, to me that’s insane. Also, about a fifth of the planet’s fresh water flows down the Amazon river and according to estimates, 20% of the world’s oxygen is produced in the Amazon Rain forest. Through this research, it’s easy to see how very important the amazon rain forest is to the Earth.
Whose being affect? Actually, to date, at least 40,000 plant species, 3,000 fish, 1,294 birds, 427 mammals, 428 amphibians, and 378 reptiles have been scientifically classified in the region. They are being affected. Not to mention the 28,843invertebrate species in Brazil alone. These once abundant species are, many a case, being faced with the largest battle of their lives. The Battle for existence. As bleak as it sounds, its a sad reality for a good number of the species of in this area. They are being faced with the ever looming threat of habitat destruction. This problem leaves little to no chance for the species of the amazon to survive. As the habitat is cut down or burning, the animals loose their homes and food supply, leaving them to find refuge in new areas in the forest. However, these species are becoming so compacted that there is simply not enough food to feed all the hungry mouths.
The animals are not the only ones being affected, the whole globe is as well. Deforestation in the Amazon is actually partly responsible for global warming. Between losing oxygen producing plants, the release of CO2 into the air in the process of cutting tress down and green house gases being produced in the are that was once forest, the deforestation of the amazon is responsible with a sizable chunk of global warming.
So you may be asking yourself, if this is such a giant problem, why the heck are will continuing to cut down the beautiful rainforest that make our world so unique? Along with all the problems that come with deforestation there is also plenty of upsides such as: cattle ranches, agriculture, logging and commercial and residential living areas. All of which, we depend on heavily around the globe.
What’s the future going to look like? If we depend on it’s benefits and we can’t deal with the downfalls, what exactly is going to happen? Obviously, no one know what the future has in store for the organisms of the world, but we do have a rough idea. Due to the vast amount of economically needy people in Brazil, most of the brazilian governments money must go to help the economy of it’s country. This is understandable. However, the future is sill looking good if we have will to do anything to change it. According to The World Wild Fund, “$547.2 million US dollars would be required from international sources to compensate the forest developers and establish a highly organized framework to fully implement forest governance and monitoring and the foundation of new protected forest areas in the Amazon for future sustainability.” Thought his number seems daunting, with the help of everyone across the globe we might actually be able to save the habit, the animal species and our selves as well!
SOURCES:
http://www.mongabay.com/brazil.html
http://nhs.needham.k12.ma.us/cur/enviro_96-97/6/Shea/rainforest.htm
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