Globalization In The Amazon Essay

Earth currently sustains a human population of seven billion. This number has more than doubled in the past fifty years, and isn’t expected to slow down anytime soon. Years of global development caused by such rapid population growth have brought economic and industrial globalization to new heights. Products one purchases at a local store can have originated from the opposite side of the planet. International trade, while providing many of the needs for this increasing human population, often does so at the expense of the natural world; the very world that provides the resources from which industry was birthed. In some cases, the ever-growing population puts insurmountable strain on Earth’s natural resources and processes. A prominent example

There is some ambiguity to the original total area of the rainforest and the current amount of deforested lands, but all in question of the matter agree that it is a very serious issue. The total amount of area deforested in the Amazon has increased tremendously in the last forty years. 15.2 million hectares were destroyed in 1978 compared to a whopping 60.3 million hectares in 2001 (Margulis 6). These numbers directly correlate to the vast expansion in big business in the region. Evidence Increasing international demands for products produced around the Amazon is the central reason behind the increasing deforestation. Evidence And with deforestation growing, the affects on the environment have become more and more profound. Reducing the size of the forest causes animal and plant species to become extinct as their habitat changes or is destroyed. The Amazon even protects the region from floods, droughts, and soil erosion, a major problem in some parts of the world such as the country of Haiti. Its destruction also contributes to the rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and global warming, perhaps the most extensive affect caused by deforestation in the Amazon. In yet, the Brazilian government has yet to tackle the problems resulting from this deforestation. They have placed economic success with far more importance.