Amazon Rainforest Deforestation

Brazil has many great things to offer the world like a booming economy and beautiful culture; however, a problem that is prevalent in this large country is the clearing of the trees in the Amazon Forest. Ever since the beginning of mankind, people have looked to forests to gather resources for survival. As technology became more advanced, people learned methods that would help them clear trees faster and with less effort, and this would soon become a controversial topic as the world moved into the twentieth century. This is an issue because there are two opposing sides in this situation. One side agrees with obtaining mass amounts of trees in exchange for high quantities of fuel and food that are vital for human survival and urban development,

Advocates for the stopping of deforestation in Brazil are not concerned with how much money is being made; instead, they are worried about the depletion of resources that will affect future human generations as well as the destruction of homes that once belonged to the animals of the rainforest. Habitat loss is said to be the highest threat to endangered species because it limits biodiversity. Having an assortment of plants and animals in the Amazonian region is crucial because genetic diversity aids people in studying wildlife anatomy and creating medicines. If deforestation were to stop, animals that use the rainforest as their only habitat will be able to thrive and live normal, healthy lives. While the land is urbanizing due to the increase of business in the area, roads must be built to transport goods and people, and this can lead to habitat fragmentation. Dividing a species’ ecosystem is harmful because it confines their movement. This restriction placed on the animals can also cause the loss of biodiversity among the plants and animals in the Amazon, and Barbara Fraser proposes that “research is now showing that the building of roads also triggers a cascade of environmental changes in the remaining forest that can dry out trees, set the stage for wildfires and weaken the ecosystem” (1). Roads have had a tremendous impact on the dwindling number of trees in the area, and it has shown to have delayed effects on the environment in addition to the immediate consequences aimed at the animals. An atmospheric scientist visited a soybean farm that was once a lush forest to find that “The air [was] noticeably hotter and drier in the field than in one of the few patches of forest left on the farm” (1) . Trees provide so much moisture to the atmosphere through the process of evapotranspiration, so the water in the atmosphere will disappear