Brazil holds the global warming issue in the palms of its hands and the government of the world’s fifth-largest economy doesn’t seem to care. A recent article featured on usatoday.com states that the destruction of the Amazon rainforest rose 28% from August 2012 to July 2013 after 4 straight years of decline (Sibaja, 2013). I’m sure this may surprise some people because of the widespread concern of global warming and the affect it may have on future generations, but I don’t think the Brazilian government cares or is going to care unless another global superpower (France, Germany, China, United Kingdom, or the United States) presents some form of regulation and oversight to minimalize the emission of carbon dioxide.
Photosynthesis and carbon dioxide go hand-in-hand. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines photosynthesis as the process by which a green plant turns water and carbon dioxide into food when the plant is exposed to light. The Amazon basin contains the world’s largest rainforest with approximately 3.4 million square miles covered in forest and vegetation. To put that amount of land into perspective, it’s the size of all of Western Europe with room to spare (Global Issues, 2013). With the increase of deforestation in the Amazon comes the increase of carbon dioxide. Once trees are cut down or die, they release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and could become an accelerant of global warming.
Since the 1970’s, cattle ranching has been the primary cause of deforestation as Brazil has turned to beef to grow its economy. The Brazilian real became significantly devalued against the American dollar thus causing beef to double in value. This increase in value led cattle ranchers to expand their pastures at the expense of the r...
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... have to realize is that their actions, or lack thereof, could have a devastating impact. Loss of the ozone layer due to global warming equals the loss of life.
Works Cited
Amazon Destruction: Why is the rainforest being destroyed in Brazil? (n.d.). Retrieved from Mongabay.com: http://rainforests.mongabay.com/amazon/amazon_destruction.html
"Brazil: Amazon Rain Forest Destruction and Reforestation Policies." Global Issues in Context Online Collection. Detroit: Gale, 2013. Global Issues In Context. Web. 3 Dec. 2013.
Sibaja, M. (2013, November 14). Destruction of Brazil's Amazon jumps 28%. Retrieved from usatoday.com: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/11/14/brazil-amazon-destruction/3541703/
Wallace, S. (n.d.). Farming the Amazon. Retrieved from nationalgeographic.com: http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/habitats/last-of-amazon/#page=1
Wright, David, Heather LaRocca, and Grant DeJongh. "Global Problems." The Amazonian Rainforest: Forest to Farmland? The University of Michigan, 2007. Web. 14 Mar. 2014.
The introduction of cattle ranching industries in the 1960s set the forefront for current Brazilian rainforest deforestation figures. During this time, development subsidy programs encouraged Brazilians to clear rainforest for pastureland and invest in new cattle ranches (Pancheco). Over the last 40 years, Brazil has destroyed 700,00 square kilometers of rainforest, an area about the size of Texas (BBC) (Enchanted Lear...
The Amazon Rain Forest crosses several national boundaries in South America, although the majority of it is located in Brazil. It covers over 3,562,000 acres, making it the largest in the world. But globally, over 138,600 acres of rain forest are lost each year to deforestation, 50,000 of those in Brazil alone (Holdsforth), and the world's rain forests are quickly disappearing. Deforestation in the Amazon occurs primarily for three reasons: clear-cutting, fragmentation, and edge effects.
When the Portuguese landed in Brazil 500 years ago the sight that greeted them was of a huge rain forest, which then ran along much of Brazil’s Atlantic coast. In more recent times, there has been an outcry over the destruction of the much larger Amazon forest. But its devastation is nothing compared to Brazil’s Atlantic forest. About 86% of Brazil’s Amazon forest is still intact but only about 7% of the Atlantic forest remains. In this paper, I will explain why the Atlantic forest was destroyed, why deforestation happens, and the effects of rain forest destruction and the effect it is having on the Earth.
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 threat since carbon dioxide traps the sun’s heat and radiated light inside the earth’s atmosphere. So, with the increase in carbon dioxide more heat is trapped and thus adding to the effects of global warming. Among the many places where deforestation takes place, Amazon seems to be one of the most affected ones. More than 20 percent of it is already gone, and much more of it is severely threatened due to deforestation . It is estimated that the Amazon alone is vanishing at a rate of 20,000 square miles a year .
Brazil, a country of natural resources running everywhere needing saving, destroyed everyday by humankind. with 2/3’s of the Amazon forest home in brazil, we must keep an eye on how it is being sustained, what is being done to keep it safe and when we believe we will be able to not only stop deforestation, but grow back the earth’s creatures natural habitats. The sheer beauty of our world is worth trying to help our ecosystem and helping the environment and ensuring its sustainability.
The specific environmental issue/problem I will be talking about is the Deforestation in the Amazon. This has caused a severe environmental problem and a subsequent decline in well-being. The Amazon rainforest is known to be one of the Earth's largest rainforest and also one of the greatest natural resources. Many people call the Amazon the “Lungs of our planet” due to the vegetation. Since there is so much vegetation in the rainforest it will continuously take the carbon dioxide and turns it into oxygen. After researching about the deforestation of the Amazon I came across some statistics and information that really shocked me. Rhett Butler stated that “60-70 percent of deforestation in the Amazon results from cattle ranches while the rest mostly results from small-scale subsistence agriculture. Despite the widespread press attention, large-scale farming (i.e. soybeans) currently contributes relatively little to total deforestation in the Amazon. Most soybean cultivation takes place outside the rainforest in the neighboring cerrado grassland ecosystem and in areas that have already been cleared. Logging results in forest degradation but rarely direct deforestation. However, studies have showed a close correlation between logging and future clearing for settlement and farming.” After reading this I was shocked, but there also is some good news I came across. The problem I am writing about is occurring in the Amazon Rainforest which is not only located in Brazil but also Columbia, Peru, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, and the three Guyanas. The problem with deforestation is that it is affecting our economic health. As stated before by Rhett Butler deforestation in the Amazon is mostly due to cattle farms. The other major contributor i...
Governments in these countries need to stop thinking of forests as a renewable resource. The rate at which they are harvesting these areas drives them beyond the boundaries of sustainability. The efforts required by reforestation may not initially be cost effective, but it will result in not only the survivability of the environment, but of the country’s economy. Widespread awareness of these ideas will help fight against the natural human tendency towards instant gratification and short-term goals. Different methods of logging can be utilized to allow the rainforests to survive and regrow naturally and at a sustainable
Nowadays deforestation is the one of the most important and controversial environmental issues in the world. Deforestation is cutting down, clearing away or burning trees or forests. Particularly tropical rainforests are the most waning type of forests because of its location in developing countries such as Indonesia, the Philippines, India, central African countries and Brazil. Deforestation rate in those regions is high enough to worry about, because of large economic potential of forest areas. As the result of causes such as agriculture land expansion, logging for timber, fire blazing and settling infrastructure there might be serious impacts in future. For instance, extinction of endemic species of animals and plants which will be feral, increase of greenhouse gas emissions which may lead to global warming and consecutive catastrophes, destruction of home for indigenous residents which is considered as violation of human rights. Some people can argue with these drawbacks telling that deforestation have more valuable benefits such as growth of economics, production of food and providing better opportunities for life for poor families. However, these benefits are quite temporary and government of that countries and world organisations tries to halt deforestation proposing several solutions. Deforestation problem is especially acute in the Brazilian Amazon, where its rate is much high comparing with other regions. This paper will describe world-wide rainforests, causes and effects of deforestation, and evaluate possible solutions of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon.
Countries such as Brazil and Indonesia have been greatly affected by deforestation with well over two million hectares of naturally forested land now rendered barren (See appendix 1).
Since 1978 more than 750,000 square kilometers of Amazon rainforest have been destroyed across Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Bolivia, Venezuela, and Guyana. One main reason and purpose the amazon forest is getting destroyed is because of subsistence farmers who cut down trees to simply produce crops for their families and local consumption.
In South America lies the largest and most wondrous rainforest in the world, the Amazon Rainforest. This 1.4 billion acre forest represents over half of the planets remaining rainforests, and comprises the largest and most bio-diverse tract of rainforest in the world. Ten percent of all known species on the planet are found in this rain forest, most of which have yet to be discovered. For the past century, the Amazon has been gradually decreasing in size due to agricultural expansion, ranching, infrastructure projects, energy exploration and illegal logging. At its current state, the Amazon is losing land equal to the size of the state of Delaware every year. The destruction of this forest releases 340 million tons of carbon per year according to the World Wildlife Foundation, or WWF, which in turn cause climate changes everywhere around the world. Undiscovered species can hold the key to curing a plethora of diseases, but if those species become extinct those keys are lost forever. If nothing is done to prevent this, the world’s treasure trove of bio-diversity will cease to exist, creating irreversible damage to not only the South American people but also the rest of the world.
The authors believe that success in conserving and managing forests depends upon effective governance mechanisms that are transparent, participatory and accountable. It also requires local, regional, national, and international tools to allow different policy actors to evaluate effectiveness at multiple scale. Actions at one scale alone, whether global or local, is insufficient. Public engagement is vital, so by simply banning a whole technique, like logging, there will be major backlash. With change to decrease deforestation comes an increase in commodity prices, which has been seen in Brazil. However, since there was public support, Brazil has been able to see a 70% reduction in deforestation over the last decade. Although, there is still a lot of work to do, if Brazil’s government continues to act on the public opinion the decreasing trend can
In the article, Bradford examines that the deforestation of trees not only lessens the amount of carbon stored, it also releases carbon dioxide into the air. According to the 2010 Global Forest Resources Assessment, deforestation releases nearly a billion tons of carbon into the atmosphere per year, though the numbers are not as high as the ones recorded in the previous decade. Michael Daley, associate professor of environmental science at Lasell College in Newton, confirmed that deforestation is the main reason impacting on the global carbon cycle.
Fearnside, Philip M. "Deforestation in Brazilian Amazonia: History, Rates, and Consequences." Conservation Biology 19.3 (2005): 680-688. Print.