Rainforests
Rainforests are the world's richest and most productive ecosystems, containing half of all living species on the planet. Yet many of these rainforest are destroyed every year. If there is something in the world so full of life and sheer beauty then why do we continue to destroy what is already there? Catholics have been among those slow to realize you cannot forever trash anything without paying the consequences. We have been polluting the oceans, depleting topsoils, junking hazardous wastes, opening ozone holes in the atmosphere, and throwing millions of tons of carbon into the air. Planet Earth is hurting; some say it is dying, if it goes so do its inhabitants. All Christians and non-Christians need to be engaged in some serious examination of conscience here.
The rainforest is very important to the world for many reasons, most of them being very simple. One major reason is that the plants in the forest turn carbon dioxide into clean air, which helps to fight pollution. Also by absorbing carbon dioxide, the rainforests help deter the greenhouse effect. The plants and animals that can be found within the rainforest can provide us with food, fuel wood, shelter, jobs and medicine.
Traditionally there were three major causes of destruction to the rainforest: farming, ranching and logging. Farmers in the rainforest countries are often poor and cannot afford to buy land. Instead, the farmers clear the rainforest to grow their crops. Because the tropical rainforest soil is so poor in nutrients, farmers cannot reuse the same land year after year. In the years to follow the farmers just clear more land, destroying the forest piece by piece.
Ranching also causes destruction of the rainforests. Ranchers c...
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...l. Mohammad "Bob" Hasan did more damage to Indonesia's rainforests that any other single individual. His actions in the past have included "ignoring environmental and conservation laws that limited and mananaged to clear cutting of the tropical rainforests." Hasan believes that he is the "king of the jungle," and his economic standing continues to grow so Hasan's views and actions may never change.
The sad reality is that destruction of the rainforests continues at an alarming rate. Throughout the tropics, forests are logged for precious hardwoods. Others are burned to make way for large-scale farming or cattle raising operations. Topical rainforests once covered more than fourteen percent of the Earth's land area. They now amount to less than six percent. At the current rates of destruction only a few tattered forests will remain in the next century.
Of all of the issues that effect the planet Earth from a Global Change standpoint, one of the most visible and highly publicized is the issue of rainforest destruction. The loss of this emerald on the planet's crown will end life as we know it, if something is not done...
The Amazon Rain Forest Is in Danger of Being Destroyed" by Devadas Vittal. Rain Forests. HaiSong Harvey, Ed. At Issue Series. Greenhaven Press, 2002. Reprinted from Devadas Vittal, Introduction: What Is the Amazon Rainforest? Internet: http://www.homepages.go.com/homepages/d/v/i/dvittal/amazon/intro.html, November 1999, by permission of the author. http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/ovic/ViewpointsDetailsPage/ViewpointsDetailsWindow?displayGroupName=Viewpoints&disableHighlighting=false&prodId=OVIC&action=e&windowstate=normal&catId=&documentId=GALE%7CEJ3010021212&mode=view
Farmers are a large problem for the tropical rain forests in South America. When farmers need more land, they start to chop trees down in the rain forest to make more space for farming. Rainforests once covered more than 14 percent of the earth. Sadly, rainforests now cover about 6 percent of the earth, which leads to the destruction of various animals’ habitats.
As destruction of the rainforest continues, man slowly paves the inevitable path to a clear end. It has been known that the rainforest is an essential provider for the balance of the mother earth and that it acts as a key for life as we know it. Yet, the world still decides to quietly watch the disappearance. In fact, most people realize what exactly is taking place. But however, instead of trying to aid in the termination of this disaster. They place this into the back of their ignorant little minds thinking that it will not directly effect them. Every day the removal continues, it actually occurs extremely fast and at a pace of 80 acres per minute. That means at 80 acres per minute with 60 minutes per hour and 24 hours a day, there is a loss of approximately 115,000 acres a day. This is an exorbitant amount forest loss in one day meaning that at this pace hastened by the roadrunner ethics, that the forest will not have a place in the environment for very long. The fact is that now is the time to voice your opinion before and act it is too late.
Most of the positive implications of deforestation are for the economy. Rainforest land is cut down and converted into a monoculture rubber plantation, to provide necessary resources for humans, in this case rubber. There are not a lot of positive implications about deforestation and they are mostly overruled by the large
No matter where a person lives, even if it is not near a rain forest, the complete destruction of rain forests will affect living conditions. For years rain forests have provided countries around the word with valuable resources, minerals, lumber, and energy. In Brazil alone the rain forests contains 45% of Brazil’s hydroelectric power. The minerals found in the rain forests of Brazil are estimated to value 1.6 trillion dollars, while the lumber that the rain forests can provide total 1.7 trillion dollars (“In the Forest” 1). Nutrients from decomposing organisms can be found throughout rain forests, including in soil and in trees. To continue destroying forests also destroys the important materials that they are providing to humans.
The situation the Amazon rainforest is in exhibits the wise statement of the Mr. Lovelock. If the Amazon keeps being cut down, it will do more bad than good for humans. We shall lose countless ingredients for helping treat impending diseases like cancer and AIDS. We shall also be losing the many rare and exotic plants and animals as well as the lush green trees who provide many of the natural gases in our atmosphere. To keep harming the rainforest will be to harm the plants and animals, hurt the innocent native people, and destroy the enviroment. No person in their right mind would want these consequences. But unfortunately, this is the doom for humans if we don’t stop the desecration of not only this rainforest, but countless other natural sites of the Earth.
Tropical rainforests have been around for approximately 400 million years (Knight, 2004: para.1), they inhibit about 50% of all the living things on Earth including flora and fauna (RFUS, 2014: para.2). They also produce 40% of the Earth’s oxygen (Schaffner, 2010: para.3), although these rainforests only take up 6-7% of the Earth’s land surface; they are referred as ‘The Lungs of the Earth’ (SYW, 2010: para.2)
The rainforest is one of the most diverse places on our planet, containing over half or the world’s animal and plant species. Furthermore, it produces 40% of the world’s oxygen. We humans are cutting down trees, killing all the animals and plant living there, and reducing the size of rainforest.
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.
During my recent holiday to Brazil, I spent a week living in an eco-lodge within the Amazon rainforest. I learnt about the species of wildlife and people that live within the jungle, and rely on it to survive. Following the holiday I have become fascinated about the destruction of it, and why this has been happening. This essay will discuss the impacts of deforestation, what is causing this increasing issue and the solutions to keep the rainforest alive.
This is alarming since recent data indicates these enormous forests are land-dwelling carbon absorbers that could help to slow worldwide climate alteration. The United Nations ' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates “eighteen million acres of forests have been destroyed worldwide;” and NASA forecasts “that if current deforestation rates are not reduced, rainforests could become entirely eradicated in a century.” The nations with substantial deforestation are Brazil, Indonesia, Thailand, Africa (The Democratic Republic of Congo included), and remote areas of Eastern Europe. Indonesia, the country with the greatest deforestation within the last century, has lost approximately forty million acres of indigenous
Simply speaking, rainforests are basically the foundation of the earth. The most important role that rainforests play is ‘the lungs of the earth’. This is extremely vital to the earth’s survival as the trees and plants absorb carbon dioxide which they use to help grow and let out oxygen which we need to live. This system is known as the carbon-oxygen cycle and with numbers of rainforests declining, it is highly threatened. The largest rainforest in the world, the Amazon, alone is known to produce half of the world’s oxygen. A break down in the carbon-oxygen cycle means that we will not only have less oxygen, but an increase in carbon dioxide which eventually leads to global warming. This occurs as carbon dioxide traps heat which actually keeps the earth warm, with the right amount of carbon dioxide that is. This is called the greenhouse effect and occurs naturally however due to decreasing number of trees, there is more carbon dioxide than needed which traps extra heat making the earth hotter than needed, this is known as global warming which also causes a rise in sea level.
Deforestation of the Amazon Rainforest is devastating to our planet, not only for our climate but to the species of plants and animals of the Amazon Rainforest. According to Greenpeace International” The Amazon is the planet's largest remaining rainforest, teeming with more wildlife than anywhere else on Earth” (Greenpeace International, 2017). Greenpeace International comments further” But this majestic rainforest is caught between the twin destructive forces of deforestation and climate change” (Greenpeace International, 2017).