The Effects of Deforestation of the Amazon Rainforest

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Today, the total percentage of forest cover of the earth is approximately thirty percent (“Deforestation”). That is about nine percent of the world’s total surface. The largest rainforest is the Amazon River Basin, located in South America. The Amazon is home to many species of animals, insects, plants and trees. Many of the trees and plants in the Amazon produce about twenty percent of the oxygen on earth, and absorb carbon. However, the Amazon is decreasing in size every day due to the ongoing deforestation of the land. Deforestation is when the forest of the land are cleared or destroyed, in order to be used for other actions (“Deforestation”). The Amazon is twenty percent less than it was about forty years ago (Wallace). In just about every hour to two, land that is larger than two hundred football fields put together is being cleared (Wallace). With the ongoing actions of deforestation in South America, the world could face many effects that will impact every living species.
When deforestation continues to occur, the environment in the world becomes more and more impacted by greenhouse gases. As these greenhouse gases allow sunlight to enter the earth, there is some light that reflects back into space called infrared or heat radiation (“Greenhouse Gases, Climate Change, and Energy”). The greenhouse gases trap the heat radiation from leaving into space (“Greenhouse Gases, Climate Change, and Energy”). When the heat radiation is trapped, it causes the earth’s temperature to rise (“Greenhouse Gases, Climate Change, and Energy”). Among these greenhouse gases include carbon dioxide, which is a gas that trees absorb (“Greenhouse Gases, Climate Change, and Energy”). As the trees absorb the carbon dioxide, they produce and release ...

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....lib.csufresno.edu/stable/2873721?seq=1
Sioli, Harald. “The Effects of Deforestation in Amazonia.” The Geographical Journal. Vol. 151
Jul. 1985. 197-203. Web. 15 Apr. 2014 Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/633533 “Summary of the Water Cycle.” USGS. n.d. Web. 15 Apr. 2014 Retrieved from http://water.usgs.gov/edu/watercyclesummary.html Szalay, Jessie. Deforestation: Facts, Causes, & Effects. 06 Mar. 2013. Web. 15 Apr. 2014
Retrieved from http://www.livescience.com/27692-deforestation.html
Wallace, Scott. “Farming the Amazon.” National Geographic. n.d. Web. 15 Apr. 2014 Retrieved from http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/habitats/last-of- amazon/#page=1 “What is Biodiversity?” California Biodiversity Council. State of California. n.d. Web. 15 Apr.
2014 Retrieved from http://biodiversity.ca.gov/Biodiversity/biodiv_definition.html

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