The Amazon Rain Forest is Dying, Fast.
The Amazon Rain forest is the worlds largest tropical rain forest. It covers 5.5 million squared kilometers and it spans through nine different countries (Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana). The region is also home to 10 percent of all plant and animal species known on Earth. There are approximately 40,000 species of plants and more than 400 mammals. So far the Amazon sounds like a Nirvana to anybody that would want to live there. The biodiversity is booming and it is filled with resources. Pretty great huh? So then, why is the Amazon rain forest dying, and what implications is it causing to the life that resides there.
Why is The Amazon Dying?
A big factor in the degradation of the Amazon can be linked to deforestation. Deforestation means cutting down trees to make space, and since there are a lot of trees in the Amazon it makes the rain forest a prime target. While cutting down trees can be beneficial for certain things like making space for housing or timber harvesting, there is lots of of damage that happens to the land causing harm to the different ecosystems that live in the rain forest.
At first deforestation was primarily the product of subsistence farmers who would cut down trees to produce crops for their families and local consumption. But in the later part of the 20th century, that began to change, with an increasing proportion of deforestation driven by industrial activities and large-scale agriculture. With the realization that logging could be a great profit and technology was able to give people that choice of doing it in a large scale and at a fast pace, the “go big or go home” mindset was put into action.
At first it seemed as if deforestation was taking a plunge in the early 2000’s when the annual deforestation rate in Brazil’s Amazon plunged from nearly 11,000 square miles in 2004 to 1,700 square miles in 2012 — an 84 percent decline. Unfortunately this ended up causing bigger problems. The false illusion of deforestation being under control, led people to belief that there could no longer be anymore consequences when messing with the area. This lead to an increase of deforestation which trended upwards since 2012, with a sharp 29 percent increase in the rate of clearing in 2016, which has only been rising since then, driving the health of the Amazon to the ground, figuratively and literally.
What are the effects?
Loss of Habitat
A very disturbing cause of deforestation is the loss of animal and plant species due to their loss of habitat. Here, we are not just losing species that we have known to live there, but we are potentially erasing species that we might not even know about yet.
This alteration doesn’t just occur from trees falling over and land being cleared of trees. The constant building of new roads for traveling, that allow logging, also have an effect on the habitats. This is because these road span many miles to get to a certain point in the forest. So even though large amounts of land isn’t being cleared there is still a small stripe of road which caused harm to the land it is on.
By cutting down trees and leaving open areas, the forest floor also suffers. Cover that was previously there to provide shade is now gone and the plants that live there now have to deal with different temperature changes. It raises the chances of forest fires and droughts which could ending up proving fatal for many of the different organisms that live on the forest floor.
Deforestation also destroys the habitat of many indigenous people that live in the area. The destruction of the resources that surround the area begin to die and the area just becomes uninhabitable to humans. Leaving families homeless and with out resources to stay alive.
Soil Erosion and Flooding
According to the Rainforest Conservation Fund Other effects of deforestation include soil erosion. Trees function to retain water and topsoil, which provides the rich nutrients to sustain additional forest life. Without them, the soil erodes and washes away, causing farmers to move on and continue the cycle that they just left behind. The barren land which is left behind from these past unsustainable agricultural practices is then more susceptible to flooding, specifically in coastal regions.
Climate Change
Finally how can we talk about deforestation without talking about climate change. Right now, deforestation is the second leading cause of global warming and produces about 24% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Deforestation in the Amazon gives out more carbon dioxide than all the cars and trucks in the world. Which when you think about it. There isn't a place that you go without seeing cars around. That’s a lot of Carbon Dioxide!
What Next?
As can be seen, deforestation has been around for many many years now. It started out as a harmless practice for people to survive, but eventually ended up becoming a giant corporate practice that leaves behind lots of rubbish and destruction, seen especially in the Amazon. This is why there should be more awareness of what deforestation is and what it can cause if not handled properly. Educating oneself is the first step to making a change, especially now since we are in a stage of technology and revolution that can help do great things for the human race. There have been points in history where deforestation started to become less of a problem so that is a good sign that things can be done and that we are headed towards a good direction, but as history has showed us; it tends to repeat itself.
