Deforestation of the Amazon Tropical Rainforest

Running head: DEFORESTATION OF THE AMAZON TROPICAL RAINFOREST

Deforestation Of The Amazon Tropical Rainforest

Kimani Allen & Fredcisa Allen

Devry University

Deforestation Of The Amazon Tropical Rainforest

First and foremost what is deforestation? Deforestation occurs when areas that were once forested is converted and used for other purposes. Other purposes include the use of the cleared land for agriculture, pasture for livestock, farming, and housing. The trees or consequent charcoal are used as, or sold, for fuel or as lumber. Other leading causes of deforestation includes the building of dams and other developmental projects, and natural disasters such as fire, otherwise all the others are purely economical. To put it simply deforestation is simply the conversion of forested areas to non-forested areas and it is a global issue that affects every single breathing organism on this planet, including human beings. It is also at the root of a lot of problems that we face with the environment. Even with its great global impact, deforestation occurs on a large scale due to lenient forest and environmental laws coupled with the continued ignorance of the value of these rainforests and their contribution to the environment. So why is deforestation an environmental concern?

According to Rain Tree facts, the Amazon Rainforest covers over a billion acres, encompassing areas in Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. To put it in perspective, if this massive forest region was a country it would be rated at the ninth largest. Considered one of the world's greatest natural resources, the Amazon rainforest is the most powerful and bioactively diverse natural phenomenon on the planet. It has been described as the "lungs of our planet" due to its major role in continuously recycling carbon dioxide into oxygen. It is estimated that more than 20 percent of Earth's oxygen is produced in this area. To understand why deforestation is such a pressing and urgent issue, forests must first be given credit for what they bring to global ecosystems and the quality of life that all species maintain. Tropical rainforests are vastly rich ecosystems that play an irreplaceable role in the basic functions of our beloved planet. They presently give a place to call home for 50% - 90% of all organisms and it helps to prolong life for the human race. From something as minor as the species that indulge food to life giving medicines, the rainforests does more, it save lives. According to the World Rainforest Movement, 25% of medicines come from the forests. Trees improve the quality of the air that species breathe by trapping carbon and other particles produced by pollution. As more water gets put back in the atmosphere, clouds form and provide another way to block out the sun's heat. Trees cool and regulate the earth's climate in conjunction with other valuable services as preventing erosion, landslides, and making the most infertile soil rich with life. They also act as an enormous filter that helps to sustain the climate by regulating atmospheric gases, and protects against desertification, which is the process by which the land is degraded due to climatic variations and human related activities. These forests also acts as a barrier to flooding by absorbing the rainfall and filtering it back to rivers and streams slowly, in their absence the obvious implication would be the propensity for flooding.

With the removal of thousands of acres of forests annually ultimately leads to irreparable damage to habitat, loss of biodiversity and even drought in affected regions. Further implications also include adverse impact on biosequestration, which is the capture and storage of the atmospheric greenhouse gas carbon dioxide by biological processes. As more and more of these forests fall, the carbon added to the atmosphere will only increase, coupled with the already high additions due to the burning of fossil fuels will further affect climatic conditions. The loss of hundreds of species to extinction, many of which have never been discovered and identified and the displacement of indigenous tribes are also a major factor.

Deforestation has rapidly destroyed much of our planet's forests for years. One major challenge that governments and environmentalists are trying to come up with are ways to stop deforestation so current environmental conditions would not become worse than what they are now. In the past centuries, people have been naturally cutting down trees and burning down forests. Hundreds of years ago, a large