Deforestation: A Global Consequence

Deforestation: A Global Consequence

Deforestation has been a major problem that has been effecting the world for an extended period of time. Deforestation is the when forests are burned, cleared, or cut down for purposes of the people that are living around the land. Deforestation mostly happens in lesser developed countries so that they can get money to help improve their status of living. Since 1950, a fifth of the world's forest cover has been removed and the world itself is undergoing the most rapid and complete deforestation it has ever experienced (Deforestation: Causes, Implications, and Solution,1). According to reports from the World Resource Institute (WRI), about 80% of the total deforestation is tropical rainforests (Deforestation: Causes, Implications, and Solution, 1). To examine the total effect of deforestation, lets examine one specific area that has been undergoing mass deforestation.

The total area of the Amazon Rainforest in Brazil is 5.5 square kilometers (Amazon Life, 1). It is the most diverse biome and contains a large percent of the Earth's plants, animals, and endangered species. Most of the trees in the forest are hardwood or palm trees (Amazon River, 324). Out of the 22,767 plants species that are known in the world 16,619 (about one-third) live in the Amazon (Amazon River, 324). There are 2000 different species of fish that inhabit the Amazon River that is 4087 miles long (Amazon River, 324). One can see how important just one tropical rainforest is to our planet. Now realize that the Amazon Rainforest is one of the top rainforests that suffers from deforestation. Imagine all the plants, animals and other endangered species that will be losing their homes.

There are many reasons why precious rainforests are cleared. One of the reasons is wood extraction. Wood is one of the forest products that is most valuable to human economies for many reasons because wood is durable, light weight and easily worked (Deforestation: Causes, Implications, and Solutions, 2). Wood can also be handled safely and is a fuel that can be burned for energy (Deforestation: Causes, Implications, and Solutions, 2). The wood that is cut down in the forest is used as a cash crop for the country to be sold to world markets (Revington, 3).

Another reason why third world countries engage in deforestation is because they have collective debts more than 1,300 billion dollars (Revington, 2). The third world is being impoverished to make the wealthy richer. In many countries, a cycle has started: loans used to finance environmentally destructive projects can only be repaid through further destruction of the land (Revington, 2). Therefore, the only way for the people to get money to repay their debts is by destroying their environment. The five countries with the largest rainforests areas are also among

those with the highest global debt (Revington, 2). Having such a huge debts puts a tremndous amount of pressure on the country to come up with money, and unfortunately

this usually leads to the clearing of forests.

In addition to national debt being a contribution to deforestation, there is also the issue of cattle ranching. Cattle ranching is responsible for about 80% of the total deforestation of the Amazon rainforest (The Destruction of the Amazon Rainforest, 1). Cattle ranching is a major cause of deforestation especially in Central and South America (Revington, 3). In Central America, about two-thirds of lowland rainforests have been turned into pasture lands for cattle since 1950 (Revington, 3). There is a unproductive use of the land because cows are only being stocked about 1 cow to every hecture (Monbiot, 1).

Deforestation is followed by a relatively

simple technique called "itinerant agriculture" (Amazon Life, 2). After 2 years of cultivation, the areas that were cleared and used for crops are abandoned. After farmers move from that land, they take a new piece of land and clear that, too (Amazon Life, 2). This vicious cycle keeps being repeated as farmers move their cattle and crops from one area of land to another (Amazon Life, 2). This leads to degradation of soil, which means that only small, weak crops can be grown on these lands. Degradation of soil happens when a piece of land is overworked and there are no more nutrients left in the soil.

There are many short effects of deforestation of the forests around the world. A short term effect is land concenration. Land concertartion in Brazil is becoming a big problem because there are too many people for the land to support (Monbiot, 2). Peasents are pushed off their land and are forced to move deeper into the rainforest to maintain an agrarain way of life; this adds to deforestation because more land needs to be cleared for them to start new farms (Monbiot, 2). Another short term effect is that when the land is being taken away from the peasents by the government and large corporations, they are being denied right such as due process (Monbiot, 1). Rural people in Brazil are shot dead as they try to resist the takeover of their lands by ranchers. There are well-documented cases of torture, rape and unlawful imprisonment by ranchers and their gunmen trying to push people off their lands (Monbiot, 2).

A long term effect of deforestation has effects in terms of the carbon balance and hydrological cycles (Monbiot, 1). When the lands are cleared, they are usually burned down. When the trees are burned, it releases mass amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Concentrations of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere greatly contribute to global warming (Kasting,1). It is predicted that in the next 50-100 years the Earth's surface temperature will raise 2-4oF due to the release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. It had been reported that about 1/10th of the carbon dioxide in the entire atmosphere is from the burning of the Brazilian rainforest (Rainforest Deforestation, 1).

As well as the carbon cycle, deforestation has a key long term effect on the water cycle. The forest plays a major role in the water