Amazon Rainforest Deforestation

The Amazon rainforest is the largest, most diverse ecosystem in the world. Located in South America, the rainforest has borders in nine countries such as Brazil, Ecuador, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Guiana, Venezuela and others, with 60% of the florest the majority lies in Brazil. Covering 40% of the South America, the Amazon is the most species-rich biome on Earth, The region is believed to be home to 10% of known species on Earth, including 2.5 million species of insects.

The Amazon rainforest deforestation is still impacting society everyday by supplying 20% of Earth’s oxygen, deforestation have a large impact on the climate change around the world and the loss of millions of species.

 Life in the Amazon

The Amazon is a tropical forest, which has the largest river basin and known to have over half of the world’s species, making it the Earth’s most diverse ecosystem. Species being extinct will cause how the forest behaves.

The Amazon river flows over 4,000 miles into the Atlantic Ocean, it’s home to more than 3,000 species of fish, also includes the largest number of freshwater fish species in the world. Deforestation can lead to erosion, contaminating the river bringing undesirable chemicals and contaminating the fishes which are consumed by humans. Without trees to cover to soil, the moist land can become dry and drying rainforests leads to less absorption of CO2 which promotes more climate change.

Home too 400 tribes in the Amazon, “Awá is one of the last nomadic hunter-gatherer tribes left, are the most threatened tribes in the world” (Wallace 48) attacked by loggers, gunmen, and settler farmers, Awá children are being killed by loggers, deforestation and the invasion of other men has brought the tribe diseases which they don’t have natural immunity. Awá tribe fully relies on the forest.

Water vs. Fire

The Amazon is a rainforest which produces its own rain, and being deforested by fires can lead to land drying out and causing wildfires which cause even more deforestation.

The loss of moisture-creating forest could lead far more than drying out, would lead to reduced rainfall, in a self reinforcing spiral. Decades of logging and climate change and land-clearing intentionally set wildfires.

The “moisture of the forest nourishes winter rain supplies Uruguay, Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay with water, and with recent droughts led to water shortages in Sao Paulo, Brazil’s largest city” (“How Cutting the Amazon Forest could Affect Weather”) . Also the rainfall helps supply water to farmers and beef ranchers. Brazilian agriculture truly needs the Amazon.

The massive deforestation of the Amazon could change weather outside South America. Because water vapor heats the air condenses high in the sky to form raindrops, a significant reduction of rain caused by the deforestation would actually cool the atmosphere above the region..

Deforestation

People cause deforestation in the Amazon to grow crops, cattle and to get wood for housing and furniture.

Twenty percent of the Amazon biome has already been lost and the trend will worsen if let it happen.The massive deforestation of the Amazon could change weather outside South America. “The past 30 years, more drought-tolerant plant species have appeared in the Amazon, while the wet areas are declining. Fast-growing trees and taller trees that are better at accessing the sun are outcompeting shorter, damp loving species.” (“How Cutting the Amazon Forest could Affect Weather”) This means that, the soil in the Amazon is becoming dryer less moist. The damp loving trees are disappearing which could affect the whole ecosystem.

A deforested Amazon could begin releasing stored greenhouse gases, 60% percent of the forest where to degrade to a savanna. The forest could absorb less CO2 which leads to more climate change.

Fig. 1 Rhett Butler, graph, Mongabay, 26 June 2013

Impact

If the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest continue, in the next few years the whole world could be affected. It’s really important that more people know the effects of the deforestation because not only it will impact South America but the whole Earth.

The world would have less species, less trees, less everything, the forest gives us 20% of our air, helps our Earth survive and thrive. If the deforestation continues, tribes will die, animals will disappear, the magnificent rainforest that is known as the lungs of our planet will disappear, Maybe it’s not going to happen right now, but if we don’t do something about it future generations will be greatly affected.

Deforestation creates a huge impact in climate change, and that causes ice to melt, wildfires, storms and other horrible things, and it all happened and still happening because of us.

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