Destruction of Amazon

Destruction of Amazon

Amazon, one of the world’s largest rainforest, which is located in Brazil, is rich in animals compared to other rainforests in Africa or Asia. It is the home to 2.5 million insects, thousands of plants and more than 2000 species of birds and mammals. There still live many unknown species that are yet to be identified. The land, which is about 30 percent of Earth’s remaining rainforests, produces about 20 percent of Earth’s oxygen.

During the past 40 years, about 20 percent of the Amazon rainforest has been cut down. The percentage maybe far higher if logging is included. If this happen, the forest’s ecology will begin to become unbalanced. Each year, thousands of square miles of Brazil’s rain forest fall to agriculture and also development. Although many lands are protected, the area of Amazon is still declining. Amazon produces half of its own rainfall through the moisture it releases into the atmosphere. Eliminating the trees means letting the remaining trees to dry out and die.

Global warming has worsened the case by raising wildfires and severely damages the forest. Within the last decade, the number of recorded forest fires nearly doubled. Because trees are being burned badly, Brazil has become one of the world’s largest emitters of greenhouse gases, posing dangers to the world. Longer dry season is also recorded in Amazon. If this continued, Amazon would be transformed from a rainforest into a scrubland sooner or later.

Roads are another cause of shrinking of Amazon. Most roads in the heart of Amazon are unauthorized. The roads are made illegally by loggers to export to underground market. Now, 80 percent of deforested land is within 30 miles of road. Once the trees are taken away and the loggers move, the roads will serve as paths for ranchers, farmers or even hired gunmen.

Lately, the seemingly unstoppable expansion of soy farming in Amazon too destroyed the balance of the ecosystem of Amazon. The soy planted is not for humans, instead, it is used for feeding farm animals destined for fast food restaurants and supermarkets. Greenpeace, an environmental organization has demanded the Brazilian Government to issue a long term protection for the Amazon rainforest to stop the destruction.
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