“80% of global warming comes from livestock and deforestation” -- Heather Mill an activist from England. One of the most discussed topics today is global warming, thanks to activists such as Greta Thunberg, a sixteen year old Swedish girl who recently spoke at the UN, and although deforestation is one of the leading causes of global warming we rarely discuss it and when we do it is brushed over largely. Every day we are losing more than 80,000 acres of tropical rainforests which means that by 2030 more than a quarter, about 27%, of the Amazon will be without trees if deforestation keeps going at this rate (panda.org) and without trees soil erosion can form which can cause silt to enter the local rivers and lakes causing poor water quality and therefore leading to poor health for the local population.
There are at least five and a half thousand different species living within the 5.5 million square kilometers of the Amazon Rainforest (panda.org) which spreads across South America, many of which are endangered. A large portion of those species rely on the plants and trees to live and survive on, and at the large quantity of trees humans are destroying in such little time we are pushing so many of those species towards extinction. Those that do survive are forced to leave their habitat which is actually leading to the loss of lives of humans. In 2009 for example, six people were killed by tigers in Indonesia due to the animals leaving their homes in search of food because of the deforestation in their homes (BigCatRescue.org) As of today there are less than 400 Sumatran tigers left in the wild while in 1978 there were over a 1,000 (WorldWildLife.org); is the palm oil and wood taken from the rainforest worth the possible extinction of these animals?
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Other than the harmful effects deforestation has on the species living within the rainforest, the destruction of the vegetation also affects those living in the rainforest. As of 2019 there are roughly 7,000 indigenous people living in small tribes throughout the Amazon (mongabay.com), people that rely on the plants and resources within the rainforests to survive. What is going to become of these people in the next hundred years if companies keep destroying their homes for product? One of the hunter-gatherer tribes living in the Amazon, the Awá, have become the most threatened tribe as illegal loggers invade their home and destroy everything these people need to survive. “If we have no forest, we can't feed our children, and we will die.' (The Guardian)
But is the work in the rainforests all bad? For the 13.2 million people working in the rainforests it is their livelihood, if they were to lose their jobs tomorrow they would become homeless and many would die. (worldbank.org)The destruction of these rainforest also results in the creation of the objects humans use in their day-to-day lives such as paper-a business which brings in a couple hundred billion dollars each year- tissues and food made from sap and other parts of the vegetation found in the Amazon rainforest. In 2017 Brazil began planning to plant around 73 million trees in the Amazon which is helping to get rid of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere; “If you’re really thinking about getting carbon dioxide out of atmosphere, then tropical forests are the ones that end up meaning the most.”(fastcompany.com)
Although it is hard to disagree with these facts, surely the majority of us can agree that the cons of deforestation outweigh the pros. Deforestation produces around 24% of world-wide greenhouse gas emissions which has led it to become one of the leading causes of global warming, “Right now, we are ignoring natural climate solutions, We spend 1,000 times more on global fossil fuel subsidies than on nature-based solutions.” (theguardian.com) the worldwide loss of rainforest vegetation since 2015 contributes to about 4.8 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide per year and while Brazil is planning on planting 73 million trees in the next six years, this is in no way comparing to the number of trees being cut down. Evidence shows that somewhere between 3.5 billion and 7 billion trees are cut down every year (ran.org). So although we should definitely commend Brazil for their efforts to tackle deforestation within the Amazon rainforest we cannot purely rely on the Brazilian Government when the destruction of tropical rainforest affects everyone.
In 2012 scientists discovered a new rainforest hidden within a Mozambique volcano which is roughly 0.12 square miles (Wikipedia) and in 2019 Julian Bayliss, a conservation biologist, along with a group of researchers climbed roughly 125 metres up the volcano to the rainforest. During the researchers time searching the rainforest they managed to discover a new species of butterfly and mouse and are hopeful that they will discover more. (QuartzAfrica)
In short, the destruction of the rainforest provides humanity with a wide variety of products we have come to be accustomed to and have produced a wide variety of jobs for those residing in the surrounding areas. However, is deforestation worth it? With the growing population we've got a larger want than ever to cut down trees and make space, we must realise that it is not possible for us to survive without having trees around us. Trees bring so many benefits such as giving us oxygen, and getting rid of the harmful carbon dioxide and so many products we need in our daily lives but without trees around us we cannot survive. We should all do the needful to protect trees and scale back deforestation.
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