FREE ESSAY ON CHANGES IN AMAZON

CHANGES IN AMAZON

During the past several decades, changes in the global climatic pattern has become evident
and has attracted much attention from both the general public and the professional
environmental organizations. Deforestation is one of the main reasons for these known
changes. One of the reasons that cause the disappearing of the Amazon rainforest is
industrial logging, which is the single largest problem. Other problems that also
contribute to the disappearing of the Amazon forests include road construction, cattle
ranching, and the production of wood products, all of which are important factors to be
considered. The Amazon rainforest is the world's largest rain forest today, which has 54
percent of the total rainforests that are remaining on the planet. If Amazonia is a
country, it would be the ninth largest country in the world. The Amazon is very important
because it is a major contributor to the balance of global climatic patterns and because
it provides places for variety of living organisms. A single pond in Brazil can contain
more kinds of fish than are found in all of Europe's rivers. Twenty-five acre of
rainforest in Borneo may contain over seven hundred species of trees, which is equal to
the number of trees in the whole North America; one single rainforest in Peru has more
bird species than the entire United States. One tree in Peru had forty-three different
species of ants, which is the estimated to be equal to the number of ant species in the
British Isles. The Amazon rainforest is truly amazing. (Taylor, Leslie. Herbal Secrets of
the Rainforest. Prima Publishing, Rocklin, CA)
(Steen, Harold K., and Tucker, Richard P. Changing Tropical Forests.Forest History
Society, 1992)
For years, however, the Amazon suffered from non-stop deforestation. It is estimated
that, as of 1997, 52 million hactre of Amazon rainforest has been cut down. According to
scientific estimation, if such rate of destruction in Amazon is not controlled, nearly 80
to 90 percent of its present ecosystem will be destroyed by the year 2020 (Taylor Leslie,
Herbal Secrets of the Rainforest. Prima Publishing, Rocklin, CA). Similarly, the rate of
the destruction of rainforests around the world is currently increasing, especially after
the year 1997. As Jean-Paul Jeanrenaud, head of the Amazon forest program stated, "
1997 will be remembered as the year the world caught fire." During that year, over
200,000 acres of rainforest were cut or burned each day. That is, over 150 acres of
rainforests disappeared every minute. At this rate, more than half of the world's
tropical rainforest will be cut down for industrial uses in less than 50 years. While it
is generally recognized that reforestation programs in the Amazon region are essential to
the global climate, the Brazilian economic problems are preventing or delaying the
initiation of these programs.
Cattle ranching is the primary reason for deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. When the
demand in the world for meat increases, more rainforest lands are being destroyed and
turned into farmland for animals. By estimation, there are 220 million cattle, 20 million
goats, 60 million pigs and 700 million chickens, in South America just to meet the
world's demand. (Eden, Michael J. Ecology and Land Management in Amazonia. London, and
New York: Belhaven Press, 1990) The cattle ranching program continues to move southward
into the center of South American rainforests. Large acres of land in the Amazon
rainforest are been cut and burned then reseeded with grass for cattle and other farm
animals. Currently, the cattle ranching business in the Amazon rainforest has caused a
total of 500,000 acres of rainforest destroyed. This has already effected the natural
rainforest's ecosystem.