Sam Burich Block: 1 English 12 10/20/2013

Deforestation

About eight-thousand years ago the world was fourteen percent rainforest. Sadly today only six percent of it remain, with the highest rates of deforestation occurring in the past forty years. (Taylor, 1996) So much is lost with the destruction of the rainforest. Some of these things being animal habitat, the many different animals species living in them, and potential cures for disease. Climate change and erosion are also negative effects of deforestation.

There are so many negative affects from tearing down the rainforest, so why let it happen? A good amount of rainforest deforestation happens in impoverished countries where they are a lot more concerned about feeding their families than protecting the trees. Some developing countries making about half of their revenue from exporting tropical hardwood trees. The trees that are cut down by logging companies are usually replaced with tree saplings to replenish what was cut down. Unfortunately, the saplings that are planted are often killed off by erosion, lack of nutritious soil, and competition with mature trees. About two thirds of Central Americas rainforests have been torn down so far for cattle ranches. There is a huge demand for beef because fast food

restaurants, there are one hundred thousand cattle ranches spread throughout Central America. One of the main reasons for rainforest deforestation is the debt developing countries have to other countries. They need the lumber to sell to attempt to pay off what they own. Sadly, even if all of the rain forest was destroyed most of those developing countries still would not of paid off their debt. Some products that come from the rainforest, other than wood, are bananas, rubber, nuts, and coffee. Indigenous people that live in the rainforest use a slash and burn method for farming and the plant trees to help cultivate the land when they are done using it, but they still destroy on average more than what they regrow.

Soil erosion and water pollution affects the people of Central and South America as a result from all the deforestation. This is happening because there is less plant life to hold the soil together with their roots. As a result, when it rains the topsoil is washed away and there is less fertile land to grow crops on. In fact, over that past one hundred and fifty years half of the worlds topsoil has been lost. All of the erosion destroys the soils structure and makes it less fertile. When all this soil and sediment is washed away a lot of it eventually ends up in rivers and streams where it pollutes and clogs them. This harms many fish species and other animals that live around rivers. Rainforest plants absorb an immense amount of water and after an area is stripped of its vegetation it is much more prone to floods and f lash floods.

Seven thousand medical compounds prescribed by current doctors come from plants. Only about one percent of the worlds plants have been thoroughly examined for

full medical properties. Fifty percent of all the worlds species are in the rai nforest. Putting all of that into context, think about this: two percent of the worlds rainforest is destroyed every year. It was estimated that by the year two-thousand that about twenty to twenty-five percent of the world's plant species will be extinct. Plants found in the rainforest have been used to help treat many different disease including Parkinsons disease, multiple sclerosis, malaria, headaches and AIDS. The blueprint for aspirin came from willow trees found in the rainforest.

Thousands of animals live in the rainforest and their habitat is constantly being torn down by land developers and lumberjacks. Some of these animals are orangutans, the golden poison frog, spider monkey, puma, jaguar, giant otter, and the red Uakari monkey. As the area of suitable habitat for an animal decreases so does its overall population because there arent enough resources to sustain the old population. Herbivores are impacted the most heavily because the vegetation that they grazed on is disappearing. They have to move to a new habitat or they will starve.

The rainforest has the greatest biological diversity in the world, with over fifty percent of the worlds species being found there. There are handfuls of different plants that have never been discovered and that scientists have not analyzed yet. Experts say that a four mile area of land in the rainforest may contain as much as one thousand five hundred different types of flowering plants and seven hundred and fifty different species of trees. Around one hundred twenty prescription drugs were made from plants found in the rainforest. Two thirds of the drugs that are used to fight cancer are derived from plants found in the rainforest. (Wolfson)

Global warming is easily the worst consequence of deforestation because of the toll it takes on animal life. Ice is melting more all over the world and with the worst of it happening at the poles. Arctic animal populations have suffered the worse because a portion of their old habitat has completely melted away. The population of a species of penguins has dropped by sixty-six percent in the past twenty years alone. This temperature increase has made the average global sea level rise from 4 to 8 inches in the past century. However, it has been rising at a rate of about a tenth of an inch per year. Over eighty years ago it would increase at half that rate. The increasing sea level harms many coastal communities all over the world. Thousands of people all are becoming more vulnerable to flooding every year. Residences that previously had not been harmed by coastal flooding and storms might have to relocated their houses because of the rising sea flooding their homes during bad storms like hurricanes and typhoons. Years before they may have been out of the reach of the tides, but so Storms become bigger and more powerful as a result. How high could the sea level really go though? Scientists predict that, by the year 2100, the sea level will rise anywhere from 2.5 to 6.5 inches. This is enough to swamp many major cities along the east coast of the United States. Even more troubling, by the same year, the main ice sheet of Greenland will have melted. That alone will make sea levels rise twenty three feet and submerge London and Los Angeles. ( Sea Level Rise) Many people who live in the rainforest have no legal right to their because they live on their ancestors land. They have stayed on the same land because it has been suitable to sustain their families over generations. (Wilson, 2001) When logging

companies push them off their land they are at serious risk of losing their traditional values because they are concerned with just trying to survive.

Helping impoverished countries in South and Central America would help halt deforestation because those countries would not have to rely on the lumber industry as heavily. Better replacement of cut down trees would also help out tremendously. Recycling would also reduce the amount of trees that are cut down. Companies could also store their information electronically so they would not use much paper. If deforestation is halted, scientist can further analyze all the different plant species in the rainforest and could potentially find cures for diseases like cancer. The benefits of saving the rainforest easily outweigh the costs.

Works Cited

Callahan, Christopher. "Rainforest Deforestation."http://kanat.jsc.vsc.edu/. Rainforest Information Centre, 08 05 2001. Web. 20 Oct 2013. <http://kanat.jsc.vsc.edu/student/callahan/mainpage.htm>.

"Deforestation."http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/. National Geographic. Web. 20 Oct 2013. <http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/globalwarming/deforestation-overview/>.

Lindsey, Rebecca. "Tropical Deforestation."http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/. Earth Observatory, 03 30 2007. Web. 20 Oct 2013. <http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/Deforestation/>.

Taylor , Leslie. "The Disappearing Rainforest." www.rain-tree.net. N.p., 12 21 2012. Web. 20 Oct 2013. <http://www.rain-tree.com/facts.htm

Wallace, Scott. "Farming the Amazon."http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/. National Geographic. Web. 20 Oct 2013. <http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/habitats/last-of-amazon/>.

Wolfson, E. "Tropical Rainforests: Natures Medical Cabinet." www.about.com. www.about.com. Web. 9 Oct 2013. <http://environment.about.com/od/healthenvironment/a/rainforest_drug.htm>.