As the global demand for resources such as soy and beef increases, the Amazon’s rate of destruction also increases. The forest is cleared every day to expand for more land to be used for cattle and crops. The most efficient way for farmers to clear forests is to use fire to burn the trees, but as a result the blaze often spreads to nearby areas and leads to uncontrollable forest fires that can only be stopped by letting it burn out. Even worse, cattle pastures take up about 80 percent of the deforested areas in the Amazon, and because of this innumerable amount of cattle, there is excessive runoff which contaminates the 4,100 miles of river, spreading the corruption throughout the entire …show more content…
The article, “Can South America China-ify Its Economy Without Destroying The Amazon?”, discusses “a new, under-the-radar infrastructure plan”. Their goal is to cut huge swaths of the Amazon to help reorient the continent toward trade with China. This helps because they would be able to trade efficiently with both China and the United States, helping their economy grow. This plan, called The Initiative for the Integration of the Regional Infrastructure of South America, has managed to keep low profile because it is ten projects in one. Each project aims to integrate neighboring economies and open the continent’s hinterlands to drilling, mining and industrial agriculture. An organization called the South America Project is monitoring this plan to make sure it happens responsibly. Their main goals are to prevent the spread of gated company towns and slash and burn sprawls. As long as the South America Project can make sure this plan goes as efficiently as possible, then the South American countries will receive a huge improvement in their economies, while also doing minimal damage to the