Deforestation In The Amazon Essay

Improved Essays
Deforestation in the Amazon: Impact On Humans Trees are often looked upon as everyday objects that will be around forever. However, at the rate they are being cut down, that may not be the case. The process of clearing trees and transforming a forest into cleared land is called deforestation (Deforestation, n.d). This process is occurring all over the planet, specifically the Amazon Forest, leaving an immeasurably large impact not only on the Earth but human life as well.
Trees make up the majority of the products humans use on a daily basis. For example, books, paper, wood, food, and pencils. Over the years, humans have learned to adapt their life around these objects. With deforestation becoming so popular in the world today, humans may be forced to find a new way to make products using a different resource.
Over half of the world’s forests have been destroyed in the last 10,000 or so years — the majority of this loss has occurred in just the last 50 years, occurring simultaneously with a massive increase in the human population (Deforestation Effects, 2012). As the world’s population increases, more products are demanded and more factories are required to produce those products. However, these factories need a place to be built which more often than not are in forested areas continuing the process of deforestation. As these factories are produced on clear cut land, they pollute our environment by the excess waste through the smoke stacks. Although humans think they can find another way to clear the pollution from the air, our greatest source of decontamination are trees. According to American Forests, trees clean our atmosphere by intercepting airborne particles, and by absorbing ground-level ozone, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, and other greenhouse gases. A single tree can absorb 10 pounds of air pollutants a year, and produce nearly 260 pounds of oxygen- enough to support two people (Clean Air, 2016). Although trees cannot remove all air pollutants, the efficient decontamination of most of it is very beneficial to living organisms. As trees are being cut down, the amount of pollutants in the air being removed are decreasing leaving the air to be more toxic and unhealthy to breathe. The World Health Organization says air pollution is the world’s largest environmental health risk, as it has killed an estimated seven million people in 2012 alone. The vast majority of those deaths were due to cardiovascular diseases, namely stroke and ischemic heart disease (2015). Aside
…show more content…
Therefore, there is a decrease in the amount of rainfall causing areas of cleared land to result in drought. Drought can be very dangerous for maintaining life on the planet. If clear cutting of trees continues at the rate it is going today, the lack of fresh water may lead to ‘water wars’ throughout the world. Water is a major resource for all living organisms whether it be for hydration or habitat purposes.
Not only is water a major habitat for many living organisms, land is a well. Seventy percent of Earth’s land animals and plants live in forests, and many cannot survive the deforestation that destroys their homes (Deforestation, n.d). One of the most common causes of deforestation is humans seeking land for agriculture. Though humans believe they are doing the right thing by providing more land to grow crops for food, they are destroying the lives of other animals including their

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    After ten thousand years of use, wood supplies have been slowly withering to what they are today. It has been difficult to accurately project just how much damage we have done to the world’s forests, but it is roughly estimated that humans have cut, cleared, and burned 46% of the approximate 15 billion acres of original forest cover (Bryant 13); at this rate, considering the rise of computer integrated machinery and our recent boom in population, we will be at half the total amount of trees recommended by eons of natural selection in just a few decades. Without these trees, the balance of nature teeters towards chaos. On top of this, concentrations of carbon dioxide have never been higher. Before the Industrial Revolution, CO2 levels in the atmosphere were measured to be around 280 ppm (part per million), which has since risen to more than 400 ppm (Butler 1).…

    • 1268 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    As a result, forest plays an irreplaceable role for human, because forests can absorb carbon dioxide, and creatures oxygen. However, as we enter in a new century the growing of the…

    • 1623 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Amazon Rainforestation

    • 652 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Every year, many plants and animal species are killed, or even put to the brink of extinction, due to Amazon Deforestation. “Forests are complex ecosystems that affect almost every species on the planet. When they are degraded, it can set off a devastating chain of events both locally and around the world.” (Bradford) By deforesting the amazon, many animals are losing their homes and food sources.…

    • 652 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Great Bear Rainforest is a temperate rainforest of 6.4 million hectares, home to many rare and endangered species, as well as watersheds that provide the best salmon runs left in Canada. Unfortunately, the Great Bear Rainforest is under threat due to clearcutting and its effects on the environment. According to the David Suzuki Foundation, “30% of logging in the Great Bear Rainforest has been in watersheds since 2001”, meaning the water quality of that area has been affected. As for wildlife, deforestation is one of the leading causes of animal extinction in the world today. Due to the negative effects deforestation has on wildlife and watersheds, the acts of clearcutting in the Great Bear Rainforest must subside.…

    • 783 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Deforestation is clearing the Earth 's forests on a colossal scale, regularly resulting in impairment to the value of the land (Ray). Modern day forests cover around 30 percent of the world 's land area, but sizeable rations of forest span are lost each and every year. As time advances, more and more land is deforested for marketable agriculture and livestock nurturing, due to vast amounts of wood and energy…

    • 1190 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Six billion trees are cut down every single year and used for lumber and more commonly paper. One tree produces an average of eight thousand three hundred thirty-three pieces of paper that is that means 49,998,000,000,000 pieces of paper are used each year. When all of these trees are being cut down with machines that create carbon dioxide we are also getting rid of the main things the give us the oxygen that we need to survive. A fantastic way that the United States can cut down on a number of greenhouse gasses in the air is by stopping deforestation. Hundreds of animals lose their habitats each year due to deforestation.…

    • 207 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Great Essays

    Tropical deforestation is an issue that has plagued mankind since the beginning of time. It is an important component of global change and has a large influence on many different environmental issues we have today such as climate change and carbon emissions. Over a twelve year period that ended in 2012, 1.1 million km2 of tropical forest was lost, with the rate of forest loss increasing during this span. One of the largest and most biodiverse tropical forests’ in the world is the Amazon, covering an area of 5.5 million square kilometers and shared by nine countries. Brazil holds the majority of it, over 60%.…

    • 2010 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Deforestation has changed the habitats of many species so profoundly that they are no longer able to thrive, or even survive, in these altered environments. Just consider the alarming reports of the decline in Borneo's orangutans' populations, the result of human interference that is destroying…

    • 896 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    This deforestation causes the loss of habitats for millions of species, even those not discovered yet as well as the acceleration of climate change. Removing the trees leads to temperature shifts, a lack of moisture in the atmosphere, and increased greenhouse gases entering the atmosphere. Nature is natural and must be left to cycle…

    • 1030 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    California Water Shortage

    • 654 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Water shortage is growing more and more prominent each day. “By 2030 almost half the world will live under conditions of high water stress.” – Powers 2015. In the last 50 years the population has doubled. The growth followed by economic development and industrialization has drastically changed our ecosystems and we have lost biodiversity because of it.…

    • 654 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Among Giants Analysis

    • 565 Words
    • 3 Pages

    All humans coexist on this planet together. However, humans could also be what destroys Earth in the end. If that happens to occur, one may wonder where we would migrate. Naturally, it is unclear what the next step would be should we fail to take care of our home and it is these unknowns that come to mind watching the short film "Among Giants". This film follows a man with the nickname "Farmer" and his friends as they protect the ecosystem.…

    • 565 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    We need to stop deforestation before it’s too late. “Rainforests contain about 50% of the world's wildlife population which is about 50,000 species”, and about 100 species from the rainforest are killed each day due to…

    • 602 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Global warming is an issue that often doesn’t receive enough attention. Deforestation is among the leading causes of global warming. Deforestation is the clearing of trees and forest to make room commercial uses such as shopping malls, houses, and businesses. While this may not seem like an urgent issue in this country, we have to realize that the United States is one of the leading countries when it comes to deforestation only behind countries such as Brazil, Canada, and Russia. It is estimated that in 100 years, there will be no rainforests.…

    • 1360 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    It is of utmost importance to decrease overexploitation of trees, reforest degraded areas, and afforest urban areas. The significance of trees and vegetation as a whole shouldn’t be acknowledge once they are lost forever, but prior to their breaking point, which is…

    • 1415 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    For several thousands of years, humans and other living species have coexisted together, but as the human population continues to dramatically increase, the need for an extraneous amount of resources does as well. Over the past two decades, the human impact on wildlife is easily seen worldwide. Forests have been diminishing at an alarming rate. Deforestation is becoming more of a problem each day. Due to deforestation, biodiversity is decreasing, habitats are being severely polluted, and inhabitants of the forest are being forced out of their comfort zone.…

    • 1292 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays