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Rainforest Deforestation ~
Megan Mallory
Period 5
~ Background
Information
The planet earth plays the part of home to millions of species of plants and animals.
Scientists call the interactions of plants and animals with the physical world
around them ecological systems, or ecosystems. The different kinds of
ecosystems include desert, arctic, ocean, and meadow ecosystems. But
probably the most complex and vast ecosystem on land is the ecosystem of the
tropical rainforest. Tropical rainforests are the homes to more than one
half of the world’s species of plants and animals. The destruction of
tropical rainforests leads to the destruction of species of plants and animals,
some being essential to modern human life.
2.5 acres of tropical rainforest may support two hundred different kinds of
trees; it may also house hundreds of kinds of ferns, vines, shrubs, and
fungi. That same amount of land may house thousands of species of animals including monkeys, exotic birds, butterflies, beetles,
frogs, bats, and cats (Nations, 13). Rainforests are dark, steamy, and
mysterious places filled with many fascinating plants and animals. They
are also home to some of the oldest and most interesting societies on earth,
like the pigmies in
Not all tropical rainforests are the same. Some receive more rain fall
than others, between 160 inches per year and 1 meter per year. The
forests with more rain are known as equatorial evergreen forests, and appear in
~ Reasons for the Problem
Over hundreds of years, the need for wood and land has increased with the
growing population of the Earth. One hundred years from now, the decades
we are living in may become known as the brief period in history when
one-fourth of the earth’s plant and animal species were wiped out (Nations,
91). Today, people are eliminating plants and animals at the rate of more
than a thousand species per year.
Why are these species being destroyed in such mass amounts? The simple
answer to that question is destruction of habitat. Another word for this
is deforestation, the clearing and burning of the worlds forests. With
increasing population, the need for wood, roads, and land has increased.
Millionaires want a tropical island paradise to get away to for about one
weekend a year. The don’t realize that in the land that they will build
their 85,000 square foot vacation home may already be home to many species of
plants and animals, maybe even to the cure for cancer, or Ebola. The same
millionaire may want his or her mansion to look more tropical, so they chop
down the surrounding rainforest and add a rock pool and use the wood to keep
their 12 fireplaces running. This may be an exaggeration but the basics
are factual. Nobody knows what medicines or species live in the
rainforests and unfortunately no one may ever find out.
There is no stopping the increase in world population or these peoples need for
land and wood, but I think that the preservation of plants and animals that
will never be on this planet ever again should be more important than having 3
homes. By preserving rainforests we may even be able to preserve people’s
lives by finding cures to deadly diseases such as heart disease, and
cancer.
~ Current
Status
The situations of rainforest deforestation are more
and more becoming aware to everyday people. There are adopt and acre
funds where an acre of rainforest is saved and you make a donation to help
preserve more of them. There are also wrist bands that profit rainforest
preservation. Although rainforests are being destroyed, at least
people are becoming more aware of what is being destroyed.
People are starting to realize that rainforests hold many things that help
humans function, like coffee, rice, medicines that treat inflammation and
induce vomiting, and many fruits.
Today less that one fourth of the original rainforests are still alive. They, in my opinion, are in fact alive in the
ways that they are entirely made up of living things. Rainforests are
located in eighty-five countries around the world, but ninety percent of them
are condensed into fifteen countries. They cover only six percent of the
globe, but hold more than half of the world’s plant and animal species and
eighty percent of the world’s vegetation. Rainforests are often destroyed
so that cattle can graze. As the cattle chew the grass, their hooves
stomp on the land and wipe out the last o the possible vegetation, making the
land not even suitable for grazing cattle. This process has destroyed
more than one half of the 130,000 square miles of Central American
forests.
Not all of the world’s tropical rainforests are doomed to be destroyed.
In fact some rainforests around the world aren’t even in danger, yet.
Every few seconds, eight acres of tropical rainforests are burned and bulldozed
out of existence, these eight acres served as the home to hundreds of living
species, and some to the entire species. Therefore in those few seconds
an entire species may become extinct.
~ Analysis
As tropical rainforests are destroyed, many other
things are destructed as well. Drugs made from plants from the
rainforests treat: malaria, headaches, and convulsions; there are hopes to find
cures for cancer and heart disease in the rainforests as well. Coffee
beans, Brazil nuts, vanilla, cinnamon, rice, corn, sweet potatoes, manioc
(tapioca), sugarcane, bananas, oranges, mung beans,
guavas, mangoes, papaya, pineapple, peanuts, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, and
pigeon peas are just a few of the plants found in the rainforest that are used in
modern human life. If the rainforests are destroyed completely, people
could try to recreate these fruits and spices, but they could never get the
real thing. That would mean millions of future generations would never
taste real vanilla or bite into a real slice of mango. Products of the
rainforest are not only fruits and beans, but they are also ingredients in
shampoos, waxes, and steroids.
By cutting down rainforests in bulk, it causes heavy rains and floods.
When the rainforest is standing, the canopy absorbs most of the rainfall, and
the rest trickles down to the other levels, finally leaving a small portion of
that rain for the ground. With no trees, the water would go directly to
the ground and erode it horribly. That amount of rain would make the
seasons horribly different, the rainy seasons would be terribly flooded and the
dry seasons would just be months of heavy droughts.
If the rainforests are destroyed and they did hold cures for cancer and/or
heart disease, we would never know. Even if there is one flower that held
the cure, I’m sure that scientists could reproduce it so that they could make
enough to cure everyone who has and will have cancer or heart
disease.
~ Reasonable Solution/How to Solve the Problem
The problem of rainforest deforestation will never be completely solved.
Earth’s population will always be growing and expanding over all of the land on
our planet. Since the population has rapidly been growing faster and
faster in the last few years, we need more houses, and more farmland; there is
no stopping the need for these things. A solution would be to build
buildings where there are natural sunlight simulators and grow crops
there. The buildings could be like multiple story green houses. By
doing this, land would be saved and used for houses, and crops could be grown
in other countries, therefore saving money instead of shipping them from
country to country.
Another way to solve the problem is to make deforestation illegal, except for
extremely necessary reasons. Some of these reasons could be fire hazards,
or if a disease came up in an area and it needed to be burned to rid of the
disease. Other than these reasons, there is no truly good reason to cut
down rainforests. If people need homes that bad, they can build high
rises and live in them. When rainforests are destroyed, it is not only
plants and animals that are destroyed; people live in rainforests as
well. Tribes such and the pigmies in
~ Prediction-
Future Outcome
If this problem is not solved, there soon will be very
little to no rainforests on the earth and its products could never be found
again. The cure for cancer or heart disease could be lost forever without
ever being found. Since most of the diseases in third world countries
came from within the rainforest, either transferred by bites of animals or bad
water and or food, it would only make sense that the cure would also be hidden
in he rainforest.
If new cures for diseases are found in the future, no one would ever have to
worry about that disease again. Since it would be mostly natural, it
wouldn’t have had to mostly be made in a lab, and therefore it would hopefully
be inexpensive and given to not just middle class people but also people living
in third world countries who are often neglected when diseases are being
treated.
If the forests are preserved thousands of species of plants and animals will be
preserved along with them. Cultures of Indian tribes that have been
around for hundreds of years could be preserved as well. The list of
things in the rainforest that we do not know yet is endless and will probably
stay that way because they are so large and filled with plants and animals.
In total when people destroy rainforests, they also destroy species of plants
and animals that will never be seen again. Everyone should at least learn
about what they destroying before the next time they take their fruits, or any
other product of the rainforest, for granted.
~ Works Cited
Attenbourg, David the Living Planet: Jungle
Doggett, Scott. “Birds Verses Buzz Saws in Jungle
Joust.” Los Angeles Times
21 September 2004. 2 March 2005 <http://192.168.10.3:15871/cgi-bin/blockpage.cgi?ws-session=1224802264>.
Nations, James D. Tropical Rainforests: 1988
Pepper, Obie. “Remote Sensing of
the Rainforest.” 11 December 2002. 2 March 2005
<http://emporia.edu/earthsci/student/peper1/rainradar.htm>
Quammen, David. “The
Green Abyss.” National Geographic March 2001: pg. #38-83
"The Rainforest Site." About our Projects . . . 24
March 2005 <http://www.therainforestsite.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/CTDSites.woa/58/wo/L45000ST600VM000D6/2.0.45.1.3.0.1.0.25.0.CustomContentLinkDisplayComponent.0.0>
Sunn, Bloyd. Endangered Species. San Diego: 1989