Destruction of the Amazon Rainforest Adapted from Switzer and Redden, Teaching About Diversity: Latin America

The Amazon Rainforest is located near the equator and is wet and hot all year. In this rainforest are broadleaf evergreen trees and approximately 30 million species of various plants, insects, and animals. For a longtime, this lush green area has been under attack by farmers and ranchers. In addition, various industrial interest such as lumbering and mining have also been destroying this rainforest. Who?

For at least a decade, Brazil’s government has encouraged these activities. To support settlement and development, the government has offered tax credits for changing forest into pastureland. It has also provided transportation there and incentives such as claiming the land when it is “improved”. This is effective since Brazil has millions of landless farm workers. In addition, the government has tried to develop the area by building hydroelectric dams. However, these dams are flooding areas of land, killing fish, destroying trees, and provide breeding grounds for disease carrying mosquitoes.

Destruction of the rainforest will affect the health and environment of many people in the world. The enormous varieties of rainforest plants are beneficial as food, medicines, and non-toxic pesticides. The piquia tree produces a chemical that is poisonous to the leaf-cutter ants that destroy part of South America's crops each year. Other plant chemicals have been used to develop new medicines for high blood pressure and some forms of cancer.

The environment will be influenced in a variety of ways by the destruction of the rainforest. Loss of the trees will result in surface runoff and soil erosion. The amount of rainfall in some areas will change. There will be more carbon dioxide in the air.

The green trees and plants of the rainforest are important to the production of oxygen. They remove carbon dioxide from the air and replace it with oxygen. When carbon dioxide is not removed from the air, it builds up. This can result is a higher temperature for the world. This is known as the greenhouse effect. Currently, seven percent more carbon dioxide is being added to the air from the amount of trees and plants being destroyed in the rainforest area. Destruction of the rainforest can have irreversible effects.

How do you feel about deforestation?