2 3 Of The Tropical Rainforests example essay topic

Rainforest Assessment by Rachel Reu by, 9 C. Rainforests are located in a band around the Earth's Equator, mostly between the Tropic of Cancer (5 oS) and the Tropic of Capricorn (5 oN). This 3,000 mile (4,800 km) wide band around the middle of the Earth is called the Tropics. Rainforests cover only 7%of the world's surface, and are found in South and Central America, Africa and Asia. The Equator is the hottest place on Earth. The high temperatures cause accelerated evaporation of water, causing frequent rain in forested areas. The largest rainforests are the Amazon River Basin in South America, the Congo River Basin in Western Africa, and throughout much of South East Asia.

Over the decades, humans have made many enormous changes to the world's rainforests, mostly changes for the worse. Deforestation has increased. Could we be destroying one of our planet's most beautiful natural assets? One of the major causes of deforestation is commercial logging. Commercial logging is responsible for the destruction of 5 million hecatres of forest per year. In Africa, 75% of land being cleared by peasant farmers has already been previously logged.

Trees are logged unsustainable, and sometimes even illegally, to provide timber and pulp for paper. Every year, an area of rainforest the size of England is cut down. In 3 years the Amazon region of Brazil has lost more than 60,000 sq km of forest; that's 1 1/2 times the size of Switzerland. Logging companies tend to dump their waste into the rivers, which pollutes the inhabitants' water supply there. Every second, 2.47 acres (1 hectare) is cut down. That's the size of 2.5 football pitches.

150 acres are cut down per minute. 214,000 acres (86,000 hectares) are cut down per day; that's an are bigger than the size of New York City. 78 million acres (31 million hectares) are cut down per year; that's an area larger than Poland. So far, nearly 1/2 the world's rainforests have already been cut down. The ever increasing demand in the MEDCs for timber, especially hardwoods such as mahogany, is adding to these figures at a tremendous speed. Top 5 Softwood Log Producers (cubic metres per year) Top 5 Hardwood Log Producers (cubic metres per year) Another major cause of deforestation is the arrival of cattle ranchers in the rainforests, particularly in Central and South America.

In Central America, 2/3 of the tropical rainforests have been turned into pasture since 1950. Trees are burnt to provide space for the ranches, built by wealthy companies. The poor quality meat is then exported to the MEDCs and is sold in fast-food outlets as burgers and frankfurters. Top 3 Countries With Most Cattle Ranches Farmers are also adding to the disappearance of the rainforest. Trees are cut down in these areas to provide space for plantations of crops such as acacia, eucalyptus, palm oil and soya beans. There are nearly 3 million landless people in Brazil alone.

The government has cleared large areas of the Amazon rainforest and encouraged people to move there in order to set up ranches and farms. The scheme was unsuccessful. Farmers stayed on the land and attempted to farm the land every year. Nutrients in the soil were quickly exhausted as there was no longer a humus layer (decomposed matter such as leaves and plants in the soil) to provide nutrients. The soil became infertile, and nothing would grow.

By felling the trees the farmers break the nutrient cycle. They continue to farm the land without replacing the neccessary nutrients provided by the humus that are needed to grow healthy crops. The soil becomes useless. Rainforests are also cleared for mining. The mining of ore, bauxite (a clay compound containing aluminium), gold, oil, manganese (a metallic element), and other minerals may have benefited many Medcs, but it has also devastated large areas of rainforest.

The largest project of this kind in the Amazon rainforest is the Grand Carajas Scheme. Carajas is the location of the world's largest source of iron ore, much of which is sent to Smelting plants in the nearby Mar aba. The smelting plants consume about 160 acres of rainforest in charcoal. The scheme relies on cheap and plentiful hydro-electric energy from the Tucurui dam on the Tocantins River.

Although the dam is providing energy that isn't harmful to the environment, the reservoir behind the dam has flooded a massive area of rainforest. Trees are also cleared to make way for roads and highways through the forest. An example is the Trans-Amazonian Highway, which extends inland through the forest for 6000 km. All of these things are contributing to the destruction of the world's rainforests. Deforestation is more threatening than ever, and it's increasing.

If we keep cutting down rainforests then we could completely change the environment and climate. Around 80% of the rainforests nutrients come from the plants and trees. That leaves the 20% of the nutrients in the soil. The nutrients from the leaves that fall are instantly recycled back up into the plants and trees. When a rainforest is cut down the conditions change very quickly. The soil dries up in the sun.

When it rains the soil washes away as there are no trees and vegetation to protect it from the heavy equatorial rainfall and no tree roots to anchor it. No top soil means little or no vegetation will grow. Soil erosion also leads to flooding as the soil that is washed away gets deposited in riverbeds. The rainforests will never fully recover. The flora and fauna is reduced. Some species will become extinct, and many wouldn't even have been discovered yet.

Rainforest canopies absorb carbon dioxide. When the rainforests are cut down they can no longer absorb carbon dioxide. This means more carbon dioxide will stay in the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide will add to the Greenhouse Effect. Also, when trees are burnt down this also releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The Indian tribes and their way of life will be eliminated.

The loggers and settlers will go into the forest and demand the land that Indians inhabit. If the Indians don't move away then the loggers and settlers will either force them away or kill them. About 80% of Indians have died since the arrival of the Europeans in the 16th century. Most have died from western diseases such as Malaria. Those remaining have been forced away by the construction of roads, ranches, mines and reservoirs. We could mend our ways by cutting down on environment-harming things.

We could replace areas of deforestation with new plants and trees. Farmers could try shifting cultivation, and move on after 2 or 3 years to allow the rainforest some time to recover. We could pursue more sustainable methods of using the rainforest to create an industry, for example rubber tapping. Trees should be left to reach a certain height before they are allowed to be cut down. this will make sure that younger trees survive longer and it " ll encourage careful management of the forest. But whatever we do to protect the rainforests we had better do something quickly, as at the present rate of destruction nearly all of the world's rainforests will be gone in the next 50 years, as will the beautiful animals that lived in them.