The Continuing Decline of the Amazon Rainforest
Deforestation in the Amazon Cause for Environmental Concern
Aug 25, 2008
A report carried in the UK Independent dated May 14, 2008 by Daniel Howden, entitled “Deforestation: The Hidden Cause of Global Warming” refers to the Amazon rainforest as the “lungs of the earth”. Brazil, with no heavy industry on a comparable scale with the EU, India or Russia reportedly outstrips all other countries, except the United States, China and Indonesia in greenhouse gas emissions.
The Amazon Rainforest and the Environment
According to “Climatic and Biotic Controls on Annual Carbon Storage in Amazonian Ecosystems” by H. Tian, J.M. Mellilo et al. Blackwell Press, 2000), the Amazon rainforest holds approximately 10% of the world’s ecosystem carbon stores and accumulates 0.6 tons of carbon per hectare per year. The absorption of carbon dioxide is not the only way the Amazon rainforest affects world climate. The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) report titled “The Amazon's Vicious Cycles: Drought and Fire in the Greenhouse” reveals that the rainforest “influences climate by acting as a giant consumer of heat close to the ground, absorbing half of the solar energy that reaches it”.
Amazon Rainforest Destruction
A report by Agence France-Presse (AFP), dated June 3, 2008, titled “Worsening Amazon Deforestation Embarrasses Brazil's Govt” states that “In the past two decades, 700,000 square kilometers of the four million square kilometers that make up the forest have been razed, which corresponds to an area the size of a football field disappearing every 10 seconds.” Quoting figures from Brazil’s National Space Research Institute, the report claims that the rate of deforestation in 2008 will be greater than in 2007.
Causes of Amazon Deforestation
The major contributors to the Amazon deforestation are cattle ranching, soybean production and forest logging.
- The U.N.’s Food and Agricultural Organization publication “Livestock’s Long Shadow” states that “70% of previous forested land in the Amazon is occupied by pastures”.
- According to the World Bank Working Paper No. 22, titled “Causes of Deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon”, “Soybean cultivation is increasing rapidly in the cerrado, causing the agricultural frontier to expand into forest areas.”
- Greenpeace International, in its website “Logging in the Amazon” states that “Illegal and predatory logging plays a central role in the destruction of the Amazon. It is now generally accepted that illegal logging is the norm, rather than the exception in the Brazilian Amazon.”
These activities have a huge environmental impact in that they remove carbon dioxide absorbing forest, use “slash and burn” methods to clear the forest, thus releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and replace the forest with methane producing cattle.
Ownership of the Amazon Rainforest
The continuing degradation of the Amazon rainforest has raised international concerns. As far back as 1989, the then Senator Al Gore stated, “Contrary to what Brazilians think, the Amazon is not their property, it belongs to all of us.” A report carried in The New York Times on May 18, 2008, titled “Whose Rain Forest Is This, Anyway?” questioned the right of Brazil and other Amazon nations to control what is claimed to be a world resource. This article brought a quick response from President Lula Da Silva. In a speech delivered May 26, 2008 at the annual meeting of Brazil's Institute of Advanced Studies, he said, "the world must understand that Brazil's Amazon has an owner and that the owners are the Brazilian people."
Notwithstanding the good intentions of the Brazilian government, it is clear that the Amazon rainforest is in trouble. Continued logging, using the forest for soybean production and the expansion of pasture land will have dire consequences on carbon dioxide emissions and the environment.
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