Present
Benefits of the Rainforest
The Amazon Rainforest has been recognized for it's ecological services for not only local communities and tribes, but also for the world. It's richness in biodiversity creates strong ecological webs and niches where each species relies on one another for its survival. Due to its biodiversity and lushness, it is able to provide many resources and benefits as well which include the following:
- Mitigates Effects of Climate Change
- Provides Valuable Resources
- Is a Home to Many Walks of Life
As mentioned above, rainforests—especially the Amazon Rainforest due to how vast it is— help to mitigate effects of climate change. Rainforests do this in many ways. Rainforests are able to sequester and store carbon. They are often called the carbon sinks and they can absorb around 2 billion tons of CO2 each year. In general, the Amazon Rainforest helps to stabilize the climate by keeping the balance of climate systems.
Another benefit as mentioned of the Amazon Rainforest is its numerous resources it is able to provide. The Amazon Rainforest is able to produce several valuable minerals such as gold, copper, and additional various types of irons. Locals also use the rainforest as a source of hydroelectric energy from the large Rivers that run through it. It contributes to 20% of Earth's fresh water which helps to support not only human life, but also the wild life. Most importantly, scientists have been able to use around 40,000 species of plants to evaluate them for medicinal purposes. Some important medicines today are even used as anesthesia, to treat cancer, and malaria.
Finally the Amazon Rainforest is considered to be the home to many walks of life. The forest can be considered the ancestral home of one million Indians, divided into around four-hundred tribes. In many of these tribes, they value, utilize, and most important care for the land. The Amazon is also home to 427 mammal species, 1,300 bird species, 378 reptile species, and 400+ amphibian species and that is only what we have found so far. More species are being discovered each year that consider the Amazon Rainforest their home.
What Is Currently Happening?
Currently, the Amazon Rainforest is being destroyed through deforestation. Sixty percent of the Amazon Rainforest lies in Brazil. According to Brazil's National Institute for Space Research, more than 3,980 sqare kilometers of the Amazon—an area five times the size of New York City— were cleared in the first six months of 2022. This figure is the highest figure in the last six years.
The Amazon Rainforest is also being cleared for agricultural purposes. Agriculture serves as the second main of forest conversion in the Amazon Rainforest. These agricultural practices can lead to many other environmental issues. Some of these issures include: soil erosion from the lack of solid root structure, river siltation from the erosion, and aquatic contamination with the agricultural chemicals being used on the crops.
The current president of Brazil, Bolsonaro, has had great contoversy regarding how he views the Amazon Rainforest. Bosonaro's administration has weakened existing environmental protection and even approved a twenty-four percent cut to the 2021 environment budget, reduced citizen representation on environmental policy counsils, and replaced environemental policymakers with military officials. He also is considering to pass bills that would permit illegal squatting and erode protections for Indigenous territories. Despite this, he has also taken a few steps to protect the Amazon such as creating an Amazon Council and increasing fines towards environnmental crimes. Although he has done a couple of good things for the environment, it has failed to accomplish significant results.
Why You Should Care
As mentioned above the Amazon Rainforest provides many benefits for us— not to mention how beautiful it is being the richest enviornment in biodiversity.10% of the known species on Earth consider this large rainforest their home. It is also home to 40,000 plant species which could possibly cure diseases such as cancer, but if we get rid of the forest and what it has to offer, we may be wiping out beautiful animals that the next generation might not get to experience or know. We could be getting rid of possible medicines and treatments that could save thousands of lives.
33 million people also depend on and live in the Amazon rainforest as it provides clean air, building materials, food, and income for many. If we continue to demolish the forest and break down its ecological services it is able to provide when it is healthy, we lose as well. We loose and the 33 million other people who depend on the forest lose the ability to have access to the abundance of resources it provides such as the basic necessities like safe water and food.
Finally, we also lose a mjor carbon sink of the environment. We are essentially destroying something that is working to help save us and the entirety of the world from the gloabl crisis known as global warming. It is able to absorb around 2 billion tons of CO2 per year and it is currently containing 90-140 billion tons of carbon. Everytime a tree is being cut down, we shrink our carbon storage capacity and release CO2 into the air, worsening the current situation of climate change. As a result of climate change, sea levels can rise causing cities to drown, more extreme storms and weather, and causing an imbalance in our world on all fronts.
| Period | Estimated Remaining Forest Cover | Annual Forest Lost | % of 1970 Cover Remaining |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1990 | 3,692,020 | 13,730 | 90% |
| 2000 | 3,524,097 | 18,226 | 86% |
| 2010 | 3,358,788 | 7000 | 81.9% |
| 2020 | 3,279,649 | 8,426 | 80.1% |
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