Understanding Amazon Deforestation

Global warming is becoming more of an issue, and more people are increasing their environmental awareness and work to improve their “green factor.” Deforestation is getting more attention, and the implications of logging in areas like the Amazon rain forest are more obvious.

While the rain forests of the Amazon are quite beautiful in themselves, the primary reason their destruction matters is that those forests have a huge impact on all life on earth.

The trees in the rain forests regulate carbon dioxide and create oxygen, but they help regulate the temperature of the earth. Those two functions alone would make the trees worth saving, but these trees also produce nitrogen, phosphorous and other nutrients, and protect watersheds from salt erosion.

And as if that weren’t enough, the thousands of plants that grow naturally in the rain forests may have great potential in creating medications and other substances we can now only imagine.

Unfortunately, the Amazon rain forests are in danger, as we all know. Since 1970, Brazil alone lost more than 600,000 sq. km. (232,000 sq. mi.) of rain forest.

The primary reason for this deforestation is cattle ranching. Raising cattle provides a high profit with low costs, but cattle can’t graze in the rain forest. Over 60% of total deforestation is related to cattle production.

Another major deforestation cause is the soybean, of all things. Brazilian scientists have discovered a new kind of soybean. Soybean products are in high demand, and raising soybeans provides a good income to the farmers. Unfortunately for the world and the climate, however, soybeans require clear areas for cultivation, and rain forests must be removed to make room for soybean fields.

Deforestation is a major problem for the climate, and many people around the world condemn the people who destroy the forests. But it’s far more complicated than that. No one is deliberately trying to destroy the world by tearing down trees. It’s simply that they feel they need the ground for growing crops or raising cattle. Their immediate survival depends on their ability to grow cash crops.

It’s not a simple problem, and there are no easy answers, but the solution must start with finding another way for people in the affected areas to grow crops and support themselves. Once the forests are out of dangers, replanting can help restore the rain forest plant life, and from there permanent progress can be made.

But before anything can happen, the developed world must recognize that the only way to save the rain forests is to give the people of the Amazon another way to survive. They don’t care about the climate; they care about living through the year. Any solution that does not address these cares will never work. But a solution that does address their needs, and gives them the tools and property they need to effectively provide for their families, could work very well and reverse the current trend of deforestation.

Finding this solution presents a challenge to the rest of the world, and should occupy a high priority position in environmental planning.