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Deforestation In The Amazon Rainforest

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Words 1705
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Mateo Vargas
Mrs. Cox
English IV per. 3
12 November 2015
Deforestation
By the time that you finish reading this article 324 football fields or 428 acres worth of forests will be lost to deforestation. Yearly this is a rate of thirty five million acres of forest loss. This is equivalent to a space the size of Nicaragua.*** Deforestation is the long term or permanent loss of forest cover and its transformation into another land use. Deforestation happens when forests are cut down faster than they are renewed.*** Deforestation has been occurring since the beginning of human development. The rate of deforestation has increased over time with the development of new technology. Technology allows for people to clear forests faster and do more harm. …show more content…
The main direct causes are cattle ranching, large and small scale agriculture, logging, mining, and tourism.
Thousands of acres are required for cattle to roam and graze. But in order for them to feed, huge expanses of forests need to be cleared. Cattle ranching accounts for eighty percent of deforestation in the Amazon Rainforest.***Cattle also produce large amount of methane gas, a Greenhouse gas, which also contributes to the warming of the planet.
Large areas of forests are cleared in order to dig mines and pits. This not only harms the forests but also the soil and biodiversity. The clearing of forests disturb the soil and destroys habitats.
Another inhibitor of deforestation is timber harvest or logging. Logging companies clear massive amounts of forests for massive profit.
Tourism is also a cause of deforestation. Tourism leads to more roads being created to allow more access to parts of forests.
Urbanization of the forests is a major cause of deforestation. It is required to make room for the increasing population. Roads have negative effects upon forests. They fragment forests and destroy habitats as well as opening up more forests that can be accessed by logging companies or other deforestation …show more content…
The Amazon Rainforest is a huge concern when talking about deforestation as it is between a third to a half of the world’s remaining rainforests. Due to deforestation it is currently losing .3 percent of its forests each year. The Amazon Rainforest is the most biodiverse region in the world. In the Amazon there is estimated to be 16,000 different species of trees, 40,000 species of plants, and over 8,730 species of animals and that is not including the 2.5 million species of

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