Tropical Deforestation
The tropical forests are an ecosystem located in the inter-tropical zone, between 23°S and 23°N. The tropical forests contain the most important biodiversity in plants and animal species. The tropical forests are very important to the planet as a source of oxygen for the planet.
The deforestation is a phenomenon that exists since the human is on earth. From eighteen century the deforestation in all the regions of the world and especially in the tropical forest increases its rate due too many factors as: agriculture, wood, mineral extraction and cities expansion. The deforestation is conducted both by economic groups of power that extract systematically the resources of the tropical forest such as poor people that need to deforest to obtain wood for warming or minerals as gold.
With the deforestation there are some impacts than take place:
Soil affectation: The soil of the tropical forest is poor in nutrients; the majority of nutrients are contained in the living plants. When the deforestations affect the tropical forest, the soil is affected.
Social impact: The tropical forest is home of millions of people, most of them are aborigines, indigenous and first nation people that are living there for centuries. The deforestation forces to the affected people to move to the cities or other unknown places.
Climate impact: Thirty percent of the water of the rain in the tropical forest is recycled water from the rainforest. The deforestation affects the water cycle in these ecosystems. Besides, the tropical forest is the best defense of the phenomenon of greenhouse gases. If the area of tropical forest reduces, the effect of greenhouse gases will get worse.
The NASA and important institutions around the world are studying the deforestation phenomenon in order to have a record of this phenomenon that affects to all human kind. Important satellite images from the Amazon, Central Africa and South-East Asia is recorded and the evolution of affected zones.
Is necessary to make strategies for preserving tropical forests on local and international scale. On a local scale, governments and non-governmental organizations must work with the communities to encourage low-impact agricultural activities, creation of new parks and protected areas. On an international scale, the governments must establish long term plans to reduce greenhouse emissions and promote companies and governments to create eco-friendly products.
My opinion:
The deforestation of the tropical forest causes loss of all nutrients in the soil, climate change and human impacts as malnutrition, increased disease and dependency and in many cases, migration and disappearance of the community.
Secondly, the deforestation impacts in the regions. Because forests ensure the conservation of water, soil, flora and fauna, its removal causes serious environmental impacts:floods, drought, soil erosion, contamination of waterways andoccurrence of pests by disruption of the ecological balance.
These impacts undermine the life and health of the people of the region and their productive activities such as agriculture, livestock, fisheries, etc.
Finally, deforestation also implies serious impacts globally. Forests have important functions in climate and their disappearance affects humanity as a whole.
On the one hand, the huge plant mass of forests helps to regulate the global climate, in relation to rainfall, temperature and wind conditions.
On the other hand, being burned or cut forests, carbon stored in them for centuries is incorporated into the atmosphere, thus increasing the concentration of carbon in the same aggravating the problem of greenhouse gases.
In addition, tropical forests are home of the majority of planet's biodiversity. Both animal and plant species tend to disappear along with the forests and the extinction rate of species is on the rapid rise. Humanity as a whole is then affected, since deforestation brings with it the permanent loss of species, implying an ethical responsibility to be assumed by mankind as a whole, although not all are guilty of this crime.
The whole planet is in constant balance. We are breaking this balance destroying everything to meet many of our whims. By doing this we are sinking our own future; specifically on the issue of deforestation scoring these huge forests lose a lot of O2 to give us further promotes perspiration and rain absorption, regulate climate along with the oceans, without them climate change accelerates the unable to be absorbed by greenhouse gases forests. The loss of forests causes us to lose all. It is necessary that the entire population of the world be aware what we are causing it, because we will not be a long account. We must stop this process. I guess in many other similar issues happen, and these also have damaging consequences for the balance of the planet.
Reference List
Lindsey, Rebecca. “Tropical Deforestation”. NASA Earth Observatory30March2007. Web. 24 May 2014.
