Tropical Rainforests
Tropical rainforests are areas of the world where there is an abundance of seasonal rain and where the climate is typically moist. Tropical rainforests are beneficial to us and the environment we live in for many reasons. For example, tropical rainforests give us about 20% of the oxygen that we breathe in, they also provide food and shelter for many diverse species. These forests also supply local communities with products including medicines, and nearly half of the medicines today can be linked back to the tropical rainforests. Tropical rainforests are located on a wide band around the equator covering over 6% of the Earth's land. Each year the rainforests lose about 93,000 square miles due to deforestation.
Deforestation. What is it?
Deforestation is the action of clearing a wide area of trees. This is destroying the homes of many different animals, killing animals, and ultimately creating an unsustainable environment for the animals to live in. Deforestation occurs by Agriculture and infrastructure expansion, colonization, cropping and growth in population. Therefore, deforestation rates are mostly directly related to the status of the country's economy. Many governments overlook the protection factor that tropical rainforests have on biodiversity and just focus on the capital they can make from it.
How does this relate to our course?
Sustainability is a large topic in this class for good reason. Humans often take more resources than they need in situations where those resources take too long to regenerate so they ultimately are nonrenewable. There are ways to understand deforestation and ways to implement policies that can help yield deforestation at the rapid consumption that it is at now. Two of them are listed below...
1. Sustained yield: this model is based on the idea that when the trees are harvested we only harvest an amount that is less than or equal to the amount of trees regrowth.
2. Timber Certification: making it so consumers have to pay a premium on the products that are harvested from the tropical rainforests.
My viewpoint:
I believe that since the tropical rainforest makes up 20% of our oxygen we definitely need to apply huge tax or policy such as the Timber Certification so the resources do not get exploited and we lose such a big source of oxygen. If we make it more difficult/expensive to get these resources then companies will not jump through all of these hoops to get them. Decreasing timber consumption will help our earth in many ways, species will thrive, and humans will have a good chunk of our oxygen remain healthy.
On the left of this image is untouched tropical rainforest. On the right is deforestation of the tropical rainforest that has already occurred.
https://www.wired.com/2015/04/using-smart-satellites-to-monitor-deforestation-from-space/
References
https://enviroliteracy.org/environment-society/environmental-resource-economics/tropical-deforestation/
I like how you emphasized how rainforests are important to everyone, and not just the people and species that live in them. People should be concerned about the rainforests because they contribute to about 1/5 of the oxygen that we breathe in. To many people the rainforests issue is an abstract one that only affects people in the regions near the forests. In reality, we are all tied to the rainforests, and it is in all of our best interests to take care of them. You did a great job highlighting this.
ReplyDeleteAmazing! I love your viewpoint and everything you said was spot on! It's so devastating what's happening to our environment right before our eyes. Well done!
ReplyDeleteClean air is something that most species rely on for survival. Without sufficient oxygen supplies an abundance of species are at risk. As you mentioned, this is something that humans should prioritize. We have a duty to respect nature and future generations of humans. I like how you highlighted that without immediate intervention the situation will continue to escalate to an ecological tipping point.
ReplyDeleteI like that you present the problem of deforestation and then also include a potential solution. The Timber Certification seems like a great solution to make companies actually pay for the ecological impact that they are having by taking the trees. Are there any places that are already successfully implementing the timber certification?
ReplyDeleteThis topic fits in really nicely with the Biodiversity Decline video we watched. Not only do trees provide us with oxygen but deforestation and habitat destruction leaves species vulnerable to extinction.
ReplyDeleteI think you did a really nice job addressing the problems that deforestation is causing. I also like how you talked about the solutions that they are looking into. One of the lines that stuck out to me what how you said that rainforests give us about 20% of the oxygen we breathe in. I thought that was very eye opening and stressed how it affects not only the species in the rain forests but us as well.
ReplyDeleteDeforestation is a huge problem regarding the impact trees have on the world with supplying oxygen. Preventing this action is a huge priority as not only does it affect humans but displaces organisms as well.
ReplyDeleteYou did a great job displaying the problem of the deforestation of the Tropical Rainforests. Providing a potential solution was a great addition.
ReplyDeleteDeforestation is a very serious problem and I really like how you wrote about it. If people are not doing anything toward this it's very scary to think what will going to happen to us, to the environment and to the animals.
ReplyDeleteVery well said and put together. You can tell that you put time and thought into the post. Deforestation is a big issue that needs to be controlled and you did a good job at showing how and why.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting topic. I did not know that some medicines come from rain forests. Knowing this and the fact that rainforests supply 20% of our oxygen, it is important for humans to stop the deforestation of rainforests. Clearly rainforests are crucial to many animal species and we should do it to protect them as well, but with so many direct benefits to humans, it is crazy that we still cut these forests down. I like your suggestions at the end too.
ReplyDelete