How Does Deforestation For Cattle Ranching In The Rainforest Affect The Environment? Rainforests cover 31% of the land on the planet. They provide many resources, homes for wildlife and vital oxygen. Therefore, deforestation, the clearing of the rainforest, has a major negative impact on the environment; it contributes to climate change and destroys the land. Yearly, 18 million acres of forest are destructed due to deforestation. Cattle ranching is responsible for 70% of the deforestation in the rainforest. This is a major environmental issue, hence, what are the potential solutions for this issue? Deforestation is one of the main contributing factors to global climate change. The leading problem caused by deforestation is the greenhouse gas emission. 75% of Brazil’s emissions are a result of deforestation. Cattle ranching has a major impact on this issue, it is responsible for 18% of the total release of …show more content…
Cattle needs water and foods to grow and survive. The food, often corn or soy, cows on cattle ranches in the rainforest are fed, are often farmed in other deforested areas in the rainforest. These areas are facing the same issues regarding soil erosion and climate change. Additionally, the foods that the cattle is fed are cheap and therefore poor quality, which are proven to make cows gassier, leading to more methane emissions. The resources, such as water are exploited and this is causing environmental issues such as scarcity. Furthermore, the more demand for resources there is, the more areas of the rainforest need to be used, leading to more of the same environmental issues. Not only is the lack of resources causing environmental issues, it is also causing social and economical issues, such as health, hunger and poverty. Overall, the cattle’s need for food and water are having a major impact environmentally, as it relates to all the other issues the rainforest is having regarding to deforestation for cattle
The introduction of cattle ranching industries in the 1960s set the forefront for current Brazilian rainforest deforestation figures. During this time, development subsidy programs encouraged Brazilians to clear rainforest for pastureland and invest in new cattle ranches (Pancheco). Over the last 40 years, Brazil has destroyed 700,00 square kilometers of rainforest, an area about the size of Texas (BBC) (Enchanted Lear...
Deforestation is the clearing of a forest and/or cutting down of trees for human benefits such as agriculture, wood exports, etc. Deforestation is the cause of numerous environmental impacts such as habitat loss, flooding and soil erosion. It can also cause climate change, by reducing the amount of rainfall and changing the amount of sunlight reflected from Earth’s surface and increases the risk of forest . Tree growth is important for biodiversity because they absorb carbon dioxide which is a harmful greenhouse gas . However, since deforestation reduces natural carbon sinks, it disrupts the balance between oxygen and carbon dioxide in the air causing the amount of carbon dioxide in the air to increase. This poses a serious threat since carbon dioxide traps the sun’s heat and radiated light inside the earth’s atmosphere. So, with the increase in carbon dioxide more heat is trapped and thus adding to the effects of global warming. Among the many places where deforestation takes place, Amazon seems to be one of the most affected ones. More than 20 percent of it is already gone, and much more of it is severely threatened due to deforestation . It is estimated that the Amazon alone is vanishing at a rate of 20,000 square miles a year .
Farmers are a large problem for the tropical rain forests in South America. When farmers need more land, they start to chop trees down in the rain forest to make more space for farming. Rainforests once covered more than 14 percent of the earth. Sadly, rainforests now cover about 6 percent of the earth, which leads to the destruction of various animals’ habitats.
We have known that deforestation can lead to decline in biodiversity and land degradation. As John Donne has said, “No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main”, not only governments are supposed to be responsible for deforestation, individuals should also take responsibilities. There are some things that we can do to help better the situation. For instance, we can refuse to use throwaway chopsticks and purchase wooden furniture, reduce the usage of papers by printing less, and educate others to cherish the forest resources.
Now is a critical time to address the issue of deforestation. Around the world forests are logged for timber and paper pulp. South America contains a large amount of mahogany and rosewood—highly coveted types of wood—within the Amazon basin. Forests are also cleared to make room for the planting of cash crops, such as coffee and soy, as well as livestock farms. After only a few years, overuse of these lands for crops typically causes soil erosion that quickly turns deforested regions into wastelands. Deforestation is responsible for 20 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, which is more than all emissions all motorized transportation added together. The destruction of forests does not just threaten our climate; it threatens the livelihoods of billions of people that rely on forests for food and economic activities. The modern world relies on rainforests more than for the well-known reason. People receive many of their fruits and medicines from plant species that survive solely within the heart of a rainforest. Let’s not forget that forests also serve as habitats to wildlife a...
A United Nations report states that land used for animal agriculture, both for grazing and production of crops fed to livestock, takes up an astounding 30% of land on Earth. ("Meat Production Wastes Natural Resources") To meet the industry’s demands, over 260 million acres of forest in the U.S. have been cleared to grow grain fed to farm animals. ("Meat Production Wastes Natural Resources") With that in mind, the meat industry also dumps disease-causing pathogens through animal waste that pollutes water and forces the need for waste lagoons to be constructed, which are susceptible to leaking and flooding. ("Facts about Pollution from Livestock Farms”) Scientists say that about 14% of the world’s greenhouse gases are released by said agriculture industries, which is a growing concern for climate change and global warming. (Silverman) The meat industry uses one-third of all the fossil fuels consumed in the United States. (Moore) There is no question that farming animals has a negative effect on the environment and steps should be taken to mitigate air and water pollution risks and future deforestation. If animal agriculture was phased out, land used for animal grazing could be returned to forest land and some of it converted into fields for cultivating crops for humans. A global shift toward veganism, resulting in the elimination of the meat and animal agriculture industries, would protect the environment from various detrimental effects.
Nowadays deforestation is the one of the most important and controversial environmental issues in the world. Deforestation is cutting down, clearing away or burning trees or forests. Particularly tropical rainforests are the most waning type of forests because of its location in developing countries such as Indonesia, the Philippines, India, central African countries and Brazil. Deforestation rate in those regions is high enough to worry about, because of large economic potential of forest areas. As the result of causes such as agriculture land expansion, logging for timber, fire blazing and settling infrastructure there might be serious impacts in future. For instance, extinction of endemic species of animals and plants which will be feral, increase of greenhouse gas emissions which may lead to global warming and consecutive catastrophes, destruction of home for indigenous residents which is considered as violation of human rights. Some people can argue with these drawbacks telling that deforestation have more valuable benefits such as growth of economics, production of food and providing better opportunities for life for poor families. However, these benefits are quite temporary and government of that countries and world organisations tries to halt deforestation proposing several solutions. Deforestation problem is especially acute in the Brazilian Amazon, where its rate is much high comparing with other regions. This paper will describe world-wide rainforests, causes and effects of deforestation, and evaluate possible solutions of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon.
Deforestation is fast becoming one of the world’s worst environmental/geographical occurring disasters known to mankind, and is due to humankind’s greed, ignorance and carelessness when considering the future of our environment.
Deforestation is a widely used term, but one with different meanings. Disturbance deforestation refers to all man made disturbances that alter a forest, these are the most common. This argumentative essay discusses the positive and negative aspects of deforestation. In the first part of the essay the pro arguments of deforestation will be discussed. For example, the issue of Global population and how forests are being used, land use and the ways forests contribute, wood use, forest growth, destruction and the reasons for cutting down the trees. The second half of the essay will cover the issues that are harmful to the environment because of deforestation. Many environmental issues take place everyday; a big question that arises, is if the global economy will ever finds middle on the issue of forest thinning. If deforestation was used only in the most crucial of times, the world might become a better place.
The forests around the world a supply a plethora of community amenities and commercial goods , nevertheless forested terrain progressively is becoming transformed to accommodate other uses, including cropland, pasture, mining, and urban areas, which can produce superior private financial returns. The wide array of benefits the forest provides that vanish directly tied to deforestation have resulted in several policies drafted with the sole intention to reduce the frequency of deforestation. This paper has two primary objectives. First, this paper will review and summarize both the preceding and current research on deforestation. Second, it will emphasize the significance of future research and development, as well as other solutions needed
The production of beef is closely linked to climate change. To begin with, cows produce a lot of methane through enteric fermentation. Secondly, carbon dioxide is released during the transportation of beef. Thirdly, to sustain the cattle, trees have to be cut down which also release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Finally, the increased global demand for fast food and beef consumption further compounds the above factors.
home to some 50 to 70 % of all life form on our planet. It has been
Deforestation has been a big problem in China to this day. Throughout its long history, China has gone through several cycles, from mild recovery to severe deforestation. When the Communists took over China in 1949, they introduced many new policies and programs to bring about economic and political changes; however, shifts in policies have led to program shifts in every field of China’s economy, including deforestation. Deforestation exercises a significant influence on the ecosystem, stimulating natural disasters, introducing negative environmental and climatic changes, and threatening biodiversity. Floods are among the most common consequences of deforestation. During the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), deforestation caused floods to occur every decade, and once every six years between 1921 and 1949, but once every two years in the 1980s. The situation has dramatically worsened since 1994, with the Yangtze flooding every year. Growing silting of rivers and lakes from the deforested lands in the Yangtze basin and encroachment on river beds by Chinese farmers resulted in record levels of floods in the summer of 1998. The building of The Three Gorges Dam is said to stop flooding greatly. As early as the 1950s deforestation in China attracted attention, but it was not until the 1960s that it assumed alarming proportions. The Land Reform of 1950 authorized state ownership of large forests and other types of land.
Livestock pastures vary depending on the breed as does the amount of feed and water. Land is greatly affected by the meat industry. The percentage of U.S. agricultural land used to produce meat is 56%. In Mexico 37 million acres of forest have been destroyed since 1987 to provide additional grazing land for cattle. The cattle industry is a driving force behind the destruction of the tropical rainforests. Until 1994, in the Amazon the total deforested area was about 450, 000 square Km. The current rate of species extinction due to destruction of tropical rainforest amounts to one thousand per year. (Gardella) All those trees ripped up and other animals homeless, for livestock and crop use. With a large percentage of the crops used to feed the livestock. The trees being cut down could be our saviors. As we all learned trees and plants use carbon dioxide for photosynthesis and all the livestock sustainability causes excess of carbon dioxide. The equation doesn’t make sense to me kill what gets rid of the harmful gas, but breed more of what makes it. Livestock now use 30 percent of the earth’s entire land surface, mostly permanent pasture but also includin...
Although subsistence activities have dominated agriculture-driven deforestation in the tropics to date, large-scale commercial activities are playing an increasingly significant role. In the Amazon, industrial-scale cattle ranching and soybean production for world markets are increasingly important causes of deforestation, and in Indonesia, the conversion of tropical forest to commercial palm tree plantations to produce bio-fuels for export is a major cause of deforestation on Borneo and Sumatra.