Deforestation In The Amazon Essay

As deforestation in the Amazon continues to be an issue, many problems have arised and will continue to arise. Amazonian deforestation is mainly an anthropogenic problem, due to human needs, and consumption, also described by Hardin in stimulus material 5 as having two steps, “The first factor is the increasing demand for natural resources and environmental services, stemming from growth of human population and per capita resource consumption.The second factor is the way in which humans organize themselves to extract resources from the environment.”(Hardin, 162, 1243). If deforestation continues at this rate, it is predicted that the majority of the Amazon rainforest will be depleted by the end of the century. According to a scholar from MIT university, a large well known ivy league school in the U.S., “As the greatest manifestation of biodiversity in the world, this would

One of the largest polluting factors in the Amazon rainforest is mining; mining destroys large amounts of land and pollutes rivers, soil, and river beds. For example, gold mining can be especially damaging due to the fact that mercury and other hazardous chemicals are used when mining for the metal, damaging local habitats and waterways. Due to the fact that most of the dangerous chemicals are a result from accidental spills MIT suggests, “improving mining techniques, companies could retain gold lost in accidental spills, increasing profits, and the environment could be protected from these toxic chemicals.” Another large effect deforestation has on the environment is the building of infrastructure and other projects that tear through the Amazon completely destroying ecosystems and changing the way many organisms live and