The Amazon Crisis: Crisis In The Amazon

931 Words2 Pages

Daniel Kwon
4th period
2/25/14

Crisis In the Amazon
John Muir once said "God has cared for these trees, saved them from drought, disease, avalanches, and a thousand tempests and floods. But he cannot save them from fools." This quote is too true when describing the predicament the Amazon rainforest is facing at the very moment. By the time you finish reading this essay, a portion of Brazil’s rainforest, which is larger than 200 football fields, will have been destroyed. Humans must stop cutting down the trees in the amazon rainforest because it leads to many plants and animals being harmed and losing their homes, many people being harmed, and environment of the Amazon being destroyed.
One reason that people should stop cutting down the rainforest is because many plants and animals are being harmed and losing their homes. The Amazon is home to many more than half of the world’s specimen of plants and animals. Over 70% of the rainforest’s animals and plants live on the subcanopy, or the second highest level of the trees. When you destroy even one tree, many plants and animals, either die or have to find new homes. Many of these tropical plants also have medicinal values such as curing malaria. Sadly, according to Michael Greenwell, the deforestation of the Amazon has led to 26 species of plants and animals and 644 species to be on the brink of endangerment. According to UNEP, about 857,666 square kilometers of land has been lost in one year. The area lost is approximately the size of Venezuela. To keep cutting down trees in the rainforest would be dooming 38 species to extinction. It may seem that the Amazon is vast in recourses and cutting down one tree will not harm much, but if we ...

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James Lovelock once said, “sadly, it is much easier to create a desert than a forest.” The situation the Amazon rainforest is in exhibits the wise statement of the Mr. Lovelock. If the Amazon keeps being cut down, it will do more bad than good for humans. We shall lose countless ingredients for helping treat impending diseases like cancer and AIDS. We shall also be losing the many rare and exotic plants and animals as well as the lush green trees who provide many of the natural gases in our atmosphere. To keep harming the rainforest will be to harm the plants and animals, hurt the innocent native people, and destroy the enviroment. No person in their right mind would want these consequences. But unfortunately, this is the doom for humans if we don’t stop the desecration of not only this rainforest, but countless other natural sites of the Earth.

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