What are the short and long term effects of logging and deforestation in the Amazon on the environment?
Lately we have seen many headlines that say: “The lungs of the planet are suffering” in the newspapers, magazines and news, referring to the Amazon. All of these reports have something in common, the media show us the massive fires, animals because of it and the angry people who have demanded climate justice from the government and still does not see action from them. This has encourage people to take action to call their attention: to make protests, raising their voices on behalf of the planet, so the government can see that climate change is real, that the Amazon is important to us as it is for the survive of the planet. However, the government has blinded in front of the image of the supplier of the 20% oxygen of the planet being destroyed and continues with its plans of exploitation in this tropical forest through logging and deforestation. Logging is one of the human activity that has had gigantic effects over climate change (global warming, animals on the verge of extinction and more.) The temperature on the planet has been rising as well as the speed of the poles at melt, forest fires, etc.
My purpose throughout this essay is to answer my research question– With real examples and true information.
My research question is relevant to social action because it shows us that climate change is real and how logging contribute to this, and because of that we are destroying our own planet as if it had a planet B. I trust that my question and my research will encourage the reader– young and adult– to become aware of climate change and can gain more knowledge about a how logging has a real negative impact on the planet. To achieve this and support my ideas, I will use different sources of different databases and I will divide my essay into 5 parts: Water and Trees. Trees and Co2. Fires: Animals and Trees. The Amazon is Yelling for Help.
Water and Trees
This rainforest is not only the place of “10 percent of the world’s species, including 2.5 thousand of species of insects” (Welch, 2019) but also a very important factor in providing moisture to the atmosphere that reaches a considerable distance, in this case, it reaches the Andes. This moisture is the cause of creating rain. The rain- essential mineral for the flora and fauna of any place with life- that falls in the Amazon is thanks to the Atlantic Ocean, which then return to the atmosphere thanks to the process of evaporation, this process is repeated “again and again” (Welch, 2019)until it reaches the Andes. If deforestation continues to increase as it is doing now, and the moisture decreases by only a fraction further, this could lead to drying out, which would greatly reduce rainfall and give way to drought. This means that plants (trees) and these areas will not have a water source and dry out or die.
If you are wondering, “What’s the worst thing that can happen if the moisture drops in the Amazon? “Well, if we remember our class of living environment in our freshman year at high school, we’ll have an answer to this.
For a tree to grow, it requires food created through the photosynthesis process, which requires water- this, as for humans is vital for life.
“We need to have forest in order to have the rain necessary to plant crops” Esquivel- Muelbert says. Without rain—water—plants dry out and die before their seed has even germinated. In addition, the photosynthesis not only creates food, but absorbs C02, transforming it into oxygen—which we need to breathe—again and providing it to the planet.
Trees and Co2
Unsurprisingly, the Amazon—one of the largest rainforest in the world—is considered “The lungs of the planet”, scientists says the Amazon provide 20% oxygen to the entire planet. This is due to its immense number not only of animal species but also to its extremely large number of species of trees that are found there.
The Co2 occurs naturally as it is the combination of two oxygen atoms with a carbon atom. However, high carbon dioxide (Co2) percentage—due to the excessive use of oil and gas which provides fuel to energy sources, which meet human demands and also uncontrolled deforestation and logging—has a negative effect on the climate because it causes an increase in the greenhouse effect which consequently contributes to exponential growth in global warming.
The plants and trees, through the process of photosynthesis are responsible for turning Co2 into oxygen- Making this process and the trees, an extremely valuable and necessary process for humanity.
According to a study conducted to measure the concentration of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC)—set of chemicals, which may have short and long-term adverse effects on human health such as; Nauseas, Visual Disorders, Loss of coordination and Cancer— between the Amazon rainforest and Manaus city, results indicate “there is an increase in pollutant (VOC) concentrations with increasing proximity to urban areas.”(Paralovo et al, 2015) In this study, we can see once again the importance of trees and plants because as the study shows in urban zones, with fewer trees and plants, the concentration of VOC is greater. On the other hand, in the forest there is less since the trees produces oxygen.
If deforestation and logging continues to increase, the proceeds of photosynthesis would be drastically reduced and the 20% oxygen that Amazon provides to the world would also be reduced, causing the concentration of C02 on the planet to suffer a considerable increase.
Fires: Animals and Trees
Natural fires in some forest are essential as it maintains healthy ecosystem, but the fire that lasted two months ago, one of the largest in the Amazon, “rainforest of Brazil and spreading into Bolivia, Paraguay, and Peru” (Daly, 2019) was not in a small scale, according to experts, this fire was due to human activity, as a result of excess of logging and deforestation.
In the previous points named, I made known the importance of trees to create oxygen and water. Everything is a cycle, trees and plants produce oxygen as well as they cause the water to continue its cycle causing rain until reach the Andes, without these, because of deforestation and logging, the forest will start to dry out, causing drought, where temperature levels would go up.
A dry land is more likely to suffer fires and this is what happened in the Amazon.
This fire not only burned hundreds of kilometers of the rainforest, but animals. They didn’t know where to hide, they ended up dying. This also affected people who live near this area, a highly concentration of smoke contains toxic substances for humans, these people started to make protests for the government to take action and stop to logging on their lands.
Certainly, if this continues like this, the loss of the animals and plants of this place will reach the point in which not only are a few of them dying, but the whole species will become extinct
Trees are Yelling for Help
“20 to 25 percent of original forestland could tip the system into a unstoppable transition to a drier, savanna like ecosystem […] Brazilian government’s own estimates 17 percent of the Amazon forest system has been lost- not including the parts that are still largely intact, nut degraded” (Schwartz et al, 2016)
To ask for the deforestation and logging in the Amazon ends it sounds and seems impossible today, since the government do not take action even in the minimal problems about climate change. Nevertheless, we must find ways to make the impact less severe, until the government realizes that we do not have a planet B (that this is our only home) and takes real action for logging and deforestation.
One of the ways, it can be by using “Reduced Impact Logging (RIL)” (Schwartz et al,2016) This is a set of forest harvesting techniques which results in low levels (20%) of damage to avoid destructive impacts over remaining trees to be harvesting primary tropical forests.
However, even when we are told that this technique will be of benefit to the environment “after logging, seedlings and saplings of tree species will differ in their density and distribution according to their regeneration requirements […] species with low natural densities may even disappear from managed forests due to lack of natural regeneration” (Schwartz et al, 2016)
This technique, however, does not guarantee protection to these species of trees. Even if it worked, 20% is nothing if logging and deforestation activity continues to increase as it is doing.
According to a study that “address issues by explicitly comparing butterfly community and individual species responses to logging intensity, and then apply this understanding to stimulations” (Montejo et al) of land-sharing “in which the whole concession is logged at a low intensity” or land-sparing “that protects one or several blocks of unlogged primary forest while logging the rest of the concession at higher intensity” (Montejo et al) to estimate how many species would increase or decrease in a logged forest with techniques such as RIL. In this study, they conclude there is no difference between land-sharing and land-sparing, even with the methods applied to decrease the effects of logging and deforestation, once the trees are already cut—the damage is done—there is no going back. We run with the possibility of that the level in these species of trees and butterflies, decreases.
The highest level of concentration of (VOC) is in the urban zones, since there are more people living in these areas, which means that there is a greater concentration of pollutants that in rural areas, such as large factories and companies, public and private transport and fewer trees and plants.
Over time, the amount of buildings has increased and the amount of trees decreased. This change seems inevitable, so one way in which, according to experts, we can help the planet, is to
acquire “technologies and policies to make cities more climate-friendly” (Borunda, 2019) For example, the buildings should run on green electricity or improving the mode of public transportation for people to use this more than private transportation. However, this cannot be done only by private companies or by each person, for such a project we need complete collaboration from the government, which seems to not understand the level of seriousness of this matter that is climate change or the fact that the Lungs of the planet are in fire. .
Works Cited
“This is what cities need to do by 2050 to meet climate goals” by Alejandra Borunda, published on September 19, 2019.
www.google.com/amp/s/relay.nationalgeographic.com/proxy/distribution/public/amp/environment/2019/09/zero-carbon-cities-future
“What the Amazon fires mean for wild animals” by Natasha Daly, published on August 23, 2019
www.google.com/amp/s/relay.nationalgeographic.com/proxy/distribution/public/amp/animals/2019/08/how-the-amazon-rainforest-wildfires-will-affect-wild-animal
“Global Warming and Climate Change” published by Gale, a Cengage Company, on the 2019 (no specific date marked)
“Observations of atmospheric monoaromatic hydrocarbons at urban, semi-urban and forest environments in the Amazon region” by Paralovo et al. Part Of “Atmospheric Environment,” March 2016, Vol.128, pp.175-184. Published on December 24, 2015
onesearch.cuny.edu/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=TN_elsevier_sdoi_10_1016_j_atmosenv_2015_12_053&context=PC&vid=cc&lang=en_US&search_scope=everything&adaptor=primo_central_multiple_fe&tab=default_tab&query=any,contains,Observations%20of%20atmospheric%20monoaromatic%20hydrocarbons%20at%20urban%20%20semiurban%20and%20forest%20environments%20in%20the%20Amazon%20region&mode=basic
“Impacts of selective logging management on butterflies in the Amazon” by Montejo et al. IS part of Biological Conservation, September 2018, Vol. 225, pp.1-5.
onesearch.cuny.edu/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=TN_elsevier_sdoi_10_1016_j_biocon_2018_06_012&context=PC&vid=cc&lang=en_US&search_scope=everything&adaptor=primo_central_multiple_fe&tab=default_tab&query=any,contains,Impacts%20of%20selective%20logging%20management%20on%20butterflies%20in%20the%20Amazon
“Natural regeneration of tree species in the Eastern Amazon: Short-term responses after reduced-impact logging” by Schwartz et al. December 1, 2016
onesearch.cuny.edu/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=TN_elsevier_sdoi_10_1016_j_foreco_2016_11_036&context=PC&vid=cc&lang=en_US&search_scope=everything&adaptor=primo_central_multiple_fe&tab=default_tab&query=any,contains,Natural%20regeneration%20of%20tree%20species%20in%20the%20Eastern%20Amazon:%20Short-term%20responses%20after%20reduced-impact%20logging&offset=0
“How Amazon forest loss may affect water-and climate- far away” By Craig Welch, published on August 27, 2019.
www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2018/11/how-cutting-the-amazon-forest-could-affect-weather/
