Pollution and Environment Deforestation en Essay Example For Students

Pollution and Environment Deforestation en Essay vironment argumentative persuasive Deforestation Chlorophyll enriched buds sprouted up from the fallen branches. The massive roots extended great distances from the trunk. The aged monster towered some three hundred feet into sky Many of its kind came before. The first may have originated some 130 million years ago. (7, pg. The era of the devastating Ice Age brought extinction to many living things. (7, pg.40) But this lofty giant fought back. Although much of its grounds were destroyed, it managed to find refuge in a narrow coast land strip in California. The mighty Sequoia Sempervirens the ever living, overcame with vengeance. (7, pg.43) This species, seemingly, could have tackled any situation of plight and endangerment it would reign for eternity. It was invincible and. . . . or WAS IT The Earth was being striped of fifty-one million acres of tropical forest each year. Only forty percent of the original moist forests remain in tropical Africa; thirty-seven left in Asia. The United states has only 737 million acres of forests. Ninety-three percent of Madagascars trees have been devastated, while only one percent of Brazils Atlantic coast wilderness survives. Over 140,000 acres of tropical forests are lost each day, 5,800 an hour. If current rates persist, all forests will be lost in 177 years. (1, forest facts) Certainly those statistics are riveting and extremely frightening! There are several questions which must be posed in order to more clearly understand the significance of the numbers. Where are the locations of the most rapid deforestation? Why has the deforestation occurred? What harmful effects have risen from it? When and how did the cutting take place? And what has become of the species in the opening scenario? The most cataclysmic loss of tropical forests is currently happening in Brazil, Zaire, and Indonesia. (4, pg. 2) These three nations, of different continents, account for fifty percent of the Worlds tropical deforestation. New Guinea, Western Amazonia, and Guyana have become new hot spots where massively accelerated cutting occurs. The problem is a global issue, not restricted to any particular area. By the end of the century, the forests of many South American, Central African, and southeastern Asian nations will have become history they face extinction. (6, pg.141) The forests are being cut down in these regions for several different reasons. Robert Goodland of The World Bank stated the following, Settlement along logging roads and peasant agriculture may be the causes of tropical moist deforestation. (4, pg. 8) Overpopulation is a major problem in some of the countries where deforestation is vast. The large urban areas become overcrowded with few opportunities open. The poor seek out opportunities elsewhere. The landless, jobless peasants travel to the nearly unsettled Amazon. Here they clear the forests and use the land for agriculture. Some sell the wood from the trees they remove, others simply burn them; their only purpose to stake a claim to land. (5, pg.3) Deforestation commonly occurs in poorer countries. They remove the forests and raise agriculture for exports. They use the land to produce food, fiber, and other products that they could use to help their foreign debts to other countries. (5, pg.4) By increasing production, they hope to bring down the massive trading deficits they have long incurred. The economys of many of the central American nations have relied on this practice. The countries in this part of the world are quite poor and struggle to find ways to earn capital. They are overpopulated, have few resources, and have a highly unskilled work force. Many of the industrialized countries of the world, namely the United States and Europe, condemn the policies these third world countries have taken, but at the same time we are supporting them. Plato Republic Essay It permitted presidents to create national forests. Benjamin Harrison immediate put this to use with the creation of 15 reserves that covered 13 million acres of land. In 1906 Theodore Roosevelt followed suit, by increasing nation reserves by another 13 million. (3, pg. 29-30) The U.S. Forest Service was established in 1905. This law carried with it a great number of responsibilities for the members of the service. They were supposed: promote community stability, avoid timber deprivations, help lumberjacks, fight big lumber organizations, protect water supply, and create public recreation areas, etc. (3, pg.31) This law attempted to please almost every interest group; it was impossible and made things worse in some cases, rather than better. Trees were being more rapidly, than ever, torn down. In 1914 the Bo Deer Donkey system begin. (7,pg.69) It was a method used by loggers to more quickly remove downed trees. Saw mills boomed from one hundred seventeen in 1945 to three hundred in 1947 to nearly four hundred in 1948. It is clear, the United States once engaged in massive deforestation, just as the central american, Brazilian, African, and tropical Asian countrys presently participate. We now know where the deforestation has occurred, why it continues, the damage it does, and so forth, but by which processes are forests removed? Regions were removed in several different ways. Each had comparatively different advantages and disadvantages for environmental and economical issues. The two types prominently used and debated are selective cutting and clear cutting. (3, pg.30) Selective cutting involves removing trees in small groups, leaving the majority of trees to survive. With clear cutting, all trees are removed in the particular logging area, sparing none. It is more economical to use the clear cutting method, but more environmentally sound to engage in selective cutting. Selection allows remaining trees to grow more quickly, they can regenerate the lost trees with the seeds that drop and scatter to cut areas. This too, would protect the majority of wildlife and habitat. Clear cutting leaves ugly permanent damage on the earth. The soil erodes, species are lost without the chance of regeneration. (3, pg.30) . . ..And what of the ever living species? Two million acres once covered california, but today less than a tenth remains. Why? How could this have occurred? A simple answer, Man. It survived many catastrophes; is fire resistant, and immune to diseases. (7, pg.87) Only man, can it not defend itself against. The great Sequoias have been a climatic force in themselves. .. providing rich soil, maintaining healthy water, stabilizing hillsides from erosion, and allowing species to inhabit it. But it is all in danger. The hemlock, douglas firs, tan oak, shrubs, huckleberry, thimbleberry, black bear, beaver, blue heron, deer, raccoon, coyote, bobcat, and others may lose their home, their home. (3, pg. 30) The ever- living sequoia, may soon be no more. Annotation 1. Kenton Miller and Laura Tangley, Trees of Life: Saving Tropical Forests and their Biological Wealth;Beacon Press, 1991. Annotation 2. Warren Dean, with Broadax and Firebrand: the Destruction of the Brasilian Atlantic forests; University of California Press, 1995. Annotation 3. Caldwell, lynton Keith, Between two Worlds: Science, the environmental Movement, and Policy choice, Cambridge University Press, 1990. Annotation 4. Marcus Colchester and Larry Lohmann, The Struggle for Land and the Fate of the Forest; World rainforest Movement, 1993. Annotation 5. C.F. Jordan, Amazonian Rain Forests; Springer- Verlag, New York, 1987. Annotation 6. Muir, John, The Last Redwoods and the Parkland of Redwood Creek; Sierra Club, 1970. Annotation 7. Alston Chase, In a Dark Wood: The Fight over Forests and the Rising Tyranny of Ecology: Houghton Mifflin company, Boston, 1995.