Deforestation of the Amazon

background, the impact of deforestation on the Amazon's people and resources, and the causes as well as some proposed solutions to the problem.

In an editorial statement, The Economist magazine noted that the Amazon rain forest in Brazil contains

. . . nearly one third of all the world's tropical

forest--and a greater variety of plants than any

other country. The Amazon has more types of fish

than in all the rivers of Europe; the trees are home

to more species of bird than in all the forests

The resources of the Amazon do not stop with the tree and animal life, for the plant life must also be included. The plants of the Amazon have provided greatly in terms of medicinal compounds, and they are expected to contribute far more in the future, up to and including the possibility of life-saving compounds for cancer and/or AIDS. However, perhaps the greatest resource of the Amazon rain forest is its contribution to the world's oxygen supply. Indeed, the rain forest is so massive that it is estimated that deforestation, which entails burning a conservative estimate of 28 million acres per year, by itself contributes 20 percent of the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere

and, as a result, contributes to the warming of world climes, which has come to be known as the "greenhouse effect." In addition to the fo

. . .
ent saw it, legislation had (theoretically) set aside 1,000 acres of rain forest for each Indian in the country; therefore, what was the problem with giving additional land to the poor, rural families? As to the global effects, the government noted that these predictions were based on relatively scant data and viewed them as exaggerations. The article in The Economist went on to note that this attitude on the part of the government of Brazil led to calls for internationalizing the Amazon: Whether Brazil likes it or not . . . the rest of the world has a legitimate interest in what happens in Amazonia. The medical secrets locked in its plants may cure the sick of many countries; the genes of its wild plants may reinvigorate crops that feed billions of people . . . (and) . . . many people think that atmospheric carbon dioxide is disastrously causing the earth to warm up. Several recent findings have contributed to a softening of Brasilia's attitude. The first of these is that data on the global effects of deforestation have grown. For example, it has now been fairly well established that not only were environmental concerns non-alarmist, they may have actually been underestimates of the damage. Moreo
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Approximate Word count = 1477
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)

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