Amazon Rainforest Depletion

The Amazon rainforest is the world's most diverse biome that covers more than a billion acres across Brazil, Venezuela, Columbia and the Eastern Andean region ("Tropical," 2006). One of the world's richest natural resources, the rainforest plays an important role in the health of ecological chains of the Earth's biosphere. Covering less than 2 percent of the planet's surface area, more than 50 percent of all the Earth's animals, insect species, and flora reside in the rainforest ("Tropical," 2006). Depletion of the rainforest is occurring at such a rapid rate that scientists predict that 42 percent of the region will be totally deforested by 2020 ("Roads," 2001).

Loss of the rainforest is responsible for numerous issues from the loss of wildlife to the destruction of invaluable research among its diverse flora and fauna, but the biggest problem resulting from deforestation is the threat to the atmosphere. According to Lee (2002), deforestation accounts for approximately 30 percent of the atmospheric buildup of carbon dioxide over the past century, and rainforests are being depleted by approximately 160,000 square kilometers annually. In the documentary narrated by Al Gore, An Inconvenient Truth, this and other damage responsible for global warming will pass a "tipping point" in a decade, from where there is no human activity that can halt or reverse it (Guggenheim, 2006). This analysis will discuss the depletion of the Amazon rai

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ists (Taylor, 2004). Deforestation causes habitat disruption, with some experts predicting "mass extinction" if deforestation continues at the present rate ("Extinction," 2006, p. 2). Virtually all "forest clearing," warns Butler (2006), is "done by fire" by small farmer and plantation owner alike (p. 5). While human beings benefit economically from deforestation, the present rate of deforestation has greatly lowered the region's "environmental stochasticity," which refers to random changes in climate, food supply, and natural disasters like fire or flood ("Extinction," 2006, p. 2). Deforestation through human activity leads to all of these conditions with devastating impact on flora and faun in the rainforest ecosystem. Local villagers often suffer from the impact of deforestation, being uprooted from their villages to make way for deforestation or suffering from its damage to the environment. In 2005, severe drought left thousands of local villagers stranded and was considered to be an outcome of illegal sustenance agriculture and burning practices (Butler, 2006). Current Sustainability Evaluation The current rate of deforestation is not sustainable for humans or the flora and fauna in the Amazon rainforest.

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