The Amazon rain forest is more culturally popular than Antarctica. Since the birth of real environmental activism, the Amazon has been the prime suspect in the fight against deforestation.
The Amazon rain forest has been the subject of movies such as Fern Gully and Avatar. Although the issues have been spelled out over the imagery of the Hollywood big screen, the problems are very real.
Pictured above is the war between the activists and the logging companies. Greenpeace, an environmental activist group, discovered an illegal logging site and decided to let the world know about it. (Picture courtesy of www.greenpeace.org)
The narrative here is simple. The rain forest is clashing with economic needs of people. When this happens, the economy wins most of the time. The logging industry is vast. Even with protection, illegal logging site pop up.
Deforestation is problematic for two reasons. The cutting down of trees is problematic because trees help to stabilize the environment, mainly the greenhouse effect. First, the trees adsorb gases and sunlight that, if they were not there, would increase global warming to an unprecedented pace.
Secondly, you have to tear down trees, to be able to tear down trees. This is an underrated aspect of logging. You must clear a path to process the timber. The damage is twofold.
According to National Geographic, the world has lost more than half of its rain forests to date. The worlds rain forest used to cover 14 percent of the land on Earth. Now they only cover 6 percent.
Sources:
http://www.onegreenplanet.org/animalsandnature/the-most-endangered-places-in-the-world/
http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/where_we_work/amazon/about_the_amazon/
http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/where_we_work/amazon/about_the_amazon/why_amazon_important/
http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/habitats/rainforest-threats/
http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/en/news-and-blogs/news/the-amazon-rainforest/
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