This week for our blog we read an article from the New York Times about the growth of cities in the Amazon Rain Forest. I thought that this topic was a little random, considering that we have mostly been talking about population and demographics for the past few weeks, but it was very interesting to read about. I for one have always been very interested in the Amazon, what with computer games such as The Amazon Trail (seriously, I lived off that in Elementary School). Next year I hope to take a class where there will be a research trip to the Amazon! Anywho, I was asked to give my opinion about the growth of cities in the Amazon Rain Forest in Brazil, and whether or not the people or the government should do anything the protect the forests. This is what I said, with a link to the article at the end!
Even after reading the article “Swallowing Rain Forest, Cities Surge in Amazon” I believe that the rise of cities in the Amazon affects the entire world. Since the Amazon houses such a vast number of trees, which help to reduce global warming due to their absorption of carbon dioxide for photosynthesis, if these grand forests were to be destroyed and replaced with cities climate change would continue more rapidly. After our discussions in class about climate change, I think that this would be mainly a result of a combination of the loss of trees, which absorb
CO2, coupled with the addition of cities which pump out large amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. In addition, whole ecosystems would be wiped out due to deforestation, which would upset the balance of life in nature. However, despite deforestation negatively affecting the global environment in terms of climate and natural cycles, if cities were to rise in Brazil the quality of life for the people there definitely has the potential to improve, as seen in the article. Already Brazil is developing into a richer and more sophisticated country, and I believe that the creation of new cities in the Amazon would definitely propagate this. I just wish that there was a better way to both improve the quality of life for Brazil as a nation while still protecting the rainforests. In this way, I do think there should be some sort of government protection program for the rainforests. The article discussed sectioning off certain areas of the forests that would be protected, but I believe that these areas should be more widespread and that the local wildlife should be taken into account, such as for the presence of endangered species are species that can only live in that area of the forest. If the cities must continue to be built, however, at the very least I think that the slash-and-burn technique of deforestation should be discontinued, due to the large amount of CO2 that are subsequently released into the atmosphere due to the flames.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/25/world/americas/swallowing-rain-forest-brazilian-cities-surge-in-amazon.html
Even after reading the article “Swallowing Rain Forest, Cities Surge in Amazon” I believe that the rise of cities in the Amazon affects the entire world. Since the Amazon houses such a vast number of trees, which help to reduce global warming due to their absorption of carbon dioxide for photosynthesis, if these grand forests were to be destroyed and replaced with cities climate change would continue more rapidly. After our discussions in class about climate change, I think that this would be mainly a result of a combination of the loss of trees, which absorb
CO2, coupled with the addition of cities which pump out large amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. In addition, whole ecosystems would be wiped out due to deforestation, which would upset the balance of life in nature. However, despite deforestation negatively affecting the global environment in terms of climate and natural cycles, if cities were to rise in Brazil the quality of life for the people there definitely has the potential to improve, as seen in the article. Already Brazil is developing into a richer and more sophisticated country, and I believe that the creation of new cities in the Amazon would definitely propagate this. I just wish that there was a better way to both improve the quality of life for Brazil as a nation while still protecting the rainforests. In this way, I do think there should be some sort of government protection program for the rainforests. The article discussed sectioning off certain areas of the forests that would be protected, but I believe that these areas should be more widespread and that the local wildlife should be taken into account, such as for the presence of endangered species are species that can only live in that area of the forest. If the cities must continue to be built, however, at the very least I think that the slash-and-burn technique of deforestation should be discontinued, due to the large amount of CO2 that are subsequently released into the atmosphere due to the flames.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/25/world/americas/swallowing-rain-forest-brazilian-cities-surge-in-amazon.html