Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Deforestation in the Amazon




This picture represents the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest.  The amazon is one of the most bio diverse places on the planet.  If we do not make an effort to change the current destruction of the amazon, about half of the worlds animals and plants will be gone or extremely threatened.  If deforestation continues on the rate that it is going, the Amazon will be gone by 2060.  From the years 2000 to 2006 an area nearly the size of the unites states has been lost to deforestation.  Think about all of the displaced animals that once roamed there.  The Amazon has monkeys, anacondas, fish, bats, manatees, dolphins, toucans and the thousands of other endangered species that are unique to this habitat.  In terms of size and diversity, the Amazon is the only rainforest we have left.  The Amazon is important to the entire world for so many reasons especially because it filters and reprocesses our harmful carbon dioxide output.  We get 20 % of our oxygen from the Amazon.  The Amazon effects global climate.  The rainforest exchanges vast amounts of water and energy with the atmosphere and by changing this we will be harming the earths natural balance.  The picture that I recreated is the Amazon that we need to protect. The trees have grown back in and animals such as toucans have come back to claim what was once theirs.  Now the Native peoples who have lived in the Amazon for thousands of years can live in peace as well. 

 By Cassie Steen