Eric Martinez

Dr. Santosh Khadka

English 113B

3 December 2019

Do Not Cut The Trees

If the lifesaving medicine you require for survival can no longer be produced because the

plant that this medication is derived from has become extinct as a result of deforestation, what

will you do? The answer is simple: you will die. Life on earth should be wary as deforestation is

destroying this planet one tree at a time, and as the planet is devastated by human activity,

mankind will pay the ultimate price when life on Earth is no longer sustainable. Brazil is home to

the largest rainforest on earth known as the Amazon

To begin, there are over 2.1 million square miles of forest in the Amazon. The earth

observatory is a website that gathers information and meta-analysis from NASA research on

environmental issues that affect life, humans, and the atmosphere. Within their article “World of

Change: Amazon Deforestation” by earth observatory, the researchers focus on the state of

Rondônia in western Brazil and discuss the way that the Amazon rainforest has changed over the

years due to deforestation from loggers and other elements such as agricultural expansion.

According to the date provided on the website, the increase increase in deforestation was so

critical that “In the past three decades, clearing and degradation of the state’s forests have been

rapid: 4,200 square kilometers cleared by 1978; 30,000 by 1988; and 53,300 by 1998. By 2003,

an estimated 67,764 square kilometers of rainforest—an area larger than the state of West

Virginia—had been cleared.”(World of Change: Amazon Deforestation) In other words, the

earth observatory is asserting that due to the increasing amount of clearings that is occurring

within Rondônia, the total land is decreasing drastically.

Within the image above, it is illustrating the Amazon rainforest in the state of Rondônia.

These images of the Amazon rainforest in were taken with NASA’s Terra satellite using

moderate resolution imaging spectrometer (MODIS) and were taken over the course of 12 years

from 2000 to 2012, with the image on the left showing the first and the result being on the right.

These satellite images are shocking as is shows the drastic decrease in natural vegetation in the

Amazon due to deforestation.

How does the removal of trees results in the loss of land, you ask? As trees are being wiped

out of the Amazon rainforest, the empty portion of land is typically used for cattle ranching and

commonly transformed to be urbanized. As you can see from the statistics above, in just fifteen

short years, a very sizable mass of rainforest has been destroyed and may never be able to be
restored. This is relevant to mention as it also has an affect on the animals that are living within

the forest.

The Amazon rainforest has an extraordinary amount of wildlife that lies within it, but this

number is decreasing as many of their homes and sources of food are being destroyed. The

amount of trees that are cut down is directly proportional to the amount of animals that are

affected, meaning that the more trees that are cut the more amount of wildlife are impacted.

Within the chapter “​The Fate of the Amazonian Areas of Endemism” in the ​journal ​Conservation

Biology v​ olume 19, by José Maria Cardoso Da Silva, PhD in the department of geography and

regional studies at the University of Miami, discusses the current state of species in the Amazon

rain rainforest and how many species are only found in the Amazon rainforest making them

susceptible to extinction if the forest is cleared. Da Silva states “...at least 40,000 plant species,

427 mammals, 1294 birds, 378 reptiles, 427 amphibians, and around 3,000 fishes…”(Da Silva

690). Da Silva uses these statistics on species to put emphasize how many species live within the

Amazon ranging from animals to plants.

 The image above was published by sky news showing a tribe of indigenous people in the

Amazon forest. As you can see their surroundings are showing the land around them completely

destroyed as trees are scattered across the floor. Along with the indigenous people, animals are

also the ones losing their homes and forcing their way of life to change. Many of these tribes in

the Amazon are left hopeless unless governments are pressured to a stop, but current rate assert

that this will keep on occurring.

Along with Da Silva, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) also has

an interest in the life of animals that lie within the Amazon rainforest. They are also the leading

source of information regarding the protection of species ranging from animals to plants. The

IUCN red list which is published yearly which contains a list of species that are endangered and

on the verge of extinction.​ ​and we should be concerned as “​more than 28,000 species threatened

with extinction”(IUCN). A few of these animals include the giant otter, white cheeked spider

monkey, and the South American tapir. This is troubling as 28,000 species could just be wiped

out when we could be doing something to help them.

In addition, deforestation is also causing the increase in climate change through carbon

dioxide emissions in the atmosphere. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration

(NASA) is run by the U.S government and focuses on the science of air and space. The article

“Tropical Deforestation” from NASA Fact Sheet by NASA, contributed by Gerald Urquhart,

professor of fisheries and wildlife at Michigan State University (MSU), David Skole, professor

of global ecology at MSU who holds a ​PhD in Natural Resources,​ discuss all the reasons why

tropical deforestation happens, the speed at which it occurs, and the effects it has on life and the

planet. Both Urquhart and Skole asserts that “The plants and soil of tropical forests hold 460-575
billion metric tons of carbon worldwide with each acre of tropical forest storing about 180 metric

tons of carbon”(3) “When a forest is cut and burned to establish cropland and pastures, the

carbon that was stored in the tree trunks (wood is about 50% carbon) joins with oxygen and is

released into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide.”(3) What NASA provides with these statistics is

a description of how much carbon is stored in tropical forest. NASA is implying that the less

trees there are absorbing carbon dioxide, the more greenhouse gases will go into the atmosphere

and continuously heat the planet.

Within a video Earth Matters: Behind the battle against deforestation in the Amazon

rainforest by CBS news, television news station, covers how deforestation deforestation

threatens the Amazon rainforest. A trip to the Amazon was taken by plane and in which they

analyzed the forest and the effects of continuous deforesting. They state that since the large rise

of industrial farming, they can conclude that roughly 20% of the original Amazon rainforest had

been removed. Coe further asserts that when trees are cut down, the carbon released enters the

atmosphere and that is what contributes to global warming.

I also conducted a form of research that involved an interview. I composed a series of

questions that included: What is deforestation?, Why is it something that we do today?, Who is

affected by deforestation?, Do you think deforestation is worth the outcome?. My ​responses

informed me that deforestation is the removal of forest and it is done to gather wood but also to

clear land for new buildings and farms. Also, deforestation affects the animals and tribes that are

living in the Amazon rainforest, but also the earth, So what is the big deal with cutting down

trees? Lastly, the result on whether deforestation is worth the outcome came back with 75% of

students saying deforestation isn’t worth the outcome because global warming is something that
we should be wary of as it affects human life on earth, however the other 25% of students saying

it is worth it because we can harvest wood for other products. Despite this statistic, we must stop

deforestation so we can reduce climate change, and ensure that indigenous people are kept in

their homes.

So what is the big deal with deforestation? Current statistics regarding deforestation are

showing that we are putting animals lives in danger to the near point of extinction.
 Work Cited

Da Silva, José Maria Cardoso, et al. “The Fate of the Amazonian Areas of Endemism.”

Conservation Biology, vol. 19, no. 3, 2005, pp. 689–694.

“Earth Matters: Behind the Battle against Deforestation in the Amazon Rainforest.” CBS News,

CBS Interactive, 22 Apr. 2019,

www.cbsnews.com/news/earth-day-2019-how-deforestation-threatens-the-amazon-rainforest/#​.

“The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.” ​IUCN Red List of Threatened Species,​

www.iucnredlist.org/about/background-history.

Pedlowski, M.A., et al. “Conservation Units: a New Deforestation Frontier in the

Amazonian State of Rondônia, Brazil.” ​Environmental Conservation,​ vol. 32, no. 2,

2005, pp. 149–155., doi:10.1017/S0376892905002134.

“World of Change: Amazon Deforestation.” ​NASA,​ NASA,

earthobservatory.nasa.gov/world-of-change/Deforestation.