December 8, 2021
News Story
by Tara Malhotra
10,000 acres of the Amazon Rainforest are being lost each day. That amount is equivalent to over 10,000 football fields. 50,000 animal species found in the Amazon are going extinct each year. Research done in 2021 by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) revealed that humans are primarily responsible for these numbers.
The WWF stated that the driving force behind these statistics is deforestation. Deforestation describes the removal of trees by using chainsaws or fires. Slashing and burning is commonly utilized to clear land for cattle to graze. As a result, ranching is responsible for 80 percent of all deforestation in the Amazon Rainforest. Though the loss of trees is substantial, deforestation’s effect on climate change is much more concerning.
The Amazon Rainforest produces 20 percent of the world’s oxygen by converting it from carbon dioxide. When forests are removed, there are less trees to clean and filter the air. As a result, more carbon is left behind, worsening climate change. In turn, global warming would destroy the habitats of millions of species—causing them to go extinct.
Yang Peng, Co-President of the Brentwood School Ecology Club, touches on the detrimental impact of deforestation.
“The Amazon is the biggest rainforest on Earth. It plays a critical role in converting carbon into oxygen. Deforestation is ruining this process and making climate change worse,” Peng said.
The Rainforest Concern Organization believes that these changes are irreversible. Cattle ranching’s slash-and-burn agriculture technique depletes the land of nutrients. The cows often eat dirt itself, which ruins the environment and makes it hard for habitats to be revived. Ranchers tend to focus on profits without considering the repercussions of their actions, so the slash-and-burn method continues.
Dr. Sabrina Erickson, teacher of Brentwood School’s Advanced Placement Environmental Science class, describes the consequences of this short-term thinking.
“Deforestation… has short term economic benefits but serious environmental impacts. Tropical rain forests are a major carbon sink for us, storing about one third of our carbon emissions, so cutting down trees contributes to global warming. Deforestation also contributes to flooding, a decrease in soil fertility, and a loss of habitat for many species,” Erickson said.
Global leaders are attempting to address these problems, but efforts to regulate deforestation have had limited success.
The 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26), which was held last month, discussed the relationship between deforestation and global warming.
Over 100 world leaders signed a pledge to end and reverse deforestation by 2030. Brazil, which contains the majority of the Amazon Rainforest, was one of the signatories of this deal.
Despite Brazil’s agreement, deforestation in the Amazon is still getting worse. The government’s actions run counter to its statements. Jair Bolsonaro, the President of Brazil, has actively encouraged both mining and farming in the Amazon. Due to this, satellite data shows that deforestation this October was 5 percent higher than October of last year.
Brentwood School Belldegrun Center for Innovative Leadership Entrepreneurship Coordinator Zachary Chien comments on the difficulty in enforcing environmental pledges such as COP26.
“Generally speaking, I think pledges don't do anything unless there's a measure in place to hold all the parties accountable to uphold their end of the agreement. Otherwise people can say they will do something, pat themselves on the back, and then nothing tangible gets done,” Chien said.
According to the Nature Science Journal in February 2020, if deforestation keeps increasing at the same rate, the Amazon Rainforest will be a savanna in ten years. Moreover, billions of tons of carbon will be emitted into the atmosphere.
As the destruction of deforestation continues, the environment deteriorates. Although COP26 had high expectations, it failed to call for action on deforestation.
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