Category: Rainforest

The amazon rainforest is located in brazil and its area is 5.5 million km². The amazon rainforest is a tropical rainforest. The amazon is incredibly important for it contains wildlife and freshwater. destroying the amazon may not have much effect on the amount of oxygen produced because once the oxygen the amazon produce is released it consumes it but cutting it down causes animals to lose their habitats causes many animals to go extinct. The amazon is amazing and should be left alone.

Agriculture and Agribusiness

Agribusiness is an agricultural related business Eg Selling farm equipment or seed. this is all over the Amazon rainforest from selling of heavy machinery, seed, animal transport and Tree clearing machines. Agriculture is the process of clearing land or preparing land for growing crops and plants. What types of agriculture occur in the amazon rainforest include Farming for vegetation and logging occur in the amazon rainforest. Agriculture and agribusiness effect on the amazon basin is devastating leading to countless animal habitats being destroyed grazing is also bad because it takes up to 1.8 acres per cow (if the cow eats all year) and could even be higher with different breeds of cows the effect of this causes massive parts of the amazon with no grass or little plants. In brazil people still could use agriculture but there was a limit you could take because people still needed jobs and we still need to produce products but the new president of brazil Jair Bolsonaro (elected 1/1/2019) has removed this rule now logging and agriculture has spiked up 88% from last year and is rising.

Current Management Strategies

Some management strategies for the amazon rainforest include “Protected areas, industry corporation and satellite monitoring”. A group called ARPA (amazon region protected Areas) is protecting specific parts of the amazon rainforest essentially making borders with laws saying you can chop down this tree or grow this plant or raise your animal but as soon as you cross that line you would be shut down. Restricted access to land, restricted amount a company is allowed to take. These are working as overtime the amount of the basin damaged has gone down for the 4 years it was put in action. Why are they working they are working because restricted access mean less land to destroy and less animals on the land and with the second one it stops people from over taking fruits or trees or to much gra ing essentially turning the land into a desert. now since the new president has been elected these rules have been thrown out and the amazon is slowly being overtaken by agriculture and logging.

Alternate food sources

Differences food sources to beef exist like Bugs, tofu or Lab grown meat. Bugs have high protein in a small packet 120 calories in 1 cricket, tofu has the lowest as 100g of tofu has only 8grams of protein and lab grown meat has a very similar composition to real beef but isn’t in the same as the structure of it is just something that falls apart so more like a sloppy joe meaning it falls into the uncanny valley. Benefit of bugs is that they are common and said to taste like chicken, tofu passes the uncanny valley and taste like to product its mimicking but has a very low protein level per 100 grams and lab grown meat is great it taste like meat and has close to the same protein level as mead but falls in the uncanny valley it looks like something you would give to a dog or cat as it food not for humans. The negatives of bugs is that it will be near impossible to convert everybody to bugs because of looks, as tofu downfall is when it comes to taste and protein it taste like a watered down version of the food and the protein is incredibly low and with lab meat it’s the uncanny valley this is the effect that happens when the human brain thinks that it a food that’s good but at the same time as bad.

Recommendations

What should be doing is developing lab grown meat because the more we develop it the less it costs and the more we get since lab grown meat can be made in a relatively small area stops the isu of land clearing and it also only need one cow to work to harvest the cells from the cow to grow them and to get the serum for the meat and the more money we invest in it the more viable it becomes and this saves the amazon how well it saves land and stops desensitizing areas and keep the amazon the same size as it was

Before the devastating effects of deforestation, Muhammed Beni Saputra would have adventurous weekends with his father into the beautiful rainforests of Bukit Tiga Puluh to collect dragon’s fruit among many other things. But he says those unforgettable memories are now just history thanks to the heavy deforestation (Muhamed). These huge forests are natural wonders of the world and they need to be preserved and cherished. All of the people in these areas are losing the pleasures of these beautiful forests at alarming rates due to the immense logging for plantations. The Indonesian government needs to pass authoritative laws and policies included in the Executive Order No. 23 to reduce the illegal logging rate of these forests.

Indonesia’s forests take up 60% of Asia’s total forest area; and these forests also take up 10% of the world’s total forests. In 2001 there were 93,837,970 Ha (hectares) of forests in Indonesia, and as of 2018 due to the many years of logging there is 84,683,971 Ha left of that forest (Butler). These rainforests take up an enormous amount of its land and illegal logging companies are destroying these forests faster than they can regrow. These forests produce a lot of our oxygen supply and people are just destroying it like that doesn’t matter. “[Rainforest Action Network] says its latest evidence from satellite imagery and field reports shows [Plantation Owner Agra Bumi Niaga] cleared 18 hectares of forest in June and razed another 12 hectares in July, seemingly ignoring concerns from campaigners, government and businesses further down the supply chain” (Larsson). There are warnings being given and they are not nice warnings; even though these warnings are strict the logging companies are shrugging them off like they are nothing. Logging companies do not seem to care about the after effects of their jobs which makes everything worse. “The indigenous people who live in the forest have to relocate to another area of forest or out of the forest altogether. This is a complete life change. The infrastructure, the way they provide for their families and the very basic way they live their lives would be completely different” (Watts). Due to the immense smoke of widespread forest burns the native people in villages around these can not live in the environment any longer and must move away. The massive forests that take up a large portion of Indonesia are dwindling fast and a lot needs to be done to solve this problem.

Indonesia is losing the rainforests that cover most of its land mass at an alarming rate. With every hectare lost we are a little closer to unstoppable climate change. “There are many government and corporate efforts to combat deforestation, but they are not proving to be enough” (Seymour). Because of the degree of this destruction these companies can not work fast enough to gain resources to stop the illegal loggers from destroying the forests even more. “The fields outside Kotawaringin village in Central Kalimantan, on the island of Borneo, looked as if they had just been cleared by armies. None of the old growth remained — only charred stumps poking up from murky, dark pools of water. In places, smoke still curled from land that days ago had been covered with lush jungle. Villagers had burned it all down, clearing the way for a lucrative crop whose cultivation now dominates the entire island: the oil-palm tree” (Lustgarten). This explains the terrible side-effects of the burning, logging, and just general clearing of these forests. All of this is happening near villages that are being engulfed in smoke from the fires. “The fires are not confined to agricultural concessions, but are also raging in virgin forest and national parks, threatening species already at risk of extinction. These [include fewer] than 400 remaining Sumatran tigers, the Bornean orangutan, [the] Sumatran rhino, which is down to less than 100 surviving animals”(Russell). The consequences of the forest clearing is not just affecting people it is affecting the plants and animals around it as well, even causing some to become endangered as well. The destruction of all of these forests is also causing a buildup of CO2 and Greenhouse gasses which is corroding the ozone layer. These problems are why deforestation needs to be brought to a halt to save and preserve the surrounding people and wildlife.

Scientists say that Indonesia is headed in the right direction due to their decline of deforestation two years in a row but more needs to be done. “Indonesia has made an international commitment to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 26 percent by 2020. [All] that is needed to achieve this reduction is for companies to halt draining and development of peatlands” (Harball). The legislature needs to put boundaries and regulations on these peatlands to achieve this 26% goal they are committed to. The main problem is the companies that are taking over the land and destroying it. To end this devastation the companies need to stop with the plantations to let the land regrow itself. “Recent analysis found that protecting the primary forest of Papua, coupled with restoration of degraded lands, could avoid 2.8 – 3.3 gigatons of carbon dioxide emissions, which is similar to baseline emissions projected for 2030 in Indonesia’s NDC” (Wijaya). If some focus is placed on the forests that are not completely destroyed the process of reducing these gasses will become even faster. Experts are saying that Indonesia is going the right way to stop deforestation but more needs to be done. Examples include honing in on specific high-carbon areas as well as degraded forests. Not only will this help the rainforests but it will help the people around and in the forests live better, healthier lives.

Some people say deforestation creates more room for civilized growth. Things like businesses and better road systems can be made from the space. “One of the main reasons that these forests are being cut down is to make room for expansion. With all of the free areas that are being created from deforestation, things like economy stimulating businesses and improved road systems can be built” (Chief). Basically the cleared land can be used for more than just peatland and plantations which could help the economy quite a bit. “Developments in crop technologies have resulted in huge volumes of farming yields over the last 2 decades, but it is speculated that this may not be sufficient in the next 2 decades. Fortunately, deforestation can provide enough space to produce enough food for more than 10 billion people who will be hungry in the future” (Chief). With all of the clear land available there is more room for farmers to grow food and raise livestock for surrounding villages. “Timber and paper are created for the whole world to enjoy, and some of the toilet paper, which is used in most households, comes at least in some part from deforestation, unless it was created from purely recyclable items” (Chief). The trees that get cut down will be taken to lumber yard and paper manufacturers which create products that are used all around the world by everybody. Even though deforestation is bad in many aspects there is some good that can come from it. There is still a lot to be done and the pros can be taken advantage of elsewhere so the forest can heal but they are good nonetheless.

So all in all deforestation has devastating effects on the surrounding environment and people. They are attempts to end its effects or even just to slow them down but more still needs to be done to reach our goals. The government should focus on trouble areas to reach the goals they have placed. They need to place boundaries around peatlands and put regulations on illegal logging companies. This is the next step to ending climate change by reducing carbon and greenhouse gas emissions. If Indonesia’s government uses all of these methods together they will reach their goals and should put a big dent in the terrible effects of deforestation.

Biomes are distinct biological communities that have formed in response to a shared physical climate. The biome concept embraces the idea of community, of interaction among vegetation, animal populations, and soil. A biome may be defined as a major region of distinctive plant and animal groups well adapted to the physical environment of its distribution area.

Biomes are large-scale environments that are distinguished by characteristic temperature ranges and amounts of precipitation. These two variables affect the types of vegetation and animal life that can exist in those areas. Each biome is defined by climate, the same biome can occur in geographically distinct areas with similar climates. Where each biome is found and how each varies geographically. A given biome may be composed of different taxa on different continents. Continent-specific associations of species within a given biome are known as formations and often are known by different local names. The general characteristics of the regional climate and the limitations or requirements imposed upon life by specific temperature and/or precipitation patterns. A biome is formed as the result of the climate interacting with the ecological environment through a process called succession. The survival of the biome, however, is interdependent upon the climate of the entire planet with changes in distant regions sometimes impacting and changing the biome.

Robert Whitaker, an American ecologist, is credited with first dividing the world in the current 12 different biomes. He accomplished this by measuring the precipitation and temperature from points all over the planet and plotting them on a graph. Through careful study of existing biomes at those different points on earth, he was able to successfully identify the major biomes and link climate as an important contributing factor to a biome’s development. The climate in a region to a large degree determines the biome that will emerge. Knowing the average temperature and precipitation of an area will allow you to determine its biome. The Earth has 12 different biomes if you include the ocean and the polar caps as separate biomes, which some ecologists do. The other biomes are tropical seasonal forest and savanna, tropical rainforest, temperate rainforest, temperate deciduous forest, taiga, temperate grassland, desert, subtropical desert, woodland shrub, alpine and tundra. It is important to remember these biomes are not always fixed and within the biome various subcategories abnormalities. often arise, such as deserts appearing in grasslands. Climate plays such an important role that even just the timing of rainfall can impact a biome.

Succession is the process that forms the biome due to the interaction of climate and the ecological environment. The process of succession happens over the course of years if the climate and environment is left undisturbed. For example, if in West Virginia a coal mine is abandoned, time will allow nature to reclaim the land. First weeds and grasses will begin taking over without human intervention. Over time, the wind will bring in other seedlings and small shrubs and trees will begin cropping up. After some time larger trees will begin taking root as well. Without human intervention, eventually oak or maple trees may take over the entire area and meld with the surrounding temperate deciduous forest, which marks the biome of West Virginia and much of the eastern United States.

The United States currently relies heavily on coal, oil, and natural gas for its energy. Fossil fuels are non-renewable, they draw infinite resources that will eventually run out. It is also becoming too expensive or too environmentally damaging to retrieve. In contrast, the many types of renewable energy resources such as wind and solar energy are constantly replenished and will never run out.

Most renewable energy comes either directly or indirectly from the sun. Sunlight, or solar energy, can be used directly for heating and lighting homes and other buildings, for generating electricity, and for hot water heating, solar cooling, and a variety of commercial and industrial uses. The sun’s heat also drives the winds, whose energy is captured with wind turbines. Then, the winds and the sun’s heat cause water to evaporate. When this water vapor turns into rain or snow and flows downhill into rivers or streams, its energy can be captured using hydroelectric power.

Along with the rain and snow, sunlight causes plants to grow. The organic matter that makes up those plants is known as biomass. Biomass can be used to produce electricity, transportation fuels, or chemicals. The use of biomass for any of these purposes is called bioenergy. Not all renewable energy resources come from the sun. Geothermal energy taps the Earth’s internal heat for a variety of uses, including electric power production, and the heating and cooling of buildings. And the energy of the ocean’s tides come from the gravitational pull of the moon and the sun upon the Earth.

The pros of using a renewable form of energy is they reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Using renewable energy can reduce the use of fossil fuels, which are major sources of U.S. carbon dioxide emissions. Compared with fossil fuel technologies, which are typically mechanized and capital intensive, the renewable energy industry is more labor intensive. Solar panels need humans to install them; wind farms need technicians for maintenance. This means that, on average, more jobs are created for each unit of electricity generated from renewable sources than from fossil fuels. Renewable energy already supports thousands of jobs in the United States.

In 2016, the wind energy industry directly employed over 100,000 full time equivalent employees in a variety of capacities, including manufacturing, project development, construction and turbine installation, operations and maintenance, transportation and logistics, and financial, legal, and consulting services. More than 500 factories in the United States manufacture parts for wind turbines, and wind power project installations in 2016 alone represented $13.0 billion in investments. Other renewable energy technologies employ even more workers. In 2016, the solar industry employed more than 260,000 people, including jobs in solar installation, manufacturing, and sales, a 25% increase over 2015. The hydroelectric power industry employed approximately 66,000 people in 2017; the geothermal industry employed 5,800 people.

The energy infrastructure of much of the industrialized world is built to be powered by fossil fuels. According to Andy Darvill’s Science Site, nonrenewable fossil fuels provide 66 percent of the world’s electrical power, while satisfying 95 percent of our total energy needs. These include heating, transportation and electricity generation. This pre existing infrastructure makes the use of fossil fuels much easier to adopt than renewable options, which require a greater initial investment. Photovoltaic solar cells or windmills, for example, may require substantial amounts of money to install. But an existing building can draw energy from an electrical grid and current natural gas pipelines without any new equipment. Nonrenewable energy sources are also able to generate a more constant supply of power, as long as their fuel exists. Renewable energy sources may rely on irregular or less frequent conditions, such as sunlight to generate solar power or wind to turn turbines.

An issue that exists across the nation is that there is a highly exceeding amount of lead in tap water. The state of New Jersey is one example of where this lead issue is occuring. The city of Newark is changing all of its water pipes due to exceeding the federal limit 3 times in a row. This might sound like an expensive issue to fix, but it is something that has to be done and can’t be easily resolved by giving away water filters. Newark is far from the only city that has struggled to keep its drinking water free from lead. Drinking water in the United States is mostly safe, but between 2015 and 2018, about 5.5 million Americans in communities around the nation got their water from systems that exceeded the Environmental Protection Agency’s lead action level of 15 parts per billion, according to a report from the Natural Resources Defense Council. The widespread presence of lead in water in certain areas points to what advocates call a serious failure to upgrade water infrastructure in recent decades.

A possible solution for this is for the federal government to declare a massive budget to the states to fund all the supplies and labor that needs to be done in order to overcome this issue. This means that almost every state would get money to fund new pipes to fix the lead problem. The idea sure sounds expensive, but the health of Americans should be put first in this matter.

Millions of Americans are currently drinking water that contains lead. A sample study has been done on a group of kids and a numerous amount of them had lead in their blood.

By 2071, nearly half of the 204 fresh water basins in the United States may not be able to meet the monthly water demand. In 1974, Congress required that this assessment of US renewable resources be published every 10 years. Conducted by the U.S. Forest Service, the research describes two causes for the projected shortages. The first is that the U.S. will simply have more people. Despite the fact that the average American is using less water, population growth is still expected to increase water demand across most of the country. Second, the water supply itself is expected to decrease. Projected climate change affects both rain patterns and temperatures. While rainfall is expected to increase in some parts of the US, the southern Great Plains and parts of the South won’t be so lucky. The water basins rely on rainfall to feed the rivers and tributaries that flow into them. Separately, more water will evaporate from reservoirs and streams as the climate gets warmer, further chipping away at the water supply. Around 50 years from now, many U.S. regions may see water supplies reduced by a third of their current size, while demand continues to increase. The water shortages may especially impact U.S. agriculture. Irrigated agriculture often accounts for around 75% of the annual consumption of water from these basins. The authors point out, though, that this also makes agriculture a clear area for reducing water use. Up to 96 fresh water basins are projected to face shortages. Reducing water use for irrigation by just 2% could prevent shortages in a third of these basins. For others, though, the reduction must be greater often over 30%.

This issue could be solved by educating the nation of the matter at hand. Doing this will help motivate new behaviors to help save water. Another way we can help preserve water is by expanding the clean water act to ensure more protections. Something the government can do is make policies and regulations to help keep the water clean and safe from harmful businesses or people causing harm. Addressing water pollution would be a big way to save drinkable water for Americans who need it across the country.

This report will be about the tropical rainforests that can be found throughout the world. Including The location, animals, climate, Plants and the people who live there.

Climate Location

There are many locations of rainforests that are spread around the globe some of which being in Central and South America, Central Africa and South East Asia to name a few and are generally found near the equator. The climate in these areas can be described as humid due to the fact they are hot and wet all year round. The climate graph, shows data from the Amazon rainforest. The month with the most rainfall is in March with over 300 cm and the least rainfall happens in August with under 5 cm. The rainfall total in this type of forest is extremely high and it rains daily with little temperature variation. With the highest monthly temperature reaching 29 degrees Celsius in some places this occurred during September and the lowest monthly temperature is 26 in December making the annual temperature range 2 degrees.

The canopy

The rainforest canopy is split into four distinct layers each with its own qualities and adaptions and over 90% of the worlds species can be found in rainforests. The lowest layer is the forest floor- This layer is dark and covered by trees.

The forest floor is widely known to be covered in a thick layer of dead and decaying roots and leaves. This area has little live vegetation due to the lack of sunlight, space between trees and the fact that its highly prone to flooding and rainfall. Species like jaguars live here.

The layer above the forest floor is known as the under canopy layer and is known to by a lot cooler and shaded. Little light is the cause of the dormant plants that lie until the trees die off. Vines can be found attaching to the ground and climbing to the sunlight.

The second highest layer is known as the canopy layer (A layer of trees between 20-40m tall) and is home to most of the animals that are in the rainforest such as snakes and birds to name a few. This is the main location for year-round fruit.

The highest layer is known as the emergent layer and this has the tallest trees that can grow up to 60 m tall! This is the area that receives the most sunlight and are made stable by buttress roots that stop them blowing over.

Plants

Many plants can be found in the rainforest like fruits, trees and roots to name a few I have decided to research carnivorous plants and buttress roots.

Buttress roots are a support system for trees and can gather nutrients and deliver them to where there needed. They have shallow root systems as an adaption to the rainforest soil.

Carnivorous plants are plants that eat meat and trap their victims. One adaption they have made is to get their needed nutrients from insects they eat.

Animal adaptations

They are many different types of animals that call the rainforest their home some include snakes, insects, and monkeys. The ones I have written about include the howler monkey and sloth.

The sloth lives in the canopy layer of the rainforest that keeps them safe from predatory animals like jaguars and tigers and can be found in the forests in Central and South America. Leaves are the main part of the sloths diet the reason for this is that they have a slow metabolism and can sustain a diet that low in nutrients and calories. Sloths have adapted to allow their feet and hands to lock into place giving them the opportunity to hang upside down for extended periods of time without consuming energy. One of the concealment efforts sloths use is the green algae that grows on its fur.

The howler monkey has an extraordinary sense of smell and have the capability to smell vegetation like fruits and nuts from over two kilometres away! Howler monkeys tail is usually the same size a the body allowing it to grab onto items like branches. Male howler monkeys are the loudest animal in the rainforest allowing them to communicate several miles apart a reasons for this might be territorial and to tell others not to come near their territory.

What the rainforest provides and the impacts of climate change.

The rainforest provides us with many things including food, medicines and raw materials. Food can come in many forms one of which Is coffee that can be soled at a profit the other being nuts forming the diet of the local Brazilian people. Medicines such as treatment for leukaemia can be found in the rainforest because of the potentially poisonous rosy periwinkle. Oil palm plantations and logging provide us with the luxuries of garden furniture, cosmetic and confectionery products are all raw material collected from the Indonesian rainforest. Deforestation threats are high in the aazon basin for five main reasons:

1. Farming- a high demand for meat has forced area of the forest to be cleared-
2. Logging- Trees are cut down so that furniture can be sold
3. Mining- the amazon bason is rich with resources like iron mines manganese and gold among other materials.
4. Population- With population increases forests have to cleared for infrastructure.
5. Roads- the roads for the locals have meant in rainforest being destroyed.
6. Hydroelectric power- the dam in brazil has resulted in 920 square miles of rainforest being flooded.

The impacts of losing the rainforest are the loss of biodiversity, Climate change and Economic development.

World’s largest rain forest, Amazon has been burning for over 16 days now and holds the risk of burning out completely. Contributing almost 20 percent of the earth’s oxygen, the rainforest is in a major loss of trees and biodiversity. It will get completely burned out if it is not put out soon. The impact of the fire can already be seen in different regions in South America including the Atlantic coast and Sao Paulo. Located about thousands of kilometers away from the burning fire, Sao Paulo plunged into sudden darkness around 3 pm on August, the 19th. A dark, smoky cover seemed to envelop the city and the rain that poured down smelled like smoke.

As it is a dry season in the southern Amazon, forest fires are quite common in there during this period, but 2019 has seen an unrivalled rise in the number of the fires and their intensity. The most troublesome point is that the burning has increased at a time when there is a huge fall in the rates of deforestation in Brazilian Amazon. Environmentalists believe that about 99% of the forest fires are the result of human actions, either on purpose or by accident. Farmers and ranchers use fire generally to clear the land for further utilisation. Again, the fires fit perfectly into the established seasonal agricultural pattern. This is the most suitable time to burn as the vegetation is dry now. Farmers generally wait for the dry season to start burning and clearing areas so that their cattle can graze. And peak of the dry season is yet to come in September. The environmentalists hugely of the opinion Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is at blame for the forest fires. When Bolsonaro was running for president, he promised to restore Brazil’s economy by exploring the economic potential of the Amazon rainforest. According to environmentalists, Bolsonaro encouraged the farmers and ranchers to exploit the rainforest, leading to its burning.

The fire has been burning at the highest rate. There have been around 72,843 fires in Brazil in 2019 itself, with more than half in the Amazon rainforest. This shows an 80% increase in fires during the same period in 2018. Scientists say that the Amazon rainforest fire could deliver a huge blow to the global fight against climate change. The fire will also release excess CO2 into the atmosphere other than the major loss of trees and biodiversity. The fires release pollutants including particulate matter and toxic gases such as carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides and non-methane organic compounds into the atmosphere

Amazon rainforest, considered to be as Earth’s lungs is very important to slow down global warming. The rainforest is currently home to uncountable species of fauna and flora. While the immediate impact of the fire would be changes in the heating of the regional atmosphere, in the long term it is expected to lead to a potential decline in natural carbon. Thus, the planet cannot survive without Amazon.

For now, Bolivia is extending its help by contracting its Boeing 747 ‘Supertanker’ to help put out the fire. The supertanker is expected to be put in operations from August 23rd. The announcement was made by Bolivia’s President Evo Morales on August 21st, 2019. ‘Supertanker’ has the capacity to carry more water than any other aircraft in the world.