{"id":5368,"date":"2020-04-15T14:38:18","date_gmt":"2020-04-15T12:38:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.main-vision.com\/richard\/blog\/?page_id=5368"},"modified":"2020-04-15T14:38:21","modified_gmt":"2020-04-15T12:38:21","slug":"tropical-rainforests-and-their-vulnerability","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.main-vision.com\/richard\/blog\/geography-ib-higher-notes\/environmental-systems\/tropical-rainforests-and-their-vulnerability\/","title":{"rendered":"Tropical rainforests and their vulnerability"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading Time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>\n

The Threats and Losses:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

How much?<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
  • Rainforests once covered 14 percent of the Earth’s land surface, now they cover 6 percent and experts estimate that the last remaining rainforests could be consumed in less than 40 years.
    • Globally 2.4 (1 hectare) acres of rainforest have been destroyed every second… it is the equivalent of two US football fields put together.<\/li>
    • 149 acres (60 hectares) have been destroyed a minute.<\/li>
    • 214,000 acres (86,000) per day: an area larger than NYC.<\/li>
    • 78 million acres (31 million hectares per year: an area larger than Poland.<\/li>
    • In Brazil an estimation of 5.4 million acres have been destroyed per year. (estimate averaged for period 1979-1990)<\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n

      Why?<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
      • Rainforests are being destroyed because the value of this land is perceived as only the value of it’s timber by short sighted governments, multi-national logging companies and land owners.<\/li>
      • Commercial logging => teak, mahogany, rosewood etc…. for furniture, building materials, charcoal for big businesses and big profits. Comaines: Texaco, Mitsubishi corp. Unocoal…<\/li>
      • Governments and their development of natural resources. control 805 of rainforests<\/li>
      • National debt=> World Bank<\/li>
      • Logging rainforest timber => $$large economic resource<\/li>
      • Composition of the soil, nutrients are locked up in the trees, less than 10% of the Amazonian soils are suitable for agriculture.<\/li>
      • subsistence farming<\/li>
      • “squatter’s rights”<\/li>
      • cattle ranching<\/li>
      • mining<\/li>
      • oil extraction<\/li>
      • hydroelectric dams<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n

        Consequences?<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
        • The loss of tropical rainforests may lead to devastating world impact, rainforests are so biologically diverse<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
          • consider this:<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
            • Consider this.
              • A single pond in Brazil can sustain a greater variety of fish than are found in all of Europe’s rivers;<\/li>
              • over 2000 species of fish have been identified in the Amazon Basin – more species than the entire Atlantic ocean.<\/li>
              • a 25 acre plot of rainforest in Borneo may contain over 700 species of trees – a number equal to the total tree diversity of North America.<\/li>
              • A single rainforest reserve in Peru is home to more species of birds than the entire United States.<\/li>
              • One single tree in Peru was found to harbor 43 different species of ants – a total that approximates the entire species of the British Isles.<\/li><\/ul><\/li>
              • The biodiversity of the tropical rainforest e.g.: less than 1% of it’s millions of species have been studied by scientists for possible uses by man. Scientific experts estimate loss of 137 species of plants, animals and insects everyday.<\/li>
              • consequences are air\/water pollution, soil erosion, malaria epidemics, release of carbon dioxide, eviction of tribes, loss of bio-diversity and of species becoming extinct.<\/li>
              • Carbon dioxide entering the atmosphere from fires and rotting vegetation may lead to an increase in global warming.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n

                Author: Gillian S.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

                Reading Time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>The Threats and Losses: How much? Rainforests once covered 14 percent of the Earth’s land surface, now they cover 6 percent and experts estimate that the last remaining rainforests could be consumed in less than 40 years. Globally 2.4 (1 hectare) acres of rainforest have been destroyed every second… it is the equivalent of two […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":5359,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-5368","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.main-vision.com\/richard\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.main-vision.com\/richard\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.main-vision.com\/richard\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.main-vision.com\/richard\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.main-vision.com\/richard\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.main-vision.com\/richard\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5368\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.main-vision.com\/richard\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.main-vision.com\/richard\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}