Amazon Rainforest series - part 3: human involvement

Hi everyone,

This is the last post in the amazon rainforest mini series. It's all about how humans have affected the amazon rainforest. Unfortunately, most human impact on the amazon is negative.

The Amazon rainforest faces many threats, but the main one is fire. You may think that the fires in the amazon are wildfires or created by accident, but that is not true. All over the amazon, farmers are setting fire to the trees and foliage. For only one reason, to clear land for farming. But this is a disaster. Last month, the amazon rainforest reached its tipping point. Due to the fires, it is now releasing more CO2 than it is absorbing. To feed our growing population, we are killing countless species. Species, that in some cases, we haven't even discovered yet. If the amazon rainforest goes, climate change will become pretty much unstoppable.

But it isn't only animals and plants that are suffering. Do you remember all those tribes that live in the amazon? They mostly depend on the forest for food and shelter. Imagine if you lived in the forest like so many people do. Imagine flames suddenly coming out of nowhere. I am pretty sure that many people have found themselves in that position. It's highly probable that some people haven't lived to tell the tale.

In the last post, we mentioned food webs and talked about just how vulnerable they are. Food webs are collapsing - not only in the amazon but in the whole world. The ecosystem of the amazon is struggling under immense pressure. This pressure mounts daily. Everything we do, has an impact. It is easy to look away. It's easy to pretend that climate change doesn't exist. What the world governments do now, will either save or destroy the planet. The amazon rainforest is home to so much - are we really going to let that be destroyed. It isn't our planet, it isn't our forest. The world doesn't belong to any human - it belongs to nature.

Sources:
https://www.nationalgeographic.org/education/amazon/
https://wwf.panda.org/discover/knowledge_hub/where_we_work/amazon/amazon_threats/
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/one-third-of-the-amazon-has-been-degraded-by-human-activities/


Image: El Niño Could Drive Intense Season for Amazon Fires, owned by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (on flickr.com), is licensed under CC BY 2.0.