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destruction.

The bullheaded ranchers fail to see the effects of their burning the land.

After land is burned and raped of the minerals the land becomes dead.

These are some of the problems but, ” Land degradation caused by

grazing is by far the greatest challenge in Latin America” Caufield, (113).

There is a false illusion of an endless rainforest, so every couple of years,

the ranchers move on an either try and sell the land or burn more of the

rain forest and convert it to pastures. The U.S. does not offer much help,

the destruction of the rain forests takes five cents off the price of an

American hamburger. The United States buys up three quarters off all

Central American beef exports. Perhaps after all there are more criminals

than we think, the US is also directly responsible for the devastation of

mankind. Maybe the South Americans just support our greediness and

“necessity” for food, which the majority of goes to waste. Maybe not, but

we are to immersed in our own fervor to realize that we are digging our

own grave. Despite all of the attacks on the ranchers in the past decade,

“it is still good business to clear virgin forest in order to fatten cattle for

say five to eight years and then abandon it” Caufield, (112). The answer to

our problem is already known, but we just do not want to listen. Science

does not lie therefore sooner or later mankind will start to feel the major

effects of rainforest devastation

The long term effects from the deforestation of the Amazon are

already showing worldwide. The one major effect is the earth’s climate.

The “greenhouse effect” is caused by the rise in the level of CO2 in the

atmosphere. Eventually this could make the temperature rise five degrees

every couple of years, and in theory cause London and New York to be

under sixteen feet of water.

The scientists of the world are not all in agreement on every issue but, “in

some way shape or form there will be drastic changes in the climate as a

direct result of rainforest destruction” Shiguango, (7). The destruction of

40 million acres of rain- forest a year causes a major dent on the species

living in these regions. Magnificent and beautiful creatures of God are

being innocently killed by the destruction of their homes. In the last twenty

years, four major damns have been built in Latin and South America. The

most recent, The Tucurui Dam, is twelve miles long and when filled, the

reservoir will destroy 800 square miles of virgin forest and put an end to

over 10,000 different species, not including the 9,000 Indians who once

lived at the bottom of the basin. What seems to be a small aspect in our

life now will have a profound effect in the future. Simple items that we take

for granted now, such as tropical woods, bananas, nuts and other

materials such as rattan will soon be available in much smaller quantities.

The effects of deforestation maybe still inconspicuous to many, but soon it

will start to effect us all in one way or another.

Through our own imprudence and default we have let the innocent

lives of billions of people and animals, around the world, fall into the hands

of cattle ranchers, peasants and government officials. We have yet to learn

that the environment will always promise us life and a future, and

economics will only keep us happy for a while before it destroys us. Thus

the war between the two has been going on for nearly 200 years, and it is

not close to being over. The distant light at the end of the tunnel is faint.

The spreading of knowledge is a slow process that takes many years.

Hopefully, if we work together to save the rainforest we can make up for

our own negligence and win the war against ourselves.

1. Andrew Revkin, The Burning Season (Boston: Houghton Mifflin,

1990)

2. Robert M. McClung, Vanishing Wildlife of Latin America (New

York: William Morrow, 1981)

3. Catherine Caufield, In the Rainforest (New York: Random House,

1984)

4. Jamie Shiguango, “An Experiment in Rainforest Conservation”

Cultral Survival Quarterly Spring 1988: 56-59

5. Alexander Shankland, “Brazil’s BR-364 Highway: A Road To

Nowhere” Ecologist July/Aug. 1993: 141-147

6. Sue Landry, ” Saving the Rain Forest: A Patch of Hope” St.

Petersburg Times 27 Feb. 1994, 1f+(1-14)

The Destruction

of

Mankind…

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