July 13, 2008
Author: Jo Hartley
http://www.naturalnews.com/023623_deforestation_carbon_emissions.html
Deforestation is taking a major effect on our economy. If the process of deforestation were slowed, then so much money could be generated to help fight against climate changes that are hurting us. When farmers cut down the trees to clear land for their farming, this alone is creating up to 20% of our world's greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore, there was a UN climate conference held. During this conference they discussed ways to motivate and reward countries for decreasing their deforestation. One way would possibly be by making factories pay to emit carbon dioxide. They have rewarded places for such hard effort in decreasing the deforestation rates in their countries, the ones with the highest rates have decreased excessively. If this issue becomes more publically known, then there is a chance for other countries to lower their rates too. It's not only helping the environment and bringing back animal's habitats, but it's saving more money. So what's the better choice?
Opinion/Reflection
I loved this idea of motivating and rewarding countries for decreasing their deforestation rates! I think that would actually get people thinking because who doesn't want to be rewarded? It's also crazy that so much greenhouse gas has accumulated from deforestation. I never thought it was a big deal, and just didn't understand why this was a problem. Making factories pay to emit carbon dioxide was a great idea. I know I would definitely not want to pay all that money for that. I hope people, especially farmers, come to the realization of what deforestation is doing to the environment. Places like the Amazon are suffering and that is a perfect example.
Questions
1.) What is another idea to motivate countries to decrease deforestation?
2.) How is deforestation affecting animal's habitats?
3.) How could places be rewarded for the decrease in deforestation?
Opinion/Reflection:
ReplyDeleteWow! What an interesting and inspiring article. Deforestation is so terrible and just makes me sad when I read about it. To know that farmers burn down land, and create 20% of our worlds's greenhouse gas emissions by doing so. This does not seem right at all. However, the article lead into an uplifting idea that the UN climate conference would reward countries for decreasing deforestation. This is a clever idea, a way to save animal/plant life and ecosystems and a way to save money. I know if my home was destroyed for other reasons besides my habitat and shelter, I would be very upset. Well that is exactly how all the animals and plants feel that live in forests that were cleared due to deforestation. Deforestation must stop, and this article just shows a step towards improvement.
Expand: I found this awesome article that talks about "winning the war against deforestation," it truly is another inspiring article. Check it out here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16295830
Answer to Question:
2: Deforestation is completely ruining animals' habitats. Farmers clear and destroy out all the land, leaving animals no place to live. It truly is terrbily sad.
Opinion/Reflection
ReplyDeleteI think that this is a marvelous idea and many countries should do this. Not only do they save the planet they are also paying less then what they have to pay. We could remove 20% of all our green house gas emissions just by stopping this one action. I think that this idea is great because that could pay off some of the debt they owe to some countries. We are in so much debt and this could help with some of the debt. This would have to be one of the most cleverest idea. This could be our solution to our pollution problem.
Expand
I found an article where they are protecting certain areas of the amazon forest. The name of the article is "New protected areas in Brazil contribute to major drop in Amazon deforestation rate". Look at the hyperlink: http://news.mongabay.com/2010/0601-amazon_arpa.html
Questions
Answering question 2. Deforestation is affecting animals because animals need territory to mate or to find a suitable homes. When we are killing there habitat basically what we are doing is killing there home. We are also killing there food supplies.
Opinion/Reflection
ReplyDeleteDeforestation is a huge problem and I'm glad to hear that people want to do something about it. I was really happy to hear about the U.N. climate conference and how the U.N. wants to help solve the pollution problems by eliminating the factors from deforestation. If the decreasing deforestation rates continue, than imagines all the benefits we will get out of it. I think it is important that we do our best to try and minimize the amount of pollution that we release into the atmosphere. This way the amount of pollution will be less in the future. This impacts me because greenhouse gases are a big problem and are a main factor in air pollution. If the amount of greenhouse gases decreased the air would be cleaner and people would be much healthier.
Questions
1) It may be easy to motivate to group of people to change deforestation habits, but it is even harder to try and motivate a whole country. People react better if they know how serious the problem of deforestation is and how it would affect them personally. There should be more awareness around the problems that are caused form the deforestation and what will happen if we don't take action now.
Reflection: I have always thought that diferent countries should be rewearded or penalized depending on how friendly they are to our enviornment. Then, maybe rather than just waiting for people to care, they will be forced to care, like major cooperations for example. I also had no idea that deforestation was harmful in the ways of greenhouse gasses. I only ever thought of it to be damaging to wildlife and their homes. I know that if my major company was being taxed, or punished because of issues like this, I would make an effort to change for the better, so this idea will have some sort of impact I think. Also, I never thought of such amazinf rain forests, such as the Amazon as shown in the picture, to be used for farming too. This article showed me some obvious issues and uses that I just never thought about, and hopefully this idea by the UN will continue to improve in the ways of deforestation.
ReplyDelete2) Animals are compleetely affected by this-in the ways of shelter, food sources, and just being able to survive in general. It is knocking out some of our species, and leaving the rest confused, hungry of homeless.
3) I think it is crazy that countries should even have to be rewarded for doing the right thing, but if they had to be, maybe money or deals with trade or oil would be a good insenive.
I was curious to find out the major causes of deforestation in places like the Amazon, so I found this chart, and the main cause surprised me!
http://www.google.com/imgres?hl=en&safe=active&biw=792&bih=434&gbv=2&tbm=isch&tbnid=YgQoMCQ9mtn10M:&imgrefurl=http://www.mongabay.com/brazil.html&docid=4rGd9Im0wcw2PM&imgurl=http://photos.mongabay.com/06/amazon_defor-360.jpg&w=360&h=392&ei=_U6xT8OSC8qu6AHl_LCQCQ&zoom=1