why does deforestation happen in the amazon rainforest?
430299
Cattle ranching is the leading cause of deforestation in the Amazon rainforest. ... Since 2009 major cattle buyers and the Brazilian government — pushed by environmental campaigners — have cracked down on deforestation for cattle production.
326818
Direct causes of deforestation are agricultural expansion, wood extraction (e.g., logging or wood harvest for domestic fuel or charcoal), and infrastructure expansion such as road building and urbanization. ... Most often, multiple processes work simultaneously or sequentially to cause deforestation.
37195
The Amazon did not evolve to burn, but for centuries, fire has been used to clear space in the rainforest for agricultural crops, from soybeans to palm to cattle. Deforestation often leads to fire.
66620
How does deforestation contribute to a change in climate and increase the chance of floods in a biome? When you take all of the plants and trees away from a biome, there is nothing left to take in the water when it rains, leaving you with a big wet mess.
775005
The culprits? Humans. Since 1970, almost 310,000 square kilometres of the Brazilian Amazon Rainforest has been lost due to human activity. The reduction has slowed in recent years as a result of positive action by South American governments, but it remains a problem.
1125746
Forests transport large quantities of water into the atmosphere via plant transpiration. This replenishes the clouds and instigates rain that maintains the forests. When deforestation occurs, precious rain is lost from the area, flowing away as river water and causing permanent drying.
1253143
For the most part, human activity is to blame for deforestation, though natural disasters do play a role. ... Logging, or cutting down trees in a forest to harvest timber for wood, products or fuel, is a primary driver of deforestation. Logging affects the environment in several ways.
766018
Deforestation is a particular concern in tropical rain forests because these forests are home to much of the world's biodiversity. For example, in the Amazon around 17% of the forest has been lost in the last 50 years, mostly due to forest conversion for cattle ranching.
354391
Over the past 3 centuries rates of tropical rainforest deforestation have been variable. ... However, in some tropical countries the rate of deforestation is increasing rapidly as those countries use their forest resources. Indonesia has seen the greatest increase, as they replace forests with palm oil plantations.
170418
By the 2000s more than three-quarters of forest clearing in the Amazon was for cattle-ranching. ... Vast areas of rainforest were felled for cattle pasture and soy farms, drowned for dams, dug up for minerals, and bulldozed for towns and colonization projects.
614168
Deforestation in the Amazon rainforest is a major cause to climate change due to the decreasing number of trees available to capture increasing carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere.
534373
“The Amazon is often referred to as Earth's 'lungs,' because its vast forests release oxygen and store carbon dioxide, a heat-trapping gas that is a major cause of global warming,” claimed The New York Times.
925862
Deforestation causes can either be direct or indirect. Among direct causes are: Natural causes as hurricanes, fires, parasites and floods. Human activities as agricultural expansion, cattle breeding, timber extraction, mining, oil extraction, dam construction and infrastructure development.
389430
The Amazon did not evolve to burn, but for centuries, fire has been used to clear space in the rainforest for agricultural crops, from soybeans to palm to cattle.
1291322
When the burning of the Amazon was at its peak in August, there were thousands of individual fires, almost three times as many that month - 30,901 - compared with the same period last year. What caused this? Forest fires do happen in the Amazon during the dry season between July and October.
51184
Changing climate leads to forest degradation. Studies in the Amazon River basin predict that a rise in temperature corresponds with a 10-20 percent reduction in rainfall. ... Tropical rainforests typically get over 100 inches of rain a year, but each year this number decreases — creating a chain effect of consequences.
593238
Deforestation can directly lead to biodiversity loss when animal species that live in the trees no longer have their habitat, cannot relocate, and therefore become extinct. Deforestation can lead certain tree species to permanently disappear, which affects biodiversity of plant species in an environment.