Losing our Forest
The tropical forests are the biomass more productive of the planet and of greater diversity. The amount of precipitations and the temperature cause that their only limited factor is the light. They extend by Central America and of the South, central Africa, Malaysian and Indonesia mainly. The Amazonian occupies 7% of the planet and locks up 50% of the world-wide biodiversity. In The Amazonian inhabit 70% of the terrestrial and vegetal animal species of the planet. The tropical forests are a lung for the planet, Amazonian, for example, in its gas interchange with the atmosphere it releases more of 50% of I oxygenate necessary for the life of the species animals, accumulate carbon through the photosynthesis, necessary thing for the carbon dioxide balance with the atmosphere. Along with the oceans regulate the climate of the planet. They regulate the hydrologic cycle. They generate ground and they protect it of phenomena like the erosion. The biodiversity that lives in them is incredible, calculates that by each 10Km2 of surface are 760 species of trees, 125 classes of mammals, 400 types of birds, 100 of reptiles and 60 of amphibians, among others. We can find prey birds that nest in the tops of the trees, below them monkey
In Africa it annually lost 3'7 million hectares of forest between 1990 and 1995. More recently WWF has established an annual loss of 4'1 million hectares deforested in this continent. The second region of greater tropical forest of the world, the River basin of the Congo, deforests at the rate of 0'7% of its surface to the year. The majority of the countries of Western Africa was covered by a forest that extended of the coast towards the interior, but only few vestiges are left of those forests, in 1990 was considered that it was only left around 12% of the original forest of Western Africa. In 1997 the number lowered to 10%, Between 1990 and 1995 this region has lost 2'5 million hectares. The annual rates of the deforestation in Western Africa are between highest of the world, although the rate of deforestation in Africa has seen braking. From the decade of the 80 the rate of deforestation has happened from 2'1% to 1%. In central Africa it is left less of 60% of the original forest cover, approximately 185 million hectares of closed forest. The FAO calculates that the rate of deforestation for Central Africa is of around 0'6%. Data of the " World Resources Institute " processed between 1998 and 1999 indicate that single 8% of all the cover surplus in Africa (0'5 million Km2) can be considered border forest. 77% of these forest borders are under moderate or high threat. The logging almost supposes 80% of these threats. The best and more extensive forest borders are in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (old Zaire), Gabon and the Republic of the Congo. In Western Africa, only one part of the west of the Ivory Coast and the border of Cameroon with Nigeria maintain great surfaces of intact forest that can be considered like forest borders. Also an important factor in the loss of the tropical forests is the fires. Every year the man dismantles near 12 million hectares of tropical forest, the amount destroyed by fires (between forests, forests and scrubs) is of 7 million hectares. Factors that favor this event are the high temperatures, the droughts, the lack of humidity and the forts and dry winds that contribute to that the fire to disperse itself of fast and uncontrolled form. In means of advance of a forest fire three sectors can be distinguished. In the plus cease-fire one occurs in the top of the trees (where they are the branches and the leaves), in this zone the advance fastest occurs and more difficult to control. In the medium level, where the shrubs grow, the fire does not advance so quickly, but also it affects to the weeds and the bushes. In the inferior level, below the ground, the advance is much more slow, but the damage that causes the fire is much greater since it burns the roots and it carbonizes humus leaving an irreparable damage in many years. The farmers and landowners of the Amazonian in search of cultivable earth and for grass, get to eliminate 80,000 Km2, if we added to other causes gives it a about 100,000 total of destroyed Km2 of jungle to the year, and send to the space near 620 million tons of carbon dioxide gases (approximately 10% of all the polluting presents in the atmosphere, dioxide of carbon, expelled nitrous oxide and the methane in fires contribute to the effect conservatory and also they contribute to destroy the ozone layer). The forest fires of Indonesia in 1997/98 emitted to the atmosphere as much CO2 as the burned coal, oil and gas during the same year in all Western Europe, the main factor that contributed to these fires was the forest factor. Annually the man dismantles near 16 million hectares from forest per the year, with special incidence in the tropical forests (12 million hectares per the year), an area equivalent to Peru and Paraguay has disappeared in the last decade. As main causes are the deforestation, the overused to other of the ground uses, the overexploitation of forest products, the infrastructure mining, creation, the bad techniques of cutting, and the fi
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 3361
Approximate Pages = 13 (250 words per page double spaced)
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