I made this blog to educate students on the importance of the rain forest.
Rainforests used to cover fourteen per cent of the land on earth. Now rainforests only cover six per cent of land on earth. (http://www.raintree.com/facts.htm)
A rain forest is a very hot and humid forest along the equator that gets a lot of rain. The kind of environment in which a species or type of animal is normally found. (www.nsrl.ttu.edu/TMOT1/glossary.htm)
You can find more plant and animal species in the rain forest than you can find anywhere else in the world. (Goodman, Billy. The Rainforest. ISBN O-316-32019-6) A rain forest is a beautiful forest many shades of green.
The impacts of the Amazon rain forest being destroyed are things like soil erosion, and water pollution. The human action of these impacts is things like deforestation, slash and burn farming techniques and mining.
This picture shows soil erosion after tees have bean cut down.
This picture shows polluted water.
This is a picture of a mind.
I picked these pictures because they represent soil erosion, water pollution & mining.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/alarch/308587800/
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Water_pollution.jpg
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Soil_Erosion_With_Roots.JPG
What is happening when we are not environmentally friendly? (IMPACT)
Soil erosion
A tree's roots hold the soil in place. When trees are cut down there is nothing to hold the soil in place. When soil is washed away from the rain and all that’s left is sand it's called soil erosion. When soil erosion happens crops and plants die and people that where living on those crops and plants die too.
Toxic metals
Toxic metals from gold mining pollutes rivers in the Amazon region. Polluted rivers poisons people's resources, animals, plants, species of fish and trees. Rivers lead to oceans and it could do all this to the other places too.
What did we do? (Human action)
Deforestation
Deforestation is when big parts of forest are being cut down. Deforestation changes the weather and increases the chance of floods and droughts. Weather is changed because trees suck water through it's roots and release water into the air which makes the rainforest humid. Flooding happens when there is too much water on the surface and there is no trees to suck up the water. Droughts are a lack of rain caused when there are no trees to release water into the air so it doesn't rain. Basically, the hole process of photosynthesis is stopped by deforestation. When deforestation happens it also kills many plants and animal species and that is dangerous.
Photo by: Ken Wightman
This picture intended to show:
“This field behind the CPRI buildings in the west end of London, Ontario is not usually considered bear country but Tuesday London police killed a bear in the area after it charged an officer.” This bear probably lost its habitat when the forest was cut down. Sadly, it was killed when it got to close to a human looking for food. :-(
Photo by: Ken Wightman, National Post Wednesday, April 28, 2010
“a black bear wandering the streets of London was shot and killed yesterday by police in the southwestern Ontario city , London. It charged at a police officer soon after, the bear shot and killed because it posed “a danger to the community””.
National Post Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Slash & Burn
Slash & burn is when people cut down tress and then burn down the bush. Nomads are people who farm in one place and then when the soil is no longer rich they move again. Nomads are the people who attempt slash and burn to clear the land but nomads are not the only ones who use slash and burn. Industries get some of their supplies from the rain forest too.Miners are people who look for minerals like gold and coal. The problem is that, when gold miners mine, it releases stuff like toxic metals into the water which can destroy the Amazon environment.
Reflection
Conservationists think we should protect the rain forest because of the many different animals & plants. (“Scientists think that ten million different species (types) of plants & animals live on earth. The rain forests are home to two-thirds of these.”)
Farmers cut down the rain forest for money to feed their family. (“The basic motive for cutting down the rain forest is profit. Many tropical countries are poor. (The Rain Forest, Page 76, Troubles In the Rain Forest.))
in my opinion . . .
I think that every one should do the little thing they can to help save the environment like the three r's reduce reuse and recycle.
What can we do?
- Educate everyone about the importance of protecting the rain forest
- Plant trees everywhere you are allowed.
- Encourage your parents to stop buying gold so the miners will go out of business and no longer cut down the rain forest or pollute the water in the Amazon rain forest.
- Recycle.
- Don't waste paper or pencils
- Use recycled products
Bibliography
Books
Morgan, Sally. Saving The Rain Forest. ISBN*978-1-59771-065-7
Goodman, Billy. The Rain Forest. ISBN O-316-32019-6
Thompson, Colin. The Tower to the Sun. ISBN 0-679-8834-7
Web sites
Col, Jeananda. Zoom Rainforest. 1998 http://www.zoomschool.com/subjects/rainforest
http://www.raintree.com/facts.htm
William B. Davis and David J. Schmidly. The Mammals of Texas. 1997. www.nsrl.ttu.edu/TMOT1/glossary.htm
Dino. Wikimedia Commons. 2004. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Water_pollution.jpg
Dehaan. Wikimedia Commons. 2008. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Soil_Erosion_With_Roots.JPG
Jakub Friedl. Flickr. 2006. http://www.flickr.com/photos/alarch/308587800/
