Envioromental Agencies Essay, Research Paper

Value of Environmental Agencies’

In current times man has become so consumed with weapons and money that the

planet has been neglected. With something so typical and now common as chopping

down the rainforest to produce trees for mass abundance of political paper and land to

graze more cattle this thoughtless destruction, disturbs all aspects of the environment.

This is business as usual. The lands being destroyed are the most unique and diverse lands

in the world. Chris Park Senior lecturer in the Department of Geographer at Lancaster

University states, “The available statistics are impressive and… the rainforest’s claim to

fame as the richest ecological zone on earth”(26). In order to efficiently restore and

protect the damaged land, animals, and people environmental agencies’ must be valued.

By destroying the forest, we are creating an open-door policy for disease. For

example, the S.Amerindians have long adopted to endemic disease and have prevented

them, in large part, by their adaptation to conditions of life over the 20,000 years they h

have inhabited the tropical forest. With the lumber companies invading these towns and

villages, their western germs are exposing isolated, once-contained people. Kathlyn Gay,

author of Rainforests of the World, mentions, “Indigenous people in many countries have

died because of contact with outsiders-usually whites of northern European extraction-

who have brought contagious diseases, ranging from measles to influenza, and sexually

transmitted disease”(20). With the importance of the land resources comes the ever

significance of the atmosphere. The atmosphere’s most predictive component is the ozone

layer. The distribution of the forests and multiplying of grazing cattle are causes immense

damage to the ozone. John Nichol, head of Worldfest 90′ production and marketing,

alludes, “In Brazil and other countries in South and Central America the smoke from fires

burning the jungle is sometimes so thick that great palls of it drift for miles(140). These

smoke clouds are affecting the weather patterns. “Weather patterns are changing too, and

the consensus of informed opinion is that this too is a direct result of destruction of the

forest”(Nichol 136). The slashing and burning of the Amazon forest is causing carbon

monoxide build-up, promising severe damage to our security blanket of the ozone. This

damage and the critically harsh and uncharacteristic weather pattern is slowly erasing

some of our animals.

The animals are the most diverse and ecologically sound species on this planet.

They are not only being destroyed but exterminated. Many ecologist, say that such a

species’ loss has not occurred since the dinosaurs became extinct 65 million years ago.

Why is this so? The last drastic species loss occurred when glaciers melted. Although

converted waves of extinction have certainly occurred in paleolithic past, current and

future losses will be so exponential that the implications are chilling. Average extinction

“background rate” has a range of 2.0 and 4.6 families/species per million years and may

rise to 19.3 during periods of mass extinction. The most complex and immense species

that will not be present for much longer are insects. “The recent overburgeoning numbers

of crop-destructive insects have been shown to be caused at least in part by a decrease in

the country’s population of insect eating birds,” advises, Arnold Newman the author of

Tropical Rainforest (135). A terrific example is the leaf cutter or parasol ants that are

seen in the neotropical forests. These ants climb trees that are only indigenous to

rainforest and cut out dime-sized pieces of leaves and flowers with their sharp mandibles.

The leaves and flowers of these trees are the main and only food for these species of ants.

And with the elimination of the forest will come the elimination of the leaf cutter ants.

“All forms of life within the rainforest are highly interdependent, so that even small

changes in habitat or species can have serious knock on effects throughout the

ecosystem”(Newman 19). This disturbance of the food cycle is wickedly important. In

general, the food cycle literally goes from the ground up, plants being the primary

producers. The plants are eaten by herbivores and grazers and the carnivores eat both

herbivores and themselves(carnivores) when the forests are destroyed along with the

animals of all sizes huge gaps in the food cycle are vacant. This is a “serious concern in

recent years over stability and very survival of some rainforests which are threatened with

irreversible change if not wholesale clearance”(Park 19). There mast be a way in which

we can preserve nature. “A common and effective approach to protecting nature in many

countries has been to designate particular areas as national parks or nature reserves, and

restrict land use changes or damaging activities within the designated areas”(Park 132).

Many people in the world do not want to see the rainforest disappear; as a result , reserves

are set up. In 1990 there were roughly 560 tropical forest parks and reserves covering a

total of 780,000 km squared and accounting for about 4 per cent of all tropical forest.

When the forest people are taken from their homeland and put somewhere else

they do not know how to change. “They are being pushed to the edge of extinction, and

public sympathies are swinging in their direction”(Park 105). The modern world is so

crazy to think the forest people can make such a drastic change. The forest people loss

their culture because they can not bring their forests resources into the modern world.

Displacement happens from taking away of land which the forest people use to support

themselves. It is almost impossible to think that they can change their lifestyle and

experiences and start all over. Families in the United States have a difficult time moving

from state to state in most cases.

Everything in the jungle was fine until money-hungry man wanted to make even

more money and ruin everyone’s lives. Everyone should just leave the jungle alone to live

in peace and harmony. If all the people of the world work together then maybe we can

help save the land, animals, and people.