Many people think that cutting down the Amazon Rainforest is good, but there are many problems with this. One of the reasons is that by cutting down the rainforest, we are destroying our basic main health supply. 121 prescription drugs, sold worldwide, come from plants and resources in the Amazon. Many important new drugs are till waiting to be discovered in the Rainforest, like cures for AIDS, Cancer, Diabetes, Arthritis, and Alzheimer’s. Sadly, if we keep cutting the forest down, these important cures may never be found
People and animals who call the Amazon their home have learned how to use the plants provided in the forest to help them. They have found plants and insects to rub on skin that provide protection agents insect bites and fungal infections. The people, and animals, have also learned how to use some plants for pleasurable means, like getting drunk on fermented fruit, or hallucinating on mushrooms.
The Amazon Rainforest use to cover 14% of the world, but over the years of deforestation, the Amazon now covers 6% of the world. 25%-30% of the world’s oxygen is made by the Rainforest every year. There is approximately two million square miles of forest in the Amazon. In three months, 105 miles were chopped down. That’s 1,260 miles a year. In five years, 6,300 square miles of Rainforest will be chopped down so carelessly, and over 50,000 species will be lost. This extreme deforestation is causing lots of soil erosion, poor water quality, reducing food security, and impaired flood protection. The Amazon River will probably shrink because of this and so will it inhabitants.
The last reason people should stop cutting down the Rainforest is because of all the killings. People are getting killed over land every day, and Brazil’s government is not strong enough to stop it. Even though the Rainforest has good soil to plant crops, we don’t have to use it all so carelessly.
The three main destructors of the Rainforest are Soybean producers, loggers, and cattle ranchers. These farmers can join a growing number of farmers are starting to integrate farming. This is a process where farmers split land into six sections and rotate their crop growing. Each section is for something different; cattle, forest, soybeans, corn, cotton, and an empty section so land can re fertilize. Every few years or so, farmers rotate their crops to help save land. Another way they are saving land is by adding grain to the cattle’s diet. This helps save the land because they’re not always grazing on grass. Farmers are also cutting down trees and replanting them. This helps save the forest.
If more farmers start using this method of farming, the Rainforest might actually be saved and not used so carelessly.