Research
has shown that human land use activity has begun to change both water and
energy cycles in regions of the Amazon basin. Carbon storage, rainfall patterns
and river discharge could be altered by wildfires, deforestation and that scary
term no one likes to think about… climate change. Scientists from the Woods
Hole Research Center were trying to make the connections among climate change,
agricultural expansion, logging, and fire through evaluation. In portions of
southern and eastern Amazon basin, wildfires have been much more frequent, occurring
every few years rather than centuries. This indicates there are environmental stresses
being caused by human-inflicted activities such as expansion of agriculture,
logging, urban development, etc.
I feel that
this global issue is not only an environmental one, but also a sociological problem.
The degradation of forests through climate-fire interactions affects not only
the immediate surrounding villages in the Amazon basin, but also other regions
of the world. No one will be excused from the effects of climate change, even
though some will be affected sooner and to a higher degree than others. As for
the Brazilians, these people’s livelihoods are at risk, and not taking the
proper precautions could be a huge mistake. There is a need for more
sustainable lifestyles and to have a better understanding of the tradeoffs
among land cover, economic development, carbon stocks, and knowing the
long-term impact they are having on the environment. In order for the people of
the Amazon basin to slow down the rate of these fires, technology improvements
will need to be made in order to manage a sustainable development of that
region.
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