Tropical Deforestation and Its Effect on Global Climate Essay -- Rainf

Tropical Deforestation and Its Effect on Global ClimateAbstractRainforests be the predominant natural vegetation throughout the wet tropics. The defining characteristics of a tropic rainforest are temperature and rainfall. Wherever temperature is high enough and rainfall bowed down(p) and regular enough, there is rainforest (Bagheera, 1996). Tropical rainforests of all kinds once covered approximately 14 percent of the Earths surface, more than eight meg square miles (Conservation International, 1998) forming an equatorial green belt around the Earth rich in diverse plant and animal species. Humans flip already washed-up half of this forest area, with most damage occurring in the last 200 years (Bagheera, 1996). In 1987 alone an estimated 20 million acres of Brazilian rainforest were cut and burned (Miller & Tangley, 1991, in Kricher, 1997). At the current rate of deforestation, within 177 years all tropical rainforests on Earth could be gone (Kricher, 1997). The cause o f this massive deforestation have already begun to influence the planet. Among the many threats of tropical deforestation, global warming is perhaps one of the most severe. For this reason, a look tropical deforestation and its effects on global climate change will be the focus of this paper. IntroductionTropical deforestation refers to the cutting, clearing, and removal of rainforest, usually converting it into opposite less biodiverse, unsustainable ecosystems. Deforestation is often done for short-term profit at the expense of long-term sound economic and ecological policy (Kricher, 1997). Many factors have attributed to the destruction of rainforests especially over the last two decades. Rainforests are being cut and burned for agric... ...ientific American. Oct. 1998 issue. Internet source http//www.sciam.com Holloway, M. 1993. Sustaining the Amazon. Scientific American. Vol. 269(1) 90-99. Karl, T.R. Nicholls, N. & Gregory, J. 1997. The Coming Climate. Scientific Amer ican 276(5) 78-83. Kricher, J. 1997. A Neotropical Companion. Princeton University Press. 451 pages. Myers, N. 1984. The Primary Source. W.W. Norton & Company. 399 pages. Rietbergen, S. 1993. The Earthscan Reader in Tropical Forestry. Earthscan Publications, Ltd. London. 328 pages.Unknown. Conservation International. Internet source http//www.conservation.org/web.aboutci.rffacts.htm. Unknown. Concise Experimental Plan, written by the LBA Science Planning theme (NASA). Provided by Michael Goulden. Wheeler, Q. 1995. Bioscience. Supplement volume, 1995. Pages S21-27.