Slash and burn is a process that has been practiced all over the world for centuries. It consists in burning forests to gain space for whatever purpose, mostly to create fields for agriculture. If it wasn’t for the use of this process we, humans, would have never been able to feed ourselves as easily, but this is something that has got to stop. Slash and burn has been used more and more in areas of the globe such as South America (Amazon) or Africa, where “Madagascar has lost more than 80% of its forests”. Pollution rises, natural resources go to waste and more horrifyingly important: the loss of unique species (animal and vegetable) is irreparable. Breaking away from Africa about 165 million years ago, Madagascar has its own unique species that have been fighting against extinction ever since humans first arrived on the island, 2 thousand years ago, particularly the largest animals. “There have been five extinction waves in the planet’s history (…) the sample polling of animal populations so far suggests that we may have entered what will be the planet’s sixth great extinction wave. And this time the cause isn’t an errant asteroid or mega-volcanoes. It’s us.”
Quotations
from TIME’s April 13, 2009 special environmental issue.
Image from WBUR.ORG
This problem is caused by the rising of the population and from the search of more food.
ReplyDeletePeople are not providing enough attention because when this happens is usually for agriculture, and people do not note, there is a substitution of trees. But there is were we have the problem, the animals can not live on lettuce or fruit trees.
Animals need to live in their natural habitats.
This problem is dangerous for the forests and animals, and this situation must be fight urgently.
This is a problem that concerns to us all. We (humans) are the main responsibles for the environmental issues, including the extinction of species. Most people ignore these facts, in order to achieve their personal goals (mainly economical). We must start thinking about tomorrow and make the difference in this world. It depends on us!
ReplyDeleteThis is in fact a big problem, one that people either ignore because it's profitable or because it doesn't harm them directly.
ReplyDeleteAs such, the loss of unique species of animals and plants has been difficult to prevent. Awareness should be raised and action should be taken, let's hope that it isn't forgotten in the middle of all the other problems we have at the moment.