What are the benifits and disadvantages of cutting down lots of trees? (amazon rainforest)?

Question

Please help im stuck...

Answer 1

Advantages:
Immediately, a poor farmer with no other means of support obtains new land for farming. To that farmer, this can be very important.
Disadvantages:
Rain forest soil is not really very rich....(actually it is, but only for about an inch of soil). Consequently, a vicious circle begins. The poor farmer may have a couple of years of crops. Then, as the nutrients are used, the soil becomes barren. As stated above, the nutrients aren't very deep in the soil. The Rain forest uses any nutrients quickly during its life cycle, thus top soil is very thin in these regions. As the land becomes useless to the poor farmer, he then looks to clear more land....and so on...and so on.
Another disadvantage is the loss of habitat for endangered species. There are still probably some unkown species (to our western civilization) in the world's tropical rain forests. New plants could contain chemicals that could be turned into wonder drugs, etc. There could be a cure for cancer soemwhere in South American jungles!
Another disadvantage, inspite of popular belief, is the loss of pollution cleaning and oxygen manufacturing plant life. Think of rain forests as a large part of the earth's lungs.....cleaning our air, removing carbon dioxide and exhaling oxygen.

Answer 2

Disadvantages Of Cutting Down Trees

Answer 3

The disadvantage is that the trees produce oxygen which we need to live, and absorb carbon dioxide, which is now accumulating in the atmosphere and causing global warming.

(Did you know that if you were sealed in a room with no ventilation you would die of carbon dioxide poisoning before you ran out of oxygen?)

The advantage is that farmers get to use the land, BUT after a season or two the ground gets hard and is useless for farming or ranching (laterite), so they just cut down more rainforest.

The trees might be good for lumber but are often just burned off to get rid of them.

Answer 4

Benefits go to the farmers who are cutting trees to clear land for farming. The poor landless farmers get free (or low cost) land to farm. In cases where the wood is used instead of burned, there is a useful product produced: wood for making houses or building furniture.

Harm is of course loss of natural habitat and soil erosion.

Despite popular belief, loss of ability to make oxygen or loss of ability to absorb carbon dioxide is not an important consequence.

Answer 5

There are no benefits to cutting down the rain forest. The disadvantages is that you are destroying tribes that have lived in the forest undisturbed for centuries, destroying an ecosystem making unique creatures extinct. There is absolutely nothing good from what they are doing.

Answer 6

Benifits people live b/c they usually use the trees to distill the wood which creates charcoal disadvagantages...more co2 in air and more global warming

Answer 7

Benefits: Short term benefits for the local farmers.
Disadvantages: Loss of species and ecosystems. Soil erosion, changed rain patterns due to that tropical forests contribute in creating clouds.
Less CO2 being absorbed leading to more global warming. More global warming, makes the climate dryer leading to less growth of trees, leading to more global warming...

Answer 8

Good news is that we get better paper more houses etc.

Bad news is that many animals that live in rain forests need trees to survive so cutting down trees is threatening those species of animals.

Answer 9

No. You know something funny I asked a similar question two days ago and linked to a yahoo news article that said the word Gringo and I received a violation for hate speech. I've appealed it three times waiting for a reply hopefully third time is a charm.

Answer 10

I lived in the head waters for 12 years and with the rain fall that they have the trees will win. The jungle is very deadly ,if the jungle doesn't get U the fungus will.