Rock, Paper, Scissors: Let’s Talk Deforestation
The Amazon rainforest has been crowned “the lungs of our planet” due to its unmatched ability to provide oxygen to Earth. Up until now, we have excelled at taking this oxygen, only to pollute it, and then fail to preserve the ecological systems that purified and produced this oxygen in the first place, such as the Amazon. Not accounting for other rainforests in the world, an equivalent to 27 soccer fields per minute, a whopping 17% of the Amazon forest has been lost over the past 50 years.
There are two main causes causing direct deforestation. The first cause of direct deforestation is the expansion of infrastructure and urbanization in the region. Government entities build roads to connect cities and villages with hopes to improve transportation and increase economic growth through trade. This road building creates a gateway for legal and illegal logging in the heart of the Amazon. These logs are then being transported on the subsidized roads to major cities where they can be sold.
The second cause of direct deforestation is the expansion of cropland and cattle pasture. Farmers use a slash-and-burn agricultural technique (a nuanced way to say they chop down the trees in the Amazon and light them on fire) in order to clear the forest and create farmland. Gradually, the United States, Argentina, and Brazil have become responsible for 80% of soy demand. This increased soy demand has incentivized farmers to create more cropland by burning down more of the Amazon rainforest.
To ameliorate the issue, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) has proposed a solution. The system called the “California Tropical Forest Standard” will resemble the existing carbon credit market, but for the deforestation of tropical rainforests. The idea is that deforestation rates, through slash-and-burn or otherwise, are at least periodically slowed down.
Serving western demands for resources often comes at the expense of less developed countries — whether it’s the environmental degradation or poor labor conditions. It is our responsibility to think carefully about the consequences of what we eat, wear, or drink. For instance, think twice in the morning when you choose between regular milk, soy milk, or oat milk with your morning coffee because this seemingly small decision can be indirectly linked to deforestation. We must become the educated and rational consumers economic theory says we are. After all, it is in our best interest that we are able to wake up in the morning and take a nice gulp of clean air.
Maximo Coppens, Investment Intern
The Brazilian Space Agency has released data documenting a massive spike in deforestation in the Amazon rainforest. Citing figures from June, the agency registered an 88.4% increase over the same month in 2018.
The rampant deforestation of the Amazon is driven by the global greed for meat. One solution is investment in the plant-based market as an alternative to meat, which has grown 62% in the last 5 years.
Life tip — don’t read paper books :)
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