Percentages of Deforestation in the Amazon
Most people think deforestation in the Amazon is mostly people cutting down trees for paper. If you look at the picture to your left you will see that actually 60% of the problem of deforestation from 2000-2005 was highly from cattle ranches, other wise known as"Cheap Meat". The world wants food, fast, chap and good. Cheap meat is the solution. It is highly produced and shipped and soled across the world very cheap to fast food restaurant like McDonald's or Burger King for example. Another 30% of the problem is from Small-Scale, subsistence agriculture. This is usually just small families who are living literally off a dollar ninety five a day and need a better life. They will move into the rain forest where they will have a small farm where they can sell what they plant and keep a small fraction for food. This life is surely better than life before. 3% of the problem is from mining, road constructions and dams. This is usually just the government building more roads, but what do you have to do when you are building a road in the middle of a jungle?- You cut down trees. Most of the trees in the Amazon are centuries old and are very tall, if you cut down one of these monstrous trees it brings down say ten other trees with it. The Amazon is very well known for it's beauty above but what attracts miners are what is beneath her beauty, gold. To mine in the middle of a rain forest you must do the same thing as road building- you must cut down the trees in the area. Another 3% of the problem is logging legally and illegally. Cutting down the trees in the Amazon is usually not meant for paper but more for furniture. Wood in the Amazon is some of the firmest furniture in the world. It can be let out in the rain and keep it's former color. And alas the last 1% of the problem in the Amazon is the smallest right now but is making the most progress than the others, Large-Scale commercial agriculture. It is solely farmers planting and building bigger and bigger farms.