Amazon Forest Fire (A Serious concern)

“There is sufficiency in the world for man’s need but not for man’s greed”... by MK Gandhi

#Few_Facts_about_Amazon:

1. The Amazon is the world’s largest tropical rainforest. Covering over 5.5 million square kilometres, it’s so big that the UK and Ireland would fit into it 17 times.

2.  The Amazon is found in South America, spanning across Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana.

3. Running through the north of the rainforest is the Amazon River — a network of many hundreds of waterways that stretches 6,840km. Although there is some debate, most scientists agree that the Amazon is the world’s second longest river after the River Nile.

4. In 2007, a man named Martin Strel swam the entire length of the Amazon river! To complete his splashing jungle journey, Martin powered through the water for up to ten hours a day for 66 days.

5. Around 400-500 indigenous Amerindian tribes call the Amazon rainforest home. It’s believed that about fifty of these tribes have never had contact with the outside world.

6. The Amazon has an incredibly rich ecosystem – there are around 40,000 plant species, 1,300 bird species, 3,000 types of fish, 430 mammals and a whopping 2.5 million different insects.

7. The Amazon is home to a whole host of fascinating – and deadly! – creatures, including electric eels, flesh eating piranhas, poison dart frogs, jaguars and some seriously venomous snakes.

8. One fascinating fish found in the Amazon is the Pirarucu (also known as the arapaima or paiche). A menacing meat-eater, the pirarucu guzzles up other fish and can grow to nearly 3m long! And what makes it super deadly? It has teeth on the roof of its mouth and on its tongue.

9. This area of immense natural beauty is sometimes referred to as ‘the lungs of the Earth’. This is because the rich vegetation takes carbon dioxide out of the air, and releases oxygen back in. In fact, more than 20% of the world’s oxygen is produced by the Amazon.

10. Due to the thickness of the canopy (the top branches and leaves of the trees), the Amazon floor is in permanent darkness. In fact, it’s so thick that when it rains, it takes around ten minutes for the water to reach the ground.

#About_Amazon_Forest: The Amazon rainforest, also known in English as Amazonia or the Amazon Jungle, is a moist broadleaf forest in the Amazon biome that covers most of the Amazon basin of South America. This basin encompasses 7,000,000 km² (2,700,000 sq mi), of which 5,500,000 km² (2,100,000 sq mi) are covered by the rainforest. This region includes territory belonging to nine nations.

The majority of the forest is contained within Brazil, with 60% of the rainforest, followed by Peru with 13%, Colombia with 10%, and with minor amounts in Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Guyana, Suriname and France (French Guiana). Four nations have "Amazonas" as the name of one of their first-level administrative regions. The Amazon represents over half of the planet's remaining rainforests, and comprises the largest and most bio- diverse tract of tropical rainforest in the world, with an estimated 390 billion individual trees divided into 16,000 species.

#Why_this_Happen: Urbanisation & deforestation are the prime cause of destruction of forest area. The main sources of deforestation in the Amazon are human settlement and development of the land. In 2018, about 17% of the Amazon rainforest was already destroyed. The Present President Jair Balsonaro’s development programme without focus on the concern on environment will damage the Amazon Forest. Tropical rainforest waters are highly threatened today by hydroelectric projects, erosion from deforestation, over fishing, and poisoning from oil and chemical spills. The effects from the degradation of these waters are widespread, inflicting damage on the global economy, the environment, and local peoples.

#Key_Way_forward: Most of the Oxygen comes from the Earth oceans consist 50%. In Ocean, Oxygen is produced by different kinds of bacteria, algae, and plans(including trees) during Photosynthesis. A Tiny ocean plant called “Phytoplankton” plays a major role in releasing large scale of oxygen. So, shifting of mindset is very important and put much more emphasis on increasing marine life (Phytoplankton) as planting trees on land covers 25% of Earth Oxygen. On the other side, World organisation come up with an strong institutional law to protect the forest cover as it not only important for a country but for the existence of all living creatures on earth.