NOTE: Free essay sample provided on this page should be used for references or sample purposes only. The sample essay is available to anyone, so any direct quoting without mentioning the source will be considered plagiarism by schools, colleges and universities that use plagiarism detection software. To get a completely brand-new, plagiarism-free essay, please use our essay writing service.
One click instant price quote
Environmental Science - P 1 -IP Easter Island is one of the most remote inhabited places on earth. Only some 150 square miles in area, it lies in the Pacific Ocean, 2, 000 miles off the west coast of South America and 1250 miles from the nearest inhabitable land of Pitcairn Island. At its peak the population was only about 7, 000. Yet despite its superficial insignificance, the history of Easter Island is a gloomy warning to the world. The history of Easter Island is not one of lost civilizations and mysterious knowledge. It is more of a outstanding example of the dependence of human societies on their environment and of the consequences of permanently damaging that environment.
It is the story of a group which started with an exceptionally limited resource base, developed one of the most sophisticated societies in that times world for the technology they had available. However, the burden placed on the environment of the island by this progress has been too colossal. When it could no longer bear the pressure, the society that had been devastatingly built up over the previous thousand years has vanished. The deforestation of the island has not only been the death knell for the complex social and ceremonial life, but it also had other harsh effects on every day life for the inhabitants in general. The shortage of trees was forcing many people to stop building houses from timber and live in caves, and when the forest eventually ran out on the whole about a century later, everyone had to use the materials that have been left. They returned to stone shelters, dug into the hillsides or fragile reed huts cut from the vegetation that grew on all sides of the edges of the crater lakes.
Canoes could no longer be built and only reed boats inept of long voyages could be made. Fishing was also more difficult as nets had formerly been made from the paper mulberry tree (which was also used to make cloth) and that was no longer available. Cutting of the tree cover also negatively affected the soil of the island, which had already suffered from a lack of proper animal compost to replace nutrients taken up by the crops. Increased coverage caused soil erosion and the discharge of essential nutrients. As a result - crop yields declined. The only source of food on the island untouched by these problems was the chickens.
As they became ever more significant, they had to be protected from stealing. Even though the situation with the Easter Island is way back into the past, some parts of our planet are still in ecological danger. One of these places is, undoubtedly, the Amazon rainforest. According to the Brazilian government official data, deforestation jumped by 64 % over the last 12 months.
It is also true that the Amazon River Basin has already been reduced by 25 percent. James (Bud) Alcock, professor of environmental sciences from the the PSU campus says that "Because of the way tropical rainforests work, they are dependent on trees to return water to the air. " He also added that "there are already a large number of species that are endangered, because the forest itself is endangered. We might be able to keep a few animals at the zoos, but we'd surely lose a lot of amphibians, reptiles and insects. We couldn't take them all. " So, what can be done to help saving the Amazon rainforest? Th global carbon markt could play a ky rol in saving th Amazon from comic dvlopmnt and th facts of climate chang. Also, employing farmers, who now mainly destroy the rainforest because they have to make their living would solve big part of the problem.
Bibliography: Clive Ponting, A Green History of the World, Penguin Books, 1992, (p 168 - 170) Tom Phillips, Brazil: Deforestation rises sharply as farmers push into Amazon, guardian. co. uk, Monday September 1 2008 00. 01 BST, retrieved on Nov. 8, 2008; web Deforestation Could Push Amazon Rainforest To Its End, Daily University Science News, 28 -Jun- 2001, retrieved on Nov. 8, 2008; web
Free research essays on topics related to: amazon, easter, amazon rainforest, rainforest, deforestation
Research essay sample on Retrieved On Nov 8 2008 Nov 8 2008 Web Island
