7. How does intensive agriculture and livestock affect the environment?

Aggressive deforestation of forests has three main causes: obtaining timber for sale, gaining land for cultivation, and getting vast areas for raising livestock. This aggressive deforestation began in the 1970s.

The consequences have not been long in coming: “47% of the world’s forests are threatened by compulsive felling of trees, which are disappearing at a rate equivalent to 27 football fields per minute, according to WWF data, published in 2019″.

COVID-19 has not been an impediment to stop the destruction, so we have: “The voracious deforestation in Colombia, one of the most biodiverse countries in the world, does not stop. Not even in the midst of the pandemic and containment measures to contain the spread of the coronavirus. ” According to the newspaper El País, dated 05/13/2020.

An article published on 06/18/2018, which quotes the FAO, entitled “causes and effects of deforestation”, indicates: “It is estimated that some 7.3 million hectares of forests (more or less the size of Panama) they are lost every year.

SGK-PLANET identified “12 dangers that loom over the Amazon rainforest”, under the umbrella of “the progressive destruction of the Amazon”, in a graphic report documented with figures, texts and dozens of pictures is worth a thousand words.

The images and figures that are handled are frightening. From this it follows that human have not been able to stop this environmental chaos, mainly because the countries that “own” the forests appeal to national sovereignty. Although it is known that the effects of the damage can even have global consequences.

Given this evidence, it is not possible to imagine the number of ecosystems that have been destroyed in just half a century. It is not possible to know how much habitat is lost annually, how much biodiversity is deteriorating, how many trophic chains are broken, how much environmental degradation is or how many species enter the endangered lists. Will deforestation be regulated in the next ten years?

According to a recent report by the UN agency for the environment, entitled: “We live unsustainably and thus we will not reach the environmental goals of sustainable development by 2030.” Later it indicates: “we have not yet adopted the pace of change necessary to be in line with the 2030 Agenda, say those responsible for the document who add that the world cannot maintain this rate of use and abuse forever.”

Despite all this, WWF maintains a certain optimism: “There is still hope to stop the degradation of the forests. WWF is working around the world to establish a coordinated, zero-tolerance response to unsustainable and illegal logging.”