How is the developed countries destroying the world?

Question

I am doing a project on how the developed countries are destroying the world as a whole. I need some help with some subtopics or ideas.

Thank you!

Answer 1

Did your teacher assign you this subject or did you come up with that on your own?  Honestly, I'm genuinely curious.  Please respond.

Answer 2

Developed countries are hurting the environment by deforesting forests and rainforests to make space to grow biofuels.

One way a developing country can make money is to provide developed countries like the US with materials to make biofuels. This is a relatively new and highly profitable way of bringing capital into a country which can be used to build hospitals schools and emergency services which further improve the infrastructure of a country. However, many developing countries are eager to meet the needs of this demand and want to provide as much biofuel as possible to make the most money.

The most common group of plants used in the production of biofuel is sugarbeet and sugar cane. These are used in the yeast fermentation process to make ethanol, a kind of alcohol which can be used as fuel.

To make fuel for cars, which is the most popular use for Biofuels you need plants that naturall produce oils such as oil palm, soybean, algae, or jatropha. When these are heated their viscosity (runnyness) decreases and can be burned in a diesel engine. Oils produced by these plants can be chemically treated to make biodeisel.

Sounds like a great situation right? Developed countries are willing to pay thousands if not millions of pounds/dollars for these plants and the money you recieve will make your country better in the long term... but where do you grow them.

This is where the 'easy solution' becomes not so easy after all. Many countries such as Brazil are deforesting large amounts of land to make way for sugar cane and other Biofuel materials. Large areas of the amazon rainforest has been destroyed by slash and burn techniques to clear the land to make way for the biofuel agriculture.

Cutting down all those trees is very bad for the environment in a number of ways. For example, larger older more complex trees are much better at storing and fixing Carbon into their biomass than smaller shrubs and trees like sugar cane. Less carbon being stored in the plants means more carbon in the atmosphere causing an increased greenhouse effect.

Also by slashing and burning large areas of forest, you can often completely destroy soil structure meaning once the sugar cane is no longer needed or is harvested the rainforest won't be able to grow back. The soil in these areas of Brazil are extremely sensitive and if disturbed and destroyed the soil that is left will need lots of fertiliser and chemicals to make it productive enough to sustain the sugar cane crops. These fertilisers and chemicals will no doubt leach into the local ecosystem killing animals and birds which eat the nearby plants.

Also burning the forest releases thousands of tons of carbon into the atmosphere which would normally be harmlessly stored in the plants biomass. When the trees are burnt down they release huge amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere which also contributes to an increased greenhouse effect.

Don't forget this isn't all the developing countries fault. If the developed countries grew the sugar cane themselves, Brazil and other countries would not need to make more land available for biofuel agriculture. The developing countries are only trying to meet demand and make money to acheive a better standard of living in their country. This is extremely hard with the large amounts of debt and low income they presently experience and simply growing crops for export may seem like a quick easy profit which they are happy to execute without considering some very disastrous consequences.

Hope this helps!

G x

Answer 3

The undeveloped countries wants to monkey the so called developed countries but in the reality one should identify oneself first and that should be the basis and integrity.