Question about The Amazon Rainforest. What do you think?

Question

In many ways, the Amazon Rainforest is extremely important.For one, it acts as a huge air conditioning and air filtering system and it helps to regulate the Earth's atmospheric temperature while it recycles Co2 and methane gas. Also, it is the home of one third of all species in the world with tens of thousands of plant species, thousands of animal species, and millions of insect species, which makes it, as an eco-system, unparralelled in its biodiversity. Many important plants used in medicine come from there. Unfortunately, it is continually threatened by loggers and farmers who brazenly ignore the environmental laws as they go about their business of illegally cutting down more and more trees. What are some severe forms of punishment that should be meted out to the worst of those scofflaws? Should the police of the respective countries (that include parts of the Amazon Rainforest) do something as extreme as the Saudis, which is cut off a hand or an arm if they break the law

Answer 1

It is not the only option! Cutting down more and more rain forest in the hopes of cultivating viable farmland is ridiculous! The land that has been stripped is not useful as farmland for more than a few seasons because of the nature of a rain forest. All the nutrients of the rain forests are in the canopy. In north american forests the nutrients are in the soil.  When we cut down trees so that we can farm we are not taking away the nutrients in the earth but when we are cutting down rain forest there are no more nutrients going back into the earth (leaves falling, birds defecating, bugs molting). I am not saying it is impossible to grow anything on deforested rain forest land but it is very difficult and requires experienced hands and the proper plants to create renewable topsoil.

Answer 2

Well, I see both sides to this argument. Don't get me wrong, I am the biggest hippie in the world (minus the drugs), vegi for 4 years, and I love the rain forest and want to conserve it as much as any other tree hugger. But we can't just punish those people who mercilessly chop down the rain forest, because in most cases, that's their only option. Most of the world's rain forests, including the Amazon, the people living near it are most likely in poverty. Their main source of income comes from the rain forest, i.e: logging, poaching, stealing rare animals... So if we want to stop the destruction of the rain forests, we must first educate the people, and then give them better jobs. Punishing them won't do a thing, but I appreciate that you share my compassion.