Robin Wills

Humanities 8-1

Mrs. Long

June 2, 2022

Did you know that humans cut down approximately 1.5 acres of the rainforest every second (Harris)? There are also about 30 tons of trash on the tallest mountain on earth (Edmond), and each year more than 46,000 square kilometers of African savanna become desert due to human actions (Smith). These are missed opportunities to teach those around us the importance of ecosystems to our world’s health, so I am doing this essay on the 15th Sustainable Development Goal, “life on land” (“Goal 15”) because we all live above ground and should help to support our planet. Therefore, humanity should think of ways to rebuild damaged ecosystems like the rainforests, mountains, and savannas, some of our most massive habitats, home to an incredible number of unique and beautiful species of animals and plants.

(Butler)

Humanity’s damage to the rainforests is just a tragedy and a waste of such a beautiful environment filled with lovely animals. More than 20 percent of the rainforests that covered the Earth in 1970 are gone due to human intervention and deforestation: “Of particular concern are the 3.75 million hectares of loss that occurred within tropical primary rainforests” (Weisse and Goldman). The destruction of the rainforests has led most of the animal population to lose the trees that most of them relied on as a food source. People cut down the rainforests because of the land they can use for beef farming: “Overall, beef is responsible for 36% of all agriculture-linked forest replacement” (“Beef Production Drives Deforestation Five Times More Than Any Other Sector”). A straightforward solution is to simply stop eating as many beef products as possible and substitute more environmentally sustainable and healthy proteins like chicken or switch to vegetarianism. This would help to solve this problem by lowering the demand for beef and making it less necessary to graze cows on the deforested land.

(“Garbage on the Everest”)

Humans have negatively influenced almost every environment on Earth in some form, not just the deforestation of the rainforests but also the pollution of the mountains. We have turned some of our planet’s most outstanding landmarks into a way to get money, like how we have turned one of the most significant accomplishments of human history, climbing the tallest mountain Everest, into a holiday adventure and trash dump for the rich: “It’s estimated there are about 30 tons of trash left on the mountain. Every year, more and more climbers attempt the mountain – each paying around $30,000 to do so.” (Edmond) This is a problem for the animals of Everest because the animals are dealing with the same problem as the fish in the ocean: they end up accidentally eating the trash and getting sick. One option to slow down the growth of “the world’s highest garbage dump” (“Tallest Peak or Tallest Pigsty: Nepal Struggles With Trash on Everest”) would be to put part of the $30,000 cost of climbing into a fund to clean up the mountain.

(Morenovel)

Furthermore, humans are also destroying the savannas of Africa by turning them into deserts through over-grazing, causing the indigenous animals that rely on the grasslands to starve or move on, thus forcing the predators to do the same, leading to the area becoming barren and empty. “Desertification affects about 46 percent of Africa. Yet, the process of reversing its effects is slow going, usually taking a decade to see major improvements.” (Philipp) There have been attempts to fix the problems that our agricultural activity has caused through the over-grazing of the land with cows, sheep, goats, and camels. But it is quite slow to manually re-introduce plant life to an area and it will need a lot more improvement and work. A good solution for this problem would be to increase the funding for the pre-existing plan, “the Great Green Wall for the Sahara and the Sahel initiative” (“Action Against Desertification”) for the savannas of Africa.

There is no reason why people haven’t tried to solve these problems, other than that they don’t know enough about them or don’t care enough to support them economically. Rainforests, mountains and savannas, some of the most widespread habitats on earth, are home to an incredible number of unique and beautiful species of animals and plants. All of this shows how negatively humans have affected the world and how we could try to fix it.

Works Cited

“Action Against Desertification.” FAO, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2022, https://www.fao.org/in-action/action-against-desertification/overview/great-green-wall/en/. Accessed 2 June 2022.

“Beef Production Drives Deforestation Five Times More than Any Other Sector.” Eurogroup for Animals, 22 Apr. 2021, https://www.eurogroupforanimals.org/news/beef-production-drives-deforestation-five-times-more-any-other-sector/. Accessed 2 June 2022.

Butler, Rhett A. “Drone Photo of Deforestation in the Bolivian Amazon for Soybeans.” Mongabay, 23 Nov. 2021, https://rainforests.mongabay.com/amazon/amazon_destruction.html. Accessed 2 June 2022.

Edmond, Charlotte. “World’s Highest Spring Clean Operation in Everest Turned up 10 Tonnes of Trash.” WEForum, World Economic Forum, 31 Oct. 2019, https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/10/10-tonnes-of-trash-was-taken-down-everest-this-is-what-s-happened-to-it/. Accessed 2 June 2022.

“Goal 15.” Department of Economic and Social Affairs: Sustainable Development, United Nations, Dec. 2015, https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal15. Accessed 2 June 2022.

Harris, Tom. “How Rainforests Work.” HowStuffWorks Science, 4 Nov. 2021, https://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/conservation/issues/rainforest.htm. Accessed 2 June 2022.

“Garbage on the Everest.” Indiatvnews,  16 June 2019, https://www.indiatvnews.com/news/world-progress-garbage-sorting-mount-everest-527563. Accessed 2 June 2022.

Morenovel. “Landscape of Desert and Grassland, Namibia.” Shutterstock, https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/landscape-desert-grassland-namibia-229128925. Accessed 2 June 2022.

Philipp, Jennifer. “The Effects of Desertification in Africa.” The Borgen Project, 21 Apr. 2020, https://borgenproject.org/desertification-in-africa/. Accessed 2 June 2022.

Smith, Brett. “Dangers to the Savanna Ecosystem.” Sciencing, 2 March 2019, https://sciencing.com/dangers-savanna-ecosystem-18220.html. Accessed 2 June 2022.

“Tallest Peak or Tallest Pigsty: Nepal Struggles with Trash on Everest.” Newsela.com, 3 May 2014, https://newsela.com/read/everest-litterbugs/id/2947/. Accessed 2 June 2022.

Weisse, Mikaela, and Liz Goldman. “Forest Loss Remained Stubbornly High in 2021.” Global  Forest Watch, 28 April 2022, https://www.globalforestwatch.org/blog/data-and-research/global-tree-cover-loss-data-2021/. Accessed 2 June 2022.