Galicia region is currently fighting forest fire outbreaks. The flames are devouring the only Atlantic Forest Reserve which remains in Europe at Las Fragas de Eume.
Drought and heat are usually the main culprits in forest fires but some people have also been arrested and trade unions are making the most of it to complain about the number of people who die fighting fires.
Did the arsonists decide all by themselves to set fires to lots of forests or is there something else going on?
Who is an arsonist?. An arsonist is a person that likes to set things on fire, not just as an addiction but sometimes for pay or for insurance.
What is arson?. Arson is defined as an action of setting something on fire, usually a house or another type of structure or as it happens in Galicia, a forest.
People commit arson for a variety of reasons and the crime is punished severely all over the world because arson puts lives and property at risk.
In some parts of the world if someone dies in an arson fire, it is considered to be murder rather than manslaughter or negligent homicide. In all instances an arson conviction carries a prison term.
Why are forest fires important? They are enviromentally important to local ecosystems. Wildlife is killed and habitats of birds and animals destroyed. Forest fires can have an economic and emotional effect on people and property directly affected. Forest fires affect the atmosphere by creating large volume of smoke and ash, by causing localised changes of weather and increasing the amount of CO2. Besides, for asthmatics, the increased smoke in the air can provoke asthma attacks.
(Adapted from Clearly explained.com)
If you are aware of the fact we must do something and you are interested in the results of forest destruction by human factors, watch these videos.
Finally, Do you know what´s happening to the Amazon rainforests?
Do you think this is acceptable?
Watch the video and decide what we can do to save the Amazon rainforest.
Tasks: Read the text and choose the best choice.
The vanishing rainforest
Unless things change, by 2025 the world's tropical rainforests will have been largely destroyed or seriously degraded. Ecologists make this dire prediction by extrapolating current rates of deforestation as revealed by satellite images. Tropical rainforests, which once covered about 10% of the earth’s land surface, have already been reduced by more than a third and an additional 2% is lost every year.
Tropical forests contain about half of the world's species of animals and plants. These are now under threat of extinction. Biologists estimate that some 10,000 species are already being lost every year, never to be replaced. Admittedly, most of the threatened species are not big animals but insects. It is hard for zoologists to argue that the extinction of the average beetle is an economic tragedy. Yet, along with these apparently less valuable species, the destruction of the jungle is destroying many others that might have been extremely useful to man, especially plants. Professor Edward Wilson of Harvard University has pointed out that 'in previous mass extinctions ... most of the plant diversity survived. Now, for the first time, it is being destroyed.'
The economic loss implied by this destruction of resources is beyond calculation. The forests are central to the economies of many tropical countries. Some two hundred million people currently make their livelihoods directly from tropical forests. For many of these people, the loss of the forests means poverty and a dismal future. But the forests have also become the mainstay of many national economies. They are an essential source of fuelwood in much of the developing world; they regulate river systems and local climate; they generate exports of timber products worth $12 billion a year. The loss of forests thus entails enormous social and economic costs.
According to the World Resources Institute, besides the areas cleared and burnt for agriculture, unintentional fires consume huge areas of forest. In the past 10 years Indonesia alone has lost 100,000 square kilometres of tree cover to forest fires. Some scientists speculate that gases released by these seasonal burns contribute to the thinning of the ozone layer over the Antarctic. What is more certain is that, together with the burning of fossil fuels, burning forests add to the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The result is a steady warming of the globe through the so-called greenhouse effect. Carbon dioxide lets the sun's incoming rays through, but blocks reflected rays from leaving the atmosphere, thus trapping the sun’s heat in the atmosphere. Burning down forests does double damage to the world's climate, for trees are the main agents responsible for removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, by converting it into oxygen and wood. Without rainforests, the planet will be less good at recycling the carbon dioxide generated by man.
The fate of the tropical forests presents modern civilization with one of it's biggest challenges. If the destruction is to be halted, new models of development will have to be worked out and introduced now.
Questions: Choose the correct answer. Only one is possible.
1. How much of the earth's tropical forest is destroyed annually?
a) 10%
b) a third
c) 2%
d) 3%
2. What evidence do ecologists base their predictions on?
a) They visit the degraded areas and predict what they can see there.
b) They extrapolate the information about deforestation from similar areas.
c) A satellite provides them with the percentages of deforestation.
d) They observe the amount of deforestation currently taking place.
3. What will be lost if the tropical forests are destroyed completely?
a) Some animals but no plant species.
b) About 10,000 plants and all beetles.
c) Many big animals and some plants.
d) About half of the world's plants and animals.
4. What is the difference between this extinction and previous ones?
a) Some species of plants are now becoming extinct.
b) Some species disappeared but now all plants will survive.
c) Small, unimportant animals died out in previous extinctions.
d) The average beetle is dying out and this is a tragedy.
5. Why are tropical forests so important for many countries?
a) Timber production increases, climate improves and the river system can generate more fuelwood.
b) They help the economy, provide fuelwood and keep rivers and climate under control.
c) Rivers and climate improve and therefore tourism flourishes in these countries.
d) They provide fuelwood for export, rivers to produce energy and climate to enjoy outdoor activities.
6. 'They' in the third paragraph ('They are an essential source ...') refers to ...
a) many national economies.
b) livelihoods.
c) some two hundred million people.
d) forests.
7. Apart from the clearing of forests for agriculture, what other threats do forests face?
a) the burning of fossil fuels.
b) fires caused by people.
c) fires not caused by people.
d) gases released over the Antarctic.
8. Name two ways in which forest fires affect the atmosphere.
a) The fires produce more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and the lack of trees prevents the recycling of carbon dioxide.
b) The greenhouse effect and the recycling of carbon dioxide generated by man.
c) Carbon dioxide is removed from the atmosphere and the globe warms up steadily.
d) The atmosphere has more carbon dioxide that is not recycled and fossil fuels are also burnt.
9. What do scientists think is one of the reasons why the ozone layer is becoming thinner?
a) The regulation of fossil fuels.
b) The gases released by forest fires.
c) The greenhouse effect.
d) The steady warming of the globe.
10. How can we prevent the vanishing of the tropical forests?
a) By developing a challenging system of civilization.
b) By introducing different development policies.
c) By reducing the number of forest fires.
d) By stopping new developments.
Answers: 1C /2D /3D /4A /5B /6D /7C /8A /9B /10B
