READING - THE AMAZON (CLASS 9 AND 10)

           WORKSHEET 24

THE AMAZON
1. The Amazon is a vast biome that spans eight rapidly developing countries—Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, and Suriname—and French Guiana, an overseas territory of France.

2. More than 40 million people, including over 400 Indigenous and ethnic groups, live in the Amazon and depend on nature for agriculture, clothing, and traditional medicines. Most live in large urban centres, but all residents rely on the Amazon’s natural bounty for food, shelter, and livelihoods. People also use the region’s waterways for transport,

THE AMAZON BASIN ECOSYSTEM

3. The amazon basin contains a diverse suite of eco systems. The largest biome (in the basin is the amazon rain forest which is made up of a complex pattern of wetlands and forest. About 30 percent of the area covered by the Amazon basin is wetlands of different types, which occur in both saltwater and freshwater environment and at sea level and at elevations. wet lands include mangrove ( mangroves are salt tolerant trees shrubs and ferns)marshes swamps (an area of land permanently saturated, or filled, with water) white sand savannas ( forest canopy characterised by scattered trees) and seasonally flooded forest areas.

THE AMAZON RAIN FOREST

4. The amazon rain forest occupies the drainage basin of the amazon river. Amazon Rainforest is the world’s richest and most-varied biological reservoir, containing several million species of insects, birds, and other forms of life, many still unrecorded by science. The luxuriant vegetation encompasses a wide variety of trees, including many species of myrtle, palm, and acacia, as well as rosewood, Brazil nut and rubber tree. Excellent timber is furnished by the Mahogany and the Amazonian cedar. Major wildlife includes jaguar, manatee, tapir, red deer, capybara and many other types of rodents, and several types of monkeys.

5. Despite its mighty splendour, the Amazon’s forest and freshwater systems are fragile and at risk. Their ecological richness, the forest regions of the Amazon basin are under constant threat of deforestation. Brazilians have settled large portions of the Amazon, clearing the land for lumbering, grazing, and agriculture. Between 1970 and 2016, Brazilian Amazon forest cover declined from some 1,583,000 square miles to about 1,283,000 square miles. However conservation slowed forest loss to roughly 0.1–0.2 percent per year between 2008 and 2016. 

CLIMATE CHANGE

6. The Amazon is critical to our efforts to avoid a climate catastrophe. Water vapor released from the Amazon creates vast “flying rivers” in the atmosphere, which influence rainfall and thus agricultural production in central and southern South America. And the billions of tons of carbon stored in the Amazon rain forest is of global importance to slowing climate change. 

7. But the Amazon is threatened by rising deforestation. Unprecedented droughts are happening with growing frequency. Dry seasons are hotter and longer. Long dry spells wither crops, decimate fisheries, and lead to forest fires. This can result in significant shifts in the makeup of ecosystems and a loss of species. 

8. According to many notable scientists, the Amazon is close to a tipping point past which it will no longer be able to sustainably support itself. To ensure the Amazon’s future, for its people and biodiversity, deforestation in the region should not exceed 20%, and it is already at approximately 17%. Our vision is one of zero net deforestation in the Amazon to safeguard this globally important ecosystem. 

DEVELOPING A SUSTAINABLE FOREST ECONOMY

9. Regional and global demand for natural resources, including timber and fish, can be met without devastating the environment. Agriculture and timber sectors should work together to eliminate waste and increase production efficiency. Sustainable forestry methods mean only cut selected trees ,never clear-cut the forests. It allows the forest to regrow naturally and its biodiverse, natural habitats to stay in place and thrive.

SIGNIFICANCE

10. The Amazonian tropical forests have been disappearing at a fast rate in the last 50 years due to deforestation to open areas for agriculture, posing high risks of irreversible changes to biodiversity and ecosystems. Climate change poses additional risks to the stability of the forests. Studies suggest “tipping points” not to be transgressed: 4° C of global warming or 40% of total deforested area. The regional development debate has focused on attempting to reconcile maximizing conservation with intensification of traditional agriculture. Large reductions of deforestation in the last decade open up opportunities for an alternative model based on seeing the Amazon as a global public good of biological assets for the creation of high-value products and ecosystem services.

ANSWER THE QUESTIONS WITH REFERENCE TO THE PASSAGE:

PICK UP THE WORDS FROM THE PASSAGE THAT MEANS -----
1. largest life zone(PARA 1)----------------
2. a social group or category of the population that, in a larger society, is set apart and bound together by a common race, language, nationality, or culture.(PARA 2 )---------
3. different combination or collection of(PARA 3)-------------
4. rich and profuse in growth lush (PARA 4) -------------
5. the process of harvesting of forests and utilising the forest products for commercial use.(PARA 5)---.

6.  ----------sudden disaster causing great suffering (PARA 6)-------------
7. never having happened or existed before(PARA7)----------
8. the point at which a series of small changes or incidents becomes significant enough to cause a larger, more important change(PARA 8 )---------------------.
9. That destroys something completely (PARA 9) ------------------
10. Going beyond limit (PARA 10)-----------------------

Explain briefly the impact of deforestation in amazon rain forest. How does it cause global warming?

ANSWERS

1.     Biome

2.     Ethnic

3.     Suite of 

4.     Luxuriant

5.     Lumbering

6.     Catastrophe

7.     Unprecedented

8.     Tipping point

9.     Devastating

10.  Transgressed