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The Congo Basin is the second largest tropical rainforest in the world, with almost 2 million square kilometers of humid forest- an area about the size of Mexico. Including secondary and savanna forest, the area equals about 3 million square kilometers, almost half the size of the continental US. Overall, the Congo Basin contains relatively intact forest, although mining, commercial logging, charcoal fuel wood harvesting, and bush meat hunting are significant threats. Violence and low foreign investment have prevented large scale forest conversion in most areas, but future economic development threatens many forest areas.

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WEBSITES USED:
http://www.borealforest.org/world/innova/forest_fire.htm
https://www.worldwildlife.org/stories/forest-fires-the-good-and-the-bad
Forest fires can either be cause naturally or by humans. Natural fires are generally started by lighting and human started forest fires can be caused by an array of things. An addition to that you also need a mixture of these things heat, oxygen, and fuel. In 2018 nearly 9 million acres of land were destroyed in the United States.

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ble for impoverished Haitians. The cookies are easy to make. The main ingredient, an edible clay from Haiti’s Central Plateau, is abundant, and salt and vegetable shortening are added in quantities that vary according to affordability. The cookies are then left out in the sun to bake. Besides being filling, they are dirt-cheap.
Coal Mining - Appalachians Ryan Andrews
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Coal Mining - Appalachians   Ryan Andrews 
Surface coal mining in the Appalachian has contributed to the destruction of over 500 mountain tops. In addition, it has led to the clearance of over 1 million acres of forests and contributed to the degradation or permanent loss of over 12000 miles of streams crucial to the Appalachia watershed from 1985- 2001. 

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Nitrogen Fertilizers and the Gulf of Mexico -Louis Rocco 

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Nitrogen Fertilizers and the Gulf of Mexico -Louis Rocco 

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https://serc.carleton.edu/microbelife/topics/deadzone/index.html
The Gulf of Mexico Dead zone is one of the largest in the world that starts at the Mouth of the Mississippi River and going as far as west as Texas. A dead zone is a area with less than 2ppm of Dissolved Oxygen. The Dead Zone in the Gulf of Mexico is roughly the size of New Jersey. What causes the Dead Zone in the Gulf is all of the farms along the Mississippi River that have Nitrogen enriched soil

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Lakes Drying Up (desertification) - Mali

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Lakes Drying Up (desertification) - Mali

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The Lake Faguibine System that consists of four different lakes has been dried up since the 1970s. Sand filled all the channels connecting the lakes to the Niger River because of long droughts. As a result, nobody can live prosperously in the region. Climate change is the main factor in the droughts because there is erratic rainfall each year. The only water that is left is being utilized by farmers, which is problematic for normal citizens of Timbuktu.
People are being encouraged by the UNEP to regulate their use of water in order to restore life into the four large lakes. This would improve the lives of fisherman and farmers int he area. The amount of drinking water and wildlife would increase too. With strong efforts life can come back to the four lakes that desperately need water form the Niger River. The lakes are essentially turning into deserts right now and that is horrible for everyone.

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There have been threats to the Congo Rainforest in Africa that started with industrial logging and conversion for large-scale agriculture. There is a very good chance that the Congo is on the verge of a massive increase in deforestation for palm oil, rubber, and sugar production. Urban expansion and mining also play a role in being a threat to this rainforest. Overall, the lack of palm oil production is the biggest scare. Almost 90% of the Congo Rainforest in Africa has sadly already been destroyed.

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Pesticides vs Organic Crops- Brian Wahler

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Pesticides vs Organic Crops- Brian Wahler

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When the Soil Association, a major organic accreditation body in the UK, asked consumers why they buy organic food, 95% of them said they were trying to avoid pesticides. They, like many people, believe that organic farming involves little to no pesticide use. I hate to burst the bubble, but that's simply not true. Organic farming, just like other forms of agriculture, still uses pesticides and fungicides to prevent critters from destroying their crops. Confused?

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Farming in India is very stressful. In order to farm in India you must have good fertile soil and land. Most importantly, you must have money. You need to have all of the right machinery and gear to farm and if you do not have all these things you will fail. These farmers families depend on the farm and the farmers tend to kill themselves because of the stress they are under after they fail.

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Each year wildfires destroy 6 to 14 million hectares of fire-sensitive forests worldwide, a rate of loss and degradation comparable to that of destructive logging and agricultural conversion.Throughout the world, forest fires are out of control - not because of conflagrations regularly featured on our televisions, but fundamentally because governments, international agencies and importantly, communities have failed to agree on how fires should be managed. This lack of clarity, further muddled by fires and fire-related risks being used to promote a complex mix of narrow interests, means that forest fires will remain a source of bitter controversy, expense and damage into the future. In this paper we seek to step back, reflect, consider what we know and suggest a way forward.

Fire problems are increasing. Many millions of hectares have burnt in the last three decades, affecting health and livelihoods for tens of millions of people costing billions of dollars. These problems have caught the attention of governments, donors and NGOs who made large investments in fire management projects: for example over 30 projects followed the 1997/98 fires in Indonesia and more than $6 billion devoted to the US National Fire Plan.

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Coal Mining - Appalachians   Ryan Andrews 

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Coal Mining - Appalachians   Ryan Andrews 

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Surface coal mining in the Appalachian has contributed to the destruction of over 500 mountain tops. In addition, it has led to the clearance of over 1 million acres of forests and contributed to the degradation or permanent loss of over 12000 miles of streams crucial to the Appalachia watershed from 1985- 2001.

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Natural Pesticides are believed to be very safe. However, many natural pesticides have been found to have potential - or serious - health risks involved with them. Organic pesticides are those that are derived from natural sources and processed lightly if at all before use. These organic pesticides are said to be typically very safe even more so than natural pesticides. This is because they have a lot fewer dangerous chemicals in them than natural pesticides.

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GMOs, or genetically-modified organisms, are types of crops whose genetic information has been altered in some way in order to make the crop more adapted to its environment. They have been frowned upon because these new crops create more pesticide resistant pests, can become invasive, can threat human health, sometimes negatively affect the environment around them, and are more expensive and time-consuming to produce.

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Most forest fires are sparked by human actions, such as dropping a cigarette or carelessly leaving a campfire unattended. The natural causes of forest fires are primarily lightning, but can also be volcanic eruptions. Fires can be beneficial because they wipe out dead trees and other plant-life, adding nutrients to the soil. However, the negative effects outweigh the potential positive ones in that the fires add to the greenhouse effect by releasing mass amounts of carbon dioxide. In 2019 there have been over 37,000 forest fires in areas such as Brazil, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Indonesia, and Colombia. While the California forest fires had a lot of buzz in the media, there are many countries around the world just this year that had over 100,000 acres of land wiped out.

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Mud cookies are all the rage in Haiti today—a rage sparked by soaring food prices. The cookies, a traditional remedy for hunger pangs and a source of calcium for pregnant women, have become a staple because food is simply unaffordable for impoverished Haitians. The cookies are easy to make. The main ingredient, an edible clay from Haiti’s Central Plateau, is abundant, and salt and vegetable shortening are added in quantities that vary according to affordability. The cookies are then left out in the sun to bake. Besides being filling, they are dirt-cheap.