I still remember my unique experience visiting the Amazonia in the middle of a snowstorm almost eight years ago. Back in January 2016, the Washington DC area got hit with a historic blizzard that stopped school for an entire week. It was during this time that my dad brought me to DC’s National Zoo.
It is the dead of winter now, no trace of green in the pale, dreary weather outside. How I miss the warmer weather! I recall an almost surreal experience when we realized we were outnumbered by animals in the zoo. Stepping on crunching snow under my boots, I walked into the Amazonia exhibit hall and was welcomed by heat and humidity. The Amazonia is one of a kind among the many zoos I have visited in my young life. It is hosted inside a dedicated building to show the entirety of an ecosystem. It has free-ranging birds, a large aquarium and a high humidity and temperature that made me forget about the icy weather outside.
Me at the upper floor of Amazonia Exhibition, January 2016. Gigantic river fish at the lower floor (see stock picture below)
The Amazon rainforest, often referred to as the “lungs of the Earth,” is one of the most vital and biodiverse ecosystems on our planet. the Amazon is under a severe threat—deforestation, which is primarily driven by various human activities, including logging, mining, agriculture, and infrastructure development. The expansion of livestock grazing and soybean cultivation has been a major factor to this problem. The ever-growing commercialization including illegal logging, road construction, and infrastructure projects further disrupts the forest.
I also remember the sign I saw in the famed Bronx zoo’s Jungle World where it stated, “rain forest destruction starts with a simple road.” One of the most immediate impacts is the loss of biodiversity. The Amazon rainforest houses an estimated 10% of the world’s known species, many of which are still undiscovered. While I wander around the Exhibit, I see large Arapaima fish that could only be found in wide rivers in the Amazon area—nowhere else in the world. Can mankind afford this loss of biodiversity?
Unsurprisingly, deforestation is a major contributor to climate change. The Amazon acts as a carbon sink, absorbing vast amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and storing it in its trees and soil. When these forests are cut down and burned, this stored carbon is released into the atmosphere, exacerbating global warming.
Some of the problems, I wonder, are clearly due to our insatiable demand for beef and soybean, which requires deforestation for farming. Cattle raising is big part of the economy, but it directly caters to the western world’s appetite for steaks, beef tacos, etc. I have to admit. Beef taco is one of my favorite foods. But would I or should I, give it up for preservation of one tree in the vast Amazon rainforest?
I still remember the saying that the flutter of wings from butterflies in the Amazon could determine the weather we get here in the eastern US. I know it could be an exaggeration, but the symbolic meaning is more than clear. If I decide to take action as one person thousands of miles away from the Amazon, will my feeble effort make a difference?
