summarizing deforestation

source: http://www.giluy.com

Economic principle: Choices have an opportunity cost

Thesis: There are always going to be numerous choices and decisions one has to make throughout their life. In my research I found that every single choice someone makes has an opportunity cost and an effect in their life.

Synthesis paragraph: 

Every day we make hundreds of choices. From something so simple as what shoes we think look best with the pants we have on or something as complex as what tests to run in order to cure cancer. We all make these choices in life and when I began my research I assumed that with each decision came one opportunity cost, but I soon realized that was far from the truth.

Most people assume that deforestation doesn't affect people who don't live in that country but they couldn't be more wrong. According to national geographic, deforestation causes a huge loss in trees which in turn worsens global warming which makes for warmer winters and summer. this results in farmers in the US not being able to maintain the amount of fruit or vegetables they need in order to sustain themselves. Just that is multiple opportunity costs wrapped into one choice. Another opportunity cost is the money that goes into deforestation. Cutting down trees is costing $2-5 trillion dollars a year! 1/2 of the national debt is being used to cut down trees! That is an opportunity cost for millions of americans!

The way in which people cut down the trees is an opportunity cost in itself because it is so harmful. Most companies use the Slash and Burn method. This entails cutting down all the trees just to burn the land. Doing this is so harmful for so many reasons. The first being the obvious that it is not healthy for humans or the animals living in those trees to be near so much smoke and harmful tools. And the second reason being that putting so much carbon dioxide into the air is causing holes in the ozone layer and causing more green house gases to get into our atmosphere, according to National Geographic.

There are so many decisions that people have to make every day, and they all have a price. Deforestation has many opportunity costs that affect a lot of people's every day life styles.