Intensive Farming: A Case Study

Intensive farming or intensive agriculture is a kind of agriculture where a lot of capital and labour are used to increase the yield that can be obtained per area. The use of large amounts of pesticides for crops and of medication for animal stocks is common. This is a contrast to traditional agriculture, which does not get as much output per area. When agriculture is intensified, this means that the amount of work needed goes up, until the worker is replaced by a machine. At that point, there will only need to be a few workers to operate the machines. Intensive farming has often been done as a response to rising population levels. It is criticized because the standards of animal welfare are low.Intensive animal farming leads to increased pollution

The report, authored by Gabrielle Kissinger of Lexeme Consulting in Vancouver and Martin Herold and Veronique De Sy of Wageningen University in the Netherlands, presents an overview of drivers of deforestation to inform policymakers involved in developing the REDD+ mechanism, an international program that aims to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation. The data is based on sources ranging from published scientific papers to government reports to World Bank and U.N. analysis. Subsistence agriculture and fuelwood consumption remains an important direct driver of deforestation, especially in Africa. Drivers vary on a regional scale. For example, cattle ranching and large-scale agriculture are major drivers of deforestation in Latin America, whereas palm oil development, intensive agriculture, and pulp and paper plantations are principal drivers in Indonesia. One of the most dangerous and unsettling effects of deforestation is the loss of animal and plant species due to their loss of habitat; not only do we lose those known to us, but also those unknown, potentially an even greater loss. The trees of the rainforest that provide shelter for some species also provide the canopy that regulates the temperature, a necessity for many others. Its removal

These changes may take tens, hundreds or perhaps millions of years. In recent usage, especially in the context of environmental policy, climate change usually refers to changes in modern climate. Most climate scientists agree the main cause of the current global warming trend is human expansion of the "greenhouse effect" — warming that results when the atmosphere traps heat radiating from Earth toward space. Certain gases in the atmosphere block heat from escaping. Long-lived gases that remain semi-permanently in the atmosphere and do not respond physically or chemically to changes in temperature are described as "forcing" climate change. A minor but very important component of the atmosphere, carbon dioxide is released through natural processes such as respiration and volcano eruptions and through human activities such as deforestation, land use changes, and burning fossil fuels. Humans have increased atmospheric CO2 concentration by a third since the Industrial Revolution began. This is the most important long-lived "forcing" of climate change. While CO2 is only a very small part of the atmosphere (0.04%), it plays an important role in the energy balance of our planet: CO2 in the atmosphere acts like a blanket over the planet by trapping long-wave radiation, which would otherwise radiate heat away from the planet (greenhouse effect). As the amount of CO2 increases, so will its warming