Year 4 - deforestation debate
4th December 2020
There was a lot of discussion this week as Year 4 debated a topic that we are passionate about: deforestation!
Recently, we have been learning about deforestation and its impact on the rainforests and the climate. We have discussed different methods of deforestation including logging, t building dams to produce hydroelectric power and building roads.
This topic always creates great discussions and this week, we contemplated why deforestation is happening. We considered the arguments for protecting the rainforest and the arguments for why people would want to develop them. There were a wide range of reasons for protecting our rainforests. These included:
The rainforest has a lot of endangered animals.
People live there and should be protected - they will lose their homes if trees are cut down.
There are medicines in the rainforest, which will be destroyed.
The rainforests provide a lot of the world’s oxygen.
Almost 50% of the world’s animals live in the rainforest.
There is a lot of food found in the rainforest that animals and people rely on.
Cutting down trees can cause soil erosion, which can cause a number of problems.
We were able to think of some reasons why people might want to develop rainforests too, such as increasing the number of jobs for local people and improving transport links.
After debating this topic, it was clear that regardless of the reasons to develop the rainforests, we should stop deforestation. After all, we must protect our rainforests and the world we live in!
We are now reaching the end of the Autumn term and this has been an enjoyable cross-curricular topic, where we have learned a great deal. We are looking forward to beginning our next topic, ‘Natural Disasters’, in the new year.