Write an article in about 100-120 words for your school magazine about the advantages
and disadvantages of spending time in a remote area, such as a rainforest, mountains or an
island, either alone or with other people.
Answers
Advantages and disadvantages of human intervention
Advantages
Improved transportation - new roads and airports. Better transportation means easier access to raw materials like minerals and timber. Rainforest resources can be transported away and sold.
Infrastructure, hospitals and education can be improved from the money gained from selling natural resources.
Profits from selling resources can be used to improve a country's infrastructure. For example, profits from the sale of rainforest resources can be used to build schools and hospitals.
Raw materials, eg tropical hardwoods such as ebony and mahogany, can be sold for a good price abroad.
Mineral deposits in the Amazon include bauxite (the main constituent of aluminium), iron ore, manganese, gold, silver and diamonds. Minerals can be sold for high profits.
Large-scale farming brings money into the country and provides food and jobs for the country's growing population.
Small-scale farming provides food for rainforest communities and the landless poor of Brazil.