Pages 2,3,and 4
A group of environmental problems now influences our entire world. Although some
may argue that global warming and deterioration of the ozone are the most important
environmental problems, the most prevalent issue is the rainforest destruction. No one is safe
from these troubles that come with rainforest destruction. As expansion continues and the earth's
tropical forests continue to be destroyed, hardly any societies will being left unharmed by major
environmental problems. The destruction of the rainforest is important because if they were lost,
the Hydrological Cycle would cause a drought, the reflectivity of the earth�s surface would be
changed, which would alter wind and ocean patterns, and also cause the extinction of 50 to 70
percent of all life forms on earth.
Rainforests once covered 14% of the earth's land surface in the late 1800s; now they
cover a mere 6% and experts estimate that the last remaining rainforests could be consumed in
less than 40 years (http://www.rain-tree.com/facts.htm). Rainforests once covered the entire earth;
they began forming during the Cretaceous Period with the dinosaurs about 140 million years ago.
Early in that time, most of the world�s climate was tropical to subtropical. Now rainforests are
only present in parts of Brazil, central Africa, and islands between Southeast Asia and Australia.
This represents about seven percent of the earth�s surface; however, within this seven percent
over one-half of the world�s plants and animals live in them.
Native people have lived in the rainforests for thousands of years without destroying
them. Because of the great amounts of industrialization around the rainforests, the native
generations have grown apart from their tropical culture and lost the knowledge of how to survive
within the forests without harming it. The native people are not the only ones who value the
rainforests; governments of developing countries hope tropical jungles will provide a home for
the homeless, food for the hungry, and resources to sell to other countries. In poor, over crowded
countries, jungles are sources of wealth.
Ten million acres of forest are cut down every year. Every minute, twenty-five to fifty
acres of rainforest vanishes. Experts say that 137 plant, animal and insect species are lost every
single day due to rainforest deforestation. That totals to 50,000 species a year.
(http://www.raintree.com/facts.htm).
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Many people don�t see the value in trying to preserve the tropical forests; this is one of
the main reasons for the obliteration. If people were more informed of the harms that are caused
by the rainforests� destruction, then I believe that everyone would think twice before going to the
rainforest for land and wood. There are many different reasons besides the lack of knowing the
consequences. The main causes for the demolition of the rainforest are caused by logging,
agriculture & cattle ranching, and tourism.
Logging is one of the biggest threats to the tropical rainforests. As said in the previous
paper on the background of the rainforest, ten million acres of rainforest are cut down each year!
(http://www.raintree.com/facts.htm). This totals out to twenty five to fifty acres of rainforest cut
down every minute! In the process of logging, a lumberman usually picks a few acres to cut
down, and then burns the area of land that was just cleared. Many people underestimate the
amount of damage that logging brings to the rainforest. The process of logging not only removes
trees, but destroys all forms of life in that area.
Agriculture and cattle ranching are among other forms of demolition that destroy the
rainforests. It is somewhat ridiculous that farmers try to grow their crops in rainforest soil,
because nothing can grow in it for more than 2 years. With cattle ranching, it is almost the same
thing; cattle cannot eat from the plants that grow on rainforest soil because, again, nothing can
grow for more than 2 years at the most! Farmers and cattle ranchers move from one plot of cut-
down land, then cut down another plot and move there. This form of destruction is not as fast-
destroying as logging, but as more and more people try to uptake this kind of job, it becomes
more threatening.
Tourism, along with logging, agriculture, and cattle-ranching, is a threatening aspect to
the tropical forests. As more people go deeper and deeper into the rainforests, they are invading
the animals� natural habitats. This causes the animals to withdraw into different parts, or-even
worse-forget their natural instincts and rely on the tourists for food. Some tourists may even hunt
the animals or capture the animals to bring them back to their homes. Tourism is a threatening
feature to the rainforest.
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Rainforests are steadily coming to an end. If people continue to cut down rainforests at the speed at which they are, the rainforests will not survive to the next generation in the year 2030 (http://www.ran.org/info_center/factsheets/04b.html) . Professor Norbert Henninger said that, �Rainforests cover less than two percent of the Earth's surface, yet they are home to some 40 to 50 percent of all life forms on our planet-as many as 30 million species of plants, animals and insects. The rainforests are quite simply, the richest, oldest, most productive and most complex ecosystems on Earth. And never before has nature's greatest orchestration been so threatened.�
According to the �Global Rates of Destruction�, 2.4 acres of rainforest is cut down per second. This is equivalent to two U.S. football fields. 149 acres of tropical forest is cut down every minute, and 214,000 acres per day (this is an area bigger than New York City. 78 million acres of rainforest are cut down per year; this is equivalent to an area larger than Poland. (http://www.ran.org/info_center/factsheets/04b.html). In Brazil alone, 5.4 million acres of rainforest are cut down each year! In the year 1500, an estimated 9 million indigenous natives lived in the rainforest. As of the year 1992, under 200,000 indigenous people remained.
Along with the trees, shrubs, vines, and flowers that are destroyed above, the destruction of the rainforest also kills animals as well. In one day alone, 137 species of life forms are driven to extinction. (http://www.ran.org/info_center/factsheets/04b.html) Scientists estimate that about 50,000 species become extinct every because of the tropical forests being destroyed.
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