About Rainforest Deforestation
A rainforest is a forest of broad leaved evergreens that receives a high annual rainfall. Rainforests have a warm, humid temperature, and the rainforests around the equator receive about 1.5-2.4 meters of rainfall annually. Natural rainforests can be found on the continents of Africa, South America, and Asia. Also they can be found on the islands like Borneo and New Guinea.
Rainforests are endangered species because they are being cut down at an alarming rate. Bulldozers, chainsaws, and flames are used to clear the rainforest so that the land can be used for farming and ranching while the trees are used for timber. Rainforests used to cover about 14% of the Earth’s surface, but now they cover only 6%. Every second one and one half acres of rainforest is cut down. In 40 years experts estimate that all the rainforests will be gone. The logging companies don’t even have a good reason to cut them down except to make more money. They don’t understand how important the rainforests are to human life. They need to get educated quick.
Did you know that rainforests hold about half the world’s species of plants, animals, and insects? Also did you know that these species are being threatened daily by rainforest deforestation? Experts estimate that we are losing 127 species of animals, plants, and insects everyday, so that means that we will lose about 50,000 species in one year. That’s 50,000 species gone from the Earth, 50,000 species that we can never get back.
Currently 121 prescription drugs have ingredients that come from rainforests, so if all the rainforests are cut down, we will lose these drugs. That’s not all, of all the trees in rainforests only 1% have been studied. We could find so many cures if we studied these trees, but no we want to cut them down just for a quick buck. For all you people who don’t care about life saving cures then this is for you. Chocolate comes from trees that grow in rainforests, so if you cut them all down then there’ll be no more Ghirardelli, Hersheys, or Godiva. Just think about that.
Take a deep breath. You don’t think about it because you do it naturally, but you inhale about 550 liters of pure oxygen in one day. And that’s just you by yourself. The Amazon Rainforest, the Lungs of the Earth, produces about 20% of the world’s oxygen by itself. No telling how much oxygen we get from all the rainforests in the world. Deforestation of all the rainforests will greatly reduce the amount of oxygen being put back into the air and increase the amount of carbon dioxide that stays in it, making harder for you and I to breathe.
I hope this informed you a little bit about the importance of the rainforests. We need to stand up for them because they can’t stand up for themselves. We have to use our voices to protest against rainforest deforestation, and save one of world’s greatest resources.