Amazon Rainforest Destruction

http://www.mongabay.com/brazil.html
This article is about the destruction of the Amazon Rainforest.  Between May 2000-August 2006 Brazil lost about 150,000 square km of rainforest, and since 1971 600,000 km of rainforest had been destroied.  All of this destruction is due commercial agriculture, logging, fires, and some mining.  Currently, commercial agriculture is the biggest problem or source of destruction.  Luckilly, loging in the Amazon is controlled by strict licensing, which allows timber to be harvested in only designated areas.  In 2003 17 loggers were arrested for illegially cutting down about 10,000 hectares of timber.

Rainforest Benefits

• More than 20% of the oxygen in the world is from the Amazon Rainforest alone
• About 75% of the world's population needs medications from rainforest plants
• Many of the plants in the rainforest are effective in fighting cancer cells
• Drives water and climate cycles
• Houses rare species
• Helps stop flooding
• Plays a huge role in recycling water
• It is home to many species that have not been discovered yet
• Help to keep carbon dioxide levels down

How You Can Save the Rainforest!

• Recycle everything you can.  This incudes newspapers, cans, glass bottles, plastics, motor oil, and scrap metal.
• Don't buy products made from ivory, reptile skins, tortise shells, or cat pelts to help save the endangered species of the rainforest.
• Buy nuts, cookies, and cereals made from rainforest products.
• Use less paper.  Write on both sides of the sheet, and use half pieces of paper or scrap paper.
• Try to buy things that are made out of recycled items.
• Use less gasoline and plastic because alot of oil comes from rainforests through a process called extraction.
• Use cloth towles to dry your hands, instead of paper towles.
• Eat less red meat because rainforests are being destroyed to raise cows for beef.  Many of this beef is sent to the United States for fast food, frozen meat products, and canned pet food.

Deforestation and Climate Change

This article tells about deforestation and how it is affecting global climate change.  This is due to the release of  CO2 when a forest is being cut down.  Carbon emissions are outstrpping damage caused by planes, automobies, and factories.  http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/deforestation-the-hidden-cause-of-global-warming-448734.html

Interesting Rainforest Facts

• An area of a rainforest the size of a football field is being destroyed each second.
• Giant bamboo plants can grow up to 9 inches a day.
• The trees of a tropical rainforest are so densely packed that rain falling on the canopy can take as long as 10 minutes to reach the ground.
• In the moist rainforests of South America, sloths move so slowly that algae are able to grow in their fur.
• Some rainforest monkeys are omnivores, eating both animals and plants.
• More than 2,000 different species of butterflies are found in the rainforests of South America.
• The forests of Central Africa are home to more than 8,000 different species of plants.
• Flying animals of Asian rainforests include frogs, squirrels and snakes.
• 80% of the flowers in the Australian rainforests are not found anywhere else in the world.
• Bats are essential for the pollination of many tropical foodstuffs such as bananas and mangoes.
• 1 out of 4 ingredients in our medicine is from rainforest plants.