We, the Green Team, have decided to tackle the problem of rain forest depletion. While many people focus on the damage being done to our atmosphere and oceans, some overlook the damage being done to rain forests. Never realized how drastic of a problem this is? Take a look at these facts:
- Rainforests once covered 14% of the earth's land surface- now they cover a mere 6% and experts estimate that the last remaining rainforests could be consumed in less than 40 years.
- One and one-half acres of rainforest are lost every second with tragic consequences for both developing and industrial countries.
- Experts estimates that we are losing 137 plant, animal and insect species every single day due to rainforest deforestation. That equates to 50,000 species a year.
- The World Wildlife Fund says that every minute, 25 to 50 acres are being cut or burned to the ground.
To begin, along with global warming, the leading cause of rainforest destruction is deforestation. You’d think that we’d stop cutting down all of these trees since we see how few are left, but this doesn’t seem to be the case. To imagine how many trees are being cut down, visualize this: every year, Brazil chops down an area of forest the size of the state of Nebraska. Nebraska is roughly 77,358 square miles and is ranked 16th in size out of the 50 states in the United States. 16tth out of 50…that’s a pretty significant amount of land.
One of the most destroyed rain forests is the Amazon rain forest. The Amazon is not alone in this destruction, many other forests are being cut down as well. In Indonesia, Zaire, Malaysia, Burma, the Philippines, Peru, Colombia, Bolivia, and Venezuela, rain forests that were once great have been lost.
With our growing population, it has been very hard for us to cut back on this destruction. Many people need land to live on and wood products to consume. The larger our population, the more we cut down trees. This just goes to show you, all our problems seem to tie together. Limiting population growth may be the first in a series of steps that would limit the destruction of the rain forests.
If we don’t stop this now, it is predicted that half of the Amazon rain forest will likely be destroyed or severely damaged by 2030 and that’s merely the Amazon, who knows what the rest of the forests will be like. But what are the implications of this large loss? Stay tuned and you’ll find out tomorrow.
Work Cited:
http://library.thinkquest.org/26026/Environmental_Problems/rain_forest_destruction.html
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