In historical times 9,460,000 square miles of rainforest existed throughout the world and of that only 3,865,000 square miles remain. The cause of this huge reduction of life is the evolution of humans and their invention and practice of deforestation. Deforestation creates a wealth of problems for the planet and its inhabitants thereof.
Rainforests cover more than six percent of the Earth’s landmass, excluding water. They can be found on every continent except Antarctica. Tropical rainforests are home to more than three million species of florae and faunae, which is more than half the Earth’s total number of species; there are also 50 million indigenous peoples living in them as well. A single volcano in a rainforest in the Philippines alone contains more species of woody plant than can be found in the entire United States.
Almost all of the food that humans consume originates from hybridized wild plants. Food crops have been improved through crossbreeding with tropical varieties that result in crops that are more resistant to disease. Eight percent of what we eat comes from this method.
The rainforest is also a harbor for plants with medicinal qualities. Seventy percent of the three thousand species of florae known to possess anti-cancer properties come from rainforests. Alas, these plants and others that could contain cures and treatments for disease are disappearing at an alarming rate.
The Earth’s largest tropical forest mass is the Amazon Hylaea. Only two percent of Brazil’s original rainforests are still standing today. 25 million acres of Brazil’s rainforests are destroyed annually; 19 million trees are cut down each day. In North America there is only forty-fifty percent of rainforest remaining.
Rainforests don’t only consist of trees; they are a complex ecosystem that houses millions of plants and animals, some of which are indigenous to the rainforest. When rainforests are cleared their inhabitants have no place to live and wind up dying in mass numbers. It has been estimated that there are up to one hundred and fifty species that become extinct daily. There are even more that are being endangered and coming closer to extinction with the passing of each day.
Deforestation of the rainforest affects the world’s water supply immensely. Rainforests have a very fragile equilibrium of water intake and output. They are called rainforests because of the famous amount of rain that falls during the year. Removing trees from a location easily throws the equation out of balance by reducing the quantity of precipitation that falls in that area. Deforestation also causes flooding and global warming. Due to flooding there are many rivers that have collected so much runoff of silt and debris that they cannot support life anymore.
Rainforests are cleared for many reasons. They are cleared to make way for land that will be used for farming. In actuality, the land that rainforests thrive on is not very adept at supporting monoculture for a long period of time. The soil has been used to house thousands of varieties of plants and will not support just a single cash crop. Also, while you are making way for food to be grown you are taking away a more valuable source of food.
The demand for lumber and paper products is also a large factor for deforestation. Developing countries in which rainforests are found export the lumber in the hopes that it will improve their economies. Logging is a very large and costly process though and it also has disastrous effects on the environment. Yet there are other arborial resources that can be used with little threat on the environment. There are many fully sustainable and abundant forests throughout the world that could be reduced to use the lumber. As for the economies of the developing countries there are numerous ways to improve them. Instead of cutting the rainforests down they could be set up as national parks to boost tourism.
The wood from the trees is also used for fuel. There are many other fuel sources which could be tapped. For instance, people in the tropics could use solar stoves instead of wood burning ones. Manure is also an abundant resource that could be used at a very inexpensive price.
There are a lot of good ideas out there as to what could be done to save the rainforest. One in particular is a debt-for-nature program. A country could put their rainforests up for sale and allow nature groups to purchase the land and maintain it; that would help the economy of the country as well.
One of the best ways to stop the deforestation of the Earth’s rainforests is to educate people. Most people don’t realize how much our environment is being affected by their destruction. Some people may say that cutting down the trees is similar to if they had just fallen down, but that is simply not true. If the trees had fallen down, animals would be able to make homes out of these trees, plants would flourish around them by feeding off of their nutrients, and the soil would be replenished by the decomposing carcass of the tree.
In conclusion, the deforestation of the rainforests of the world will affect all of us if it continues. Rainforests are a beautiful resource of this planet and they are being used for the wrong purposes. Humans will lose precious medical knowledge and treatments if the destruction doesn’t end soon. Scientists could also learn a lot about human origins through the rainforest too. The rainforest is a fragile and nonrenewable part of life so humans should think about their actions before they cause their own extinction.
