Rainforest
Destruction
Megan
Mallory
Period 5
Background Information
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The planet earth plays the part of home to millions of species
of plants and animals.
2.5 acres of tropical rainforest may support two hundred
different kinds of trees; it may also house hundreds of kinds of
ferns, vines, shrubs, and fungi. That same amount of land
may house thousands of species of animals including monkeys,
exotic birds, butterflies, beetles, frogs, bats, and cats (Nations,
13).
They are also home to some of the oldest and most interesting
societies on earth, like the pigmies in Africa, Indian hunters in
South America, and some isolated tribesmen in Borneo
(Nations, 13).
There are many different ecosystems in the world, but the
tropical rainforests are the most vast and complex, holding
many cures for diseases, and millions of plants and animals.
Reasons for the Problem
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Over hundreds of years, the need
for wood and land has increased
with the growing population of the
Earth
Today, people are eliminating
plants and animals at the rate of
more than a thousand species per
year.
The clearing and burning of the
worlds rainforests is also known as
deforestation.
People don’t realize that the
rainforest land that they clear is
home to millions of plant and
animal species and many cures for
diseases, some that have not even
been discovered.
Current Status
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The situations of rainforest deforestation are more and more
becoming aware to everyday people.
There are adopt and acre funds where an acre of rainforest is
saved and you make a donation to help preserve more of them.
There are also wrist bands that profit rainforest preservation
Today less that one fourth of the original rainforests are still
alive.
They cover only six percent of the globe, but hold more than
half of the world’s plant and animal species and eighty percent
of the world’s vegetation.
People are starting to realize that rainforests hold many things
that help humans function, like coffee, rice, medicines that
treat inflammation and induce vomiting, and many fruits.
Analysis
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As tropical rainforests are destroyed, many other things are
destructed as well.
Drugs made from plants from the rainforests treat: malaria,
headaches, and convulsions; there are hopes to find cures for
cancer and heart disease in the rainforests as well.
Coffee beans, Brazil nuts, vanilla, cinnamon, rice, corn, sweet
potatoes, manioc (tapioca), sugarcane, bananas, oranges,
mung beans, guavas, mangoes, papaya, pineapple, peanuts,
cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, and pigeon peas are just a few
of the plants found in the rainforest that are used in modern
human life.
Cutting down rainforests in bulk causes heavy rains and floods.
When the rainforest is standing, the canopy absorbs most of
the rainfall, and the rest trickles down to the other levels,
finally leaving a small portion of that rain for the ground. With
no trees, the water would go directly to the ground and erode
it horribly.
Reasonable Solution/How to
Solve the Problem
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The problem of rainforest
deforestation will never be
completely solved, but it can be
helped; earth’s population will
always be growing and
expanding over all of the land
on our planet.
Since the population has rapidly
been growing faster and faster
in the last few years, we need
more houses, and more
farmland; there is no stopping
the need for these things.
Another way to solve the
problem is to make
deforestation illegal, except for
extremely necessary reasons.
Some of these reasons could be
fire hazards, or if a disease
Prediction- Future Outcome
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If this problem is not solved, there soon will be very little to no
rainforests on the earth and its products could never be found
again.
Since most of the diseases in third world countries came from
within the rainforest, either transferred by bites of animals or
bad water and or food, it would only make sense that the cure
would also be hidden in the rainforest.
If the rainforests are completely destroyed, the unfound cures
could never be discovered.
If the forests are preserved, thousands of species of plants and
animals will be preserved along with them. Cultures of Indian
tribes that have been around for hundreds of years could be
preserved as well.
Since the cures would be mostly natural, they wont have to be
mostly made in a lab, and therefore it would hopefully be
inexpensive and given to not just middle class people but also
people living in third world countries who often are neglected
when diseases are being treated.
Works Cited
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Attenbourg, David the Living Planet: Jungle
New York: Ambrose Video Publishing Inc, 1984
Doggett, Scott. “Birds Verses Buzz Saws in Jungle Joust.” Los
Angeles Times
21 September 2004. 2 March 2005
<http://192.168.10.3:15871/cgi-bin/blockpage.cgi?wssession=1224802264>.
Nations, James D. Tropical Rainforests: 1988
Pepper, Obie. “Remote Sensing of the Rainforest.” 11 December
2002. 2 March 2005
<http://emporia.edu/earthsci/student/peper1/rainradar.htm>
Quammen, David. “The Green Abyss.” National Geographic
March 2001: pg. #38-83
"The Rainforest Site." About our Projects . . . 24 March 2005
http://www.therainforestsite.com/cgibin/WebObjects/CTDSites.woa/58/wo/L45000ST600VM000D6/2.0.
45.1.3.0.1.0.25.0.CustomContentLinkDisplayComponent.0.0
Sunn, Bloyd. Endangered Species. San Diego: 1989