 |
|
WHY SAVE TROPICAL RAINFORESTS?
Tropical rain forests—those steamy jungles shown in movies, where it's always hot and it rains every day - are in trouble, and people around the world are becoming concerned. The rock star Sting has organized concerts to save the Brazilian rain forest, dozens of environmental groups have raised millions of dollars to save tropical rain forests and send experts to help. Yet there are many people who say, "Why save rainforests? Aren't people more important than trees?"
Located in a belt of 33 countries, mostly around the equator, more than half of the tropical rain forests have disappeared in the past fifty years. Some are actually turning into deserts. With these forests disappearing at a rate of 100 acres per minute every minute, nearly everyone in the world has something to gain from saving them. For example, scientists have learned that over 1,300 rain forest plants in the Amazon have medicinal value. So far less than 10 percent of the plant and animal species in the world's rain forests have been studied for their possible medical benefits and -of those that have been studied - less than one percent has been tested for the potential value in the treatment of cancer.
But the value of tropical rainforests goes beyond medicine. These forests have a critical impact on global weather patterns. Their vegetation absorbs enormous quantities of solar energy, thus affecting wind and rainfall patterns around the world. This vegetation contains huge amounts of carbon dioxide. As the forests disappear, the carbon dioxide is released into the air and contributes to "global warming" - what we know as the "greenhouse effect." Rainforests also help to prevent soil erosion in areas that could be damaged by floods and wind, and they also prevent pollution.
However, the benefits of rain forests are often overlooked, especially in developing countries where poor farmers move into forest land because they have no alternatives. Many governments encourage forest clearing to make room for mining, cattle, or export crops. The cutting down of forests is viewed in terms of a short term gain that benefits relatively few people - those who take over the land.
The loss of a tropical rain forest affects many more people - the forest people who lose their homes, the farmers whose soil erodes, the people whose water supplies are polluted, and others.
Income from mining, export crops, timber, and cattle can be calculated in dollars, but the benefits of the forest as a protector of the land cannot.
The tropics take a major role in reducing atmospheric carbon dioxide. The tropics (most notably the Amazon rainforest) are called carbon sinks. As the main carbon reducer is destroyed atmospheric temperature rises. Climate change has seen a drastic shift with the destruction of the rainforest. A simulation was performed in which all rainforest in Africa were removed. The simulation showed an increase in atmospheric temperature by 2.5 to 5 Co.
Efforts to protect and conserve tropical rainforest habitats are diverse and widespread. Tropical rainforest conservation ranges from strict preservation of habitat to finding sustainable management techniques for people living in tropical rainforests. International policy has also introduced a market incentive program called Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) for companies and governments to outset their carbon emissions through financial investments into rainforest conservation.
Grammar work