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Rain Forest Essay, Research Paper
The Rain Forest
The destruction of the rainforest is a problem that the people of the
world can not continue to ignore. 14 percent of the Earth’s land used to be
covered by rainforests yet this number has dropped significantly to only about 6
percent (http://www.ran.org/ran/info_center/index.html). Rainforests provide
the people of the world with many necessities, some of which would no longer be
available if rainforests did not exist. In the last 50 years, rainforests have
declined at a terrifying speed of 150 acres per minute or 75 million acres per
year (http://www.ran.org/ran/info_center/index.html). People must open their
eyes to the horrible tragedy that will inevitably occur if the citizens of the
world do not realize the seriousness of this problem.
To better understand the importance of the rainforest, one must be
knowledgeable about what a rainforest actually is. The two main types of
rainforests are temperate and tropical. Tropical rainforests are located in
Latin and South America, Africa, Southeast Asia, and other areas in which
temperatures stay above 80 degrees Fahrenheit year round. They can be found in
85 countries all over the world, however, 90 percent of them are concentrated
into fifteen countries, each containing over ten million hectares. Tropical
rainforests receive 160 to 400 inches of rain each year. Although these dense,
damp forests cover just 5 percent of the Earth’s surface, they can provide homes
for between 50 and 90 percent of the Earth’s plants and animals
(http://www.davesite.com/rainforests/review1.shtml).
Tropical rainforests consist of three distinct layers referred to as the
forest floor, the understory, and the canopy. The forest floor contains very
poor soil which is mainly due to the trees not allowing for ample sunlight to
reach the ground. Because only one to two percent of the light at the top of
the forest’s canopy manages to reach the floor below, photosynthesis ceases to
exist. On top of the soil lies a thin layer of the remains of millions of dead
trees, plants, and animals which are quickly broken down by the numerous number
of organisms on the floor (Nichol 45). It contains a variety of insects as well
as larger mammals such as gorillas and jaguars. The understory is home to
smaller mammals such as anteaters, lemurs, and tree kangaroos. It also contains
small trees and numerous shrubs. The top layer, the canopy, is made up of the
tops of trees which can grow to be over 200 feet in height. Here, trees receive
the necessary sunlight to undergo photosynthesis which is crucial for the
survival of the forest as a whole. Many tropical birds, monkeys, apes, snakes,
and other animals reside in the canopy
(http://www.davesite.com/rainforests/review1.shtml).
Temperate rainforests are located along the Pacific coast of Canada, the
United States, New Zealand, Tasmania, Chile, Ireland, as well as Scotland and
Norway. Most temperate rainforests are much younger than tropical rainforests
only being less than 10, 000 years old. The temperate rainforests differ from
the tropical in that their soil is full of much more nutrients. Temperate
rainforests are also much more scarce than tropical rainforests
(http://www.davesite.com/rainforests/review1.shtml).
The rainforests of the world are homes to just about every group of
animals known to man and it would be impossible to give recognition to them all.
The only animals that appear to be few in number are large mammals. The largest
animal of the rainforest is thought to be the okapi, “a shy, elusive beast from
west Africa (Nichol 56).” Gorillas, apes, the orang-utan of the Far East,
gibbons, and chimps which can grow to the size of a human are also among the
larger animals in the forest. A wide variety of monkeys including the tiniest
monkeys in the world, the pigmy marmoset, live among the trees in the South
American rainforests (Nichol 61).
One of the rarest primates in the world, the golden lion tamarin, lives
in a very small portion of the rainforest in Brazil. These breathtakingly
beautiful little monkeys resemble golden toys and it is believed that only 150
survive in the wild. Without the rainforest, these precious treasures would be
lost forever (Nichol 61).
Over 100 types of birds including the spix macaw, hoatzin, and a
numerous variety of parrots would be extinct if the rainforests were non-
existent. Many birds of the rainforest appear seasonally, or when the trees
begin to bud. Other rare animals in the rainforest include the Javan rhinos,
capybaras, and the giraffe stag beetle (Nichol 71).
The rainforest has a larger diversity of plants than any other area on
Earth. For example, “a single hectare in Kenya’s Kakamega Forest may host
between 100 and 150 different tree species, compared to only about 10 different
species in a hectare of the forest of North America (
http://www.davesite.com/rainforests/review3.shtml). Many of these plants don’t
appear in any other part of the world. A small portion of these species are the
passion flower, the rambutan, the heliconia flower, and an abundance of hardwood
trees.
For hundreds of thousands of years, indigenous people, or Indians, have
called the rainforest home. They are very knowledgeable about the rainforest
and the secrets it holds. They have taught the people of the world how to find
and use wild plants and how to farm small crops on the poor soil of the
rainforest floor. There are said to be more than a thousand of these groups of
people throughout the world, many of which are close to extinction. If these
people become non-existent, the secrets of the rainforests may remain a mystery
forever (http://www.stevensonpress.com/intro.html).
Many of the plants in tropical rainforests are used for medicines by
both people in the forest and hospitals throughout the world. One-fourth of the
drugs that are sold in the United States have products that come from
rainforests (http://www.ran.org/ran/). From something as important as a
treatment to help fight heart disease to an over the counter drug such as
aspirin, every medicine that comes from the rainforest serves a significant
purpose to the people of the world.
One of the best-known medicines that comes from the rainforest is
quinine. For many years, quinine was the only treatment for malaria. Another
plant that aided in the fight against a deadly disease is the Madagascar
periwinkle. It was discovered that two compounds from this plant could be used
in the treatment of leukemia. As a result of this plant, the survival rate of
victims of leukemia has risen form one in five to four in five (Nichol 78-79).
On a global basis, the rainforests are of extreme importance because
they help control the Earth’s climate. The plants in the forest store carbon
dioxide in their roots, stems, branches, and leaves which lessens the greenhouse
effect, consequently, lessening global warming. Also, when rain falls in the
rainforest, the high temperatures make the water evaporate back into the air
which recycles the water. Also, the clouds that cover the rainforests around
the equator reflect the sunlight. This keeps the rainforest from getting too
hot (http://www.stevensonpress.com/intro.html).
Destroying the rainforest could have devastating results. The people
who live in the rainforests would be forced to move into camps or cities. These
people would ultimately die off because of the new diseases that city life would
bring, diseases that are not found in the rainforest. If they ceased to exist,
their culture could be lost forever (http://www.ran.org/ran/).
The destruction of the rainforest could also cause an increase in the
greenhouse effect. The carbon dioxide that the plants of the rainforest had been
storing would be released and cause the temperature of the Earth to rise and the
ice caps to melt. This would cause major flooding around the world.
Yet another important downfall of the cutting down of the rainforest is
the effect on the forest floor. It is a known fact that 80 percent of the
rainforest’s nutrients comes from trees and plants which means the other 20
percent remains in the soil. When the leaves fall to the forest floor, these
nutrients are immediately recycled back into the plants and trees. When a
rainforest is clear-cut, this process is dramatically affected. The sun is not
blocked by the trees which begins to dry up the soil. It is then blown away by
the wind which makes it nearly impossible for the rainforest to grow back
(http://www.stevensonpress.com/intro.html).
One of the most devastating affects of the cutting down of the
rainforests would be the extinction of a tremendous amount of the plants and
animals that reside there. Also, the remedies that have prevented many deaths
over the years would no longer exist because the plants in which they originated
from would be gone.
Although it should be obvious that the rainforest is better left alone,
some people insist on destroying them. The Forest Alliance of British Columbia
accounted for this by saying, “The global population has more than tripled this
century, and will continue to grow for the next 50 years, particularly in
developing countries. World population is expected to reach ten billion by 2050.
Because the number of people living on the planet increases every year , the
number of forest products needed also increases, forcing temperate and tropical
rainforests to be cut down (http://www.davesite.com/rainforests/review4.shtml).”
Farming in the rainforest is very hard because of the poor soil but is
still done because the land is cheap. Because of the lack of nutrients, farmers
can not use the same piece of land over and over. In following years, many
farmers just move to a new piece of land which destroys the forest little by
little. Ranchers also follow the same process of using a piece of land to raise
cattle and then clearing another large piece of land. “During the 1980s, about
16.9 million hectares of tropical rainforest was cut down and replaced with
farms and grazing land for cattle
(http://www.mtc.com.my/lib/formal/fact4/overview.htm).
Another reason why the rainforests are being destroyed is the logging
industry. Trees from the rainforest are used for building houses, making
furniture, and providing pulp for paper products. Many corporations have
convinced countries that contain rainforests that it would improve their economy
if they would allow logging in the rainforest. Many of these countries’
economies now depend on their support
(http://www.davesite.com/rainforests/review4.shtml).
Many companies such as Occidental Petroleum try to bribe and trick the
natives of the rainforest into giving them their land. This oil company was
unsuccessful in trying to illegally force the people of the rainforest to sign
away rights to the land which would violate the Ecuadorian and international law
protecting indigenous people. This will hopefully set an example for the
companies of the rest of the world who want to cut down the precious rainforest
(http://www.davesite.com/rainforests/review4.shtml).
Although the destruction of the rainforest seems as if it is a problem
that only world leaders can attack, it is definitely something that a person as
an individual can protest. Many people have boycotted fast food restaurants
that serve hamburgers that came from cattle raised on rainforest land. If there
is no demand, then companies will stop raising cattle on land cleared from a
rainforest. Also, an individual could help by not buying furniture products
made from rosewood, mahogany, ebony, or teakwood, materials that are most likely
from the rainforest. In many cases, people have taken it upon themselves to
adopt acres of the rainforest. The 1996 Tropical Rainforest Coalition has
stated that it would cost only forty-five dollars to “adopt” one acre of the
rainforest. This amount of money would fund land acquisition, legal fees, and
security costs which would make sure that the adopted land would be protected
(http://www.davesite.com/rainforests/review5.shtml).
The destruction of the rainforest is a problem that the people of the
world can not continue to ignore. 14 percent of the Earth’s land used to be
covered by rainforests yet this number has dropped significantly to only about 6
percent (http://www.ran.org/ran/info_center/index.html). Rainforests provide
the people of the world with many necessities, some of which would no longer be
available if rainforests did not exist. In the last 50 years, rainforests have
declined at a terrifying speed of 150 acres per minute or 75 million acres per
year (http://www.ran.org/ran/info_center/index.html). People must open their
eyes to the horrible tragedy that will inevitably occur if the citizens of the
world do not realize the seriousness of this problem.
http://www.ran.org/ran/info_center/index.html
http://www.davesite.com/rainforests/review1.shtml
http://www.davesite.com/rainforests/review2.shtml
http://www.davesite.com/rainforests/review3.shtml
http://www.davesite.com/rainforests/review4.shtml
http://www.davesite.com/rainforests/review5.shtml
http://www.stevensonpress.com/intro.html http://www.ran.org/ran
http://www.mtc.com.my/lib/formal/fact4/overview.htm Nichol, John. The
Mighty Rainforest. The Netherlands: David and Charles Printing, 1990.