Destruction of Rainforests

 The Rainforests of the world are disappearing at a rate of 80 acres per minute, day and night. Major climatic and other environmental changes will occur if this continues.

                  Traditionally there were three major causes of destruction of the Rainforests: farming, ranching, and logging.

      Farmers in Rainforest countries are often poor and can’t afford to buy land instead; these farmers clear Rainforest land to grow their crops. Because tropical rainforests soil is so poor in nutrients, farmers cannot reuse the same land year after year. The next year they just clear more land. Destroying the forest acre by acre.

      Ranching also causes destruction of the Rainforests. Ranchers clear large areas of Rainforest to become pastures for their cattle. The land doesn’t cost much so they can sell cattle at low prices. Because this is so profitable to ranchers, they continue to clear Rainforest land to raise more cattle to sell.

       The third cause of destruction is logging. Trees from the Rainforest are used for building houses, making furniture, and providing pulp for paper products, such as newspapers and magazines. A Rainforest that was chopped down can grow back over time, but they will never have the same variety of plants and animals they once did.

       The Amazon Rainforest still remains as it was years ago, with less destruction occurring than in many other Rainforests; basically because it is very large and remote. The Amazon may not remain that way for long. Transnational corporations are now targeting the Amazon and other Rainforests because of the newest problem in Rainforest destruction “GREED”.

      Corporations have convinced some Rainforest countries that it would improve their economies by allowing the companies to use the land, and now these countries economies have become depended on it.

          One such company is oil companies that often trick and bribe the Indians into signing over to them the rights of the land. For there gain not the counties or peoples who’s land it belonged to.

        There is still yet another cause of destruction of the Rainforests. The global population has more than tripled the century, and will continue to grow for the next 50 years, particularly in developing countries 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.

      The Rainforests are disappearing rapidly, and mainly for correctable problems, that should have been corrected years ago.

       The worst destruction is in Brazil, Indonesia, and Southeast Asia, there is also widespread destruction in other parts of South America and Mexico.

                                        Experts estimate that we are losing 137 plants, animals and insects every single day due to Rainforest destruction, That equates to 50,000 species a year. As Rainforest species disappear, so do many possible cures for life-threatening diseases. Currently 121 prescription drugs sold worldwide come from plant-derived sources. While 25% of western pharmaceuticals are derived from Rainforest ingredients, scientists have tested less than 1% of these tropical trees and plants.  

        The people of the rainforests are starting to fight back to save and keep their land. This destruction not only effects the people of the rainforests it effects all people. That is why we need to stop the destruction. Especially with the companies that are doing it just out of greed.