Differentdawn.com: Rainforest

What is the rainforest?

How fast is the rainforest being destroyed?

What is the rainforest?

Rainforest. The word itself is exotic and brings to mind brightly colored parrots calling from beneath a huge canopy of rich green leaves. The humid air rises up in waves from the dark, moist loam thick under foot as leaf cutter ants march past waving carved green flags in a miniature parade. A snake curls lazily on an over head branch and hundreds of feet above, a pack of primates crests the canopy searching for delicacies that grow only on the highest branches. In a word: paradise.

Nature documentaries and National Geographic specials have given us a rough idea of the splendor that is the rainforest. What we fail to understand, however, is how short-lived that splendor may be unless serious action is taken immediately.

Rainforests represent earth’s oldest living – and most complex -- ecosystems. Fossil records of the rainforests in Southeast Asia show that little, if anything, has changed in the rainforests for 70 to 100 million years. All though rainforests take up only 6% of the earth’s landmass (and thus only 2% of the earth’s surface), they are home to over half of the plant and animal species on the planet. Rainforests are defined by two things: location (tropical, thus implying no seasonality of growth) and amount of rain (averaging anywhere from 12 to 24 feet of rainfall annually). Because of the heavy, thick growth of plants, the upper canopy blocks rain in the rainforest. The raindrops roll down broad-leafed vegetation and spray in a fine mist over the undergrowth.

In this humid environment, one half of the earth’s 5 to 10 million plant and animal species exist. Scientists estimate that the rainforests are home to 90,000 of the world’s 250,000 identified plant species with 30,000 species of plants yet to be discovered, cataloged, and named. Scientifically, these plants are of great interest; one quarter of all medicines available today draw key ingredients from plants. Indeed, over 70% of the plants currently in use for cancer research are found only in the rainforest and fewer than 1% of these tropical forest plants have been evaluated for medical use.

The rainforests have also been a tremendous source of food products over the years. Much of what we eat today has its origins in these tropical locales, including bananas, papayas, guavas, pineapples, figs, avocados, tomatoes, black pepper, cayenne pepper, sweet peppers, jalapenos, cashews, Brazil nuts, peanuts, sugar, chocolate, coconuts, rice, vanilla, cinnamon, ginger, paprika, cloves, and countless others.

If you evaluate a four square mile patch of rainforest, the numbers are staggering. In that patch of tropical forest you would discover 1500 species of flowering plants, 750 different species of trees, 125 species of mammals, 400 various species of birds, 100 species of reptiles and 60 of amphibians, as well as 150 different species of butterflies. One study cited by the National Academy of Sciences states that in one square mile of leaf litter, over 50 different species of ants alone were catalogued. With those types of numbers, it isn’t hard to believe that approximately one fifth of all birds and plants on earth are thought to have evolved in the Amazon Basin.

And we are destroying it.

How fast is the rainforest being destroyed?

The destruction of the rainforests has become a liberal battle cry like saving the whales. Unfortunately, exposure has not been enough to haul the destruction of the world’s oldest living ecosystem. The rainforests are coming down at a nauseating rate. Globally, 2.4 acres (approximately two U.S. football fields) are destroyed each second. 149 acres are torn down every minute. In a day, we lose 214,000 acres, an area greater than that of New York City. In a year, a chunk the size of Poland (78 million acres) is lost forever. With the destruction of the land, comes the destruction of the species: 137 species of life forms (plants, animals, insects, reptiles, and amphibians) are driven into extinction each day, totally 50,000 extinct species each year. Some of these species have never been identified, catalogued, or researched before they are lost forever.

We have become a juggernaut of destruction in the rainforests. Driven by financial concern, corporate greed, and consumer recklessness, we are tearing apart the most unique and valuable land on our planet. At the rate we are going, all of our tropical rainforests will be destroyed by 2030.

What can be done?

If we eliminate the need for cutting down the rainforests, we should be able to reduce the destruction, right? So why do they cut these beautiful forests down? Big business wants materials: lumber for construction, pulp for paper production, and minerals from the soil.

They want to search for more oil reserves and convert the land into grazing area for cattle. They want to remove traditional, sustainable crops and replace them with cash crops. They want to supply consumers and, without action, we willingly become their dupes, supporting them involuntarily.

First: reduce paper consumption. Use both sides of each page of paper. Use cloth grocery bags at the store. Use cloth napkins and towels. Avoid paper plates and cups. Purchase products with high-recycled content – and remember that post consumer content is the important figure. Whenever possible, choose tree-free paper; paper made from waste straw, kenaf, and hemp is available if you look for it.

Second: Avoid using old growth wood for construction projects. Investigate wood efficient building techniques and try to use reclaimed/recycled lumber whenever possible. Research applications for composite lumber and independently certified wood. Search for building supply vendors in your area that carry alternate wood sources. Avoid the use of tropical hardwoods at all costs.

Third: Reduce oil consumption. When you purchase your next vehicle, make sure that it is fuel-efficient. Avoid gas-guzzling SUVs. Whenever possible, carpool, or use alternate forms of transportation.

Fourth: Reduce beef consumption. The cattle industry is one of the most destructive industries on the planet. Cattle require vast amounts of resources for very little return. The beef generated from tropical climes often finds its way into fast food with no way of tracing origins. By reducing your consumption, you reduce the need to clear more land to raise more cattle.

Fifth: Hold businesses accountable. Avoid doing business with the biggest rainforest abusers. Boise Cascade, the lumber company, is notorious for its dealings with tropical old growth lumber. Citigroup is also well known for its involvement with some of the most destructive practices on the planet. Contact these organizations and let them know why you are no longer doing business with them. If you have a Citibank card, cut it up and return it with your next statement, letting them know exactly why you refuse to support their business practices. (For more information, go to our source at www.ran.org and learn more about these corporations.)

Finally: Support grassroots organizations in your area as well as joining the Rainforest Action Network (www.ran.org). Remember the old maxim “Think globally; act locally”? Well, it definitely applies here. Remember, too, that knowledge is power. The Rainforest Action Network can give you lots of ideas on ways to save the rainforest from your own community. It’s a simple system of supply and demand, only in this case, we need to understand where the supply is coming from and demand accountability from the businesses delivering it. Save our rainforests now before those documentaries we watch on television are merely history classes about what used to be.

Information Sources:

“About Rainforests.” [web site] http://www.ran.org [Accessed February 5, 2002.]