The Importance of the Earth's Rainforests

Regardless of the fact that some people will find the statistics in a piece like this to be inflated, or invented, a look around with our own eyes makes it impossible to deny that humanity is, as they often have throughout history, having a negative effect on the environment - and that people in third world or developing nations are exploited. An unfortunate part of human nature is that societies as a whole seldom change unless its of financial benefit or a direct and overwhelming threat to them. These things are real. We can all agree to disagree on the statistics if we want to, but I think we loose sight of the big picture when we focus on that too much. Good post.

Good post .so we should save the forest.

So you posted this so everyone would go ga-ga over saving rain forests and forget all about drilling for oil in the Arctic Wilderness National Refuge and offshore drilling?

And exactly how are you privy to Al Gore's stock portfolio, checking account or real estate assets? How about sharing with the rest of us how you became so knowledgeable?

I think we need to protect rain forests. I think we also need to protect Arctic Tundra. And swamps and wetlands. And prairies. And temperate and boreal forests. And marine environments.

We protect natural habitats from encroaching exploitation by making set aside protected areas. And we need to keep those areas protected.

...its like all these clowns have to do is show you a picture of a bulldozer with some trees knocked down behind it for effect...throw in some sad tale w/huge fabricated numbers 10,000 acres a DAY!!! ...

add a few scary words like "GIANT CORPORATION!!!" or "SLASH & BURN!!!" and out you come with clenched fists full of cash and a heart full of Righteous Indignation. GET A CLUE. The bears aren't in danger...rube...WE are.

Tropical rainforests are a world like none other; and their importance to the global ecosystem and human existence is ...(see TRUTH below)

...no more or less than it was 10,000 years ago. All hype. it's about the money. It's ALWAYS about the money. Money for "researches" most of whom are no different than any other "charity" with the lions share of funding going into the pockets and offshore bank accts. of private individuals. Fear tactics. If they can make you afraid, if they can distract you with a boogie man to hate...it makes it easier to get your money out of your pocket into theres.

"Lets CELEBRATE our bio-diversity! Let's strip off our clothes and run NAKED THRU THE RAIN FORESTS!!! (but watch out for the anacondas...they still think its a damn jungle)

As a soldier/correspondent in south east asia...viet nam,cambodia, laos,burma I saw miles & miles of "rain forest" wiped out by Arc lights and arty barrages. completely defoilated by toxic chemicals (agent orange & worse). It was BACK 100% in two years. there may not have been as many 40ft tall trees...but some..and ALL the rest of it was there. right back like it was.

Nui Ba Den ( the black virgin mtn in tay ninh province) was a prime example. in may of 69 we hit that mountain with everything we had. Heavy artillery rounds spun 50 ft tall trees and boulders of granite spiraling thru the air. Jets pounded it with napalm. arc lights (b-52 raids w/ 500 lb bombs) ripped craters in the sides of the mtn. At night we would watch the fires glow until dawn.

This one particular operation went on for weeks. a joint op. with 1st cav, llth acr, special forces, 5th arvn abn...23 arty grp...

When we started it was a 3200 ft tall mtn that jutted up from the "rainforest floor" all by itself. the only mtn in 3rd corp. It was granite base with lush green thick triple canopy in places, giant banana roots made it a bear to climb. When we got done only the very top...which was ours and we didn't bomb...and the very bottom were still green... the rest of the entire mtn was devasted...huge sections of gray granite with NO vegetation left on it. from a distance resembled a huge mangy dog. By the time I left that area not quite a year later...It was completely covered again in thick jungle growth. Trees were already topping out above the undergrowth...

I saw pictures of this mtn 10 yrs later. It was completely recovered WITHOUT assitance from man. On its own. They made the thing into an amusement park complete with tram rides to the top and disney like animal statues along the sides. The old Cau Dai temple is still there...its as if it had never happened.

Get off this fear and paranoia people. everything is okay. just a tactic of the powers that be seeking...mo money...more control more power. That jungle is fine....

so next time some liar from some so-called govt. agency starts throwing out wild no.s like

"50,000 sq. miles of rain forest a day are being destroyed!!!!...

it's bull crap. You have no way to know if they are making it up entirely or just twisting the facts...so stop blindly believing people who have proven they cannot tell the truth...

Don't be such a sap. Aren't you tired of being a stooge for these hacks? Think for YOURSELF. It's ALWAYS about the money. always. Its never about anything else...

while you're franticaly running around scratching together pennies to SAVE the bears, or the air or the water or the eagles or the snail darters...or the oceans...Al big oil Gore is putting cocoa butter on ol tipper on his private beach in the bahamas. now when he gets low on cash or his baby wants a new beamer, he'll either sell off some more of his occidental petroluem stock...or go out and create another crisis, collect another 3 mil. and fly his jumbo jet back to the bahamas. what a gig.

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Biodiversity means genetic adaptation. It has nothing to do with tropical rain forests. Biodiversity can be found in any type of environment, from tropical rain forest, to grasslands, to marine.

The loss of habitat is the most major cause of species extinction. Regardless of habitat type.

Rain forests are important. But they are no more or less important than any other habitat. Prairies, deciduous forests, coniferous forests, arctic tundra, deserts, swamps, marine environments, and even urban environments are just as important to biodiversity as rain forests.

"Nature" is not something that only exists in a rain forest in Brazil or Indonesia-----nature is everywhere. Nature is being destroyed everyday to build suburbs and parking lots for strip malls.

If you want to have biodiversity, you have to have protected habitats. Of all types. Not just rain forests.

I think more people have lost touch with nature. I remember being young and outside playing, getting dirty almost the entire day. We may not have understood all the things we saw in nature but it certainly planted the seed of curiousness. It may be a fluke but most of the kids I grew up with have nature-related careers and I have a few out of control hobbies.

Maybe our group was just lucky. When I see the neighborhood some 20 years later the streets are usually empty of children. Society has also changed I feel. Parents are over-protective and it's easier for them to let the kids play video games and surf the net than take them to the park.

In America we have a bad habit of praising popularity over academics and in the long run it's causing more damage than anyone expects.

It would be a bleesing to see a revival of science in schools.

while this is happening people are to preoccupied with shopping, drinking, smoking, not giving a damn about themselves or their environment. i bet more then 50% of the population of this world even knows that deforestation is even a problem. they should be teaching this in schools not useless garbage just to keep us in school for 7 hours of the day.

What concerns me is that people are apathetic about what we are doing to the planet. These forest provide a carbon filter for the world and all of our pollution. Anyone who says that man is not impacting the planet in a negative way is intentionally ignoring the situation.

It also concerns me that people are going to depend on scientist to come up with a cure for our planet. I think our commerce is doing more damage through industry to our planet than the world cares about.

Al Gore's movie/documentary really opened my eyes with facts and the impact. We all have been following the progression of the polar ice caps melting. The ozone increasing in size. The warming of our planet is causing more moisture in the air and causing our storms, winters, and weather events to be magnified.

Our habits are going to have to change, my fear is it that it will be too late to reverse the damage.

Great post!!

Sickening. Wiping out the rainforest has incredibly far reaching consequences for humans. Consequences that will eventually lead to, essentially, the drying up of our planet, the spread of more infectious disease (as a product of water not being properly filtered by the immense root and mycelial systems of the rainforest) ... and as far as biodiversity is concerned... nature has already found solutions for the problems that we're still creating. Very few organic compounds necessary for human life to continue can be synthesized in a lab. Alkaloids, fats, and other organic molecules produced by some herbs, mushrooms, and other plants & animals that we know of can cure (or help cure) some of our greatest ailments... and there are millions of species we're destroying before we even see them. Think of all the potential technological advancement, or advancements to medicine that we could be finding. We are a sick, sad race of barely-self-conscious bacteria, if you ask me.

Excellent post.

The Wealth of the Rainforests

· More than half of the world's estimated 10 million species of plants, animals and insects live in the tropical rainforests.

· One-fifth of the world's fresh water is in the Amazon Basin.

· 30% of all bird species and 90% of all invertebrates are found in the tropical forest.

· A single pond in Brazil can contain more kinds of fish than are found in all of Europe's rivers.

· One tree in Peru had forty-three different species of ants, which is the estimated to be equal to the number of ant species in the British Isles.

· At least 80% of the developed world's diet originated in the tropical rainforest. Fruits like avocados, coconuts, figs, oranges, lemons, grapefuit, bananas, guavas, pinapples, mangos and tomatoes; vegetables including corn, potatoes, rice, winter squash and yams; spices like black pepper, cayenne, chocolate, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, sugar cane, tumeric, coffee and vanilla and nuts including Brazil nuts and cashews.

· At least 3000 fruits are found in the rainforests. Of these only 200 are now in use in the Western World. The Indians of the rainforest use over 2,000.

· Nearly half of the world's species of plants, animals and microoganisms will be destroyed or severely threatened over the next quarter century due to Rainforest deforestation.

· Experts estimate that we are losing 50,000 plant, animal and insect species a year. As the rainforest species disappear, so do many possible cures for life-threatening diseases.

· Tropical forests have given us chemicals to treat or cure inflammation, rheumatism, diabetes, muscle tension, surgical complications, malaria, heart conditions, skin diseases, arthritis, glaucoma, and hundreds of other maladies. Forests offer stimulants, tranquillisers and contraceptives.

· 25% of the active ingredients in today’s cancer-fighting drugs come from organisms found only in the rainforest. Vincristine, extracted from the rainforest plant Periwinkle, is one of the world's most powerful anticancer drugs. It has dramatically increased the survival rate for acute childhood leukaemia since its discovery.

· Nobody knows what effect the disappearance of the rainforest will have on our planet but there is general scientific agreement that it will impact everything from climate to the air we breathe, it is a vital part of our global balance.