Holly Webster

12-5-14

Save The Rainforests

It is vital to preserve our earth, for the earth enables us to live. I believe that saving the
rainforests is the number one action towards saving this planet. At this rate, if we don't stop
destroying the rainforests, eventually we will end up destroying the human race sooner than
you may think.
The environment effects of destroying large masses of rainforest are talked about frequently,
but not fully understood. All forests are part of the earth's life support systems. They are very
important in climate regulation, hydrological cycles, and maintaining and conserving soils.
Because of the unique nature of rainforests, the environmental effects of clearing them are
extremely more damaging than clearing temperate lands. It is vital to realize that tropical
forests are qualitatively different from temperate forests (Collins 26). I think clearing tropical
rainforests is the beginning of a huge disaster for the native people in the forest, and the entire
human race as well. Not to mention, the rainforests cover less than 6% of the earths land, and
they contain more than 50% of all species. It is essential to preserve this biological diversity
(Collins 26).
The plant species that are unique to the rainforest can provide many important medicines
and drugs for helping humans. We are in danger of finding that, just when the lid on natures

medicine chest is being opened, we have lost the contents (Collins 26). Extinction is forever.
Tropical rainforest nations are cutting their own throats by cutting down their forests
(Collins 34). Deforesting causes the small amount of soil they do have to wash away. It also
causes flooding and droughts. Without the regulatory function of the rainforests, heavy rains
result in floods and landslides, whereas rivers dry up if the rains are poor (Collins 34).
Thousands of miles away from the tropics, the climatic effects of tropical rainforests can be
felt. When the plants and animals of the rainforests are burned the high amounts of carbon in
them are released into the air as carbon dioxide (CO2). This is one of several greenhouse gases
that occur naturally in the atmosphere and help regulate temperatures on the earths surface
(Collins 34). CO2 in the atmosphere over the past 100 years has increased steadily. CO2, CO,
and chlorofluorocarbons (CFC's), absorb radiant energy at infrared wavelengths, continuously
trapping more heat as the GHG concentration rises (Newman 143). This has caused the
greenhouse effect, a global warming phenomenon. The green house effect is also suspected
in turn, of contributing significantly to desertification, the phenomenon we have all observed in
news and documentary reports (Newman 146). It will also cause the ice caps to melt and the
polar bears won't stand a chance. If people keep deforesting the rainforests at the present rate,
the amount of rainforest burning will increase adding greatly to the greenhouse effect (Collins
34).
Planting more trees is only a short term way of decreasing the concentration of atmospheric
CO2, but it does help a great deal. I think the most important act to do now is to sustain from
cutting down any more of the rainforest. There are approximately 1.4 billion acres of rainforest

in the Amazon Basin and sixty percent of the rainforest is solely within Brazil which is
approximately 840 million acres (Share). Brazil has made great strides in recent years in
slowing Amazon deforestation and showing the world it was serious about protecting the
mammoth rainforest. The rate of deforestation fell by eighty percent over the past six years, as
the government carved out about 150 million acres for conservation an area roughly the size
of France and used police raids and other tactics to crack down on illegal deforesters,
according to both environmentalists and the government. Brazils former environment
minister, Marina Silva, became an internationally respected defender of the Amazon
(Barrionuevo).
It pains me knowing that money hungry jerks are destroying the rainforests and are doing
the worst thing possible to our planet. The earth is already showing us how much we are
harming it. We have seen a huge increase of flooding, earthquakes, hurricanes and many other
natural disasters with their power increased tremendously. Saving the rainforests may be the
single best way to save our planet.
People often think that one person can't make a difference. That is not true. There are many
things that we can all do to make a difference in saving the rainforests.

I think that one of the

most very important things that we can individually do is to teach others. We can teach others
the importance of the environment and how it effects all of us, every living thing on the planet.
If we can get them to understand the importance of that along with how they can also help save
the rainforests it would be a great first step, especially if the education and passion for saving
the planet has a domino effect. Another great thing we can do is plant trees. Planting more

trees is an amazing and effective way to reverse greenhouse gases and restore damaged
ecosystems. Ideally, we should plant trees on all the land where forests have been cut down.
We can also encourage people to to live consciously in a way the will not hurt the environment.
Imagine a world where people actually thought about how their actions would affect the
environment and cared about what impact they would make down the road. Another extremely
important step to help save the rainforests is to constitute parks to protect the rainforests and all
of the lifeforms living in them. The world needs to elect more environmentally conscious
leaders like Brazils former environment minister, Marina Silva. We need more international
leaders like her to defend all of the rainforests globally like she defended the Amazon. Finally,
a really great thing we can all do to help save the rainforests is to support companies that care
about the environment. The companies that truly and actually operate in ways that do not
directly or in any way for that matter, hurt the environment. Now more than ever, as the
climate changes rapidly, it is extremely important to save the rainforests. We must all start to
realize the severity of this problem and do something about it consciously, immediately, and
collectively.
In conclusion, I would like to quote Charles Darwin, The land is one great, wild, untidy,
luxuriant hothouse, made by nature for herself...How great would be the desire in every
admirer of nature to behold, if such were possible the scenery of another planet! Yet to every
person...it may truly be said, that the glories of another world are opened to him. This is
from The Voyage of the Beagle, when he first experienced the tropical rainforest over a century
and a half ago.

Works Cited

Collins, Mark. The Last Rain Forests.

New York: Oxford University Press, 1990.

Newman, Arnold. Tropical Rainforest.

New York: Oxford, 1990.

Barrionuevo, Alexei. Americas.

The New York Times, January 24, 2012.

Share, Alison. Law in the Amazon.

Americanforests.org: Loose Leaf, May 22, 2012.