Rainforest Destruction and Global Warming

Rainforest Destruction

• 7.5 million hectares of rainforest are cut down every year, equivalent to 20 football pitches per minute.
• Rainforests absorb carbon dioxide (CO2), preventing global warming, and produce oxygen, with 18% of the Earth's CO2 being turned into oxygen by rainforests.

Importance of Rainforests

• Rainforests are the most bio-diverse habitats in the world, with half of all plant and animal species living in them.
• The richest habitat in the world, according to Richard Attenborough.
• Home to millions of indigenous tribes-people, who have lived in harmony with their environment for thousands of years.

Reasons to Preserve Rainforests

• Rainforests prevent global warming, with the removal of CO2 worth £13 billion per year, according to Lee White, a respected Climate Change Scientist.
• Rainforests provide homes to millions of plants, animals, and people.
• They contain potential cures and treatments for human diseases, with over 2,000 tropical forest plants identified as having anti-cancer properties.

Effects of Deforestation

• Causes soil erosion, as tree roots hold soil together and prevent erosion.
• Leads to a vicious cycle, where cleared land can only be used for farming for a short time, until the soil is eroded and the land becomes barren.

Reasons for Deforestation

• Logging (chopping down trees to sell them) and mining resources such as copper, gold, and aluminium.
• Attempting to create farmland, despite it only being usable for a short time.

Why Rainforests Should Be Preserved

• To prevent global warming, soil erosion, and the destruction of habitats and indigenous way of life.
• To preserve the potential cures and treatments for human diseases that may be found in rainforests.