Take Care of Mother Earth

Rainforest

Rainforests cover less than two percent of the Earth's surface, yet they are home to some 50 to 70 percent of all life forms on our planet. The rainforests are quite simply, the richest, oldest, most productive and most complex ecosystems on Earth. As biologist Norman Myers notes, "Rainforests are the finest celebration of nature ever known on the planet." And never before has nature's greatest orchestration been so threatened.

Global Rates of Destruction

• 2.47 acres (1 hectare) per second: equivalent to two U.S. football fields
• 150 acres (60 hectares) per minute
• 214,000 acres (86,000 hectares) per day: an area larger than New York City
• 78 million acres (31 million hectares) per year: an area larger than Poland

Species Extinction
Distinguished scientists estimate an average of 137 species of life forms are driven into extinction every day, or 50,000 each year.

While you were reading the above statistics, approximately 150 acres of rainforest were destroyed. Within the next hour approximately six species will become extinct. While extinction is a natural process, the alarming rate of extinction today, comparable only to the extinction of the dinosaurs, is specifically human-induced and unprecedented. Experts agree that the number-one cause of extinction is habitat destruction. Quite simply, when habitat is reduced, species disappear. In the rainforests, logging, cattle ranching, mining, oil extraction, hydroelectric dams and subsistence farming are the leading causes of habitat destruction. Indirectly, the leading threats to rainforest ecosystems are unbridled development, funded by international aid-lending institutions such as the World Bank, and the voracious consumer appetites of industrialized nations. If deforestation continues at current rates, scientists estimate nearly 80-90 percent of tropical rainforest ecosystems will be destroyed by the year 2020.

To see what is happening to the whales. You might want to go here.
To see what's happening to the wolves. You would want to go here.

Why rainforests are important!
Tropical rainforests are by far the richest habitat on Earth. As many as 30 million species of plants and animals - more than half of all life forms - live in tropical rainforests. At least two-thirds of the world's plant species, including many exotic and beautiful flowers, as well as plants with medicinal value, occur in the tropics and subtropics.

Rainforests are part of the global weather system. Destroying them alters the hydrological cycle - causing drought, flooding, and soil erosion in areas where such events were previously rare. The cutting of forests also changes the albedo or reflectivity of the earth's surface, which in turn alters wind and ocean current patterns, and changes rainfall distribution.

Information from Rainforest Action Network
Please visit their website to see how you can help!

Ten Most Endangered Wildlands:

• Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (AK)
• Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge (GA/FL)
• Klamath Basin National Wildlife Refuges (OR/CA)
• Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge (AZ)
• Owyhee Canyonlands (ID)
• Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument (UT)
• Whitney Estate (NY)
• Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (MN)
• I-90/Snoqualmie Pass (WA)
• California’s Mojave Desert (CA)

Information from The Wilderness Society.
Please visit their website to see how you can help!