Endangered Ecosystems
As you realize that global warming IS REAL, opportunities and need both increase for rainforest conservation. Info has been out there for decades, but maybe the public eye has become so accustomed to the burning and clear-cutting pictures, it no longer really notices them.
Logging – much of it done illegally – is the most visible form of rainforest destruction.
Clear-cutting is usually the most profitable means of harvesting valuable timber, because the rainforest tends to be an “equal opportunity grower” with trees of high monetary value interspersed with what are seen as “junk” trees.
At least with logging, not everything is wasted, as happens when the forest is burned to clear it for pasture or other agriculture. Burning rainforests can be clearly seen from outer space, as this astronaut’s photo of Mexico shows – what looks like white dots are actually fires.
But even with careful deforestation – selective logging – the roads that are built for logging access wind up being used for human activities that are further damaging to delicate ecosystems.
Why You Should Share Rainforest Conservation Info
Rainforests are crucial to the ecosystem of our planet. They have been described as the Earth’s “lungs” or respiratory system. The massive numbers of trees and other plants absorb carbon dioxide (CO2), and then “breathe out” oxygen, which we need to survive.
We (humans and animals) breathe in the air around us, take in the oxygen, then throw off carbon dioxide as we exhale. This is a great arrangement, because everything balances out, if all is working as it should.
Unfortunately, the use of fossil fuels (carbon that has been stored underground for millennia, and is now being released) is dramatically increasing the world-wide levels of CO2. So just at the time we need all those trees in the rainforest the very most, we are destroying them through ignorance and greed.
Rainforests are also home to loads of wildlife and plant species, many of which have never even been documented. Many scientists believe the potential is huge for finding medical cures in these tropical regions.
As we destroy the forests, we also wipe out the indigenous cultures and people who have lived there for generations.
Find extensive rainforest conservation info at Mongabay.com
What Can You Do to Help Preserve the Rainforests?
It’s true that this a huge and terrible mess, but, short of going into the Amazon jungle and chaining yourself to a tree (not a really useful activity), there are many little things you can do to help save the rainforests.
Anything you accomplish that will prevent Global Warming will also help with rainforest conservation (info here).
You can buy a tree, or purchase the timber rights on an acre of rainforest.
And of course there are many great non-profit organizations who urgently need your contributions. You can even trigger a donation to save the rainforest by simply clicking the mouse on your computer.
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