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Amazon Rainforest Needs Defenders The Brazilian Congress is currently voting on a project that will reduce the Amazon forest up to 50% of its size. The area to be deforested is 4 times the size of Portugal and would be mainly used for agriculture and pastures for livestock. All the wood will be sold to international markets in the form of wood chips by multinational companies. Much of the meat produced will be sold to American markets for fast food and pet food. While regions of Brazil need jobs, there are a panoply of creative ways in which they could stimulate the local economy and create sustainable jobs that do not involve permanent rainforest destruction. Why is the rainforest important? Rainforests form a green belt around the equator and make up about 5-6% of the earth's land surface. Yet, they harbor about 60% of the world's flora and fauna. Destruction causes an average of one animal or plant extinction every day out of a projected 30 million species on earth... yet, we've only studied and categorized about 1.7 million species. We know more about the surface of the moon than we do about our own tropical forests! Our increased knowledge of flora and fauna has helped us to make dramatic advances in the areas of medicine and agriculture and produces other less tangible benefits. Satellite imagery shows that tropical rainforests are permanently destroyed at a rate of about 100 acres a minute. Such destruction is irreversible. Clearcut forests turn to deserts within a few years and cause floods, erosion and sedimentation. Models show that the lack of forest cover on earth also contributes to global warming because trees are responsible for consuming excess carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas. Major rainforest development projects like this one in Brazil are typically funded by the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, foreign governments, and multinational corporations. Its imperative that rainforest destruction is turned into rainfores re-construction. Each one of us can petition our own national leaders and international organizations to use our tax dollars to help developing countries find new, innovative ways to stimulate their economies. However, the most effective thing is to simply know what products come from rainforests, and not buy them. You may well extend personal buynots to Brazilian products as a whole. . . .
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