Rainforests
Rainforests are huge land spreads of
trees, plants and animals which covers
6% of the world’s surface. They contain
over half of the world’s plant and animal
species.
Why do rainforests matter? Rainforests
matter to us because it produces oxygen
for our environment and the Amazon
Rainforest actually produces 20% of the world’s oxygen. Rainforests don’t only
produce oxygen they absorb CO2, which is classed as one of the greenhouse
gases. If there were no trees our world would be much hotter than it is now
because of the build-up of CO2. If we keep going the way the world is going, by
the end of this century the temperature will have risen by 4 to 6 degrees.
The rainforest has huge amounts of plant and
animal species - they actually have 20 to 40
million species of animals in them. There used
to be 10 million tribal people living in
rainforests but now there are only 200,000
because of deforestation which is destroying
their homes.
Deforestation is the cutting or burning down of trees. This is happening
because of cattle farming (clearing land for their cattle), Timber companies
(cutting down trees for wood such as mahogany and teak for furniture), mining
companies (mining for minerals or iron ore).
18 million acres or 7.3 million hectares of trees
have cut down each year – this is 36 football fields
every minute. The biggest proportion of
deforestation is happening for small agricultural
use.
How can we help? We can help stop deforestation
by donating money to rainforest funds and
charities’ in your local area or share concerns with friends and family that
animals, plants, tribes and trees are in danger.
By Jonathan Sterritt