Carla Hinsey

I am from Native American decent therefore a huge part of me has always been concerned about the welfare of Planet Earth.  I live my life in such away as to tread as lightly upon the earth as I possibly can.  I do understand that this is a modern world and we all like the comforts that modern society has to offer.  The thing that bothers me the most is that many people are completely unaware of the effects we have on the earth.  What’s worse, people have become so busy in their lives they don’t even think about it.  One person can’t really change the way things are.  However, if all of us consciously try to make a difference we can move mountains.  It doesn’t have to be a huge task.  Just knowing about certain things and choosing a different way, we can really make a difference in the welfare of our planet.

The most pressing environmental issues we face today are, global warming, pollution, over population, loss of habitat for the animals, and the destruction of the rain forest.  There are many more environmental issues as well, but these are some of the most severe.  The one I want to talk about today is the destruction of the rain forests.  Some of the other issues fall directly in line with this most serious topic.

There are a lot of facts and figures to wade through but I think it’s important to have a basic understanding of these things.
There are two types of rain forests, tropical and temperate and they are completely different from one another.

Tropical rain forests cover only 7% of the Earth’s surface.  All of them are located on or near the equator.  The equator sustains a constant temperature of 80 degrees Fahrenheit.  For some reason most Americans believe that rain forests are located in South America.  This is not the case.  Believe it or not, rain forests are found in over eighty countries around the world.  Although the majority of them are in South America, others are located in Latin America, Africa, and Southeast Asia.  As of 1990 the rain forest of the world total almost 1.7 billion hectares.  Over half of the world’s rain forests are located in Brazil, Indonesia, and Zaire.

There are three parts to the rain forest, the forest floor, the understory, and the canopy.

The forest floor is where the insects live.  You will also find seed droppings from the canopy and understory there.  Insect and seed eating animals visit the floor for food.  Most of the soil is poor therefore the trees and other plants store all of their nutrients in their leaves and trunks.

The understory is the space between the floor and the canopy.  The air here is very still and humid with the temperature remaining constant.  Here is where you find the birds and other small animals.

The canopy is the roof of the forest.  Here it is sunny and windy.  The trees range from 80 to 100 feet in height.  Others still can reach heights up to 200 feet.  This is called the “emergent layer.”  You will find the fruits and flowers here along with the animals that eat them.

Temperate rain forests are found in the western parts of North and South America.  Their climates are much different than tropical ones.  The temperature ranges from eighty degrees to below freezing.  The forest soil in temperate forests is much more rich in nutrients.  Although the temperate forests plants, animals, and trees are far less diverse than those in the tropical rain forests, they still play a huge role in the Earth’s Eco-system as well.

There are many reasons why we need to conserve the rain forests.  Some of which are, the ability of the rain forests to absorb carbon dioxide and produce oxygen, which helps to deter the greenhouse affect and the abundance of plant life, whose properties are used in the production of life saving medicines.  Most of these plants are found nowhere else on earth except in tropical rain forests.  A few examples of modern medicine already discovered from tropical rain forests are anesthetics, contraceptives, enzymes, hormones, laxatives, cough mixtures, antibiotics, and antiseptics.  As of today, there are over 100 prescription drugs sold worldwide, all of which are derived from tropical plants.  For example, the survival rate for acute childhood leukemia has increased significantly because of the active ingredient “Vincristine” which is extracted from the tropical plant Periwinkle.  Twenty-five percent of other powerful cancer-fighting drugs come from plants and organisms found only in the rain forest.  Some medical conditions that are being treated using medicines derived from plants of the rain forests are, cancer, malaria, heart disease, bronchitis, hypertension (high blood pressure), dysentery, and tuberculosis.

Scientific studies indicate that only 1% of the species of plant and animals of the rain forests have been discovered, named, and catalogued.  Scientists calculate that over a million different species have yet to be discovered, let alone the possibility of their use to the world and human kind.  Imagine the possibilities of these undiscovered plants.  Consider the fact that only 2% of the Earth’s surface is covered by rain forests and only 6% of the Earth’s surface is land, the rain forests supports over half of the planet’s wild plants and trees and one-half of the planet’s wildlife.  What I find extremely alarming is that scientists estimate that we are losing more than one 137 species of plants and animals every day with the destruction of the rain forests.

In order for you to have an understanding of how important it is to save the rain forests from destruction, here are some facts provided by The World Wildlife Fund.  They estimate that 30 to 50 million acres of rain forests are destroyed each year from cutting or burning – which equates to about 20 to 50 acres every minute of every day.  Staggering isn’t it!  What’s worse is that if this trend in destruction continues at the rate it’s going, it’s estimated that 80% or more of the tropical rain forests eco-systems will be destroyed by the year 2020.  This single event in our modern time is closely matched to the extinction of the dinosaur 65 million years ago.

Why is this happening?  There are many reasons for the destruction of the rain forest.  Farming, ranching, mining, and logging are among the main reasons for this destruction.  With the population increasing in staggering numbers and the demand for more and more wood products, the rain forest is quickly being depleted.

Logging is one of the most damaging aspects of this deforestation.  The demand for hardwoods such as Teak, Mahogany, and Rosewood used for furniture, building materials, charcoal, and other wood products has now become a huge business for the timber industries.  After the timber is harvested, huge cutting machines come in behind the loggers to harvest other species of trees to supply the cardboard and wood chipboard industries.  Monster 15-ton cutters chop down hundreds of trees in only minutes, mulching them into small pieces so that they can be hauled away by the truckloads.

With thousands of acres being slashed and burned each year for cattle ranching, local ranchers operate at a loss.  It takes much more grazing land to feed the cattle on such poor soil.  After the trees have been harvested, the area is seeded with grass.  However, with such nutrient poor soil and livestock over grazing, the land is degraded rapidly forcing the ranchers to clear more land within just one or two seasons.

Even though the loss of the rain forests and their delicate eco-systems are devastating, the loss of the indigenous people with their knowledge of the plants and their uses are much more overwhelming.  The Indians of the rain forests have been disappearing for years.  With the rain forests being destroyed the people are loosing their way of life, much like the Indians of North America.  It’s estimated that in the 1500 hundreds there were between 6 million to 9 million Indians living in the Amazon rain forests.  By the 1900 hundreds there were only about one million, and today the estimations are there are fewer than 250,000 Indians left.  When the people are gone, so will be their knowledge of medicinal plants and their uses.

How could we allow this to happen?  Unfortunately, it all boils down to money and greed.  It always does.  If there were one subject we should all care about, I would say this is definitely one of them.  If we as a people living on this planet should care about anything it should be this.  God created this habitat for us, the human race, I think we should try to take care of it, not profit from it.

Is there a solution to this problem?  The answer is yes and the solution will come from promoting the rain forest’s individual sustainable resources and not the blanket removal of the forest itself.  Many of the sustainable resources of the rain forest include medicinal plants, nuts, oils, rubber, chocolate, chicle (used to make chewing gum), fruits such as avocados, coconuts, figs, oranges, lemons, grapefruits, bananas, guavas, pineapples, mangos, and tomatoes; as well as vegetables that include corn, potatoes, rice, winter squash, and yams.  Spices like black pepper, cayenne, cinnamon, gloves, ginger, sugar cane, turmeric, coffee, and vanilla.

Promoting these sustainable resources will give long-term relief to these poor countries, without the wholesale destruction of the forest itself.  Once the trees are gone so is everything else.  For example, land cleared for ranching brings about $60 an acre, timber harvested brings about $400 an acre, but by harvesting the sustainable resources the same land yields around $2400 an acre, and the forest is still there.  By employing the indigenous people of the rainforest to harvest the many plants, fruits, nuts, and oils gives hope to all concerned.  The people will have away to provide for their families for generations to come and the rain forests will be saved.

The people of the United States and other countries can help tremendously by creating a greater demand for products derived from the sustainable resources of the rain forests.  By increasing the demand for these products this will encourage the Governments of these countries to develop different ways to employ the natural resources their rain forests have to offer to the rest of the world.  This is a real solution to a problem where everyone wins and one that doesn’t involve destroying the rain forests.

As an individual I have searched for ways that I can personally make a difference.  In searching the Internet I have found countless sites that are non-profit organizations dedicated to preserving the rain forests.  There are quite a lot of organizations out there.  One of my favorites is called Tropical Rain forests Coalition.  They sponsor a program to adopt an acre of rain forest.  For less than $50 you can purchase an acre of rain forest and protect it from destruction.  Other sites offer great ideas for you to consider that are easily adapted into your everyday life.  If we all try to make a difference, however great or small, I think we can make a huge change in this most serious situation.