Canada and the World
Current Events with a Canadian Perspective
Last update
11 August 2011
Saving the Tropical Rainforest
The forest that surrounds the Amazon River
is the world’s largest remaining rainforest and
efforts are being made to preserve it
Encroachment from human activity is threatening the last remaining stands of tropical jungle whose existence is central to the health of the planet.
Neil Palmer
Valuable Resources Found in Rainforest
According to the NGO Save the Rainforest “tropical rainforests cover just two percent
of the Earth’s land surface, they are home to two-
And, 25 years ago, Dr. Norman Myers pointed out in his book, The Primary Source, that tropical rainforests are ancient, going back as much as 100 million years ago and that, “The intensity of life forms is extraordinary: on the order of 1,000 species per square kilometre. By comparison, here in North America, we might only find 100 species in the same space.”
A December 10, 1985 letter to the editor of the New York Times stressed another vital service performed by rainforests. Jean K. Sowers wrote that “the rainforests are the lungs of [the Earth]. Over 40 percent of the world’s oxygen is produced from the rainforests.”
Destruction of World’s Rainforests
But, humans seem oblivious to the crucial life supports that come from rainforests. The destruction of this precious resource is continuing at a staggering pace.
The Rainforest Action Network has tabulated the devastation:
- Every second an area the size of two football fields is destroyed;
- Every day an area equivalent to the five boroughs of New York City is lost;
- The weekly destruction would cover Rhode Island;
- Each month an area the size of the country of Belize disappears; and,
- The annual damage equals two Floridas.
“If present rates of destruction continue,” says the Network, “half our remaining
rainforests will be gone by the year 2025, and by 2060 there will be no rainforests
remaining.”
The Global Warming Impact
This destruction is adding massively to the world’s greenhouse gas emissions problem.
Firstly, fewer trees means less carbon dioxide is absorbed and less oxygen is given off. But, the bigger problem is the cutting and burning of the rainforest.
Burning gives off greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, and the scale of this is staggering. Writing in The New York Times (November 2009), Thomas L. Friedman gives a comparison: “Imagine if you took all the cars, trucks, planes, trains, and ships in the world and added up their exhaust every year…[their collective emissions] is actually less than the carbon emissions every year that result from the…clearing of tropical forests in places like Brazil, Indonesia, and the Congo.”
Efforts to Halt Rainforest Destruction
The people in rainforest regions are not whacking down their trees just for the heck
of it. Rainforest is cleared so 
local people can grow food and also so precious hardwood
can be sold to provide an income.
The solution to the problem is that the rich world must provide financial help to
the poor people who live in rainforest-
Friedman says that without finding sustainable ways to develop the timber and other resources the world can “kiss the rainforests goodbye.”
Some efforts to help are being made.
Raintree Inc., is a company that makes medicinal herbal products that are sourced from the Amazon rainforest. It says its mission is to harvest its source materials sustainably and to work to preserve what’s left of the region’s natural vegetation.
Norway is putting some of its oil wealth into protecting the trees from the chainsaws. Reporting on the nation’s half trillion dollar sovereign wealth fund Gwladys Fouché (The
Guardian, September 20, 2009) writes that the Scandinavian country “pledged last year to donate $1 billion to Brazil to stop the deforestation of the Amazon.”
Bigger Plan Needed
Single initiatives such as these, and the efforts of scores of non-
A plan could be put together through an organization such as The Coalition for Rainforest Nations, but it will require the active political and financial involvement of the world’s richest nations; not an easy ask in the current economic environment.
Image credit
Rainforest Action Network
Sources
“Facts about the Rainforest.” Save the Rainforest.
“Rainforests Are the Lungs of the Earth.” Jean K. Sowers, New York Times, December 10, 1985.
“Trucks, Trains and Trees.” Thomas L. Friedman, New York Times, November 11, 2009.
“Norway’s Sovereign Wealth Fund: £259bn and Growing.” Gwladys Fouché, The Guardian, September 20, 2009.
© Canada and the World. August 2011
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“Currently about six percent of the world’s remaining forests are protected, meaning that over 90 percent are still open for the taking. However, even this six percent is not safe if the proper steps towards sustainable development are not taken.”
The Coalition for Rainforest Nations
“…rainforests once covered 14 percent of the earth’s land surface; now they cover a mere six percent. In less than 50 years, more than half of the world’s tropical rainforests have fallen victim to fire and the chain saw and the rate of destruction is still accelerating.”
Raintree Inc.