STOP! Picture.
Here you can see a graph representing the temperature and rainfall over a year.
Tropical rainforests cover about 7% of the Earth's surface and are very important to the Earth's ecosystem. The rainforest trees and plants also remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it in their roots, stems, leaves, and branches, they replace this with oxygen. Without this removal of Co2, serious global climatic problems could become more frequent in the future. Rainforests affect the , which traps heat inside the .
Groups that are exploiting the rainforests include logging companies and Soya farming. An area of almost 10,000 square miles was lost, which is an area size of Albania. Almost 80% of the timber taken from the rainforest is illegal.
The global environment will suffer enormously if rainforests are cut down at the rate they are today. Global weather changes will be created, with global warming melting the ice caps, sea levels will rise leading to more flooding to low flat lying countries, such as Bangladesh. It would also lead to more typhoons, tornados and extreme temperature changes to the whole world, with longer drought in Africa and longer colder winters in north Europe.
STOP! TORNADO PICTURE HERE!!!!
Local communities that will lose out include Indian groups, which have lived in the rainforests for thousands of years. They will lose land, which has been cleared, and lose the resources that used to be there. They would have to compete for food with the newcomers, they would have no immunity to diseases such as flu and if these diseases are passed on, deaths could happen. The water could also become polluted with mercury from gold prospecting, which would lead to deformity in unborn babies.
There still are options to help reduce the exploitation of the rainforest. These include the planting scheme of planting 2 trees for every 1 tree cut down. Getting the bigger companies in countries to only buy timber from countries that were apart of this scheme, with a stamp to prove where it has come from.
There are many things we can do at home to stop the exploitation of rainforests. These include:
- More recycling of waste, such as paper, cardboard and old furniture.
2. Organising pressure groups and informing others about what is happening in the rainforests and what they can do to help.
3. Talking to your local MP to see what they are doing to help stop the exploitation of the rainforests
4. Not buying products that originate from the rainforest.
And finally not to eat soy.
My own opinion is that all logging companies should be enforced to take part in the planting scheme where 2 trees are planted for every 1 that was cut down. I would also put a limit on how much rainforest could be cut down per month or year. If this was passed, the logging companies could be fined, and with the money generated, it could go on planting more trees. I also think encouraging people to recycle more would be cost effective and an easy way of dealing with this problem. There could also be more parks created everywhere in the world where new trees are planted to help grow the population of forests covering the world surface. More importantly, I think anything should be done to preserve the rainforests. PICTURES!
Questions they might ask:
Convectional rainfall occurs when moist air is made to rise by heat from the sun. As the air-cools, it condenses and forms huge storm clouds. These give heavy rain.
Groups that win: Brazilian government - bringing in money to the country to invest in healthcare and education etc.
Groups that lose: Everyone, because no matter who you are, eventually the exploitation of the rainforests will affect you such as weather extremes