Industrial society has tended to see forests as free sources of valuable materials (like timber) or as needless forests, occupying land and getting 'in the way' of development. As a result of these pressures, every second the planet loses another two football fields of its precious rainforest cloak.
Old growth forests are cleared for 'development,' agriculture, cattle-grazing and plantations among other reasons. They are targeted by logging companies for timber and pulp and by oil companies for drilling. In many poor countries, rainforests come under pressure from people suffering grinding poverty and desperate for any land not under the control of local wealthy landowners.
More than 50 percent of all types of living things - as many as five million species of plants, animals, and insects - live in tropical rainforests. Rainforest destruction, currently estimated at more than thirty million acres per year, poses a threat to each and every one of these species. It is estimated that 100 species become extinct every day due to tropical deforestation. Approximately 5 to 10 percent of tropical forest species will become extinct each decade during the next half-century. Current rates of species extinction are comparable to the five greatest mass extinctions in world history (like the dinosaurs).
All of the Earth's species are part of a complex, interdependent web of life. The extinction of just one species can affect an entire ecosystem. Humans are a part of this web of life, and thus we too are dependent on other species for our survival. For example, twenty-five percent of the world's pharmaceutical products are derived from tropical plants. The National Cancer Institute has identified three thousand plants as having anti-cancer properties; of these, 70 percent hail from the rainforest. Thousands of food products we rely on - from oranges and bananas to coffee and tea - also come either directly or indirectly from the rainforests.
coffee beansIn addition to the many products we derive from rainforests, the rainforest and its species provide many 'natural services' for which there is simply no substitute. For example, rainforests cover less than 7 percent of the Earth's surface, yet they receive almost half of all the rain that falls on land. Rainforests serve a vital function by absorbing this rain and then slowly releasing it into rivers and streams. As long as rainforests remain intact, rivers run clear and flow throughout the year. When rainforests are destroyed, rivers swell and fill with muddy sediment after rainfalls, and then shrink during dry spells. This results in soil erosion, floods, and droughts, often with devastating consequences.
Rainforests also absorb and store vast amounts of carbon&emdash;an invaluable service since human activity releases nearly seven billion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year. Rainforests destruction not only releases additional carbon into the atmosphere, but deprives the Earth of one of its primary means of absorbing and storing excess carbon. High atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are already altering the Earth's climate, with potentially far ranging effects, including rising seas, disruption of agriculture, species extinction, and an increase in the frequency and severity of storms.
In addition, the rainforests are home to an estimated fifty million indigenous peoples globally. These forest peoples' traditional ways of life are based on an interdependent relationship with the forest; therefore rainforest destruction poses a direct threat to the survival of indigenous peoples and their unique cultures. Around the world, indigenous peoples are struggling to defend their rights and protect their rainforest homelands, often in the face of massive corporate or government-led industrial projects. Over the last century, more indigenous cultures have disappeared than ever before; today, entire peoples and their unique cultures continue to disappear.
