Week 3

The Earth’s oxygen is vital to the survival on Earth. Forty percent of oxygen comes from rainforests and are therefore, necessary for our survival. The Amazon alone creates twenty percent of the planets oxygen but around twenty percent of it has also been destroyed. However, rainforests are being destroyed faster than ever and around 200,000 acres of it is being destroyed each day. In 1950 rainforests covered fifteen percent of the planets now they only cover around six percent. As a result of the destruction of rainforests, one day there may not be any oxygen left on Earth for the survival of any form of life.



Around one quarter of the medicines people use come from plants found in rainforests. For example, curare, a type of muscle reliever, is from a tropical vine called Chondrodendron only found in rainforests. Quinine, a type of painkiller, is also from a rainforest tree called the cinchona tree. It is also used to treat malaria. Periwinkle, found in rainforests, is known to help people suffering from leukemia and is also used internally for things such as diarrhoea and high blood sugar. It is also known that over 1,400 species of tropical plants are potential cures for types of cancer. Therefore, since many medicines come from rainforests not only are we destroying homes for a variety of animals and plants we are also decreasing the chance of finding a cure for various types of cancer.


Global warming is a preventable environmental problem on Earth. The destruction of rainforests release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere that was once restored in plants. The cutting down and burning of rainforests are known to be seventeen percent of the carbon dioxide emission from humans. “By saving the forests we save a natural mechanism that removes some of the carbon dioxide that we humans put into the atmosphere”, (Rainforest Facts, 2010).


References

Rainforest Facts. (2010). Rainforest Destruction. Retrieved from: http://www.rainforest-facts.com/rainforest-destruction.html

Schaffner, B & Kenneth, R. (2009). Tropical Rainforests. Retrieved from: http://www.blueplanetbiomes.org/rainforest.htm

Raintree Nutrition, Inc. (2010). Curare. Retrieved from: http://www.rain-tree.com/curare.htm

Raintree Nutrition, Inc. (2010). Quinine. Retrieved from: http://www.rain-tree.com/quinine.htm

Raintree Nutrition, Inc. (2010). Rainforest Facts. Retrieved from: http://www.rain-tree.com/facts.htm

Curing Oxygen. (2007). What’s Happening to our Oxygen. Retrieved from: http://curingoxygen.com/oxygen_problem.htm