Save the Womb of Life

미래엔 영어 II_8과 본문.hwp

Rainforests are complex ecosystems essential to the stability of our planet’s climate and its ability to support life in its current form. But they are being lost at an alarming rate. Urgent action is required to stop this trend and preserve these forests, not only for the benefit of local communities but for the good of the world.

What and where are rainforests?

Rainforests have evolved over 60 to 100 million years into highly complex ecosystems. Rainforests have been called the womb of life because they are home to more than 50% of 10 million species of animals and plants on the Earth. By definition, tropical rainforests lie between 22.5° to the north and south of the equator. Almost half of the remaining tropical rainforest is found in tropical America, a bit more than a third in Asia and Oceania, and 15% in Africa. In total, over 80 countries are considered rainforest owning nations. However, three countries – Brazil, Indonesia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo – contain almost half of the world’s tropical rainforests.

Why do rainforests matter?

Tropical rainforests provide important ecosystem services both to local communities and to the world. They contain over half the planet’s biodiversity, regulate rainfall, and store water. Most importantly, tropical forests play a crucial role in climate change.

Biodiversity

It is believed that tropical rainforests are home to over half of the world’s species of plants and animals; they appear to be the most diverse expressions of life ever to have evolved. The enormous variations of life and its delicate interactions within rainforest ecosystems are only just beginning to be understood. Scientists have so far been able to study a mere 1 percent of the species in rainforests.

The economic value of this biodiversity is inestimable. A considerable share of the developed world’s diet originated in tropical rainforests. Foods and crops derived from rainforests include potatoes, rice, fruit, nuts, coffee, and chocolate. Agricultural scientists are now crossbreeding wild strains of rainforest crops with domestic strains in order to improve yields, strengthen resistance to parasites and develop other physical characteristics.

It is well known that rainforests have been the source of compounds vital to the discovery and potency of many modern medicines. The U.S. National Cancer Institute believes that more than 1,430 varieties of tropical plants have properties that could potentially treat cancers, and that more than 70% of plants identified as having anticancer properties are found in rainforests.

Regulating rainfall, flooding, and soil erosion

Rainforests are huge freshwater regulators. Rain that falls on them is itself a function of the diversity of life in these forests. The combined activity of animal and plant life releases huge quantities of volatile organic compounds, which create the fine condensation nuclei around which water droplets form. Moisture is held in these humid, cool ecosystems and evaporates slowly to make clouds.

Tropical rainforests act like a giant sponge. They soak up rainfall brought by tropical storms while anchoring soil and releasing water slowly through evaporation. This ensures the regular flow of clean water in the region and moderates destructive flood and drought cycles, which are more common on degraded land.

A vital role in climate stabilization

Tropical deforestation is one of the largest causes of global greenhouse gas emissions. Without conserving these forests, it would be impossible to stabilize atmospheric carbon and avoid the catastrophic impacts of global warming.

Forest ecosystems draw down atmospheric CO2 through photosynthesis. Tropical rainforests are some of the world’s primary carbon sinks, storing around 610 billion tons of CO2. However, deforestation releases this carbon into the atmosphere.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates that the global forest sector accounts for 17% of man-made greenhouse gas emissions - approximately 7 to 8 gigatons of CO2 each year. Forest emissions are greater than the entire transport sector and larger than the annual emissions of both the USA and China. Although there is some debate over the share attributable to tropical forests, there is little doubt that it is very high; one study estimates that tropical deforestation accounts for 96% of global forest-related emissions.

Moreover, higher temperatures cause the plants’ rates of photosynthesis to decline. This will stunt plant growth and reduce the rainforests’ capacity to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. It will be extremely difficult to develop an adequate response to climate change that does not include slowing deforestation.

What’s happening to rainforests?

In the past 50 years, a third of the world’s rainforests have been cut down and burned, and this deforestation continues. The loss of natural tropical forests - both wet and dry - amounts to 15 million hectares per year. Of this total, almost 6 million hectares are humid tropical forests or rainforests. It is the equivalent of about 8.5 million soccer fields a year, or 23,483 fields a day.

The drivers of deforestation

Deforestation occurs because of financial interests in rainforest nations. In Indonesia and Brazil, which accounted for nearly two thirds of tropical rainforest loss between 2000 and 2005, it can be attributed to export-led commercial agricultural commodities including palm oil, cattle, and soybeans. In other areas, coffee, and rubber production play a role, while mining and a growing demand for biofuels can have indirect impacts on forest loss. Cattle ranching is one of the leading causes of deforestation in South America. Brazil has become the world’s largest exporter of beef, with exports reaching US $4.4 billion annually. Global demand for beef is projected to rise by 1.7% yearly over the next decade. The global wood products industry is also a significant driver, both directly through destructive logging of hardwood timber and clear-felling for paper pulp, and indirectly by opening up the forest to other uses.

How can we save rainforests?

It is estimated that, if we do not change our course of action, there will not be any rainforests remaining in 50 years’ time. That’s in your lifetime! The good news is that there are a lot of people who want to save rainforests. The bad news is that saving rainforests is not going to be easy. It will take the efforts of many people working together in order to ensure that rainforests and their wildlife will survive for next generations to appreciate, enjoy and benefit from. Some steps for saving rainforests and, on a broader scale, ecosystems around the world can be abbreviated as TREES: • Teach others about the importance of the environment and how they can help save rainforests.

• Restore damaged ecosystems by planting trees on land where forests have been cut down.

• Encourage people to live in a way that doesn’t hurt the environment.

• Establish parks to protect rainforests and wildlife.

• Support companies that operate in ways that minimize damage to the environment.