Why Should We Protect the Rainforest?
One might think, this large wood area is so far away from us, what should we gain from protecting this bio-reserve in our country?
There are 5 good reasons why we should do this.
- 1- Climate Control
- 2- CO2 Storage
- 3- Humidity of the Atmosphere
- 4-Medicine
- 5- Biodiversity
The Rainforest stores the greenhouse gas CO 2 in the form of carbon and thus stabilizes the climate. Scientists assume that the amount of snow in the Alps will decrease in the coming years due to climate change. The glaciers recede and disappear altogether. When the rainforest is destroyed, large amounts of stored carbon dioxide are released. This amplifies the greenhouse effect and fuels global warming. As more forests are cut down, glaciers and snow and ice in the Alps, Greenland and the Arctic are melting faster. This leads to sea level rise, making many cities and regions uninhabitable, even on distant coasts. Hamburg, London, New York, Rio, Lima, Singapore and Tokio will sink into the sea just because today the Amazon Rainforest is being cleared and converted into agricultural monocultures.
Eventually, planet earth will have become planet water. Wouldn't it be better to prevent that?
But it’s not just the 220 million tons of carbon dioxide released by forest fires this year alone that are affecting the climate. It is the groundwater that trees absorb and release into the air through their leaves that affects the weather. The humidity generated by the Amazon Rainforest falls as rain in other regions, not only in South America but also in North America. If the rainforest disappears, steppes and deserts will emerge far away.
The lushly developed nature in the tropical forest has meant that the animal and plant world has to protect itself from predators with poisons, narcotics and drugs. Humans have long since discovered the valuable substances that have been developed in this way and use them in cancer therapy, malaria, chronic diseases, heart problems, bronchitis, coughs, diarrhea or quite trivially with acetylsalicylic acid for headaches. Every fourth drug in our pharmacies was developed from forest plants. An estimated 93% of the healing potential of the rainforest is still completely undiscovered!
Biodiversity – that is the variety of plants, animals, fungi and microorganisms, which is nowhere in the world as large as in the Amazon Rainforest. Around 2/3 of all known animal and plant species live in tropical forests. These include the jaguar, the giant snake boa constrictor, the toucan, the giant otter or the black caiman, bromeliads, the cocoa tree, mangroves, mahogany and orchids. Biological diversity is not only reflected genetically in the numerous species with in turn unmanageable subspecies, varieties and breeds, but also in the communities that share the forest, the air, the soil and the water.
This biodiversity represents the basis for our existence. Animals and plants have important functions in our world. Without them we could not live on the planet. It provides food, provides active ingredients for medical products, is used for recreation and plays a crucial role in climate regulation. Every tree, every microbe, every plant, every animal counts.
by Uwe Lehnfeld
