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Kavya D

The CAUSES of RAINFOREST DESTRUCTION - 0 views

www.rainforestinfo.org.au/...causes.htm

5RTo

shared by Kavya D on 23 Sep 09 - Cached
  • The creation of national parks has undoubtedly helped to protect rainforests. Yet, as national parks are open to the public, tourism is damaging some of these areas. Often, national parks are advertised to tourists before adequate management plans have been developed and implemented. Inadequate funding is allocated for preservation of forests by government departments. Governments see tourism as an easy way to make money, and therefore tourism is encouraged whilst strict management strategies are given far less government support. Ecotourism, or environmentally friendly tourism, should educate the tourists to be environmentally aware. It should also be of low impact to its environment. Unfortunately, many companies and resorts who advertise themselves as eco-tourist establishments are in fact exploiting the environment for profit. In Cape Tribulation, Australia, for example, the rainforest is being threatened by excessive tourism. Clearing for roads and pollution of waterways are two of the major problems in this area. The Wet Tropics Management Authority which oversees the surrounding World Heritage Area is promoting tourism to the area before any management plans have been formulated, before any effective waste management strategy has been devised and before any ecofriendly power alternatives have been fully explored. Solutions: The rights of indigenous forest dwellers and others who depend on intact forests must be upheld. In instances where there are campaigns opposing specific tourist developments, they should be supported. Genuine ecotourism should be preferred to other tourist enterprises.
    • Kavya D
      Kavya D on 23 Sep 09
       
      How tourism affects the rainforests.
  • Kavya D on 23 Sep 09
     
    According to Professor Norman Myers, one of the foremost authorities on rates of deforestation in tropical forests, "the annual destruction rate seems set to accelerate yet further, and could well double in another decade" (Myers 1992). As Myers points out, "we still have half of all tropical forests that ever existed". The struggle to save the world's rainforests continues, and there is a growing worldwide concern about the issue. In order to save rainforests, we need to know why they are being destroyed. Nobody knows exactly how much of the world's rainforests have already been destroyed and continue to be razed each year. Data is often imprecise and subject to differing interpretations. However, it is obvious that the area of tropical rainforest is diminishing and the rate of tropical rainforest destruction is escalating worldwide, despite increased environmental activism and awareness. A 1992 study by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) placed the global rate of tropical deforestation at 17 million ha. per year. A study by the World Resources Institute (WRI) suggests that the figure could be as high as 20.4 million ha. per year. 1. Immediate Causes The immediate causes of rainforest destruction are clear. The main causes of total clearance are agriculture and in drier areas, fuelwood collection. The main cause of forest degradation is logging. Mining, industrial development and large dams also have a serious impact. Tourism is becoming a larger threat to the forests. 1.1 Logging Commercial logging companies cut down mature trees that have been selected for their timber. The timber trade defends itself by saying that this method of 'selective' logging ensures that the forest regrows naturally and in time, is once again ready for their 'safe' logging practices (WWF). In most cases, this is untrue due to the nature of rainforests and of logging practices. Large areas of rainforest are destroyed in order to remove only a few logs. The heavy mac
Ajay V

Taiga - 0 views

www.runet.edu/...taiga.html

5RTo

shared by Ajay V on 08 Sep 09 - Cached
Ajay V

Rainforest Facts - 2 views

www.rain-tree.com/facts.htm

5RTo

shared by Ajay V on 09 Sep 09 - Cached
  • It is estimated that nearly half of the world's estimated 10 million species of plants, animals, and microorganisms will be destroyed or severely threatened over the next quarter-century due to rainforest deforestation.
    • Marius S
      Marius S on 09 Sep 09
       
      Wow!
  • Commercial logging is the single largest cause of rainforest destruction, both directly and indirectly. Other activities destroying the rainforest, including clearing land for grazing animals and subsistence farming. The simple fact is that people are destroying the Amazon rainforest and the rest of the rainforests of the world because "they can't see the forest for the trees."
    • Gurupranav G
      Gurupranav G on 25 Sep 09
       
      Useful if you are looking at the destruction of rainforests.
  • When a medicine man dies without passing his arts on to the next generation, the tribe and the world loses thousands of years of irreplaceable knowledge about medicinal plants.
    • Marius S
      Marius S on 09 Sep 09
       
      Linked to a paragraph below...
  • ...19 more annotations...
  • Rainforests once covered 14% of the earth's land surface
    • Gurupranav G
      Gurupranav G on 25 Sep 09
       
      gurusQ4. Useful- Destruction of rainforests.
  • Most rainforests are cleared by chainsaws, bulldozers and fires for its timber value and then are followed by farming and ranching operations, even by world giants like Mitsubishi Corporation, Georgia Pacific, Texaco and Unocal.
    • Gurupranav G
      Gurupranav G on 25 Sep 09
       
      gurusQ4. Useful. Destruction of rainforests.
  • There were an estimated ten million Indians living in the Amazonian Rainforest five centuries ago. Today there are less than 200,000.
    • Audrey C
      Audrey C on 05 Oct 09
       
      Why though?
  • At least 3000 fruits are found in the rainforests; of these only 200 are now in use in the Western World.
    • Antonio D
      Antonio D on 23 Sep 09
       
      We should stop this!
  • The beauty, majesty, and timelessness of a primary rainforest are indescribable. It is impossible to capture on film, to describe in words, or to explain to those who have never had the awe-inspiring experience of standing in the heart of a primary rainforest.
  • Each time a rainforest medicine man dies, it is as if a library has burned down.
    • Chloe W
      Chloe W on 22 Sep 09
       
      I can't believe they have that much knowledge!
  • At least 80% of the developed world's diet originated in the tropical rainforest. Its bountiful gifts to the world include fruits like avocados, coconuts, figs, oranges, lemons, grapefruit, bananas, guavas, pineapples, mangos and tomatoes; vegetables including corn, potatoes, rice, winter squash and yams; spices like black pepper, cayenne, chocolate, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, sugar cane, tumeric, coffee and vanilla and nuts including Brazil nuts and cashews.
    • Chloe W
      Chloe W on 22 Sep 09
       
      WOW! It may not be the most unique foods and plants, but it is interesting that most of our things come from rainforests!
    • Chloe W
      Chloe W on 22 Sep 09
       
      Hopefully, this will come in handy for my central idea.
  • Two drugs obtained from a rainforest plant known as the Madagascar periwinkle, now extinct in the wild due to deforestation of the Madagascar rainforest, have increased the chances of survival for children with leukemia from 20 percent to 80 percent. Think about it: eight out of ten children are now saved, rather than eight of ten children dying from leukemia. How many children have been spared and how many more will continue to be spared because of this single rainforest plant? What if we had failed to discover this one important plant among millions before human activities had led to its extinction? When our remaining rainforests are gone, the rare plants and animals will be lost forever-and so will the possible cures for diseases like cancer they can provide.
    • Marius S
      Marius S on 05 Oct 09
       
      Because of deforestation, all this has happened!
  • Rainforests have evolved over millions of years to turn into the incredibly complex environments they are today. Rainforests represent a store of living and breathing renewable natural resources that for eons, by virtue of their richness in both animal and plant species, have contributed a wealth of resources for the survival and well-being of humankind. These resources have included basic food supplies, clothing, shelter, fuel, spices, industrial raw materials, and medicine for all those who have lived in the majesty of the forest. However, the inner dynamics of a tropical rainforest is an intricate and fragile system. Everything is so interdependent that upsetting one part can lead to unknown damage or even destruction of the whole. Sadly, it has taken only a century of human intervention to destroy what nature designed to last forever. The scale of human pressures on ecosystems everywhere has increased enormously in the last few decades. Since 1980 the global economy has tripled in size and the world population has increased by 30 percent. Consumption of everything on the planet has risen- at a cost to our ecosystems. In 2001, The World Resources Institute estimated that the demand for rice, wheat, and corn is expected to grow by 40% by 2020, increasing irrigation water demands by 50% or more. They further reported that the demand for wood could double by the year 2050; unfortunately, it is still the tropical forests of the world that supply the bulk of the world's demand for wood.
    • Yen Yu C
      Yen Yu C on 23 Sep 09
       
      rainforest could be gone if the wood suplies keeps going up like this!
  • In 1950, about 15 percent of the Earth's land surface was covered by rainforest. Today, more than half has already gone up in smoke. In fewer than fifty years, more than half of the world's tropical rainforests have fallen victim to fire and the chain saw, and the rate of destruction is still accelerating. Unbelievably, more than 200,000 acres of rainforest are burned every day. That is more than 150 acres lost every minute of every day, and 78 million acres lost every year! More than 20 percent of the Amazon rainforest is already gone, and much more is severely threatened as the destruction continues. It is estimated that the Amazon alone is vanishing at a rate of 20,000 square miles a year. If nothing is done to curb this trend, the entire Amazon could well be gone within fifty years. Massive deforestation brings with it many ugly consequences-air and water pollution, soil erosion, malaria epidemics, the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, the eviction and decimation of indigenous Indian tribes, and the loss of biodiversity through extinction of plants and animals. Fewer rainforests mean less rain, less oxygen for us to breathe, and an increased threat from global warming.
    • Yen Yu C
      Yen Yu C on 23 Sep 09
       
      that is just scary but it is something we must know inorder for someone to solve the problem someday...i guess
  • But who is really to blame? Consider what we industrialized Americans have done to our own homeland. We converted 90 percent of North America's virgin forests into firewood, shingles, furniture, railroad ties, and paper. Other industrialized countries have done no better. Malaysia, Indonesia, Brazil, and other tropical countries with rainforests are often branded as "environmental villains" of the world, mainly because of their reported levels of destruction of their rainforests. But despite the levels of deforestation, up to 60 percent of their territory is still covered by natural tropical forests. In fact, today, much of the pressures on their remaining rainforests comes from servicing the needs and markets for wood products in industrialized countries that have already depleted their own natural resources. Industrial countries would not be buying rainforest hardwoods and timber had we not cut down our own trees long ago, nor would poachers in the Amazon jungle be slaughtering jaguar, ocelot, caiman, and otter if we did not provide lucrative markets for their skins in Berlin, Paris, and Tokyo.
    • Yen Yu C
      Yen Yu C on 23 Sep 09
       
      why really is to blame??i think it's every human that lives in a house and have wonerful furnitures . I think even me.....us....
    • Yen Yu C
      Yen Yu C on 23 Sep 09
       
      good for some of my questions.....
  • More than half of the world's estimated 10 million species of plants, animals and insects live in the tropical rainforests. One-fifth of the world's fresh water is in the Amazon Basin.
    • Gurupranav G
      Gurupranav G on 25 Sep 09
       
      Useful for my Q1, Q3
  • It is estimated that a single hectare (2.47 acres) of Amazon rainforest contains about 900 tons of living plants, including more than 750 types of trees and 1500 other plants.
    • Gurupranav G
      Gurupranav G on 25 Sep 09
       
      Useful if you are loking at the biodiversity of a rainforest.
  • Destruction of our rainforests is not only causing the extinction of plant and animal species, it is also wiping out indigenous peoples who live in the rainforest.
    • Gurupranav G
      Gurupranav G on 25 Sep 09
       
      Useful for my Q4
  • he problem and the solution of the destruction of the rainforest are both economic. Governments need money to service their debts, squatters and settlers need money to feed their families, and companies need to make profits. The simple fact is that the rainforest is being destroyed for the income and profits it yields, however fleeting. Money still makes the world go around . . . even in South America and even in the rainforest. But this also means that if landowners, governments, and those living in the rainforest today were given a viable economic reason not to destroy the rainforest, it could and would be saved. And this viable economic alternative does exist, and it is working today. Many organizations have demonstrated that if the medicinal plants, fruits, nuts, oils, and other resources like rubber, chocolate, and chicle (used to make chewing gums) are harvested sustainably, rainforest land has much more economic value today and more long-term income and profits for the future than if just timber is harvested or burned down for cattle or farming operations. In fact, the latest statistics prove that rainforest land converted to cattle operations yields the landowner $60 per acre; if timber is harvested, the land is worth $400 per acre. However, if medicinal plants, fruits, nuts, rubber, chocolate, and other renewable and sustainable resources are harvested, the land will yield the landowner $2,400 per acre. This value provides an income not only today, but year after year - for generations. These sustainable resources - not the trees - are the true wealth of the rainforest.
    • Gurupranav G
      Gurupranav G on 25 Sep 09
       
      Useful for my Q4. Tells you the basic reason why rainforests are being destroyed.
    • Marius S
      Marius S on 05 Oct 09
       
      That's interesting...
  • More than 20 percent of the world oxygen is produced in the Amazon Rainforest.
  • And while 25% of Western pharmaceuticals are derived from rainforest ingredients, less than 1% of these tropical trees and plants have been tested by scientists.
  • Rajkumar R on 10 Sep 09
     
    Its good
  • ...4 more comments...
  • Rajkumar R on 10 Sep 09
     
    At least 3000 fruits are found in the rainforests; of these only 200 are now in use in the Western World
  • Rajkumar R on 10 Sep 09
     
    Its intersting, and I never knew that!
  • Aditi P on 10 Sep 09
     
    Loads of inforamation... really good!
  • Katie Day on 14 Sep 09
     
    a commercial website that has a page of rainforest facts aimed at students doing reports
  • Antonio D on 23 Sep 09
     
    At least 3000 fruits are found in the rainforests; of these only 200 are now in use in the Western World
  • Audrey C on 05 Oct 09
     
    At least 3000 fruits are found in the rainforests; of these only 200 are now in use in the Western World
Jean Luc L

Wetlands Biome - 0 views

www.thewildclassroom.com/...wetlands.html

5RTo biomes wetlands

shared by Jean Luc L on 02 Sep 09 - Cached
  • Wetlands are areas of standing water that support aquatic plants. Marshes, swamps, and bogs are all considered wetlands. Plant species adapted to the very moist and humid conditions are called hydrophytes. These include pond lilies, cattails, sedges, tamarack, and black spruce.
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