Save The Chocolate

What Will Happen If We Destroy The Rainforest?

What Do We Really Love About The Rainforest

Although many say they want to save the rainforest, do you want to help? Do you want to be able to say that you donated some of your money or time to help it? Do you want to save the plants in the rainforest or the furry faces that live on them? Do you want to save the rainforest for these heartfelt decisions, or other ones? Whichever one you decide to go with, you can help the rainforest. But what if we stopped helping — what would we lose? It turns out, a lot.

What Could We Lose?

If we, as a species, destroy what many plants and animals call home, there may never again be those animals roaming this planet. About 48 full-size football fields of forest are taken out in… guess how much time. I bet you are thinking a year. Maybe a month. At least a week. How about a day. But no, planet Earth loses about that much of our rainforest every minute. And it is all one species’ fault: ours. You may say, “But it can’t be all our fault.” Or perhaps, “That is probably a made up number.” But it is all us. We did do all that. And it is happening now.

What if we stopped helping? What would we lose? It turns out, a lot.

Deforestation

People chopping down the trees in a forest is called deforestation.

It’s estimated that 46 to 58 million square miles of land are chopped down every year, an area equal to the size of Greece.

Our Rainforest Being Torn Down

Plants and Animals

We are losing 50,000 plants, animals, and insects each year, all from the rainforest.

Rainforests are home to almost 50% of the world’s species.

Our Health Depends On It

If we stopped helping, we would lose a lot of our oxygen. The forests in general take up about 31% of the world, and the Amazon rainforest alone only covers 2% of the world. But think about this — the Amazon generates 20% of our oxygen.

And, there are answers to a lot of our problems in the rainforest. For example, there are many medicines made from products of the rainforest, such as quinine, which is used to treat malaria, penicillins, and novocaine, which numbs your gums when you go to the dentist. In total, approximately 7,000 medical compounds prescribed by Western doctors are derived from plants.

A World Without Chocolate

Without the rainforest, we would lose chocolate. Cacao beans grow and thrive in the rainforest. Due to the weather, they can not naturally grow anywhere else. And without our cacao beans, we would lose one of humans’ most precious sweets. Can you imagine living without chocolate?

A Cacao Pod

Our Beloved Chocolate

Save the Chocolate

If you want to help your health, help plants, keep animals alive, and save chocolate, you can help. There are some great organizations you can donate to like WWF and Greenpeace, which both help keep the rainforest and the animals in them alive. and are ones that I recommend. You can also do smaller things. If you want to help, you could plant a tree in your backyard, or a small one in the front. Trees are our main source of oxygen and you would be helping the world if you did. You could also start recycling and composting more at home. Pollution is killing the trees and composting helps them grow. Or perhaps just spreading the word would be something you would be more open to participating in. Either way, we need the rainforest, and at this point in time, it needs us. So use those five extra minutes you would be using to play video games or texting a friend to help our rainforest and fix the mistakes we made.

Bibliography

1. https://www.worldwildlife.org/threats/deforestation
2. https://sciencing.com/deforestation-affect-air-10632.html
3. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/earth-talks-daily-destruction/
4. http://www.ecopedia.com/environment/when-rainforest-gets-chopped-down-so-does-our-oxygen/
5. https://www.adventure-life.com/amazon/articles/medicinal-treasures-of-the-rainforest