Not only are rainforests a vast repository of potential medicines they also play a vital role in producing oxygen and in maintaining global climatic patterns. The Amazon rainforests alone for example are responsible for 28% of the global oxygen turnover.

The role of green house gases like methane and carbon di oxide in global warming and climate change is well documented. Automobiles, ocean liners and aircrafts have been roundly criticized for belching these gases that threaten to bring doomsday to the earth’s doorstep. What is little understood and appreciated is the fact that rainforest destruction releases more than 1.5 billion tones of green house gases (IPCC estimates), a fifth of the total global emissions and more than all the other sources mentioned above put together (Houghton, 2003; BBC report). Destruction of an acre of rainforest releases a thousand tons or more of carbon dioxide (http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/06/16/australia-forest-carbon.html). The importance of conserving rainforests thus becomes obvious.  Detractors have long hidden behind Odum’s view propounded in the 60’s that old rainforests do not help in trapping carbon dioxide. However a 2008 study has shown that these old forests continue to trap close to a billion tons of carbon dioxide every year. (Luyssaert et al., “Old-growth forests as global carbon sink,” Nature, 2008).

Rainforests have been at the receiving end of human greed and short sighted harvesting. Rampant rainforest destruction has shrunk rainforests to 50% of their earlier size, limiting them to a mere 6% of the earth’s surface. Estimates of the extent of rainforests lost vary from 17 million acres (United Nations estimate) to 50 million acres every year.  The WWF puts destruction rates at 25 to 50 acres every minute. To put in perspective, an area of tropical forest large enough to cover North Carolina is deforested each year. Today rainforests are being lost in Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Zaire, Guinea and many other countries. Some projections suggest that the remaining rainforests could be lost within the next 4 decades.

Aspirations of economic growth in third world countries and lifestyle choices in the developed world are the twin driving force behind deforestation in poorer Latin American, Asian and African countries. Livestock grazing to meet the increasing demand for beef is alone responsible for a large part of deforestation. Close to 55 square feet of rainforests are cleared for every pound of beef produced releasing 500 pounds of carbon di oxide in the process (The burger that ate a rain forest – London Times, Feb 26, 1989)! Forest land converted to pasture also contributes to global warming by increased emissions of methane by cattle.

In Brazil alone 24,000 square kilometres of rainforests are cleared every year (Santilli et al., Climatic Change; 2005). Besides pasture, rainforests have been cleared for timber – with concessions sold as cheap as $ 2 per acre, cropland, bio fuel cultivation, to feed iron mills with charcoal and paper factories with wood pulp. A single multinational pulp manufacturing project in Brazil consumes close to 2000 tons of pristine rainforest every day! International debt repayment obligations have also been instrumental in encouraging many nations to hawk their forest resources for hard cash in place of higher returns they could have realized in the longer term by sustainable forest management practices.

Climate Change – What is it?

In the current day lexicon of scientists, climate modification isn’t really a term of use anymore. The reason for this is that we have come to understand that the effect of the changes we make to our environment will increase the temperature in many locations on the planet, but will also cool a few places. In light of this, the thing you know of as climate modification is actually referred to as global climate change. Over all, however, the world is definitely warming.

We need a straightforward definition for climate transformation in relation to the warming of the planet, one that gets the general picture without excluding the simplicities. The simplest and most accurate definition is that climate change is the effect greenhouse gases have on the earth’s climate. Greenhouse gases include, but are not limited to, carbon dioxide and methane. While this sounds like a simple definition, there are a couple of important things to realise.

First, climate change is both a natural phenomena and one created by mankind. Put an alternative way, greenhouse gases are a natural part of the biosphere and would exist if man did not. Indeed, they are a crucial component to the existence of life on this planet. If greenhouse gases didn’t exist, the temperature on planet earth would average zero degrees! Naturally occurring gases, however, keep the temperature at a much more liveable 59 degrees.

So, if global warming occurs naturally, what is the big panic about? The problem we are facing is the volume of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. These gases act as thermal blankets for the atmosphere. The more gas in the atmosphere, the thicker the blanket and the less heat escapes. Over the last 80 years, we have been pumping massive amounts of greenhouse gases into the sky. At the same time, we have witnessed major deforestation around the planet, the primary plant collection that sucks greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere. This double whammy is starting to show damaging results; the increased heating of our world.

The ultimate question with climate alteration is what could come to pass as the Earth heats up. We are already seeing signs with the retreat of the glaciers. Glacier National Park, for instance, will soon have to be renamed since it has already lost 65 percent of all of its glaciers! While the exact end result of these environmental changes is not apparent, we can expect significant climatic changes over the next 80 years.