Rainforest Destruction and Climate Change
December 5, 2009 · Filed Under Environment · Comment
Spread over Africa, South America and Australasia, rainforests are the richest repositories of life forms on planet earth and its green lungs. One of our oldest ecosystems, rainforests are estimated to harbour 66% of all the species on earth! Today however many of the estimated 30-40 million species inhabiting these ecosystems are being lost, even before they can be catalogued, at a rate estimated at an astounding 50,000 species per year.
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.