The Disappearing Rainforest

The Amazon Rainforest is the most diverse ecosystem in the world covering nearly 60 percent of Brazil. It contains 1/5 of the world's fresh water and about 30 percent of the world's plant and animal species. In the last 40 years, 20 percent of this remarkable forest has been cut down and an estimated additional 20 percent will disappear in the next 2 decades.

The climate changes caused by global warming also threaten to destroy this vast ecosystem. Researchers have outlined a worst case scenario in which global warming will raise temperatures and reduce rainfall. As the rainforest is cut down, the system loses even more rainfall due to the loss of moisture released to the atmosphere. As temperatures rise and conditions become drier, the trees will dry out and die replacing the rainforest with a grassy savannah.

Between climate changes from global warming, slash and burn techniques for farming and illegal logging, the rainforest is in imminent danger of disappearing forever. This rich environment contains thousands of plants with unknown benefits to human health, provides 20% of the world's oxygen and reduces the world's carbon dioxide. Imagine what we lose if we lose the rainforest. Imagine what we could save by using EMI trees to replant what has been lost. Their accelerated growth would make it feasible to reforest and their increased ability to sequestor carbon would help reduce the amount of greenhouse gases released by logging.

National Geographic Photos by Alex Webb

Rainforest areas cleared and burned for farming and grazing (top).

Illegal logging in the Amazon (bottom).