Hi Friends!
1. Around 80% of the food we eat originally came from rainforests. Some of the more popular examples include coffee, chocolate, rice, tomatoes, potatoes, bananas, black pepper, pineapples and corn. At the inside Track we basically live on coffee. That's enough to save the rainforest.
2. Tropical rainforests only cover about 6% of the Earth's surface, but they are home to more than half the word's total plant and animal species.
3. The forest floor is almost completely dark- with less than 1% of the available sunlight making it through the tree canopy above.
4. There are around 3000 fruits found in rainforests, and in the west we make use of around 200 of them. However, indigenous tribes make use of over 2000!
5. With deforestation continuing at such a fast rate, we've created the most rapid extinction rate in the history of the world. 137 rainforest species are exterminated completely every single day.
6. Over a quarter of the medicine we use today have their origins in the rainforests- and that's after only about 1% of rainforest plant have been examined for their medicine properties. Imagine what else could be there? It's not outlandish to think that our best chance of curing the diseases that plague our world could lie with the rainforest. But with so many species exterminated everyday, we may never find out.
7. The rainforests have begun to be destroyed in the last 100 years to make way for farm land. Today, the rainforests are being destroyed by 1.5 acres every second. That's not a typo.
8. Some people call the rainforests 'the worlds lungs', but decomposition of plant matter absorbs as much oxygen as the trees produce. It's probably more accurately to think of them as having a cooling effect on the global climate, as they absorb a huge amount of heat from the sun. About 30% of our carbon emissions come from one thing- burning the rainforests.
9. We often think that the soil in the rainforest is really fertile to support such a huge range of plant and animal life. But rainforest land is not really any good for farming. Once cleared, the soil is of such low quality that it can hardly be used to grow anything. After a year or two of farming, the land is totally bereft of nutrients- leaving a useless patch of land.
10. If deforestation continues, we'll completely lose the rainforests with the next 40 years.
Enjoy!
1. Around 80% of the food we eat originally came from rainforests. Some of the more popular examples include coffee, chocolate, rice, tomatoes, potatoes, bananas, black pepper, pineapples and corn. At the inside Track we basically live on coffee. That's enough to save the rainforest.
2. Tropical rainforests only cover about 6% of the Earth's surface, but they are home to more than half the word's total plant and animal species.
3. The forest floor is almost completely dark- with less than 1% of the available sunlight making it through the tree canopy above.
4. There are around 3000 fruits found in rainforests, and in the west we make use of around 200 of them. However, indigenous tribes make use of over 2000!
5. With deforestation continuing at such a fast rate, we've created the most rapid extinction rate in the history of the world. 137 rainforest species are exterminated completely every single day.
6. Over a quarter of the medicine we use today have their origins in the rainforests- and that's after only about 1% of rainforest plant have been examined for their medicine properties. Imagine what else could be there? It's not outlandish to think that our best chance of curing the diseases that plague our world could lie with the rainforest. But with so many species exterminated everyday, we may never find out.
7. The rainforests have begun to be destroyed in the last 100 years to make way for farm land. Today, the rainforests are being destroyed by 1.5 acres every second. That's not a typo.
8. Some people call the rainforests 'the worlds lungs', but decomposition of plant matter absorbs as much oxygen as the trees produce. It's probably more accurately to think of them as having a cooling effect on the global climate, as they absorb a huge amount of heat from the sun. About 30% of our carbon emissions come from one thing- burning the rainforests.
9. We often think that the soil in the rainforest is really fertile to support such a huge range of plant and animal life. But rainforest land is not really any good for farming. Once cleared, the soil is of such low quality that it can hardly be used to grow anything. After a year or two of farming, the land is totally bereft of nutrients- leaving a useless patch of land.
10. If deforestation continues, we'll completely lose the rainforests with the next 40 years.
Enjoy!
