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 * Despite growing international concern, rainforests continue to be destroyed at a pace exceeding 80,000 acres (32,000 hectares*) per day.(c)
 * World rainforest cover now stands at around 2.5 million square miles (6 million square kilometers), an area about the size of the contiguous 48 United States or Australia and representing around 5% of the world's land surface. Much of this remaining area has been impacted by human activities and no longer retains its full original biodiversity.(a)
 * *1 hectare is 10 000 square meters.
 * []**
 * We are losing Earth's greatest biological treasures just as we are beginning to appreciate their true value. Rainforests once covered 14% of the earth's land surface; now they cover a mere 6% and experts estimate that the last remaining rainforests could be consumed in less than 40 years. (c,a)
 * One and one-half acres of rainforest are lost every second with tragic consequences for both developing and industrial countries. (c)
 * The Amazon Rainforest has been described as the "Lungs of our Planet" because it provides the essential environmental world service of continuously recycling carbon dioxide into oxygen. More than 20 percent of the world oxygen is produced in the Amazon Rainforest. More than half of the world's estimated 10 million species of plants, animals and insects live in the tropical rainforests. One-fifth of the world's fresh water is in the Amazon Basin.More than half of the world's estimated 10 million species of plants, animals and insects live in the tropical rainforests. One-fifth of the world's fresh water is in the Amazon Basin. At least 80% of the developed world's diet originated in the tropical rainforest. Its bountiful gifts to the world include fruits like avocados, coconuts, figs, oranges, lemons, grapefruit, bananas, guavas, pineapples, mangos and tomatoes; vegetables including corn, potatoes, rice, winter squash and yams; spices like black pepper, cayenne, chocolate, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, sugar cane, tumeric, coffee and vanilla and nuts including Brazil nuts and cashews. At least 3000 fruits are found in the rainforests; of these only 200 are now in use in the Western World. The U.S. National Cancer Institute has identified 3000 plants that are active against cancer cells. 70% of these plants are found in the rainforest. Twenty-five percent of the active ingredients in today's cancer-fighting drugs come from organisms found only in the rainforest. Vincristine, extracted from the rainforest plant, periwinkle, is one of the world's most powerful anticancer drugs. It has dramatically increased the survival rate for acute childhood leukemia since its discovery.(b)
 * It is estimated that nearly half of the world's estimated 10 million species of plants, animals, and microorganisms will be destroyed or severely threatened over the next quarter-century due to rainforest deforestation. Edward O. Wilson estimates that we are losing 137 plant and animal species every single day. That's 50,000 species a year! (b,c)

[|**http://www.blueplanetbiomes.org/rainforest.htm**] Section: para 3 Lines: 1-4 Area: their uses Rainforests now cover less than 6% of Earth's land surface. Scientists estimate that more than half of all the world's plant and animal species live in tropical rain forests. Tropical rainforests produce 40% of Earth's oxygen.
 * [|**http://www.rain-tree.com/facts.htm**]**

[] Section: Why preserve rainforest habitat Lines:1-26 Area: Their uses

Rainforests are some of the world's most ancient and complex ecosystems. They cover a mere 2% of the Earth, yet more than half of all plant and animal species live there. The rainforest is home to creatures as famous as the jaguar and poison dart frog, as well as lesser-known and even unidentified species. These ecosystems are an amazing resource that is quickly slipping away. The rainforest is where many modern food staples originated, including tomatoes, corn, and chocolate, but we use a mere fraction of the edible plants available there. In addition, one quarter of modern medicines come from plant species that were first used as traditional remedies. Western science has analyzed less than one percent of rainforest plants for medicinal compounds, and the indigenous tribes that use these plants are rapidly disappearing. To complicate matters more, the rate of species extinction in the rainforest is undeniably high. As the forests are burned for short-term farming, grazed, and harvested for wood and other compounds at an unsustainable rate, we are swiftly losing the very species that may someday provide needed cures or disease-resistant crops. With them, we lose an extraordinary number of unique creatures found nowhere else in the world.

[] Section: The Importance of rainforests Lines: 1-10 Area: Their uses

Tropical rainforests cover about 7% of the Earth's surface and are VERY important to the Earth's ecosystem. The rainforests recycle and clean water. Tropical rainforest trees and plants also remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it in their roots, stems, leaves, and branches. Rainforests affect the greenhouse effect, which traps heat inside the Earth's atmosphere. Some of the foods that were originally from rainforests around the world include cashew nuts, Brazil nuts, Macadamia nuts, bananas, plantains, pineapple, cucumber, cocoa (chocolate), coffee, tea, avocados, papaya, guava, mango, cassava (a starchy root), tapioca, yams, sweet potato, okra, cinnamon, vanilla, nutmeg, mace, ginger, cayenne pepper, cloves, oranges, grapefruit, lemons, limes, passion fruit, peanuts, rice, sugar cane, and coconuts (mostly from coastal areas).

[]Question a and e Tropical rainforest are tropical forests that are moist and are mostly found along the equator. They are usually in Asia, Asia, Australia,Africa, South America, Central America, Mexico and on many of the Pacific Islands. Plants and animals are found in tropical rainforest. They produce a lot of oxygen due to the large amount of plants. Over one quarter of the world's modern medicine also come from tropical rainforests. The rainforests also produce 250 species of edible fruits.

[]1)Tropical rainforests produce about 30% of our planets fresh water. 2) 80% of the world's biodiversity is also found in there. 3) A fifth of the tropical rainforests was destroyed from 1960 to 1990. 4) Rainforests that covered 14% of the world's land surface have been reduced to 6% after 50 year. 5) All tropical forests would be gone by 2090 if we continue to deforesting it at the rate we do. 6)If they disappear, a big portion of our fresh water supply would be gone and many of us in the world would face drought. 7) There would also be an upset in the ecological balance that we have as many animals and plants would be gone, possibly driving certain species to the brink of extinction.

[]1) Tropical rainforests are cut down for resources. 2) It is estimated that 1.5 acres of a forest every second. 3) If they are gone, we will have a lot of barren tracts of land. 4) We will also have no more store of lumber, which is from wood, because as of now we are cutting these forests down at a very fast rate. Instead we should cut them down in smaller portions so that we give the more trees time to grow and we will have a self-replenishing store of lumber. 5) We will also lose a lot of medicine as we cut the plants down as many contain ingredients for cures from diseases. 6) It is also a food source and we will lose some of our food. 7) Our planet would also become hotter too as the dark tropical rainforests absorbs heat from the sun. if they are gone, the land where the forests used to be on would reflect heat to other places and could also cause drought.

[] A natural rainforest emits and absorbs vast quantities of [|carbon dioxide]. On a global scale, long-term fluxes are approximately in balance, so that an undisturbed rainforest would have a small net impact on atmospheric carbon dioxide levels,[|[12]] though they may have other climatic effects (on [|cloud] formation, for example, by recycling [|water vapor]). No rainforest today can be considered to be undisturbed.[|[13]] Human induced deforestation plays a significant role in causing rainforests to release carbon dioxide,[|[14]] as do natural processes such as [|drought] that result in tree death.[|[15]] Some climate models run with interactive vegetation and predict a large loss of Amazonian rainforest around 2050 due to drought, leading to forest dieback and the subsequent feedback of releasing more carbon dioxide.[|[16]]

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