rain forest
...anti-cancer properties, which are found only in the rainforest. Two drugs obtained from a rainforest plant known as the Madagascar periwinkle, now extinct in the wild due to deforestation of the Madagascar rainforest, has increased the chances of survival for children with leukemia from 20 percent to 80 percent. How many children have been spared and how many more will continue to be spared because of this single rainforest plant? When our remaining rainforests are gone, the rare plants, animals will be lost forever and so will their possible cures. They estimate that there are at least 328 new drugs that still await discovery in the rainforests (Rainforest Facts). Although to many people it is the most striking, medicines are not the only services, which the rainforest provides. Our atmosphere works like a greenhouse. The sun emits short-wave radiation, which passes through the atmosphere to Earth. Some energy is reflected back into the atmosphere in the form of long-wave infrared radiation. Certain gases, such as carbon dioxide, methane, ozone, and nitrous oxide, trap some of the infrared radiation. Without the greenhouse gases, the temperature on Earth would be approximately 33C colder than it is now, covering the Earth with ice. In past millennia, forests maintained a rough balance between the biomass of the world's vegetation and carbon dioxide. Forests used to keep increases in carbon dioxide in check are only half the size they were a thousand years ago. Since then billions of tons of carbon dioxide have built up in the atmosphere along with other greenhouse gases. This human error has changed the composition of the atmosphere. Three major gases are now present in overabundance: Carbon dioxide, Chlorofluorocarbons and Nitrous oxide. In 1990, the IPCC predicted that if present rates of emissions of carbon dioxide continue, the Earth will experience a lC (1.8F) warming by 2030 at the latest, and a 3C (5.4F) increase in temperature before the end of the next century. This is about 10 to 100 times more rapid than the fastest warming in the last 10,000 years. There is growing evidence that past emissions of greenhouse gases could already be altering the Earth's weather patterns and temperatures. In the 130 years that temperatures have been recorded, 1980, 1981, 1983, 1987, 1988, 1990, were six of the seven warmest years recorded. Europe's glaciers are retreating and Arctic ice has thinned dramatically. Sea ice at the poles does not extend as far as in previous winters, and some Canadian lakes have warmed several degrees Fahrenheit, indicating a polar warming. There is also an increase in extreme climatic events. This includes hurricanes, floods in Africa and India, and windstorms in Europe. The Tuvalu islands in the Pacific experienced four cyclones in 1941, an average year. In 1989, however, Tuvalu endured 21 tropical cyclones (Rainforest Facts)! Scientists predict that if the warming continues at its current rate they will be widespread extinction of plant and animal species. Global warming will force countless ecosystems to migrate in hopes of survival. Many species and ecosystems will simply not survive. Those that do will be less diverse and complex. It is also predicted that the sea level will rise causing coastal flooding. By 2050, the sea level will rise approximately 1.5 meters, flooding low-lying areas. With as much as 50 percent of the world's population settled in coastal communities, it is estimated that 15 million people will lose their homes. This would seem like nothing compared to the melting of glaciers, which could raise the sea level, a total of 200 feet (Encarta). The world's most important food exporting nations, including the U.S., Canada, and France are likely to suffer drought and drier soil conditions, along with a proliferation of weeds and other agricultural pests because of heat stress and drought caused by global warming. The result would be a substantial drop in crop yields and world wide food shortages. Fresh water aquifers could be contaminated by salt-water intrusion from a sea level rise, destroying drinking water and killing aquatic life. Even without a detectable increase in global temperatures, these greenhouse gases still disrupt our climate. Greenhouse gases affect the way air circulates, changing cloudiness, circulation, and most importantly, precipitation. According to Myles Allen at the Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic, and Planetary Physics at Oxford, such changes could change "circulation and- weather patterns on which most of the world's population depend for their day to day survival" (Rainforest Facts). Probably the greatest asset of tropical forests come from maintaining Earth’s important life-support systems. These critical environmental services include cycling essential nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus, absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, regulating temperature and precipitation, protecting watersheds from soil erosion, and harboring pollinators for agricultural crops. The value of these few things far outweighs any monetary value placed simply on physical resources the rainforest posses (Tropical Forest Products). It seems though, no matter how much the rain forest does for mankind it is out weighed by its immediate economic opportunities. Precious resources particularly timber, minerals, and petroleum fetch high prices in international markets. Many trees that grow in rainforests are very marketable for the durability and beauty of their wood. Teak, rosewood, and mahogany are rain forest hardwoods used to make expensive throughout the war. Crude oil and natural gas deposits also attract many corporations. Farmers realize rainforests offer wide expanses of grazing land or land that can be converted for agricultural purposes. Poachers and pet traders ar...