THE TRAGEDY OF THE AMAZON
The amazon tropical rain forest is the largest in the world,crossing nine Latin American countries - Brazil,Peru,Ecuador,Colombia,Bilivia,Venezuela,Guiana,French Guiana and Surinam - and covering 5.5 million square kilometres (550 million hectares) , an area nearly six times the size of Turkey.It has an average annual rainfall of more than 100 inches and is the home of literally millions of species of plants and animals, many of them unique to the region.One hectare of the Amazon rain forest may hold as manyas 230 different species of trees, compared to the 10 or 15 species in an equivalent area of any other rain forest. One report estimated that for a thpical 4-square-mile area, approximately 750 species of trrs, 125 of mammals, 400 of birs could be found.A single tree might be the habitat of more than 400 insect species, and 80,000 plant species. Some 30 million animal species inhabit the Amazon forest.
For that reason the region constitutes a vast, natural pharmacopoeia. Plant and animal tissues obtained from the rain forest are used in the production of chemicals of known potency. The ingredients for the best known drugs are extracted from the forest. So far, less than one percent of the Amazon's plant species have been studied for their possible curative properties.
The region as a whole is vital to the continuation of the world ecological order.It is an important factor in the world's weather systems. Nearly half of the world's oxygen is released from its vegetation and approximately two-thirds of the world's fresh water is stored in the Amazon basin.
Today, one of the most serious problems facing the international community is the uncontrolled destruction of this unique environment. Deforestation of the Amazon region is being done by all nine states sharing the region, though Brazil, 59 percent of whose territory is located in the Amazon basin, is the most active. Over the last ten years the scale of destruction has become unbearable. There are no exact figures; the estimate is a loss of 13.000 square kilometres of forest annually. The total destruction of the Brazilian Amazon so far amounts to 415.00 square kilometres, an area about the size of Iraq. Pessimists expect the Brazilian rain forest to have been largely destroyed by the first decades of the next century, despite a fall in the rate of destruction.
In a global perspective, the destruction of the eart's lungs (for that is what the rain forests are) raises two problems. First, the increase in carbon dioxide emissions intro the atmosphere. Second, deforestation goes hand in hand with the destruction of many species. It is estimated that every day one species an important part of the world's biological variety, will become extinct.
The Brazilian are accused of contructing highways, forming new living quarters and mining in the area. In fact, all the Latin American countries who share it also share in the destruction of the rain forest. The principal excuse for the continuing destruction is widespread poverty, even hunger, in the countries of that area. However, it is strange that poverty arises in an area that has so much natural wealth and beauty.
