The Rainforest Girls

Air Pollution

2007-10-21T05:48:00.000-07:00

Smog is a type of large-scale outdoor pollution. It is caused by chemical reactions between pollutants derived

from different sources, primarily automobile exhaust and industrial emissions. Cities are often centers of these

types of activities, and many suffer from the effects of smog, especially during the warm months of the year.

Additional information about smog and its effects are available from Environment Canada and the Air Quality

Management District (AQMD) in southern California.

For each city, the exact causes of pollution may be different. Depending on the geographical location,

temperature, wind and weather factors, pollution is dispersed differently. However, sometimes this does not

happen and the pollution can build up to dangerous levels. A temperature inversion occurs when air close to

the earth is cooler than the air above it. Under these conditions the pollution cannot rise and be dispersed.

Cities surrounded by mountains also experience trapping of pollution. Inversion can happen in any season.

Winter inversions are likely to cause particulate and cabon monoxide pollution. Summer inversions are more

likely to create smog.

Another consequence of outdoor air pollution is acid rain. When a pollutant, such as sulfuric acid combines

with droplets of water in the air, the water (or snow) can become acidified . The effects of acid rain on the

environment can be very serious. It damages plants by destroying their leaves, it poisons the soil, and it

changes the chemistry of lakes and streams. Damage due to acid rain kills trees and harms animals, fish, and

other wildlife. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and

Environment Canada are among the organizations that are actively studying the acid rain problem.

The Greenhouse Effect, also referred to as global warming, is generally believed to come from the build up of

carbon dioxide gas in the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is produced when fuels are burned. Plants convert

carbon dioxide back to oxygen, but the release of carbon dioxide from human activities is higher than the

world's plants can process. The situation is made worse since many of the earth's forests are being removed,

and plant life is being damaged by acid rain. Thus, the amount of carbon dioxide in the air is continuing to

increase. This buildup acts like a blanket and traps heat close to the surface of our earth. Changes of even a few

degrees will affect us all through changes in the climate and even the possibility that the polar ice caps may

melt. (One of the consequences of polar ice cap melting would be a rise in global sea level, resulting in

widespread coastal flooding.) Additional resources and information about the Greenhouse Effect and global

warming are available from the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), the Science Education Academy of the Bay

Area (SEABA) and the Society of Environmental Journalists (SEJ).

Ozone depletion is another result of pollution. Chemicals released by our activities affect the stratosphere , one

of the atmospheric layers surrounding earth. The ozone layer in the stratosphere protects the earth from

harmful ultraviolet radiation from the sun. Release of chlorofluorocarbons (CFC's) from aerosol cans, cooling

systems and refrigerator equipment removes some of the ozone, causing "holes"; to open up in this layer and

allowing the radiation to reach the earth. Ultraviolet radiation is known to cause skin cancer and has

damaging effects on plants and wildlife. Additional resources and information about the ozone depletion

problem are available from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and Ozone ACTION.

Air pollution is a mixture of solid particles and gases in the air. Car emissions, chemicals from factories, dust,

pollen and mold spores may be suspended as particles. Ozone, a gas, is a major part of air pollution in cities.

When ozone forms air pollution, it's also called smog.

Some air pollutants are poisonous. Inhaling them can increase the chance you'll have health problems. People

with heart or lung disease, older adults and children are at greater risk from air pollution. Air pollution isn't

just outside – the air inside buildings can also be polluted and affect your health.

Typically, air pollution is thought of as smog that affects people's health, reduces visibility, and obscures

majestic vistas in national parks, such as Shenandoah National Park. But, over time, it has become clear that

air pollution also contributes to land and water pollution which affects the health of the Chesapeake Bay's

valuable living resources - its fish, shellfish, and other animals. Over the last thirty years, research has

provided us with more knowledge on how air pollution can directly affect the Bay.

Since the passing of the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act Pop-up Window in the early 1970's, air pollution

and water pollution were largely considered two separate problems. However, there is now a better

understanding of the link between these two environmental threats. Pollutants released into the air will

eventually make their way back down to the earth's surface. Some of the factors that determine how far

pollutants can travel through the air include, the makeup of the pollutant, weather conditions (wind,

temperature, humidity), type and height of emission source (smokestack, automobile tail pipe), and the

presence of other chemicals in the air. Airborne pollutants fall to the earth's surface by wet deposition, or dry

deposition. Airborne pollutants that deposit on the landscape can be transported into streams, rivers, and the

Bay by runoff or through groundwater flow.

The Chesapeake Bay Program is at the leading edge of addressing the relationships between the air, land, and

water quality. For example, computer models estimate that the primary nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions

airshed Pop-up Window for the Bay is approximately 418,000 square miles, this is six and half times larger

than the Chesapeake Bay watershed. This airshed shows that airborne nitrogen deposits to the Bay and its

watershed from local emission sources, as well as from sources in places far away, such as Kentucky, Indiana,

and Canada. Chesapeake Bay Program, using monitoring and modeling, estimates that a quarter of the total

nitrogen load to the Bay comes from atmospheric deposition, with 75 percent of that load being deposited on

land (and later transported to the Bay by surface water runoff and groundwater flow). The remaining 25

percent is deposited directly on the Bay.

Determining the impacts that air pollution can have on the Bay's water quality and living resources is

significant because reductions in air pollution can potentially improve water quality. With this connection in

mind, resource managers are beginning to factor air pollution into their decisions about water quality

improvements.

What are the sources of air pollution?

Air pollution can be man-made or naturally occurring. The main sources of air pollution are: stationary and

area sources, mobile sources, agricultural sources, and natural sources.

Stationary and Area Sources

A stationary source of air pollution refers to an emission source that does not move (i.e., utilities, chemical and

manufacturing industries). Often stationary sources are defined as large emitters who release relatively

consistent qualities and quantities of pollutants. The term area source is used to describe the many smaller

stationary sources located together whose individual emissions may be low but whose collective emissions

can be significant. Typically area sources are those that emit less than 25 tons per year of any combination of

hazardous air pollutants, or less than 10 tons per year of any single hazardous air pollutant.

Mobile SourcesTraffic

A mobile source of air pollution refers to a source that is capable of moving under its own power. In general,

mobile sources imply on-road transportation. In addition, there is also a non-road or off-road category that

includes gas-powered lawn tools and mowers, farm and construction equipment, recreational vehicles, boats,

planes, and trains.

Agricultural Sources

Agricultural operations, those that raise animals and grow crops, can generate emissions of gases, particulate

matter, and chemical compounds. For example, animals confined to a barn or area (rather than field grazing),

produce large amounts of manure. Manure emits various gases, particularly ammonia into the air. This

ammonia can be emitted from the animal houses, manure storage areas, or from the land after the manure is

applied. In crop production, the misapplication of fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides can potentially result in

aerial drift of these materials.

Natural Sources

Natural sources of air pollution are sources not caused by people or their activities. An erupting volcano emits

particulate matter and gases; forest and prairie fires can emit large quantities of pollutants; plants and trees

emit hydrocarbons; and dust storms can create large amounts of particulate matter. Wild animals in their

natural habitat are also considered natural sources of pollution given that there is a certain amount of natural

pollution, it is very important to control the "excess" pollution caused by man’s activities.

What are the impacts of air pollution?

Pollution from atmospheric deposition which impact the Chesapeake Bay are nitrogen (NOx) and chemical

contaminants. These pollutants dramatically impact the Bay watershed.

The effects of nitrogen can be seen in:

* Acid Rain (acid deposition)-nitrogen oxides (NOx) is one of the key air pollutants that causes acid

deposition, and results in adverse effects on aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. Acid deposition increase the

acidity of water and soils. Increases in water acidity can impair the ability of certain fish and aquatic life to

grow, reproduce, and survive. Increases in soil acidity can impair the ability of some types of trees to grow

and resist disease.

* Smog- is a catchall term for a collection of pollutants ; it is ozone (formed by NOx), particulate matter, and

humidity, all mixed together. Smog reduces how far and how clearly we can see through the air, an effect

called visibility reduction or regional haze. General atmospheric conditions are that haze and ozone occur at

the same time and the mix of the two is called smog.

* Eutrophication- when excess nitrogen causes accelerated growth of algae. The algae blocks sunlight,

needed for submerged aquatic vegetation to grow, when the algae dies it sinking to the bottom and

decomposes in a process which depletes the water of oxygen.

* Accumulation- nitrogen can filter down through the ground into drinking water sources, these nitrates

contaminant the h20 we drink.

The effects of chemical contaminants can be seen in:

* Bioaccumulation- chemical contaminants increase in concentration as it moves through the food chain.

Example: an invertebrate eats contaminated algae, a small fish eats many contaminate invertebrates, a large

fish eats many small fish, and humans eat the big fish which is now loaded with the chemical.

* Chemical contaminant can accumulation and bind to the sediments they deposit on. When this happens, the

chemical contaminants are moved wherever the sediments are moved. (erosion and dredging exacerbate this

problem by moving the sediments into the water system were is can travel for miles).

* Chemical contaminants can change a plant species composition, and make species more susceptible to

disease, weather, and insect damage. Changes such as these challenge a specie's ability to reproduce and

develop.

* Persistent- chemical contaminants do not breakdown or diminish over time.

How does air pollution move?

Air transport is the term used to describe the mechanism by which air pollution moves from an emissions

source to a receptor. A source is a location (i.e., smokestack, chimney, exhaust pipe) from which the pollutant

emanates and a receptor is the place (i.e., soil, vegetation, waterbodies) where the pollutant is deposited. A

receptor is adversely affected by polluted air: a receptor can be people, animals, vegetation, materials, and

aquatic life. The wind is the transporter of pollutants from sources and receptors. If the wind carries the plume

of pollution high enough in the air, it may travel for hundreds of miles before being brought to earth. This is

known as long-range or long-distance transport.

* Air transport graphicPop-up Window

Important terms to know:

Emissions:

"Emission" refers to pollution being released or discharged into the air from natural or man-made sources.

Pollutants may be released directly into the air from a structural device (i.e., smokestack, chimney, exhaust

pipe) or indirectly via volatilization or dispersal (i.e., aerosol spraying).

Atmospheric Deposition:

The process whereby airborne particles and gases are deposited on the earth's surface by wet deposition

(precipitation) or by dry deposition (processes such as settling, impaction, and adsorption).

Wet Deposition:

Atmospheric deposition that occurs when precipitation (rain and snow) carries gases and particles to the

earth's surface.

Dry Deposition:

Atmospheric deposition that occurs when particles settle to a surface, collide with and attach to a surface

(adsorption) or are absorbed.

Loads:

The Bay receives pollution from many different sources. Each type of source adds to the total pollution "load"

the Bay receives.

When air pollution deposits onto the Bay water surface, it’s called a "direct load" because it comes directly from

the air to the water. When air pollution deposits onto the watershed (land) surface, it can be transported to the

Bay water via runoff or groundwater flow. This is considered an "indirect load" because it has an intermediate

stop before getting to the Bay.

How YOU Can Help:

By choosing to make energy efficient and conservation wise decisions you will not only help improve the health

of the Bay, but also ensure your good health and save money.

* Turn off your engine if waiting more than 1 minute at the drive-through or to pick someone up (more fuel is

wasted when idling than restarting).

* Stay alert in traffic. Take alternate routes ones with few stop signs and lights to eliminate idling.

* Warm up vehicle for one minute.

* Accelerate gently and evenly, and use your cruise control to maintain a steady speed.

* Use vehicle's flow through vents instead of air conditioning (which decreases fuel efficiency by 21%) or

opening window.

* Check car's cooling system thermostat. If this is stuck open it can reduce engine efficiency by 7% ($3.20 a

month).

* Keep car engine tuned. A poorly tuned car wastes 15% more fuel. Again more fuel equals more pollution

and travel fewer miles.

* Properly inflate & align tires to save gas & to reduce wear on tires over time.

* Reduce the amount of miles you drive. Fewer mile driven equals less gas, which equals fewer polluting

emissions created. Walk or ride a bike!

* Planning trips carefully which will result in reductions in the amount of nutrients and toxic substances

entering the watershed.

* Purchase fuel efficient automobiles: you'll get farther on less gas and keep more $ in your pocket.

* Follow state guidelines on emissions testing & maintain any pollution-control devices. Car will be more

efficient, use less gas, produce fewer emissions.

* Consider telecommuting for work.

* Use public transportation when available.

* Conserve electricity, including turning off lights when not in use and keeping your thermostat at regular

temperatures in winter (68) and summer (80). If 1% of the nation's consumer switch to energy efficient

appliances it would equal eliminating greenhouse gas emissions from 1.5 power plants.

* Participate in recycling programs AND purchase products that are packaged and/or made from recycled

and recyclable materials.Recycling conserves energy which equals less power plant emissions equals less air

pollution. It also conserves natural resources.

* Consider using an electric lawn mower instead of a gas-powered one and use a rake to collect leaves - it's

good exercise! Lawn and handheld gardening engines account for 10% of mobile source hydrocarbon

emissions. Running a gas powered lawn mower for one hour equals the emissions released when driving your

car 350 miles!!!!

Other Sites of Interest:

* EPA Office of Air and Radiation

* NOAA Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research

* NOAA Air Resources Laboratory

* Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) Air and Radiation Management Administration

* Air Quality - Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (VADEQ)

* Mid-Atlantic Regional Air Management Association (MARAMA)

* Pennsylvania's Department of Environmental Protection Air Quality Fact Sheet

* PPRP Atmospheric Deposition Measurement and Analysis Information Resource

* Air Web - National Park Service

Air Pollution Causes and Effects

by Tom Socha

09/11/2007

History

Humans probably first experienced harm from air pollution when they built fires in poorly ventilated caves.

Since then we have gone on to pollute more of the earth's surface. Until recently, environmental pollution

problems have been local and minor because of the Earth's own ability to absorb and purify minor quantities of

pollutants. The industrialization of society, the introduction of motorized vehicles, and the explosion of the

population, are factors contributing toward the growing air pollution problem. At this time it is urgent that we

find methods to clean up the air.

The primary air pollutants found in most urban areas are carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, sulfur oxides,

hydrocarbons, and particulate matter (both solid and liquid). These pollutants are dispersed throughout the

world's atmosphere in concentrations high enough to gradually cause serious health problems. Serious health

problems can occur quickly when air pollutants are concentrated, such as when massive injections of sulfur

dioxide and suspended particulate matter are emitted by a large volcanic eruption.

Air Pollution in the Home

You cannot escape air pollution, not even in your own home. "In 1985 the Environmental Protection Agency

(EPA) reported that toxic chemicals found in the air of almost every American home are three times more likely

to cause some type of cancer than outdoor air pollutants". (Miller 488) The health problems in these buildings

are called "sick building syndrome". "An estimated one-fifth to one-third of all U.S. buildings are now

considered "sick". (Miller 489) The EPA has found that the air in some office buildings is 100 times more

polluted than the air outside. Poor ventilation causes about half of the indoor air pollution problems. The rest

come from specific sources such as copying machines, electrical and telephone cables, mold and

microbe-harboring air conditioning systems and ducts, cleaning fluids, cigarette smoke, carpet, latex caulk

and paint, vinyl molding, linoleum tile, and building materials and furniture that emit air pollutants such as

formaldehyde. A major indoor air pollutant is radon-222, a colorless, odorless, tasteless, naturally occurring

radioactive gas produced by the radioactive decay of uranium-238. "According to studies by the EPA and the

National Research Council, exposure to radon is second only to smoking as a cause of lung cancer". (Miller 489)

Radon enters through pores and cracks in concrete when indoor air pressure is less than the pressure of gasses

in the soil. Indoor air will be healthier than outdoor air if you use an energy recovery ventilator to provide a

consistent supply of fresh filtered air and then seal air leaks in the shell of your home .

Sources of Pollutants

To enlarge an image, click on it.

The two main sources of pollutants in urban areas are transportation (predominantly automobiles) and fuel

combustion in stationary sources, including residential, commercial, and industrial heating and cooling and

coal-burning power plants. Motor vehicles produce high levels of carbon monoxides (CO) and a major source of

hydrocarbons (HC) and nitrogen oxides (NOx). Whereas, fuel combustion in stationary sources is the dominant

source of sulfur dioxide (SO2).

Carbon Dioxide

Carbon dioxide (CO2) is one of the major pollutants in the atmosphere. Major sources of CO2 are fossil fuels

burning and deforestation. "The concentrations of CO2 in the air around 1860 before the effects of

industrialization were felt, is assumed to have been about 290 parts per million (ppm). In the hundred years

and more since then, the concentration has increased by about 30 to 35 ppm that is by 10 percent". (Breuer 67)

Industrial countries account for 65% of CO2 emissions with the United States and Soviet Union responsible for

50%. Less developed countries (LDCs), with 80% of the world's people, are responsible for 35% of CO2

emissions but may contribute 50% by 2020. "Carbon dioxide emissions are increasing by 4% a year". (Miller

450)

In 1975, 18 thousand million tons of carbon dioxide (equivalent to 5 thousand million tons of carbon) were

released into the atmosphere, but the atmosphere showed an increase of only 8 billion tons (equivalent to 2.2

billion tons of carbon". (Breuer 70) The ocean waters contain about sixty times more CO2 than the atmosphere.

If the equilibrium is disturbed by externally increasing the concentration of CO2 in the air, then the oceans

would absorb more and more CO2. If the oceans can no longer keep pace, then more CO2 will remain into the

atmosphere. As water warms, its ability to absorb CO2 is reduced.

CO2 is a good transmitter of sunlight, but partially restricts infrared radiation going back from the earth into

space. This produces the so-called greenhouse effect that prevents a drastic cooling of the Earth during the

night. Increasing the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere reinforces this effect and is expected to result in a

warming of the Earth's surface. Currently carbon dioxide is responsible for 57% of the global warming trend.

Nitrogen oxides contribute most of the atmospheric contaminants.

N0X - nitric oxide (N0) and nitrogen dioxide (N02)

* Natural component of the Earth's atmosphere.

* Important in the formation of both acid precipitation and photochemical smog (ozone), and causes

nitrogen loading.

* Comes from the burning of biomass and fossil fuels.

* 30 to 50 million tons per year from human activities, and natural 10 to 20 million tons per year.

* Average residence time in the atmosphere is days.

* Has a role in reducing stratospheric ozone.

N20 - nitrous oxide

* Natural component of the Earth's atmosphere.

* Important in the greenhouse effect and causes nitrogen loading.

* Human inputs 6 million tons per year, and 19 million tons per year by nature.

* Residence time in the atmosphere about 170 years.

* 1700 (285 parts per billion), 1990 (310 parts per billion), 2030 (340 parts per billion).

* Comes from nitrogen based fertilizers, deforestation, and biomass burning.

Sulfur and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)

Sulfur dioxide is produced by combustion of sulfur-containing fuels, such as coal and fuel oils. Also, in the

process of producing sulfuric acid and in metallurgical process involving ores that contain sulfur. Sulfur oxides

can injure man, plants and materials. At sufficiently high concentrations, sulfur dioxide irritates the upper

respiratory tract of human beings because potential effect of sulfur dioxide is to make breathing more difficult

by causing the finer air tubes of the lung to constrict. "Power plants and factories emit 90% to 95% of the sulfur

dioxide and 57% of the nitrogen oxides in the United States. Almost 60% of the SO2 emissions are released by

tall smoke stakes, enabling the emissions to travel long distances". (Miller 494) As emissions of sulfur dioxide

and nitric oxide from stationary sources are transported long distances by winds, they form secondary

pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide, nitric acid vapor, and droplets containing solutions of sulfuric acid, sulfate,

and nitrate salts. These chemicals descend to the earth's surface in wet form as rain or snow and in dry form as

a gases fog, dew, or solid particles. This is known as acid deposition or acid rain.

Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)

CFCs are lowering the average concentration of ozone in the stratosphere. "Since 1978 the use of CFCs in

aerosol cans has been banned in the United States, Canada, and most Scandinavian countries. Aerosols are still

the largest use, accounting for 25% of global CFC use". (Miller 448) Spray cans, discarded or leaking

refrigeration and air conditioning equipment, and the burning plastic foam products release the CFCs into the

atmosphere. Depending on the type, CFCs stay in the atmosphere from 22 to 111 years. Chlorofluorocarbons

move up to the stratosphere gradually over several decades. Under high energy ultra violet (UV) radiation,

they break down and release chlorine atoms, which speed up the breakdown of ozone (O3) into oxygen gas

(O2).

Chlorofluorocarbons, also known as Freons, are greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming.

Photochemical air pollution is commonly referred to as "smog". Smog, a contraction of the words smoke and

fog, has been caused throughout recorded history by water condensing on smoke particles, usually from

burning coal. With the introduction of petroleum to replace coal economies in countries, photochemical smog

has become predominant in many cities, which are located in sunny, warm, and dry climates with many motor

vehicles. The worst episodes of photochemical smog tend to occur in summer.

Smog

To enlarge the image, click on it.

Photochemical smog is also appearing in regions of the tropics and subtropics where savanna grasses are

periodically burned. Smog's unpleasant properties result from the irradiation by sunlight of hydrocarbons

caused primarily by unburned gasoline emitted by automobiles and other combustion sources. The products of

photochemical reactions includes organic particles, ozone, aldehydes, ketones, peroxyacetyl nitrate, organic

acids, and other oxidants. Ozone is a gas created by nitrogen dioxide or nitric oxide when exposed to sunlight.

Ozone causes eye irritation, impaired lung function, and damage to trees and crops. Another form of smog is

called industrial smog.

This smog is created by burning coal and heavy oil that contain sulfur impurities in power plants, industrial

plants, etc... The smog consists mostly of a mixture of sulfur dioxide and fog. Suspended droplets of sulfuric acid

are formed from some of the sulfur dioxide, and a variety of suspended solid particles. This smog is common

during the winter in cities such as London, Chicago, Pittsburgh. When these cities burned large amounts of coal

and heavy oil without control of the output, large-scale problems were witnessed. In 1952 London, England,

4,000 people died as a result of this form of fog. Today coal and heavy oil are burned only in large boilers and

with reasonably good control or tall smokestacks so that industrial smog is less of a problem. However, some

countries such as China, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and some other eastern European countries, still burn large

quantities of coal without using adequate controls.

Pollution Damage to Plants

With the destruction and burning of the rain forests more and more CO2 is being released into the atmosphere.

Trees play an important role in producing oxygen from carbon dioxide. "A 115 year old Beech tree exposes

about 200,000 leaves with a total surface to 1200 square meters. During the course of one sunny day such a

tree inhales 9,400 liters of carbon dioxide to produce 12 kilograms of carbohydrate, thus liberating 9,400 liters

of oxygen. Through this mechanism about 45,000 liters of air are regenerated which is sufficient for the

respiration of 2 to 3 people". (Breuer 1) This process is called photosynthesis which all plants go though but

some yield more and some less oxygen. As long as no more wood is burnt than is reproduced by the forests, no

change in atmospheric CO2 concentration will result.

Pollutants such as sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, ozone and peroxyacl nitrates (PANs), cause direct damage to

leaves of crop plants and trees when they enter leaf pores (stomates). Chronic exposure of leaves and needles to

air pollutants can also break down the waxy coating that helps prevent excessive water loss and damage from

diseases, pests, drought and frost. "In the midwestern United States crop losses of wheat, corn, soybeans, and

peanuts from damage by ozone and acid deposition amount to about $5 billion a year". (Miller 498)

Reducing Pollution

You can help to reduce global air pollution and climate change by driving a car that gets at least 35 miles a

gallon, walking, bicycling, and using mass transit when possible. Replace incandescent light bulbs with

compact fluorescent bulbs, make your home more energy efficient, and buy only energy efficient appliances.

Recycle newspapers, aluminum, and other materials. Plant trees and avoid purchasing products such as

Styrofoam that contain CFCs. Support much stricter clean air laws and enforcement of international treaties to

reduce ozone depletion and slow global warming.

Earth is everybody's home and nobody likes living in a dirty home. Together, we can make the earth a cleaner,

healthier and more pleasant place to live.

Works Cited:

* Breuer, Georg, Air in Danger: Ecological Perspectives of the Atmosphere. New York: Cambridge University

Press, 1980.

* Stewart, T. Charles, Air Pollution, Human Health and Public Policy. New York: Lexington Books, 1979

* Miller, G. Tyler, Living in the Environment: an introduction to environmental science. Belmont:

Wadsworth, 1990.

Additional Sources of Information:

* Home, Sick Home — Johns Hopkins Science & Technology

* Safety and Comfort in Your Home

* Air Pollution and Respiratory Health — Centers for Disease Control & Prevention

* Indoor Air Pollution

Clean Energy Gains Support

* Outdoor Air Pollution

* Cancer Epidemic: Symptom of an Unsustainable Society

* Air Pollution Linked to Birth Defects

* Inflammation is a Secret Killer

* Clean energy and efficiency investments would create 3.3 million jobs, says study

* State of the Air: 2004 — American Lung Association

* Air Pollution — National Library of Medicine

* Second National Report on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals — Centers for Disease Control &

Prevention

* Toxic Releases and Health: A Review of Pollution Data and Current Knowledge on the Health Effects of Toxic

Chemicals

* New Report Finds Cancer Risk From Air Pollution Nearly 500 Times Greater Than Clean Air Act Standard

* Weatherization and Indoor Air Quality: Minimizing entry of outdoor air pollutants

* Air Pollution: Our Children at Risk

* Air pollution causes lung disease in school-age children

* Air Pollution Causes Blood Vessels to Constrict — American Heart Association

* Energy Department Data Confirm that President's Global Warming Plan Would Accelerate Pollution

* How industry-funded "experts" twist the environmental debate

* Mold (health effects, economic effects, mitigation, etc.)

* Heavy Metal Toxicity

* Fire's dangers drift far beyond flames

* Tobacco Related Diseases

* Real-Time Air Pollution and Visibility Monitoring (multiple outdoor web cams)

National Safety Council

Air Pollution Fact Sheet (for New Drivers)

What Is Air Pollution?

Air pollution is the contamination of air by the discharge of harmful substances. Air pollution can cause health

problems including burning eyes and nose, itchy irritated throat, and breathing problems. Some chemicals

found in polluted air can cause cancer, birth defects, brain and nerve damage, and long-term injury to the

lungs and breathing passages in certain circumstances. Above certain concentrations and durations, certain

air pollutants are extremely dangerous and can cause severe injury or death.

Air pollution can also damage the environment and property. Trees, lakes, and animals have been harmed by

air pollution. Air pollution has thinned the protective ozone layer above the Earth. Air pollution can damage

buildings, monuments, statues, and other structures.

Air pollution also can result in haze, which reduces visibility in national parks and elsewhere, and can

sometimes interfere with aviation.

What Are the Major Air Pollutants?

Carbon Monoxide (CO) is an odorless, colorless gas. After being inhaled, CO molecules can enter the

bloodstream, where they inhibit the delivery of oxygen throughout the body. Low concentrations can cause

dizziness, headaches, and fatigue; high concentrations can be fatal.

CO is produced by the incomplete burning of carbon-based fuels, including gasoline, oil, and wood. It is also

produced from incomplete combustion of natural and synthetic products, such as cigarette smoke. It can build

up in high concentrations in enclosed areas such as garages, poorly ventilated tunnels, and even along

roadsides in heavy traffic.

Carbon Dioxide (CO2) is the principal greenhouse gas emitted as a result of human activity (e.g., burning of

coal, oil, and natural gas). CO2 can cause burns, frostbite, and blindness if an area is exposed to it in solid or

liquid form. If inhaled, it can be toxic in high concentrations, causing an increase in the breathing rate,

unconsciousness, and death.

Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) are chemicals used in great quantities in industry, for refrigeration and air

conditioning, and in consumer products. CFCs, when released into the air, rise into the stratosphere (a layer of

atmosphere high above the Earth). In the stratosphere, CFCs take part in chemical reactions that result in

reduction of the stratospheric ozone layer, which protects the Earth's surface from the sun. Reducing the

release of CFC emissions and eliminating the production and use of ozone-destroying chemicals is very

important to the Earth's stratosphere.

Hazardous Air Pollutants (HAPs) are chemicals that cause serious health and environmental effects. Health

effects include cancer, birth defects, nervous system problems, and death due to massive accidental releases,

such as the disaster that occurred at a pesticide plant in Bhopal, India.

Hazardous air pollutants are released by sources such as chemical plants, dry cleaners, printing plants, and

motor vehicles including cars, trucks, buses, planes.

Lead is a highly toxic metal that produces a range of adverse health effects particularly in young children. Lead

can cause nervous system damage and digestive problems, and some lead-containing chemicals cause cancer.

Lead can also harm wildlife.

Lead has been phased out of gasoline, which has considerably reduced the contamination of air by lead.

However, lead can still be inhaled or ingested from other sources. The sources for lead include paint (for houses

and cars), smelters, manufacture of lead batteries, fishing lures, certain parts of bullets, some ceramic ware,

miniblinds, water pipes, and a few hair dye products.

Ozone (O3 is a gas that is a variety of oxygen. Oxygen consists of two oxygen atoms; ozone consists of three.

Ozone in the upper atmosphere, where it occurs naturally in what is known as the ozone layer, shields the

Earth from the sun's dangerous ultraviolet rays. However, at ground level where it is a pollutant with highly

toxic effects, ozone damages human health, the environment, crops, and a wide range of natural and artificial

materials. Ground-level ozone can irritate the respiratory tract, cause chest pain, persistent cough, an inability

to take a deep breath, and an increased susceptibility to lung infection. Ozone can damage trees and plants and

reduce visibility.

Ground-level ozone comes from the breakdown (oxidation) of volatile organic compounds found in solvents. It

is also a product of reactions between chemicals that are produced by burning coal, gasoline, other fuels, and

chemicals found in paints and hair sprays. Oxidation occurs readily during hot weather. Vehicles and

industries are major sources of ground-level ozone.

Nitrogen Oxide (NOx) is a major contributor to smog and acid rain. Nitrogen oxides react with volatile organic

compounds to form smog. In high doses, smog can harm humans by causing breathing difficulty for

asthmatics, coughs in children, and general illness of the respiratory system. Acid rain can harm vegetation

and run into lakes and rivers which changes the chemistry of the water, and makes it potentially uninhabitable

for all but acid-tolerant bacteria.

Nitrogen oxides are produced from burning fuels, including gasoline and coal. (NOx) acid aerosols can reduce

visibility.

Particulate Matter is any type of solid in the air in the form of smoke, dust, and vapors, which can remain

suspended for extended periods. Aside from reducing visibility and soiling clothing, microscopic particles in the

air can be breathed into lung tissue becoming lodged and causing increased respiratory disease and lung

damage. Particulates are also the main source of haze, which reduces visibility.

Particulates are produced by many sources, including burning of diesel fuels by trucks and buses, fossil fuels,

mixing and application of fertilizers and pesticides, road construction, industrial processes such as steel

making, mining, agricultural burning, and operation of fireplaces and woodstoves.

Sulfur Dioxide (SO2) is an odorless gas at low concentrations, but can have a very strong smell at high

concentrations. SO2 is a gas produced by burning coal, most notably in power plants. Some industrial

processes, such as production of paper and smelting of metals, produce sulfur dioxide.

Like nitrogen oxides, SO2 is a major contributor to smog and acid rain. SO2 is closely related to sulfuric acid, a

strong acid. It can harm vegetation and metals and can cause lung problems, including breathing problems

and permanent damage to lungs.

Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) are organic chemicals. All organic compounds contain carbon, and

organic chemicals are the basic chemicals found in all living things and in all products derived from living

things. Many organic compounds we use do not occur in nature, but were synthesized by chemists in

laboratories. Volatile chemicals produce vapors easily. At room temperature vapors readily escape from

volatile liquid chemicals.

VOCs include gasoline, industrial chemicals such as benzene, solvents such as toluene and xylene, and

perchloroethylene (principal dry cleaning solvent). VOCs are released from burning fuel, such as gasoline,

wood, coal, natural gas and from solvents, paints, glues, and other products used at home or work. Vehicle

emissions are an important source of VOCs. Many VOCs are hazardous air pollutants; for example, benzene

causes cancer.

How Can I Reduce My Contribution to Air Pollution?

There are many ways to reduce air pollution. People can contribute significantly to cleaning the air if they take

(or do not take — as the case may be) certain simple actions to reduce air pollution.

Since vehicles contribute greatly to air pollution by emitting CO, NOx, ozone, VOCs, HAPs, CFCs, and particulate

matter, each driver who makes personal changes in driving habits contributes to the reduction of air pollution.

Limit driving, use public transportation, walk, use carpools, bike, or so forth. These are the best ways an

individual can help reduce air pollution!

If you must drive, then try to follow these guidelines:

* Avoid high speeds.

* Buy a vehicle with high miles per gallon.

* Do not overfill or top off your gasoline tank.

* Do not refuel on high ozone days — try to refuel after dark.

* Drive a newer vehicle; the new models generally pollute less.

* Drive alternative vehicles or alternatively fueled vehicles, such as electric vehicles.

* Drive smoothly and avoid lengthy idling.

* If the vehicle is a pre-1995 model, have a professional convert the air conditioning from the dangerous CFC

R-12 to the safer R-134a to reduce your contribution to the ozone hole.

* Keep your car well maintained, especially the emissions control system.

* Keep tires properly inflated.

* Maintain your vehicle's air conditioning system — do not allow it to leak.

* Make fewer trips in your vehicle — plan routes to avoid traffic.

* Reduce fuel use as often as possible — a vehicle's shape and design features can affect its fuel use.

Here are other actions individuals can take to reduce air pollution:

* Defer lawn and gardening chores that use gasoline-powered equipment on high ground-level ozone days.

* Eat organically grown food, or at least less pesticide-dependant foods.

* Limit dry cleaning.

* Postpone using oil-based paint and solvents on high ground-level ozone days.

* Reduce consumption of electricity — conserving reduces emissions of SO2, NOx, VOCs and particulate

matter into the air.

* Start charcoal with an electric or chimney-type fire starter instead of lighter fluid.

* Reduce, Reuse, Recycle — less consumption of products will reduce all types of air pollution!

Water Pollution

2007-10-21T05:36:00.001-07:00

Did you know that 60% of our nation’s rivers and streams could be stripped of federal protection? Industry groups are trying to undo long-established safeguards for our local waterways and wetlands, but we now have a chance to stop them. Ask your representative to support the Clean Water Restoration Act now.

The Clean Water Restoration Act would restore the original intent of the Clean Water Act, the law that has protected our communities from pollution and cleaned up our nation’s water - water that our kids can play in, water that supports healthy fish and wildlife populations, water that is free from dangerous toxins.

We have momentum. Take action now to urge Congress to protect our local waters by supporting the Clean Water Restoration Act. With 158 representatives cosponsoring the Act, we are confident that we can win the backing to pass this important bill.

Comprising over 70% of the Earth�s surface, water is undoubtedly the most precious natural resource that exists on our planet. Without the seemingly invaluable compound comprised of hydrogen and oxygen, life on Earth would be non-existent: it is essential for everything on our planet to grow and prosper. Although we as humans recognize this fact, we disregard it by polluting our rivers, lakes, and oceans. Subsequently, we are slowly but surely harming our planet to the point where organisms
are dying at a very alarming rate. In addition to innocent organisms dying off, our drinking water has become greatly affected as is our ability to use water for recreational purposes. In order to combat water pollution, we must understand the problems and become part of the solution.

POINT AND NONPOINT SOURCES

According to the American College Dictionary, pollution is defined as: �to make foul or unclean; dirty.� Water pollution occurs when a body of water is adversely affected due to the addition of large amounts of materials to the water. When it is unfit for its intended use, water is considered polluted. Two types of water pollutants exist; point source and nonpoint source. Point sources of pollution occur when harmful substances are emitted directly into a body of water. The Exxon Valdez oil spill best illustrates a point source water pollution. A nonpoint source delivers pollutants indirectly through environmental changes. An example of this type of water pollution is when fertilizer from a field is carried into a stream by rain, in the form of run-off
which in turn effects aquatic life. The technology exists for point sources of pollution to be monitored and regulated, although political factors may complicate matters. Nonpoint sources are much more difficult to control. Pollution arising from nonpoint
sources accounts for a majority of the contaminants in streams and lakes.

CAUSES OF POLLUTION

Many causes of pollution including sewage and fertilizers contain nutrients such as nitrates and phosphates. In excess levels, nutrients over stimulate the growth of aquatic plants and algae. Excessive growth of these types of organisms consequently clogs our waterways, use up dissolved oxygen as they decompose, and block light to deeper waters.
This, in turn, proves very harmful to aquatic organisms as it affects the respiration ability or fish and other invertebrates that reside in water.
Pollution is also caused when silt and other suspended solids, such as soil, washoff plowed fields, construction and logging sites, urban areas, and eroded river banks when it rains. Under natural conditions, lakes, rivers, and other water bodies undergo Eutrophication, an aging process that slowly fills in the water body with sediment and organic matter. When these sediments enter various bodies of water, fish respirationbecomes impaired, plant productivity and water depth become reduced, and aquatic organisms and their environments become suffocated. Pollution in the form of organic
material enters waterways in many different forms as sewage, as leaves and grass clippings, or as runoff from livestock feedlots and pastures. When natural bacteria and protozoan in the water break down this organic material, they begin to use up the oxygen dissolved in the water. Many types of fish and bottom-dwelling animals cannot survive when levels of dissolved oxygen drop below two to five parts per million. When this occurs, it kills aquatic organisms in large numbers which leads to disruptions in the food chain.

Polluted River in the United Kingdom

The pollution of rivers and streams with chemical contaminants has become one of the most crutial environmental problems within the 20th century. Waterborne chemical pollution entering rivers and streams cause tramendous amounts of destruction.

Pathogens are another type of pollution that prove very harmful. They can cause many illnesses that range from typhoid and dysentery to minor respiratory and skin diseases. Pathogens include such organisms as bacteria, viruses, and protozoan. These pollutants enter waterways through untreated sewage, storm drains, septic tanks, runoff from farms, and particularly boats that dump sewage. Though microscopic, these pollutants have a tremendous effect evidenced by their ability to cause sickness.

ADDITIONAL FORMS OF WATER POLLUTION

Three last forms of water pollution exist in the forms of petroleum, radioactive substances, and heat. Petroleum often pollutes waterbodies in the form of oil, resulting from oil spills. The previously mentioned Exxon Valdez is an example of this type of water pollution. These large-scale accidental discharges of petroleum are an important cause of pollution along shore lines. Besides the supertankers, off-shore drilling operations contribute a large share of pollution. One estimate is that one ton of oil is spilled for every million tons of oil transported. This is equal to about 0.0001 percent. Radioactive substances are produced in the form of waste from nuclear power plants, and from the industrial, medical, and scientific use of radioactive materials. Specific forms of waste are uranium and thorium mining and refining. The last form of water pollution is heat. Heat is a pollutant because increased temperatures result in the deaths of many aquatic organisms. These decreases in temperatures are caused when a discharge of cooling water by factories and power plants occurs.

Demonstrators Protest Drilling

Oil pollution is a growing problem, particularly devestating to coastal wildlife. Small quantities of oil spread rapidly across long distances to form deadly oil slicks. In this picture, demonstrators with "oil-covered" plastic animals protest a potential drilling project in Key Largo, Florida. Whether or not accidental spills occur during the project, its impact on the delicate marine ecosystem of the coral reefs could be devastating.

Oil Spill Clean-up

Workers use special nets to clean up a California beach after an oil tanker spill. Tanker spills are an increasing environmental problem because once oil has spilled, it is virtually impossible to completely remove or contain it. Even small amounts spread rapidly across large areas of water. Because oil and water do not mix, the oil floats on the water and then washes up on broad expanses of shoreline. Attempts to chemically treat or sink the oil may further disrupt marine and beach ecosystems.

CLASSIFYING WATER POLLUTION

The major sources of water pollution can be classified as municipal, industrial, and agricultural. Municipal water pollution consists of waste water from homes and commercial establishments. For many years, the main goal of treating municipal
wastewater was simply to reduce its content of suspended solids, oxygen-demanding materials, dissolved inorganic compounds, and harmful bacteria. In recent years, however, more stress has been placed on improving means of disposal of the solid residues from the municipal treatment processes. The basic methods of treating municipal wastewater fall into three stages: primary treatment, including grit removal, screening, grinding, and sedimentation; secondary treatment, which entails oxidation of dissolved organic matter by means of using biologically active sludge, which is then filtered off; and tertiary treatment, in which advanced biological methods of nitrogen removal and chemical and physical methods such as granular filtration and activated carbon absorption are employed. The handling and disposal of solid residues can
account for 25 to 50 percent of the capital and operational costs of a treatment plant. The characteristics of industrial waste waters can differ considerably both within and among industries. The impact of industrial discharges depends not only on their
collective characteristics, such as biochemical oxygen demand and the amount of suspended solids, but also on their content of specific inorganic and organic substances. Three options are available in controlling industrial wastewater. Control can take place at the point of generation in the plant; wastewater can be pretreated for discharge to municipal treatment sources; or wastewater can be treated completely at the plant and either reused or discharged directly into receiving waters.

Wastewater Treatment

Raw sewage includes waste from sinks, toilets, and industrial processes. Treatment of the sewage is required before it can be safely buried, used, or released back into local water systems. In a treatment plant, the waste is passed through a series of screens, chambers, and chemical processes to reduce its bulk and toxicity. The three general phases of treatment are primary, secondary, and tertiary. During primary treatment, a large percentage of the suspended solids and inorganic material is removed from the sewage. The focus of secondary treatment is reducing organic material by accelerating natural biological processes. Tertiary treatment is necessary when the water will be reused; 99 percent of solids are removed and various chemical processes are used to ensure the water is as free from impurity as possible.

Agriculture, including commercial livestock and poultry farming, is the source of many organic and inorganic pollutants in surface waters and groundwater. These contaminants include both sediment from erosion cropland and compounds of
phosphorus and nitrogen that partly originate in animal wastes and commercial fertilizers. Animal wastes are high in oxygen demanding material, nitrogen and phosphorus, and they often harbor pathogenic organisms. Wastes from commercial
feeders are contained and disposed of on land; their main threat to natural waters, therefore, is from runoff and leaching. Control may involve settling basins for liquids, limited biological treatment in aerobic or anaerobic lagoons, and a variety of other methods.

GROUND WATER

Ninety-five percent of all fresh water on earth is ground water. Ground water is found in natural rock formations. These formations, called aquifers, are a vital natural resource with many uses. Nationally, 53% of the population relies on ground water as a source of drinking water. In rural areas this figure is even higher. Eighty one percent of community water is dependent on ground water. Although the 1992 Section 305(b) State Water Quality Reports indicate that, overall, the Nation�s ground water quality is good to excellent, many local areas have experienced significant ground water contamination.
Some examples are leaking underground storage tanks and municipal landfills.

LEGISLATION

Several forms of legislation have been passed in recent decades to try to control water pollution. In 1970, the Clean Water Act provided 50 billion dollars to cities and states to build wastewater facilities. This has helped control surface water pollution from industrial and municipal sources throughout the United States. When congress passed the Clean Water Act in 1972, states were given primary authority to set their own standards for their water. In addition to these standards, the act required that all state beneficial uses and their criteria must comply with the �fishable and swimmable� goals of the act. This essentially means that state beneficial uses must be able to support aquatic life and recreational use. Because it is impossible to test water for every type of disease-causing organism, states usually look to identify indicator bacteria. One for a example is a bacteria known as fecal coliforms.(Figure 1 shows the quality of water for each every state in the United States, click on the US link). These indicator bacteria suggest that a certain selection of water may be contaminated with untreated sewage and that other, more dangerous, organisms are present. These legislations are an important part in the fight against water pollution. They are useful in preventing Envioronmental catastrophes. The graph shows reported pollution incidents since 1989-1994. If stronger legislations existed, perhaps these events would never have occurred.

figure 1

GLOBAL WATER POLLUTION

Estimates suggest that nearly 1.5 billion people lack safe drinking water and that at least 5 million deaths per year can be attributed to waterborne diseases. With over 70 percent of the planet covered by oceans, people have long acted as if these very bodies of water could serve as a limitless dumping ground for wastes. Raw sewage, garbage, and oil spills have begun to overwhelm the diluting capabilities of the oceans, and most coastal waters are now polluted. Beaches around the world are closed regularly, often because of high amounts of bacteria from sewage disposal, and marine wildlife is beginning to suffer.

Perhaps the biggest reason for developing a worldwide effort to monitor and restrict global pollution is the fact that most forms of pollution do not respect national boundaries. The first major international conference on environmental issues was held
in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1972 and was sponsored by the United Nations (UN). This meeting, at which the United States took a leading role, was controversial because many developing countries were fearful that a focus on environmental protection was a means for the developed world to keep the undeveloped world in an economically subservient position. The most important outcome of the conference was the creation of the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP).

UNEP was designed to be �the environmental conscience of the United Nations,� and, in an attempt to allay fears of the developing world, it became the first UN agency to be headquartered in a developing country, with offices in Nairobi, Kenya. In addition to attempting to achieve scientific consensus about major environmental issues, a major focus for UNEP has been the study of ways to encourage sustainable development increasing standards of living without destroying the environment. At the time of UNEP's creation in 1972, only 11 countries had environmental agencies. Ten years later that number had grown to 106, of which 70 were in developing countries.

So that you can become a water pollution expert, first we'll investigate different kinds of water pollution. And when you're ready, you can help clean up an oil spill!

One kind of water pollution, which is usually the most common, is called CONVENTIONAL and is made up of conventional pollutants. Conventional pollutants are solid particles and matter found in our water. Most of the pollution you can see is conventional. Cans, bottles, paper--just about anything--can be a conventional pollutant. You can see conventional pollutants in the picture above.

Conventional pollutants cause a wide variety of environmental problems. The solids suspended in the water can block the sun's rays, and this blocking disrupts the carbon dioxide/oxygen conversion process. This process is vital to an aquatic food chain. Sometimes the solid pollution is so bad, the water becomes unusable to humans and animals. The best way to remove conventional pollutants is to run the water through a treatment plant. In treatment plants the water is skimmed, run through several filters, and settled. This removes about 60 percent of the pollutants. The remaining pollution is decomposed by tiny pollution-eating microorganisms. Microorganisms are living things that are so tiny you need a microscope to see them.

Another type of pollution is called NON-CONVENTIONAL and is made up of non-conventional pollutants. Non-conventional pollutants are more dangerous to the environment than conventional pollutants. Non-conventional pollutants are dissolved metals, both toxic (harmful) and nontoxic (not harmful). Many factories dump these pollutants into the water as byproducts of their production process. The most devastating type of non-conventional pollution is an oil spill. More than 13,000 oil spills occur each year in the United States.

Non-conventional water pollutants have polluted this water.

Non-conventional pollutants are difficult to remove because they are dissolved in the water. Even though you can't see them most of the time, they are dangerous. Microorganisms, like the ones used to eat pollution in water treatment facilities, are the best way to get rid of non-conventional pollution. However, not all pollution can be removed from the water -- even with the most advanced technology.

Click on the pictures below to learn more about fighting pollution.

Learn how environmental workers clean up oil spills.

Clean up a virtual oil spill yourself.

Learn how you can help prevent pollution.

Photos courtesy of David Rockwell, the EPA, and U.S. Coast Guard.

Water Pollution Down the Tubes Make a Water Cycle Dolphin Diary What to Drink? Water Striders Dragonfly Home

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Reply to ASK-AN-EARTH-SCIENTIST

Subject: Sources of Water Pollution

a)What are the sources of water pollution?

b)What are the effects of water pollution?

c)What are the ways we can take to decrease those problem?

a)What are the sources of water pollution?

There are many causes for water pollution but two general categories exist: direct and indirect contaminant sources.

Direct sources include effluent outfalls from factories, refineries, waste treatment plants etc.. that emit fluids of varying quality directly into urban water supplies. In the United States and other countries, these practices are regulated, although this doesn't mean that pollutants can't be found in these waters.

Indirect sources include contaminants that enter the water supply from soils/groundwater systems and from the atmosphere via rain water. Soils and groundwaters contain the residue of human agricultural practices (fertilizers, pesticides, etc..) and improperly disposed of industrial wastes. Atmospheric contaminants are also derived from human practices (such as gaseous emissions from automobiles, factories and even bakeries).

Contaminants can be broadly classified into organic, inorganic, radioactive and acid/base. Examples from each class and their potential sources are too numerous to discuss here.

b)What are the effects of water pollution?

The effects of water pollution are varied. They include poisonous drinking water, poisionous food animals (due to these organisms having bioaccumulated toxins from the environment over their life spans), unbalanced river and lake ecosystems that can no longer support full biological diversity, deforestation from acid rain, and many other effects. These effects are, of course, specific to the various contaminants.

c)What are the ways we can take to decrease those problem?

Science provides many practical solutions to minimizing the present level at which pollutants are introduced into the environment and for remediating (cleaning up) past problems. All of these solutions come with some cost (both societal and monetary). In our everyday lives, a great deal can be done to minimize pollution if we take care to recycle materials whose production creates pollution and if we act responsibly with household chemicals and their disposal. Additionally, there are choices we make each day that also can affect the quantity of pollutants our actions will introduce into the environment. Heavily packaged foods, for instance, contain boxes, cartons, bottles etc.. made with polluting dyes, many of which are released from groundwater at municipal land fills. Whether we choose to drive to the corner store rather than walk or ride a bicycle will determine how much we personally contribute to acid and hydrocarbon emissions to the atmosphere (and ultimately to global fresh water supplies).

In the end, there are many choices on the personal and societal level that we must make (consciously or not) that affect the amount of pollution our town or country will be forced to live with. Our standard of living and very way of life is based upon practices which are inherently "dirtier" than those of our distant ancestors, although they too polluted their environment to some extent. Without taking a step backward in terms of our standards of living, the answer seems to lie in a combination of many small changes in our daily practices and paying more for goods and services, so that manufacturers of various materials and drivers of automobiles (for instance) will have cleaner devices with which to conduct their activities.

Mountain Top Removal

2007-10-20T17:50:00.000-07:00

What is Mountain Top Removal Mining?

Mountaintop removal / valley fill coal mining (MTR) has been called strip mining on steroids. One author says the process should be more accurately named: mountain range removal. Mountaintop removal /valley fill mining annihilates ecosystems, transforming some of the most biologically diverse temperate forests in the world into biologically barren moonscapes.

Download MJS newsletter and fact sheets.

Many thanks to OHVEC for the use of their photographs and assistance in this page.

Steps and Effects

1. Forests are clear-cut; often scaping away topsoil, lumber, understory herbs such as ginseng and goldenseal, and all other forms of life that do not move out of the way quickly enough. Wildlife habitat is destroyed and vegetation loss often leads to floods and landslides. Next, explosives up to 100 times as strong as ones that tore open the Oklahoma City Federal building blast up to 800 feet off mountaintops. Explosions can cause damage to home foundations and wells. “Fly rock,” more aptly named fly boulder, can rain off mountains, endangering resident’s lives and homes.

2. Huge Shovels dig into the soil and trucks haul it away or push it into adjacent valleys.

3. A dragline digs into the rock to expose the coal. These machines can weigh up to 8 million pounds with a base as big as a gymnasium and as tall as a 20-story building. These machines allow coal companies to hire fewer workers. A small crew can tear apart a mountain in less than a year, working night and day. Coal companies make big profits at the expense of us all.

4. Giant machines then scoop out the layers of coal, dumping millions of tons of “overburden” – the former mountaintops – into the narrow adjacent valleys, thereby creating valley fills. Coal companies have forever buried over 1,200 miles of biologically crucial Appalachian headwaters streams

5. Coal companies are supposed to reclaim land, but all too often mine sites are left stripped and bare. Even where attempts to replant vegetation have been made, the mountain is never again returned to its healty state. Reclamation Problems

Community Impacts

Coal washing often results in thousands of gallons of contaminated water that looks like black sludge and contains toxic chemicals and heavy metals. The sludge, or slurry, is often contained behind earthen dams in huge sludge ponds. One of these ponds broke on February 26th, 1972 above the community of Buffalo Creek in southern West Virginia. Pittston Coal Company had been warned that the dam was dangerous, but they did nothing. Heavy rain caused the pond to fill up and it breached the dam, sending a wall of black water into the valley below. Over 132 million gallons of black wastewater raged through the valley. 125 people were killed, 1100 injured and 4000 were left homeless. Over 1000 cars and trucks were destroyed and the disaster did 50 million dollars in damage. The coal company called it an “act of God”.

Marsh Fork Elementary by Brittany Williams.

The school is in lower left of photo. The clear green patch in the lower left is the football field. The tall cylindrical white object is the coal silo, less than 200 feet from the school. The zigzag is the earthen dam holding the sludge lake (2.8 billion gallons), directly above the school.

Traditional mining communities dissappear as jobs diminish and residents are driven away by dust, blasting and increased flooding and dangers from overloaded coal trucks careening down small, windy mountain roads. Mining companies buy many of the homes and tear them down.Dynamite is cheaper than people, so mountaintop removal mining does not create many new jobs.

Mingo County flood in West Virginia

June 2004

Mountaintop removal generates huge amounts of waste. While the solid waste becomes valley fills, liquid waste is stored in massive, dangerous coal slurry impoundments, often built in the headwaters of a watershed. The slurry is a witch’s brew of water used to wash the coal for market, carcinogenic chemicals used in the washing process and coal fines (small particles) laden with all the compounds found in coal, including toxic heavy metals such as arsenic and mercury. Frequent blackwater spills from these impoundments choke the life out of streams. One “spill” of 306 million gallons that sentsludge up to fifteen feet thick into resident’s yards and fouled 75 miles of waterways, has been called the southeast’s worst environmental disaster.

Of course, it’s not only the people who suffer. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has written that mountaintop removal’s destruction of WV’s vast contiguous forests destroys key nesting habitat for neo-tropical migrant bird populations, and thereby decreases the migratory bird populations throughout the northeast U.S.

How could this happen?

A federal judge has twice ruled that most valley fills are illegal under the Clean Water Act (CWA). His first ruling was overturned on a jurisdictional issue, and his second ruling is now under appeal by the Bush administration. In case the appeal doesn’t go the way he wants, Bush has rewritten a 25-year-old rule of the CWA, thus legalizing illegal valley fills. The federal judge reminded Bush that only Congress can rewrite the laws of the land. The whole issue is up in the air. Other aspects of MTR are also illegal, but the outlaw coal industry has many politicians, from the local to the national level, in its pocket. Coal companies continue to buy politicians’ support, so they can do whatever they want, choking out the democratic political process just as their frequent spills choke the life out of streams.

Bush received millions of dollars from the coal industry during his 2000 election campaign One of Bush’s big supporters in West Virginia, James “Buck” Harless (a Bush “Pioneer”), who raised $250,000 for Bush, had a private audience with the President at Bush’s ranch. What’s more, his grandson, James H. Harless II, was chosen as an energy policy adviser during the White House transition.

You Can End Mountaintop Removal

Mountaintop removal is a radical form of coal mining in which entire mountains are literally blown up -- and it is happening here in America on a scale that is almost unimaginable.

Mountaintop removal is devastating hundreds of square miles of Appalachia; polluting the headwaters of rivers that provide drinking water to millions of Americans; and destroying a distinctly American culture that has endured for generations.

But mountaintop removal can be stopped -- with the help of people like you.

On this site, you can explore the National Memorial for the Mountains, watch a video about mountaintop removal featuring Woody Harrelson, share your prayers for the mountains and more.

Please take a moment to learn more about mountaintop removal mining -- and then join us by taking action to stop it.

One of the greatest environmental and human rights catastrophes in American history is underway just southwest of our nation's capital. In the coalfields of Appalachia, individuals, families and entire communities are being driven off their land by flooding, landslides and blasting resulting from mountaintop removal coal mining.

Mountaintop removal is a relatively new type of coal mining that began in Appalachia in the 1970s as an extension of conventional strip mining techniques. Primarily, mountaintop removal is occurring in West Virginia, Kentucky, Virginia and Tennessee. Coal companies in Appalachia are increasingly using this method because it allows for almost complete recovery of coal seams while reducing the number of workers required to a fraction of what conventional methods require.

Mountaintop removal involves clear cutting native hardwood forests, using dynamite to blast away as much as 800-1000 feet of mountaintop, and then dumping the waste into nearby valleys, often burying streams. While the environmental devastation caused by this practice is obvious, families and communities near these mining sites are forced to contend with continual blasting from mining operations that can take place up to 300 feet from their homes and operate 24 hours a day. Families and communities near mining sites also suffer from airborne dust and debris, floods that have left hundreds dead and thousands homeless, and contamination of their drinking water supplies.

In central Appalachian counties, which are among the poorest in the nation, homes are frequently the only asset folks have. Mining operations have damaged hundreds of homes beyond repair and the value of homes near a mountaintop removal sites often decrease by as much as 90%. Worst of all, mountaintop removal is threatening not just the people, forest and mountaints of central Appalachia, but the very culture of the region. Coal companies frequently claim that mountaintop removal is beneficial for the people, economy and the environment, but the facts just don’t hold up.

Appalachian Voices is helping to end the practice of mountaintop removal coal mining by working with community organizations in coalfields, and organizing a national educational campaign to end the destructive practice of mountain top removal coal mining by gaining support for the Clean Water Protection Act. As part of this campaign, we are traveling to communities to share Appalachian Treasures, a multi-media slide show presentation that depicts the dire situation in Appalachian coalfields and encouraging Americans to help protect Appalachian communities and some of our nation's oldest mountains.

Appalachian Voices is also working to compile scientific, socio-economic and geographic information on the effects and extent of mountaintop removal and a host of other resources such as a photo gallery of mountaintop removal and the Appalachian mountains and information on where coal from mountaintop removal operations is consumed.

Not since the glaciers pushed toward these ridgelines a million years ago have the Appalachian Mountains been as threatened as they are today. But the coal-extraction process decimating this landscape, known as mountaintop removal, has generated little press beyond the region.

A mountaintop no more.

Photo: Vivian Stockman/SouthWings.

The problem, in many ways, is one of perspective. From interstates and lowlands, where most communities are clustered, one simply doesn't see what is happening up there. Only from the air can you fully grasp the magnitude of the devastation. If you were to board, say, a small prop plane at Zeb Mountain, Tenn., and follow the spine of the Appalachian Mountains up through Kentucky, Virginia, and West Virginia, you would be struck not by the beauty of a densely forested range older than the Himalayas, but rather by inescapable images of ecological violence. Near Pine Mountain, Ky., you'd see an unfolding series of staggered green hills quickly give way to a wide expanse of gray plateaus pocked with dark craters and huge black ponds filled with a toxic byproduct called coal slurry. The desolation stretches like a long scar up the Kentucky-Virginia line, before eating its way across southern West Virginia.

Central Appalachia provides much of the country's coal, second only to Wyoming's Powder River Basin. In the United States, 100 tons of coal are extracted every two seconds. Around 70 percent of that coal comes from strip mines, and over the last 20 years, an increasing amount comes from mountaintop-removal sites.

2007-10-20T10:50:00.000-07:00

Facts and figures

Need some facts or figures for a project or just generally interested in finding out the facts and figures on tropical rainforests? Then you are in the right place!

Have a look through the list here but don't forget to keep coming back as it is being updated all the time.
Rainforests are home to more species of plants and animals than the rest of the world put together.
An astounding number of fruits (bananas, citrus), vegetables (peppers, okra), nuts (cashews, peanuts), drinks (coffee, tea, cola), oils (palm, coconut), flavorings (cocoa, vanilla, sugar, spices), and other foods (beans, grains, fish) come from rainforests.
Tropical forest fibres are found in rugs, mattresses, ropes and strings, fabrics, industrial processes, and more.
Tropical forest oils, gums and resins are found in insecticides, rubber products, fuel, paint, varnish and wood finishing products, cosmetics, soaps, shampoos, perfumes, disinfectants, and detergents.
Madagascar is 2% of Africa's landmass but has 10,000 species of plants -- 80% are endemic (found no where else in the world).
The Amazon River is the world's largest river system. Its annual outflow accounts for one-fifth of all the fresh water that drains into the world's oceans.
780 tree species have been found in a 10 hectare plot of Malaysian rainforest -- more than the total number of tree species native to the US and Canada.
In 1800, there were 2.9 billion hectares of tropical forest worldwide. There are 1.5 billion hectares of tropical forest remaining.
Between 1960-1990, 445 million hectares of tropical forest were cleared.
Asia lost almost a third of its tropical forest cover between 1960-1980 -- the world's highest rate of forest clearance.
Almost 90% of West Africa's rainforest has been destroyed.
We lose 50 species every day -- 2 species per hour -- due to tropical deforestation.
Tropical rainforests act as a global air conditioner -- by storing and absorbing carbon dioxide from the air, storing the carbon, and releasing fresh, clean oxygen.
Tropical forests yield some of the world's most beautiful and valuable woods, such as teak, mahogany, rosewood, balsa, and sandalwood. These woods surround us at home, in shops, and in offices.
About 50% of all mammals and 25% of all bird species in peninsular Malaysia will become extinct by the year 2020 if the rainforest destruction continues.
Over 50% of the Earth's species live in tropical forests.
Over 2000 tropical forest plants have been identified as having anti-cancer properties. However, scientists have only tested 1 in 10 tropical forest plants for these properties and only intensively screened 1 in 100.
90% of all primates are found in tropical forests.
Madagascar is home to all of the world's lemurs -- all are endangered.
Almost 90% of Madagascar's forests have been destroyed.
In Southeast Asia, traditional healers use 6,500 different tropical plants.
Before 1500, there were approximately 6 million native people living in Brazilian Amazonia. By 2000 there were less than 250,000.
75% of Australia's tropical rainforest has been cleared since the late 1700s.
Over 90 different Amazonian tribes are thought to have disappeared in the 20th century.
It takes 60 years for a tropical rainforest tree to grow big enough to be used for timber.
Tropical rainforests cover 6% of the earth's surface and contain over 50% of the earth's species.
Over 2000 rainforest plants have been shown to have anti-cancer properties.
Tropical rainforest temperatures are high all year around at between 20 - 30 C
Approximately 80% of all insect species live in tropical rainforests
1 in 5 of all the birds on Earth live in Amazonia
Only 4% of the world's tropical rainforests are protected.
An area of woodland containing 10 species of trees in the UK would contain 180 species in a tropical forest.
The tallest tropical tree in the world is recorded at 83 metres tall.
More than 9000 species of orchids grow on tropical trees.
The largest flower on Earth comes from a tropical forest - the Rafflesia grows up to 1 metre across.
Costa Rica was the first Central American nation to cultivate coffee.
Costa Rica was the first Central American nation to cultivate bananas for export.
The developing countries, which account for most of the tropical rainforests, have almost 75% of the world's people but only about 15% of the world's goods.
Unlike our forests most of the nutrients of a rainforest are stored in its vegetation rather than in its soil.
The common way to clear land for agriculture or ranching is by felling and burning the trees.
On September 9, 1987, a satellite picture of the Amazon River Basin showed a total of 7,603 fires burning in the rainforest.
Some 25% of all medicines used by Americans originated in a tropical rainforest.
Many species of plants and animals are disappearing from the rainforests before they can be catalogued and studied.
In most tropical countries only one tree is replanted for every ten cut.
About 2,000 trees per minute are cut down in the rainforests.
Half the rainfall in Amazonia returns to the atmosphere through the process of transpiration.
In the tropics, wood is the main source of energy for cooking for millions of poor, rural people.
Almost 65% of Central America has been cleared to create pastureland for grazing cattle.
Rainforest land cleared for pasture or farming degrades quickly and is usually abandoned.
Biologists Paul and Anne Ehrlich have likened the loss of individual species, from bacteria to mammals, to the continued loss of rivets that hold an airplane together. While the short-term effects may not be noticeable, the long-term effects could be disastrous.
The Ganges Plain, in India, is the most densely populated region in the world. It has suffered severe flooding because of deforestation.
Most of the forests in India and Nepal have been cleared for agriculture.
Use of powerful pesticides on banana plantations in Costa Rica has killed huge numbers of fish in nearby rivers and streams.
In 1990, Brazil's President Jose Sarney signed laws allowing more than five million acres of forest areas to be managed by rubber tappers, nut gatherers and others whose livelihood depends on the rainforest harvest.
In Papua New Guinea, butterfly farms are a successful operation that provides income and supports forest preservation.
At least 42 million acres of tropical forest are lost each year, approximately 100 acres/minute.
In the 20th century, 90 tribes of native peoples have been wiped out in Brazil alone.
Some of the medical problems solved with rainforest plants include: a. malaria (the bark of the cinchona tree produces quinine) b. a muscle relaxant used during surgery (curare, a vine extract used by indigenous peoples to poison arrows and darts) c. strokes, seizure, depression and Alzheimer's disease (secretions of an Amazonian frog called Phyllomedusa bicolor)
The rainforest is home to 155,000 out of 225,000 plant species known in the world
Just 100 hectares of Amazon rainforest can contain up to 1500 different plant species, as many as in the whole of the UK
There may be as many as 300 different species of rainforest trees in 1 square kilometre.
For every tropical plant species that becomes extinct it is thought that 20 insects are certain not to survive.
Only 3% of all tropical tree species used for timber and paper products are grown in plantations

"Almost 65% of Central America has been cleared to create pastureland for grazing cattle."

Hummingbird

Plants

Animals

Climate

Southeast Asian Rainforests

The tropical rain forest is a forest of tall trees in a region of year-round warmth. An average of 50 to 260 inches (125 to 660 cm.) of rain falls yearly.

Rain forests belong to the tropical wet climate group. The temperature in a rain forest rarely gets higher than 93 °F (34 °C) or drops below 68 °F (20 °C); average humidity is between 77 and 88%; rainfall is often more than 100 inches a year. There is usually a brief season of less rain. In monsoonal areas, there is a real dry season. Almost all rain forests lie near the equator.

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.

A tropical rain forest has more kinds of trees than any other area in the world. Scientists have counted about 100 to 300 species in one 2 1/2-acre (1-hectare) area in South America. Seventy percent of the plants in the rainforest are trees.

About 1/4 of all the medicines we use come from rainforest plants. Curare comes from a tropical vine, and is used as an anesthetic and to relax muscles during surgery. Quinine, from the cinchona tree, is used to treat malaria. A person with lymphocytic leukemia has a 99% chance that the disease will go into remission because of the rosy periwinkle. More than 1,400 varieties of tropical plants are thought to be potential cures for cancer.

All tropical rain forests resemble one another in some ways. Many of the trees have straight trunks that don't branch out for 100 feet or more. There is no sense in growing branches below the canopy where there is little light. The majority of the trees have smooth, thin bark because there is no need to protect the them from water loss and freezing temperatures. It also makes it difficult for epiphytes and plant parasites to get a hold on the trunks. The bark of different species is so similar that it is difficult to identify a tree by its bark. Many trees can only be identified by their flowers.

Despite these differences, each of the three largest rainforests--the American, the African, and the Asian--has a different group of animal and plant species. Each rain forest has many species of monkeys, all of which differ from the species of the other two rain forests. In addition, different areas of the same rain forest may have different species. Many kinds of trees that grow in the mountains of the Amazon rain forest do not grow in the lowlands of that same forest.

Layers of the Rainforest

There are four very distinct layers of trees in a tropical rain forest. These layers have been identified as the emergent, upper canopy, understory, and forest floor.

Emergent trees are spaced wide apart, and are 100 to 240 feet tall with umbrella-shaped canopies that grow above the forest. Because emergent trees are exposed to drying winds, they tend to have small, pointed leaves. Some species lose their leaves during the brief dry season in monsoon rainforests. These giant trees have straight, smooth trunks with few branches. Their root system is very shallow, and to support their size they grow buttresses that can spread out to a distance of 30 feet.
The upper canopy of 60 to 130 foot trees allows light to be easily available at the top of this layer, but greatly reduced any light below it. Most of the rainforest's animals live in the upper canopy. There is so much food available at this level that some animals never go down to the forest floor. The leaves have "drip spouts" that allows rain to run off. This keeps them dry and prevents mold and mildew from forming in the humid environment.
The understory, or lower canopy, consists of 60 foot trees. This layer is made up of the trunks of canopy trees, shrubs, plants and small trees. There is little air movement. As a result the humidity is constantly high. This level is in constant shade.
The forest floor is usually completely shaded, except where a canopy tree has fallen and created an opening. Most areas of the forest floor receive so little light that few bushes or herbs can grow there. As a result, a person can easily walk through most parts of a tropical rain forest. Less than 1 % of the light that strikes the top of the forest penetrates to the forest floor. The top soil is very thin and of poor quality. A lot of litter falls to the ground where it is quickly broken down by decomposers like termites, earthworms and fungi. The heat and humidity further help to break down the litter. This organic matter is then just as quickly absorbed by the trees' shallow roots.

Plant Life

Besides these four layers, a shrub/sapling layer receives about 3 % of the light that filters in through the canopies. These stunted trees are capable of a sudden growth surge when a gap in the canopy opens above them.

The air beneath the lower canopy is almost always humid. The trees themselves give off water through the pores (stomata) of their leaves. This process, called transpiration, can account for as much as half of the precipitation in the rain forest.

Rainforest plants have made many adaptations to their environment. With over 80 inches of rain per year, plants have made adaptations that helps them shed water off their leaves quickly so the branches don't get weighed down and break. Many plants have drip tips and grooved leaves, and some leaves have oily coatings to shed water. To absorb as much sunlight as possible on the dark understory, leaves are very large. Some trees have leaf stalks that turn with the movement of the sun so they always absorb the maximum amount of light. Leaves in the upper canopy are dark green, small and leathery to reduce water loss in the strong sunlight. Some trees will grow large leaves at the lower canopy level and small leaves in the upper canopy. Other plants grow in the upper canopy on larger trees to get sunlight. These are the epiphytes such as orchids and bromeliads. Many trees have buttress and stilt roots for extra support in the shallow, wet soil of the rainforests.

Over 2,500 species of vines grow in the rainforest. Lianas start off as small shrubs that grow on the forest floor. To reach the sunlight in the upper canopy it sends out tendrils to grab sapling trees. The liana and the tree grow towards the canopy together. The vines grow from one tree to another and make up 40% of the canopy leaves. The rattan vine has spikes on the underside of its leaves that point backwards to grab onto sapling trees. Other "strangler" vines will use trees as support and grow thicker and thicker as they reach the canopy, strangling its host tree. They look like trees whose centers have been hollowed out.

Dominant species do not exist in tropical rainforests. Lowland dipterocarp forest can consist of many different species of Dipterocarpaceae, but not all of the same species. Trees of the same species are very seldom found growing close together. This bio diversity and separation of the species prevents mass contamination and die-off from disease or insect infestation. Bio diversity also insures that there will be enough pollinators to take care of each species' needs. Animals depend on the staggered blooming and fruiting of rainforest plants to supply them with a year-round source of food.

Animal Life

Many species of animal life can be found in the rain forest. Common characteristics found among mammals and birds (and reptiles and amphibians, too) include adaptations to a life in the trees, such as the prehensile tails of New World monkeys. Other characteristics are bright colors and sharp patterns, loud vocalizations, and diets heavy on fruits.

Insects make up the largest single group of animals that live in tropical forests. They include brightly colored butterflies, mosquitoes, camouflaged stick insects, and huge colonies of ants.

The Amazon river basin rainforest contains a wider variety of plant and animal life than any other biome in the world. The second largest population of plant and animal life can be found in scattered locations and islands of Southeast Asia. The lowest variety can be found in Africa. There may be 40 to 100 different species in 2.5 acres ( 1 hectare) of a tropical rain forest.

When early explorers first discovered the rainforests of Africa, Southeast Asia and South America, they They were amazed by the dense growth, trees with giant buttresses, vines and epiphytes . The tropical vegetation grew so dense that it was difficult to cut one's way through it. It was thought at the time that the soil of a rainforest must be very fertile, filled with nutrients, enabling it to support the immense trees and other vegetation they found.

Today we know that the soil of the tropical rainforests is shallow, very poor in nutrients and almost without soluble minerals. Thousands of years of heavy rains have washed away the nutrients in the soil obtained from weathered rocks. The rainforest has a very short nutrient cycle. Nutrients generally stay in an ecosystem by being recycled and in a rainforest are mainly found in the living plants and the layers of decomposing leaf litter. Various species of decomposers like insects, bacteria, and fungi make quick work of turning dead plant and animal matter into nutrients. Plants take up these nutrients the moment they are released.

A study in the Amazon rainforest found that 99% of nutrients are held in root mats. When a rainforest is burned or cut down the nutrients are removed from the ecosystem. The soil can only be used for a very short time before it becomes completely depleted of all nutrients.

Where the Rainforests Are Found

The tropical rain forest can be found in three major geographical areas around the world.

Central America in the the Amazon river basin.
Africa - Zaire basin, with a small area in West Africa; also eastern Madagascar.
Indo-Malaysia - west coast of India, Assam, Southeast Asia, New Guinea and Queensland, Australia.

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Rainforests

by Michael G. 2001

In an average year the climate in a tropical rain forest is very humid because of all the rainfall. A tropical rainforest gets about 150 cm of rain per year. It gets lots of rain because it is very hot and wet in rain forests. The hotter the air, the more water vapor it can hold. It rains usually about 1/8 of an inch per day.

This climate is found near the equator. That means that there is more direct sunlight hitting the land and sea there than anywhere else. The sun warms the land and sea and the water evaporates into the air. The warm air can hold a lot of water vapor. As the air rises, it cools. That means it can hold less water vapor. Then as warm meets cold, condensation takes place and the vapor forms droplets and clouds form. The clouds then produce rain. It rains more than ninety days a year and the strong sun usually shines between the storms. The water cycle repeats often along the equator.

The main plants in this biome are trees. This is important because in the rain forest, some rain never gets past the trees and to the smaller plants and ground below. Trees in this climate reach a height of more than 164 feet. They form a canopy. The forest floor is called understory. The canopy also keeps sunlight from reaching the plants in the understory. Between the canopy and understory is a lower canopy made up of smaller trees. These plants do receive some filtered sunlight.

The tropical rain forest is classified under the Köppen Classification system as Af, meaning tropical forest. The A is given to tropical climates that are moist for all months and which have average temperatures above 18 degrees Celsius. The f stands for sufficient precipitation for all months. The latitude range for my climate is 15° to 25° North and South of the equator.

The annual precipitation of a rain forest is greater than 150 cm. In a rain forest there is a short dry season. In only a month the rainforest receives 4 inches of rain. The rain forest climate is different from a lot of other climates. In other climates, the evaporation is carried away to fall as rain in far off areas, but in the rain forests, 50 percent of the precipitation comes from its own evaporation. A lot of the rain that falls on the rain forest never reaches the ground, instead it stays on the trees because the leaves act as a shield.

The average temperature of a rain forest is about 77° Fahrenheit. The rain forest is about the same temperature year round. The temperature never drops below 64° Fahrenheit. Rain forests are so hot because they are found near the equator. The closer to the equator you are, the more solar radiation there is. The more solar radiation there is, the hotter it is. Rain forest are never found in climates which have temperatures 32° Fahrenheit and below because the plant life will not be able to live in the frost. All the plants will die out if the rain forest is cooler.

The plants that make up the understory of a rain forest have adapted to the small amount of sunlight that they receive. Ferns and mosses do well, along with epiphytes. These are plants that grow on other plants. They can be found growing on branches of tall trees. There are many different plant species found in the rain forest.

Where are the rainforests?

• 56% in Central and South America, mostly in the Amazon and Orinoco River basins.
• 26% in the Asian tropics
• 18% in West and Central Africa
• A relatively small percentage in North Queensland, Australia.

The equatorial belt of tropical rainforest is not continuous. It occurs in three main chunks: Africa, Asia/Southeast Asia, and South America. Tropical rainforests once covered more than 4 billion acres of the earth. Today, nearly half the tropical rainforests are gone. Now they cover almost 8% of the earth's land surface, an area as large as The United States.

Some steps that can help save the rainforests:

• Zero population growth. This is probably the highest priority to stop deforestation. It is unlikely that any protection will remain permanent if populations don't stabilize.

• Applied technology. Advances in sustained farming techniques retain the fertility of the land and maximize the forest's ability to provide and regenerate.

• Halting extinction. Keeping ecosystems healthy and avoiding the high costs of maintaining endangered animals in captivity is essential. Once a habitat is encroached upon, it is time consuming and expensive to bring it back. Programs designed to educate and manage protected areas with the use of indigenous people can help slow the onslaught of extinction.

• Ensuring a minimum breeding pool.

• Establishing flagship programs. Programs like species survival plans for gorilla and large predators like leopards will keep these animals highly visible. They are then more likely to receive funding or public support. These programs are so important because they establish the vast tracts of territory animals often need in order to breed successfully. Protected areas for these animals will also support the thousands of lesser species and plant life that occur within these areas.

• Multiple use forestry. Wildlife preserves can often be set up to provide for both animals and humans. Tapping wild rubber trees in South America is an example of using the forest intact.

What can you do?

Be aware— especially of wood products sold in stores. Don't buy wood products from countries such as Malaysia or other Southeast Asian countries which use rainforest wood in their products. Look at the labels, usually on the bottom side of the furniture.
Use recycled wood products or wood substitutes. Buy antique or second hand furniture. Some furniture is made with steel construction, not wood. Ask questions when purchasing furniture or wood products. Consumer awareness is passed on to manufacturers and suppliers who have to respond by changes in manufacturing, importing, and stocking. Laslty, support conservation efforts and become involved.

Tropical rainforests are the world's oldest ecosystems. Records show that the forests in some regions have existed in more or less their present form for over 70 million years. High temperatures coupled with abundant rainfall produce the steamy atmosphere that is common to rainforests from Australia to the Amazon. These forests are a vertical living space, densely populated, and produce an abundance of food from leaves, fruit, and flowers/nectar to vertebrates and invertebrates. In fact, some animals living in the treetops never have to touch the ground. A large variety of animals live in these forests: mammals, reptiles, birds, and an untold number of insect species. A vast number of these species live in the high protection of the treetops prospering in the shade, food, and shelter provided by the rainforest. The canopy, or upper layer of the tropical rainforest, is one of the last places on earth to be explored and it is where many species of plants and animals remain undiscovered.

Rainforests are also the richest ecosystems on earth. Scientists estimate that they contain between 50% and 80% of all the Earth's plant and animal species. A typical 4-mile patch of rainforest contains as many as 1,500 species of flowering plants. The rainforest in the South American country of Ecuador has 20,000 kinds of flowering plants. The state of California, a third larger than Ecuador, has only 5,000. And 70% of the plants known to have anti-cancer properties come from the rainforest (National Cancer Institute).

These plants have many uses as both spices and foods that have become staples in Western diets. Eggplants, bananas, avocados, lemons, oranges, sugar cane, cocoa/chocolate, potatoes, rice, tomatoes, peanuts, vanilla, and cinnamon all originally came from the tropical rainforest.

The secretions and fibers of tropical trees also have many commercial uses: rubber for tires, latex for paint and golf ball covers, and rattan palm vine and bamboo for furniture, to name a few.

Millions of people live in or near the rainforests and rely on the animals and forest products for the fuel and food of everyday life and for necessary products like pharmaceuticals. Nearly 40% of all prescription drugs were originally derived from the rainforest.

Effect on climate

It is commonly believed that rainforests are the lungs of the world. Although the rainforests play a vital part in creating favorable weather patterns, they are not the providers of oxygen for the world. Rainforests do produce a tremendous amount of oxygen through photosynthesis, more so than any other land ecosystem, but the forest consumes as much as it produces in the decay of organic matter. Instead of the lungs of the earth, rainforests are more of an air conditioner for the earth, cooling hot air which passes over it. See effect on climate page The forests also absorb solar radiation. Without the forests, more radiation bounces back into the atmosphere raising atmospheric temperature. This could alter global patterns of air circulation, convection, and wind. Climateologists also warn of decreased rainfall and believe that the hardest hit areas could be parts of The United states. Rainforests also play a role in recycling the earth's water as moisture is absorbed by the trees and evaporated into the atmosphere to return as rainfall. The roots of the trees also help anchor the soil and slow water runoff. Without the forests to store water, streams can disappear during the dry season and deprive human populations of water. This is already happening in parts of Africa.

Vanishing rainforests

The rainforests are being cleared for farming, ranching, logging, and mining. Some scientists claim that areas as large as the state of Delaware are being cleared every month. One of the major problems with clearing the rainforest is that the soil base is poor compared to the rich, deep soils of the Midwestern regions of the United States. Soil in rainforests is shallow and nutrient poor. The land is often abandoned after being cleared and farmed/grazed for a few years leaving the inhabitants no choice but to move on and clear more land. Erosion and exposure to the sun takes its toll on the exposed land. Even when the rainforest is regrown it never comes close to the diverse, rich environment it once was.

Resource-poor countries such as Japan, rely on the timber products for the processing of packages, while poorer countries like the Republic of Congo rely on selling the wood products to support their economies. In Africa, the growing number of people and the opening up of the forests is putting a severe strain on the environment. Technological advances have made the harvesting of trees faster, easier, and more destructive. The forest can be changed quickly with the use of heavy machinery brought In by large, foreign corporations. African governments are caught between the influx of money brought into the country and the desire to protect their natural resources. In Congo, it is a French timber consortium that is mainly responsible for the logging activities.

Logging, mining, and other resource speculation leads to building access roads into once unreachable territory opening settlement by peasants and farmers. The forest also comes into danger from bushmeat hunting used to supply the local people with food and also exported to city markets.

Fuel wood is used as a major source of energy in developing countries, especially Africa. The forests are cut for firewood and burned for cooking and to produce heat and charcoal. In many parts of Africa the availability of fuel wood has become increasingly scarce. In some parts, war and revolution have displaced refugees into camps, many close to forested areas where their only source for provisions is the rainforest.

Environmental concerns

Environmentalists warn of calamity if rainforests are destroyed, Here is a sample of what the side effects of deforestation could be:

It is thought that 25% of the world's species could be lost by the end of this decade. Animals and plants that lived in the rainforests could be lost forever.
Many important resources could be lost. Only a fraction of the vegetation has been tested for medical use. Wild strains of many of the world's staple crops are in danger of being lost.
Natives in the jungle may be displaced, their way of life and culture destroyed.
Greenhouse gases and carbon dioxide contribute to global warming. The burning of rainforest accounts for nearly 30% of the carbon dioxide released in the atmosphere. This could increase.
Changes may occur in rainfall and air circulation and radiation from the sun may be greatly increased.

For more information on rainforest conservation, visit:

Rainforest Action Network
Rainforest-Alliance
Forest Action Network (Pacific Northwest rainforest)
Rainforest.org
African Forest news from www.forest.org
Rain-tree.com...site with plant species data base and links to sustainable rainforest products

Sources:

http://www.christiananswers.net/kids/rainforest/

Rainforest Facts

2007-10-19T17:07:00.000-07:00

The Disappearing Rainforests

* 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.

* One and one-half acres of rainforest are lost every second with tragic consequences for both developing and industrial countries.

* Rainforests are being destroyed because the value of rainforest land is perceived as only the value of its timber by short-sighted governments, multi-national logging companies, and land owners.

* Nearly half of the world's species of plants, animals and microorganisms will be destroyed or severely threatened over the next quarter century due to rainforest deforestation.

* Experts estimates that we are losing 137 plant, animal and insect species every single day due to rainforest deforestation. That equates to 50,000 species a year. As the rainforest species disappear, so do many possible cures for life-threatening diseases. Currently, 121 prescription drugs sold worldwide come from plant-derived sources. While 25% of Western pharmaceuticals are derived from rainforest ingredients, less that 1% of these tropical trees and plants have been tested by scientists.

* Most rainforests are cleared by chainsaws, bulldozers and fires for its timber value and then are followed by farming and ranching operations, even by world giants like Mitsubishi Corporation, Georgia Pacific, Texaco and Unocal.

* There were an estimated ten million Indians living in the Amazonian Rainforest five centuries ago. Today there are less than 200,000.

* In Brazil alone, European colonists have destroyed more than 90 indigenous tribes since the 1900's. With them have gone centuries of accumulated knowledge of the medicinal value of rainforest species. As their homelands continue to be destroyed by deforestation, rainforest peoples are also disappearing.

* Most medicine men and shamans remaining in the Rainforests today are 70 years old or more. Each time a rainforest medicine man dies, it is as if a library has burned down.

* When a medicine man dies without passing his arts on to the next generation, the tribe and the world loses thousands of years of irreplaceable knowledge about medicinal plants.

The Wealth of the Rainforests

* The Amazon Rainforest covers over a billion acres, encompassing areas in Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia and the Eastern Andean region of Ecuador and Peru. If Amazonia were a country, it would be the ninth largest in the world.

* 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.

* One hectare (2.47 acres) may contain over 750 types of trees and 1500 species of higher plants.

* 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 Indians of the rainforest use over 2,000.

* Rainforest plants are rich in secondary metabolites, particularly alkaloids. Biochemists believe alkaloids protect plants from disease and insect attacks. Many alkaloids from higher plants have proven to be of medicinal value and benefit.

* Currently, 121 prescription drugs currently sold worldwide come from plant-derived sources. And while 25% of Western pharmaceuticals are derived from rainforest ingredients, less than 1% of these tropical trees and plants have been tested by scientists.

* 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.

* In 1983, there were no U.S. pharmaceutical manufacturers involved in research programs to discover new drugs or cures from plants. Today, over 100 pharmaceutical companies and several branches of the US government, including giants like Merck and The National Cancer Institute, are engaged in plant research projects for possible drugs and cures for viruses, infections, cancer, and even AIDS.

Rainforest Action

* Experts agree that by leaving the rainforests intact and harvesting it's many nuts, fruits, oil-producing plants, and medicinal plants, the rainforest has more economic value than if they were cut down to make grazing land for cattle or for timber.

* The latest statistics show that rainforest land converted to cattle operations yields the land owner $60 per acre and if timber is harvested, the land is worth $400 per acre. However, if these renewable and sustainable resources are harvested, the land will yield the land owner $2,400 per acre.

* If managed properly, the rainforest can provide the world's need for these natural resources on a perpetual basis.

* Promoting the use of these sustainable and renewable sources could stop the destruction of the rainforests. By creating a new source of income harvesting the medicinal plants, fruits nuts, oil and other sustainable resources, the rainforests is be more valuable alive than cut and burned.

* Sufficient demand of sustainable and ecologically harvested rainforest products is necessary for preservation efforts to succeed. Purchasing sustainable rainforest products can effect positive change by creating a market for these products while supporting the native people's economy and provides the economic solution and alternative to cutting the forest just for the value of its timber.

The following has been excerpted from the book, The Healing Power of Rainforest Herbs (Square One Publishers, Inc. Garden City, NY 11040, © Copyrighted 2004) By Leslie Taylor

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE RAINFOREST
The beauty, majesty, and timelessness of a primary rainforest are indescribable. It is impossible to capture on film, to describe in words, or to explain to those who have never had the awe-inspiring experience of standing in the heart of a primary rainforest.

Rainforests have evolved over millions of years to turn into the incredibly complex environments they are today. Rainforests represent a store of living and breathing renewable natural resources that for eons, by virtue of their richness in both animal and plant species, have contributed a wealth of resources for the survival and well-being of humankind. These resources have included basic food supplies, clothing, shelter, fuel, spices, industrial raw materials, and medicine for all those who have lived in the majesty of the forest. However, the inner dynamics of a tropical rainforest is an intricate and fragile system. Everything is so interdependent that upsetting one part can lead to unknown damage or even destruction of the whole. Sadly, it has taken only a century of human intervention to destroy what nature designed to last forever.

The scale of human pressures on ecosystems everywhere has increased enormously in the last few decades. Since 1980 the global economy has tripled in size and the world population has increased by 30 percent. Consumption of everything on the planet has risen- at a cost to our ecosystems. In 2001, The World Resources Institute estimated that the demand for rice, wheat, and corn is expected to grow by 40% by 2020, increasing irrigation water demands by 50% or more. They further reported that the demand for wood could double by the year 2050; unfortunately, it is still the tropical forests of the world that supply the bulk of the world's demand for wood.

In 1950, about 15 percent of the Earth's land surface was covered by rainforest. Today, more than half has already gone up in smoke. In fewer than fifty years, more than half of the world's tropical rainforests have fallen victim to fire and the chain saw, and the rate of destruction is still accelerating. Unbelievably, more than 200,000 acres of rainforest are burned every day. That is more than 150 acres lost every minute of every day, and 78 million acres lost every year! More than 20 percent of the Amazon rainforest is already gone, and much more is severely threatened as the destruction continues. It is estimated that the Amazon alone is vanishing at a rate of 20,000 square miles a year. If nothing is done to curb this trend, the entire Amazon could well be gone within fifty years.

Massive deforestation brings with it many ugly consequences-air and water pollution, soil erosion, malaria epidemics, the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, the eviction and decimation of indigenous Indian tribes, and the loss of biodiversity through extinction of plants and animals. Fewer rainforests mean less rain, less oxygen for us to breathe, and an increased threat from global warming.

But who is really to blame? Consider what we industrialized Americans have done to our own homeland. We converted 90 percent of North America's virgin forests into firewood, shingles, furniture, railroad ties, and paper. Other industrialized countries have done no better. Malaysia, Indonesia, Brazil, and other tropical countries with rainforests are often branded as "environmental villains" of the world, mainly because of their reported levels of destruction of their rainforests. But despite the levels of deforestation, up to 60 percent of their territory is still covered by natural tropical forests. In fact, today, much of the pressures on their remaining rainforests comes from servicing the needs and markets for wood products in industrialized countries that have already depleted their own natural resources. Industrial countries would not be buying rainforest hardwoods and timber had we not cut down our own trees long ago, nor would poachers in the Amazon jungle be slaughtering jaguar, ocelot, caiman, and otter if we did not provide lucrative markets for their skins in Berlin, Paris, and Tokyo.

THE BIODIVERSITY OF THE RAINFOREST
Why should the loss of tropical forests be of any concern to us in light of our own poor management of natural resources? The loss of tropical rainforests has a profound and devastating impact on the world because rainforests are so biologically diverse, more so than other ecosystems (e.g., temperate forests) on Earth.

Consider these facts:

* A single pond in Brazil can sustain a greater variety of fish than is found in all of Europe's rivers.
* A 25-acre plot of rainforest in Borneo may contain more than 700 species of trees - a number equal to the total tree diversity of North America.
* A single rainforest reserve in Peru is home to more species of birds than are found in the entire United States.
* One single tree in Peru was found to harbor forty-three different species of ants - a total that approximates the entire number of ant species in the British Isles.
* The number of species of fish in the Amazon exceeds the number found in the entire Atlantic Ocean.

The biodiversity of the tropical rainforest is so immense that less than 1 percent of its millions of species have been studied by scientists for their active constituents and their possible uses. When an acre of topical rainforest is lost, the impact on the number of plant and animal species lost and their possible uses is staggering. Scientists estimate that we are losing more than 137 species of plants and animals every single day because of rainforest deforestation.

Surprisingly, scientists have a better understanding of how many stars there are in the galaxy than they have of how many species there are on Earth. Estimates vary from 2 million to 100 million species, with a best estimate of somewhere near 10 million; only 1.4 million of these species have actually been named. Today, rainforests occupy only 2 percent of the entire Earth's surface and 6 percent of the world's land surface, yet these remaining lush rainforests support over half of our planet's wild plants and trees and one-half of the world's wildlife. Hundreds and thousands of these rainforest species are being extinguished before they have even been identified, much less catalogued and studied. The magnitude of this loss to the world was most poignantly described by Harvard's Pulitzer Prize-winning biologist Edward O. Wilson over a decade ago:

"The worst thing that can happen during the 1980s is not energy depletion, economic collapses, limited nuclear war, or conquest by a totalitarian government. As terrible as these catastrophes would be for us, they can be repaired within a few generations. The one process ongoing in the 1980s that will take millions of years to correct is the loss of genetic and species diversity by the destruction of natural habitats. This is the folly that our descendants are least likely to forgive us for."

Yet still the destruction continues. If deforestation continues at current rates, scientists estimate nearly 80 to 90 percent of tropical rainforest ecosystems will be destroyed by the year 2020. This destruction is the main force driving a species extinction rate unmatched in 65 million years.

THE AMAZON RAINFOREST . . . THE LAST FRONTIER ON EARTH
If Amazonia were a country, it would be the ninth largest in the world. The Amazon rainforest, the world's greatest remaining natural resource, is the most powerful and bioactively diverse natural phenomenon on the planet. It has been described as the "lungs of our planet" because it provides the essential service of continuously recycling carbon dioxide into oxygen. It is estimated that more than 20 percent of Earth's oxygen is produced in this area.

The Amazon covers more than 1.2 billion acres, representing two-fifths of the enormous South American continent, and is found in nine South American countries: Brazil, Colombia, Peru, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Guyana, French Guiana, and Suriname. With 2.5 million square miles of rainforest, the Amazon rainforest represents 54 percent of the total rainforests left on Earth.
The Amazon River

The life force of the Amazon rainforest is the mighty Amazon River. It starts as a trickle high in the snow-capped Andes Mountains and flows more than 4,000 miles across the South American continent until it enters the Atlantic Ocean at Belem, Brazil, where it is 200 to 300 miles across, depending on the season. Even 1,000 miles inland it is still 7 miles wide. The river is so deep that ocean liners can travel up its length to 2,300 miles inland. The Amazon River flows through the center of the rainforest and is fed by 1,100 tributaries, 17 of which are more than 1,000 miles long. The Amazon is by far the largest watershed and largest river system in the world occupying over 6 million square kilometers. Over two-thirds of all the fresh water found on Earth is in the Amazon Basin's rivers, streams, and tributaries.

With so much water it's not unusual that the main mode of transportation throughout the area is by boat. The smallest and most common boats used today are still made out of hollowed tree trunks, whether they are powered by outboard motors or more often by human-powered paddles. Almost 14,000 miles of Amazon waterway are navigable, and several million miles through swamps and forests are penetrable by canoe. The enormous Amazon River carries massive amounts of silt from runoff from the rainforest floor. Massive amounts of silt deposited at the mouth of the Amazon River has created the largest river island in the world-Marajo Island, which is roughly the size of Switzerland. With this massive freshwater system, it is not unusual that life beneath the water is as abundant and diverse as the surrounding rainforest's plant and animal species. More than 2,000 species of fish have been identified in the Amazon Basin - more species than in the entire Atlantic Ocean.
Largest Collection of Plant and Animal Species
The Amazon Basin was formed in the Paleozoic period, somewhere between 500 million and 200 million years ago. The extreme age of the region in geologic terms has much to do with the relative infertility of the rainforest soil and the richness and unique diversity of the plant and animal life. There are more fertile areas in the Amazon River's flood plain, where the river deposits richer soil brought from the Andes, which only formed 20 million years ago.

The Amazon rainforest contains the largest collection of living plant and animal species in the world. The diversity of plant species in the Amazon rainforest is the highest on Earth. It is estimated that a single hectare (2.47 acres) of Amazon rainforest contains about 900 tons of living plants, including more than 750 types of trees and 1500 other plants. The Andean mountain range and the Amazon jungle are home to more than half of the world's species of flora and fauna; in fact, one in five of all the birds in the world live in the rainforests of the Amazon. To date, some 438,000 species of plants of economic and social interest have been registered in the region, and many more have yet to be catalogued or even discovered.
Scarring and Loss of Diversity
Once a vast sea of tropical forest, the Amazon rainforest today is scarred by roads, farms, ranches, and dams. Brazil is gifted with a full third of the world's remaining rainforests; unfortunately, it is also one of the world's great rainforest destroyers, burning or felling more than 2.7 million acres each year. More than 20 percent of rainforest in the Amazon has been razed and is gone forever. This ocean of green, nearly as large as Australia, is the last great rainforest in the known universe and it is being decimated like the others before it. Why? Like other rainforests already lost forever, the land is being cleared for logging timber, large-scale cattle ranching, mining operations, government road building and hydroelectric schemes, military operations, and the subsistence agriculture of peasants and landless settlers. Sadder still, in many places the rainforests are burnt simply to provide charcoal to power industrial plants in the area.

THE DRIVING FORCES OF DESTRUCTION
Commercial logging is the single largest cause of rainforest destruction, both directly and indirectly. Other activities destroying the rainforest, including clearing land for grazing animals and subsistence farming. The simple fact is that people are destroying the Amazon rainforest and the rest of the rainforests of the world because "they can't see the forest for the trees."
Logging for Tropical Hardwoods
Logging tropical hardwoods like teak, mahogany, rosewood, and other timber for furniture, building materials, charcoal, and other wood products is big business and big profits. Several species of tropical hardwoods are imported by developed counties, including the United States, just to build coffins that are then buried or burned. The demand, extraction, and consumption of tropical hardwoods has been so massive that some countries that have been traditional exporters of tropical hardwoods are now importing them because they have already exhausted their supply by destroying their native rainforests in slash-and-burn operations. It is anticipated that the Philippines, Malaysia, the Ivory Coast, Nigeria, and Thailand will soon follow, as all these countries will run out of rainforest hardwood timber for export within five years. Japan is the largest importer of tropical woods. Despite recent reductions, Japan's average tropical timber import of 11 million cubic meters annually is still gluttonous. The demand for tropical hardwood timber is damaging to the ecological, biological, and social fabric of tropical lands and is clearly unsustainable for any length of time.

Behind the hardwood logger come others down the same roads built to transport the timber. The cardboard packing and the wood chipboard industries use 15-ton machines that gobble up the rainforest with 8-foot cutting discs that have eight blades revolving 320 times a minute. These machines that cut entire trees into chips half the size of a matchbox can gobble up more than 200 species of trees in mere minutes.

Logging rainforest timber is a large economic source, and in many cases, the main source of revenue for servicing the national debt of these developing countries. Logging profits are real to these countries that must service their debts, but they are fleeting. Governments are selling their assets too cheaply, and once the rainforest is gone, their source of income will also be gone. Sadly, most of the real profits of the timber trade are made not by the developing countries, but by multinational companies and industrialists of the Northern Hemisphere. These huge, profit-driven logging companies pay governments a fraction of the timber's worth for large logging concessions on immense tracts of rainforest land and reap huge profits by harvesting the timber in the most economical manner feasible with little regard to the destruction left in their wake.

Logging concessions in the Amazon are sold for as little as $2 per acre, with logging companies felling timber worth thousands of dollars per acre. Governments are selling their natural resources, hawking for pennies resources that soon will be worth billions of dollars. Some of these government concessions and land deals made with industrialists make the sale of Manhattan for $24 worth of trinkets look shrewd. In 1986 a huge industrial timber corporation bought thousands of acres in the Borneo rainforest by giving 2,000 Malaysian dollars to twelve longhouses of local tribes. This sum amounted to the price of two bottles of beer for each member of the community. Since then, this company and others have managed to extract and destroy about a third of the Borneo rainforest - about 6.9 million acres - and the local tribes have been evicted from the area or forced to work for the logging companies at slave wages.
Fuel Wood and the Paper Industry
In addition to being logged for exportation, rainforest wood stays in developing countries for fuel wood and charcoal. One single steel plant in Brazil making steel for Japanese cars needs millions of tons of wood each year to produce charcoal that can be used in the manufacture of steel. Then, there is the paper industry.

One pulpwood project in the Brazilian Amazon consists of a Japanese power plant and pulp mill. To set up this single plant operation, 5,600 square miles of Amazon rainforest were burned to the ground and replanted with pulpwood trees. This single manufacturing plant consumes 2,000 tons of surrounding rainforest wood every day to produce 55 megawatts of electricity to run the plant. The plant, which has been in operation since 1978, produces more than 750 tons of pulp for paper every 24 hours, worth approximately $500,000, and has built 2,800 miles of roads through the Amazon rainforest to be used by its 700 vehicles. In addition to this pulp mill, the world's biggest pulp mill is the Aracruz mill in Brazil. Its two units produce 1 million tons of pulp a year, harvesting the rainforest to keep the plant in business and displacing thousands of indigenous tribes. Where does all this pulp go? Aracruz's biggest customers are the United States, Belgium, Great Britain, and Japan. More and more rainforest is destroyed to meet the demands of the developed world's paper industry, which requires a staggering 200 million tons of wood each year simply to make paper. If the present rate continues, it is estimated that the paper industry alone will consume 4 billion tons of wood annually by the year 2020.

Once an area of rainforest has been logged, even if it is given the rare chance to regrow, it can never become what it once was. The intricate ecosystem nature devised is lost forever. Only 1 to 2 percent of light at the top of a rainforest canopy manages to reach the forest floor below. Most times when timber is harvested, trees and other plants that have evolved over centuries to grow in the dark, humid environment below the canopy simply cannot live out in the open, and as a result, the plants and animals (that depend on the plants) of the original forest become extinct Even if only sections of land throughout an area are destroyed, these remnants change drastically. Birds and other animals cannot cross from one remnant of land to another in the canopy, so plants are not pollinated, seeds are not dispersed by the animals, and the plants around the edges are not surrounded by the high jungle humidity they need to grow properly. As a result, the remnants slowly become degraded and die. Rains come and wash away the thin topsoil that was previously protected by the canopy, and this barren, infertile land is vulnerable to erosion. Sometimes the land is replanted in African grasses for cattle operations; other times more virgin rainforest is destroyed for cattle operations because grass planted on recently burned land has a better chance to grow.
Grazing Land
As the demand in the Western world for cheap meat increases, more and more rainforests are destroyed to provide grazing land for animals. In Brazil alone, there are an estimated 220 million head of cattle, 20 million goats, 60 million pigs, and 700 million chickens. Most of Central and Latin America's tropical and temperate rainforests have been lost to cattle operations to meet the world demand, and still the cattle operations continue to move southward into the heart of the South American rainforests. To graze one steer in Amazonia takes two full acres. Most of the ranchers in the Amazon operate at a loss, yielding only paper profits purely as tax shelters. Ranchers' fortunes are made only when ranching is supported by government giveaways. A banker or rich landowner in Brazil can slash and burn a huge tract of land in the Amazon rainforest, seed it with grass for cattle, and realize millions of dollars worth of government-subsidized loans, tax credits, and write-offs in return for developing the land. These government development schemes rarely make a profit, as they are actually selling cheap beef to industrialized nations. One single cattle operation in Brazil that was co-owned by British Barclays Bank and one of Brazil's wealthiest families was responsible for the destruction of almost 500,000 acres of virgin rainforest. The cattle operation never made a profit, but government write-offs sheltered huge logging profits earned off of logging other land in the Brazilian rainforest owned by the same investors. These generous tax and credit incentives have created more than 29 million acres of large cattle ranches in the Brazilian Amazon, even though the typical ranch could cover less than half its costs without these subsidies. Even these grazing lands don't last forever. Soon the lack of nutrients in the soil and overgrazing degrade them, and they are abandoned for newly cleared land. In Brazil alone, more than 63,000 square miles of land has reportedly been abandoned in this way.
Subsistence Farming
This type of government-driven destruction of rainforest land is promoted by a common attitude among governments in rainforest regions, an attitude that the forest is an economic resource to be harnessed to aid in the development of their countries. The same attitudes that accompanied the colonization of our own frontier are found today in Brazil and other countries with wild and unharnessed rainforest wilderness. These beliefs are exemplified by one Brazilian official's public statement that "not until all Amazonas is colonized by real Brazilians, not Indians, can we truly say we own it." Were we Americans any different with our own colonization, decimating the North American Indian tribes? Like Brazil, we sent out a call to all the world that America had land for the landless in an effort to increase colonization of our country at the expense of our indigenous Indian tribes. And like the first American colonists, colonization in the rainforest really means subsistence farming.

Subsistence farming has for centuries been a driving force in the loss of rainforest land. And as populations explode in Third-World countries in South America and the Far East, the impact has been profound. By tradition, wildlands and unsettled lands in the rainforest are free to those who clear the forest and till the soil. "Squatter's rights" still prevail, and poor, hungry people show little enthusiasm for arguments about the value of biodiversity or the plight of endangered species when they struggle daily to feed their families. These landless peasants and settlers follow the logging companies down the roads they've built to extract timber into untouched rainforest lands, burning off whatever the logging companies left behind.

The present approach to rainforest cultivation produces wealth for a few, but only for a short time, because farming burned-off tracts of Amazon rainforest seldom works for long. Less than 10 percent of Amazonian soils are suitable for sustained conventional agriculture. However lush they look, rainforests often flourish on such nutrient-poor soils that they are essentially "wet deserts," easier to damage and harder to cultivate than any other soil. Most are exhausted by the time they have produced three or four crops. Many of the thousands of homesteaders who migrated from Brazil's cities to the wilds of the rainforest, responding to the government's call of "land without men for men without land," have already had to abandon their depleted farms and move on, leaving behind fields of baked clay dotted with stagnant pools of polluted water. Experts agree that the path to conservation begins with helping these local residents meet their own daily needs. Because of the infertility of the soil, and the lack of knowledge of sustainable cultivation practices, this type of agriculture strips the soil of nutrients within a few harvests, and the farmers continue to move farther into the rainforest in search of new land. They must be helped and educated to break free of the need to continually clear rainforest in search of fresh, fertile land if the rainforest is to be saved.
Leading the Threat: Governments
Directly and indirectly, the leading threats to rainforest ecosystems are governments and their unbridled, unplanned, and uncoordinated development of natural resources. The 2000-2001 World Resources Report put out by the United Nations reported that governments worldwide spend $700 billion dollars a year supporting and subsidizing environmentally unsound practices in the use of water, agriculture, energy, and transportation. In the Amazon, rainforest timber exports and large-scale development projects go a long way in servicing national debt in many developing countries, which is why governments and international aid-lending institutions like the World Bank subsidize them. In the tropics, governments own or control nearly 80 percent of tropical forests, so these forests stand or fall according to government policy; and in many countries, government policies lie behind the wastage of forest resources. Besides the tax incentives and credit subsidies that guarantee large profits to private investors who convert forests to pastures and farms, governments allow private concessionaires to log the national forests on terms that induce uneconomic or wasteful uses of the public domain. Massive public expenditures on highways, dams, plantations, and agricultural settlements, too often supported by multilateral development lending, convert or destroy large areas of forest for projects of questionable economic worth.

Tropical countries are among the poorest countries on Earth. Brazil alone spends 40 percent of its annual income simply servicing its loans, and the per capita income of Brazil's people is less than $2,000 annually. Sadly, these numbers don't even represent an accurate picture in the Amazon because Brazil is one of the richer countries in South America. These struggling Amazonian countries must also manage the most complex, delicate, and valuable forests remaining on the planet, and the economic and technological resources available to them are limited. They must also endure a dramatic social and economic situation, as well as deeply adverse terms of trade and financial relationships with industrial countries. Under such conditions, the possibility of their reaching sustainable models of development alone is virtually nil.

There is a clear need for industrial countries to sincerely and effectively assist the tropics in a quest for sustainable forest management and development if the remaining rainforests are to be saved. The governments of these developing countries need help in learning how to manage and protect their natural resources for long-term profits, while still managing to service their debts, and they must be given the incentives and tools to do so. Programs to redefine the timber concessions so concessionaires have greater incentives to guard the long-term health of the forest and programs to revive and expand community-based forestry schemes, which ensure more rational use of forests and a better life for the people who live near them, must be developed.

First-World capital must seek out opportunities to partner with organizations that have the technical expertise to guide these programs of sustainable economic development. In addition, programs teaching techniques for sustainable harvesting practices and identifying profitable, yet sustainable, forest products can enable developing countries to improve the standard of living for their people, service national debt, and contribute meaningfully to land use planning and conservation of natural resources.

RAINFORESTS, PHARMACY TO THE WORLD
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! Again, why should we in the United States be concerned about the destruction of distant tropical rainforests? Because rainforest plants are complex chemical storehouses that contain many undiscovered biodynamic compounds with unrealized potential for use in modern medicine. We can gain access to these materials only if we study and conserve the species that contain them.
Key to Tomorrow's Cures?
Rainforests currently provide sources for one-fourth of today's medicines, and 70 percent of the plants found to have anticancer properties are found only in the rainforest. The rainforest and its immense undiscovered biodiversity hold the key to unlocking tomorrow's cures for devastating diseases. How many cures for devastating disease have we already lost?

Two drugs obtained from a rainforest plant known as the Madagascar periwinkle, now extinct in the wild due to deforestation of the Madagascar rainforest, have increased the chances of survival for children with leukemia from 20 percent to 80 percent. Think about it: eight out of ten children are now saved, rather than eight of ten children dying from leukemia. How many children have been spared and how many more will continue to be spared because of this single rainforest plant? What if we had failed to discover this one important plant among millions before human activities had led to its extinction? When our remaining rainforests are gone, the rare plants and animals will be lost forever-and so will the possible cures for diseases like cancer they can provide.

No one can challenge the fact that we are still largely dependent on plants for treating our ailments. Almost 90 percent of people in developing countries still rely on traditional medicine, based largely on different species of plants and animals, for their primary health care. In the United States, some 25 percent of prescriptions are filled with drugs whose active ingredients are extracted or derived from plants. By 1980 sales of these plant-based drugs in the United States amounted to some $4.5 billion annually. Worldwide sales of these plant-based drugs were estimated at $40 billion in 1990. Currently 121 prescription drugs sold worldwide come from plant-derived sources from only 90 species of plants. Still more drugs are derived from animals and microorganisms.

More than 25 percent of the active ingredients in today's cancer-fighting drugs come from organisms found only in the rainforest. The U.S. National Cancer Institute has identified more than 3,000 plants that are active against cancer cells, and 70 percent of these plants are found only in the rainforest. In the thousands of species of rainforest plants that have not been analyzed are many more thousands of unknown plant chemicals, many of which have evolved to protect the plants from diseases. These plant chemicals may well help us in our own ongoing struggle with constantly evolving pathogens, including bacteria, viruses, and fungi that are mutating against our mainstream drugs and becoming resistant to them. These pathogens cause serious diseases, including hepatitis, pneumonia, tuberculosis, and HIV, all of which are becoming more difficult to treat. Experts now believe that if there is a cure for cancer and even AIDS, it will probably be found in the rainforest.
Bioprospecting
In 1983, there were no U.S. pharmaceutical manufacturers involved in research programs to discover new drugs or cures from plants. Today, more than 100 pharmaceutical companies, including giants like Merck, Abbott, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, Monsanto, Smith-Kline Beecham, as well as several branches of the U.S. government, including the National Cancer Institute, are engaged in plant-based research projects trying to find possible drugs to treat infections, cancer, and AIDS. Most of this research is currently taking place in the rainforest in an industry that is now called "bioprospecting." This new pharmacological industry draws together an unlikely confederacy: plant collectors and anthropologists; ecologists and conservationists; natural product companies and nutritional supplement manufacturers; AIDS and cancer researchers; executives in the world's largest drug companies; and native indigenous shamans. They are part of a radical experiment: to preserve the world's rainforests by showing how much more valuable they are standing than cut down. And it is a race against a clock whose every tick means another acre of charred forest. Yet, it is also a race that pits one explorer against another, for those who score the first big hit in chemical bioprospecting will secure wealth and a piece of scientific immortality.

In November 1991, Merck Pharmaceutical Company announced a landmark agreement to obtain samples of wild plants and animals for drug-screening purposes from Costa Rica's National Biodiversity Institute (INBio); the program is still ongoing today. Spurred by this and other biodiversity prospecting ventures, interest in the commercial value of plant genetic and biochemical resources is burgeoning today. While the Merck-INBio agreement provides a fascinating example of a private partnership that contributes to rural economic development, rainforest conservation, and technology transfer, virtually no precedent exists for national policies and legislation to govern and regulate what amounts to a brand new industry.

Since wealth and technology are as concentrated in most of the North as biodiversity and poverty are in much of the South, the question of equity is particularly hard to answer in ways that satisfy everyone with a stake in the outcome. The interests of bioprospecting corporations are not the same as those of people who live in a biodiversity "hot spot," many of them barely eking out a living. As the search for wild species whose genes can yield new medicines and better crops gathers momentum, these rich habitats also sport more and more bioprospectors. Like the nineteenth-century California gold rush or its present-day counterpart in Brazil, this "gene rush" could wreak havoc on ecosystems and the people living in or near them. Done properly, however, bioprospecting can bolster both economic and conservation goals while underpinning the medical and agricultural advances needed to combat disease and sustain growing populations.

The majority of our current plant-derived drugs were discovered by examining the traditional use of plants by the indigenous people who lived where the plants grew and flourished. History has shown that the situation with the rainforest is no different, and bioprospectors now are working side by side with rainforest tribal shamans and herbal healers to learn the wealth of their plant knowledge and about the many uses of indigenous plants.

UNLOCKING THE SECRETS OF THE RAINFOREST
After the Amerindians discovered America, about twenty millennia before Columbus, all their clothing, food, medicine, and shelter were derived from the forests. Those millennia gave the Indians time to discover and learn empirically the virtues and vices of the thousands of edible and medicinal species in the rainforest. More than 80 percent of the developed world's diet originated in the rainforest and from this empirical indigenous knowledge of the wealth of edible fruits, vegetables, and nuts. Of the estimated 3,000 edible fruits found in the rainforest, only 200 are cultivated for use today, despite the fact that the Indians used more than 1,500. Many secrets and untold treasures about the medicinal plants used by shamans, healers, and the indigenous people of the rainforest tribes await discovery. Long regarded as hocus-pocus by science, the empirical plant knowledge of the indigenous peoples is now thought by many to be the Amazon's new gold. Their use of the plants provides the bioprospector with the clues necessary to target specific species to research in the race for time before the species are lost to deforestation. More often, the race is defined as being the first pharmaceutical company to patent a new drug utilizing a newly discovered rainforest phytochemical-and, of course, to garner the profits.
Indigenous People, A Valuable Resource
Laboratory synthesis of new medicines is increasingly costly and not as fruitful as companies would like. In the words of one major drug company executive, "Scientists may be able to make any molecule they can imagine on a computer, but Mother Nature . . . is an infinitely more ingenious and exciting chemist." Scientists have developed new technologies to assess the chemical makeup of plants, and they realize that using medicinal plants identified by Indians makes research more efficient and less expensive. With these new trends, drug development has actually returned to its roots: traditional medicine. It is now understood by bioprospectors that the tribal peoples of the rainforest represent the key to finding new and useful tropical forest plants. The degree to which these indigenous people understand and are able to use this diversity sustainably is astounding. A single Amazonian tribe of Indians may use more than 200 species of plants for medicinal purposes alone.

Of the 121 pharmaceutical drugs that are plant-derived today, 74 percent were discovered through follow-up research to verify the authenticity of information concerning the medical uses of the plant by indigenous peoples. Nevertheless, to this day, very few rainforest tribes have been subjected to a complete ethnobotanical analysis. Robert Goodland of the World Bank wrote, "Indigenous knowledge is essential for the use, identification and cataloguing of the [tropical] biota. As tribal groups disappear, their knowledge vanishes with them. The preservation of these groups is a significant economic opportunity for the [developing] nation, not a luxury."

Since Amazonian Indians are often the only ones who know both the properties of these plants and how they can best be used, their knowledge is now considered an essential component of all efforts to conserve and develop the rainforest. Since failure to document this lore would represent a tremendous economic and scientific loss to the industrialized world, the bioprospectors are now working side by side with the rainforest tribal shamans and herbal healers to learn the wealth of their plant knowledge. But bioprospecting has a dark side. Indian knowledge that has resisted the pressure of "modernization" is being used by bioprospectors who, like oil companies and loggers destroying the forests, threaten to leave no benefits behind them.
But Few Benefits for the Indigenous People
It's a noble idea-the ethnobotanist working with the Indians seeking a cure for cancer or even AIDS, like Sean Connery in the movie Medicine Man. Yet behind this lurks a system that, at its worst, steals the Indian knowledge to benefit CEOs, stockholders, and academic careers and reputations. The real goal of these powerful bioprospectors is to target novel and active phytochemicals for medical applications, synthesize them in a laboratory, and have them patented for subsequent drug manufacture and resulting profits. In this process, many active and beneficial plants have been found in the shaman's medicine chest, only to be discarded when it was found that the active ingredients of the plant numbered too many to be cost effectively synthesized into a patentable drug. It doesn't matter how active or beneficial the plant is or how long the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) process might take to approve the new drug; if the bioprospector can't capitalize on it, the public will rarely hear about a plant's newly discovered benefits. The fact is there is a lot of money at stake. In an article published in Economic Botany, Dr. Robert Mendelsohn, an economist at Yale University, and Dr. Michael J. Balick, director of the Institute of Economic Botany at the New York Botanical Gardens, estimate the minimum number of pharmaceutical drugs potentially remaining to be extracted from the rainforests. It is staggering! They estimate that there are at least 328 new drugs that still await discovery in the rainforest, with a potential value of $3 billion to $4 billion to a private pharmaceutical company and as much as $147 billion to society as a whole.

While the indigenous Indian shamans go about their daily lives caring for the well-being of their tribe, the shaman's rainforest medicines are being tested, synthesized, patented, and submitted for FDA approval in U.S. laboratories thousands of miles away. Soon children with viral infections, adults with herpes, cancer patients, and many others may benefit from new medicines from the Amazon rainforest. But what will the indigenous tribes see of these wonderful new medicines? As corporations rush to patent indigenous medicinal knowledge, the originating indigenous communities receive few, if any, benefits.

LOSING THE KNOWLEDGE
The destruction of the rainforest has followed the pattern of seeing natural land and natural world peoples as resources to be used, and seeing wilderness as idle, empty, and unproductive. Destruction of our rainforests is not only causing the extinction of plant and animal species, it is also wiping out indigenous peoples who live in the rainforest. Obviously, rainforests are not idle land, nor are they uninhabited. Indigenous peoples have developed technologies and resource use systems that have allowed them to live on the land, farming, hunting, and gathering in a complex sustainable relationship with the forest. But when rainforests die, so do the indigenous peoples.

In 1500 there were an estimated 6 million to 9 million indigenous people inhabiting the rainforests in Brazil. When Western and European cultures were drawn to Brazil's Amazon in the hopes of finding riches beyond comprehension and artifacts from civilizations that have long since expired with the passage of time, they left behind decimated cultures in their ravenous wake. By 1900 there were only 1 million indigenous people left in Brazil's Amazon. Although the fabled Fountain of Youth was never discovered, many treasures in gold and gems were spirited away by the more successful invaders of the day, and the indigenous inhabitants of the rainforest bore the brunt of these marauding explorers and conquistadors.

Today there are fewer than 250,000 indigenous people of Brazil surviving this catastrophe, and still the destruction continues. These surviving indigenous people still demonstrate the remarkable diversity of the rainforest because they comprise 215 ethnic groups with 170 different languages. Nationwide, they live in 526 territories, which together compose an area of 190 million acres . . . twice the size of California. About 188 million acres of this land is inside the Brazilian Amazon, in the states of Acre, Amapa, Amazonas, Maranhao, Mato Grosso, Para, Rondonia, Roraima, and Tocantins. There may also be 50 or more indigenous groups still living in the depths of the rainforest that have never had contact with the outside world.

Throughout the rainforest, forest-dwelling peoples whose age-old traditions allow them to live in and off the forest without destroying it are losing out to cattle ranching, logging, hydroelectric projects, large-scale farms, mining, and colonization schemes. About half of the original Amazonian tribes have already been completely destroyed. The greatest threat to Brazil's remaining tribal people, most of whom live in the Amazon rainforest, is the invasion of their territory by ranchers, miners, and land speculators and the conflicts that follow. Thousands of peasants, rubber tappers, and indigenous tribes have been killed in Amazonia in the past decade in violent conflicts over forest resources and land.

As their homelands continue to be invaded and destroyed, rainforest people and their cultures are disappearing. When these indigenous peoples are lost forever, gone too will be their empirical knowledge representing centuries of accumulated knowledge of the medicinal value of plant and animal species in the rainforest. Very few tribes have been subjected to a complete ethnobotanical analysis of their plant knowledge, and most medicine men and shamans remaining in the rainforests today are seventy years old or more. When a medicine man dies without passing his arts on to the next generation, the tribe and the world lose thousands of years of irreplaceable knowledge about medicinal plants. Each time a rainforest medicine man dies, it is as if a library has burned down.

THE SOLUTION: PROFITS WITHOUT PLUNDER
The problem and the solution of the destruction of the rainforest are both economic. Governments need money to service their debts, squatters and settlers need money to feed their families, and companies need to make profits. The simple fact is that the rainforest is being destroyed for the income and profits it yields, however fleeting. Money still makes the world go around . . . even in South America and even in the rainforest. But this also means that if landowners, governments, and those living in the rainforest today were given a viable economic reason not to destroy the rainforest, it could and would be saved. And this viable economic alternative does exist, and it is working today. Many organizations have demonstrated that if the medicinal plants, fruits, nuts, oils, and other resources like rubber, chocolate, and chicle (used to make chewing gums) are harvested sustainably, rainforest land has much more economic value today and more long-term income and profits for the future than if just timber is harvested or burned down for cattle or farming operations. In fact, the latest statistics prove that rainforest land converted to cattle operations yields the landowner $60 per acre; if timber is harvested, the land is worth $400 per acre. However, if medicinal plants, fruits, nuts, rubber, chocolate, and other renewable and sustainable resources are harvested, the land will yield the landowner $2,400 per acre. This value provides an income not only today, but year after year - for generations. These sustainable resources - not the trees - are the true wealth of the rainforest.

This is no longer a theory. It is a fact, and it is being implemented today. Just as important, to wild-harvest the wealth of sustainable rainforest resources effectively, local people and indigenous tribes must be employed. Today entire communities and tribes earn five to ten times more money in wild-harvesting medicinal plants, fruits, nuts, and oils than they can earn by chopping down the forest for subsistence crops. This much-needed income source creates the awareness and economic incentive for this population in the rainforest to protect and preserve the forests for long-term profits for themselves and their children and is an important solution in saving the rainforest from destruction.

When the timber is harvested for short-term gain and profits, the medicinal plants, nuts, oils, and other important sustainable resources that thrive in this delicate ecosystem are destroyed. The real solution to saving the rainforest is to make its inhabitants see the forest and the trees by creating a consumer demand and consumer markets for these sustainable rainforest products . . . markets that are larger and louder than today's tropical timber market . . . markets that will put as much money in their pockets and government coffers as the timber companies do . . . markets that will give them the economic incentive to protect their sustainable resources for long-term profits, rather than short-term gain.

This is the only solution that makes a real impact, and it can make a real difference. Each and every person in the United States can take a part in this solution by helping to create this consumer market and demand for sustainable rainforest products. By purchasing renewable and sustainable rainforest products and resources and demanding sustainable harvesting of these resources using local communities and indigenous tribes of the rainforests, we all can be part of the solution, and the rainforests of the world and their people can be saved.

Facts about Rainforests

Do you know how many tropical rainforest plants have been identified as having anti-cancer properties? Or how many continents around the world contain rainforests? And just how quickly are the world's rainforests disappearing?

Find out the answers to these questions and more as you check out these interesting rainforest facts! And when you think that you know all there is to know about the rainforest, test your knowledge with our rainforest quiz.
Facts about the Global Coverage of Rainforests:

* Fact: Covering less than 2 percent of the Earth's total surface area, the world's rainforests are home to 50 percent of the Earth's plants and animals.
* Fact: Rainforests can be found all over the world from as far north as Alaska and Canada to Latin America, Asia and Africa.
* Fact: Rainforests are found on every continent across the Earth, except Antarctica.
* Fact: There are two major types of rainforest: temperate rainforests and tropical rainforests.
* Fact: The largest temperate rainforests are found on North America's Pacific Coast and stretch from Northern California up into Canada.
* Fact: Temperate rainforests used to exist on almost every continent in the world, but today only 50 percent – 75 million acres – of these forests remain worldwide.

Facts about the Rainforest as Part of our Global Environment and Well-being:

* Fact: Rainforests act as the world's thermostat by regulating temperatures and weather patterns.
* Fact: One-fifth of the world’s fresh water is found in the Amazon Basin.
* Fact: Rainforests are critical in maintaining the Earth's limited supply of drinking and fresh water.

Facts about the Abundant Life and Important Resources that Rainforests Share with Us:

* Fact: A typical four square mile patch of rainforest contains as many as 1,500 flowering plants, 750 species of trees, 400 species of birds and 150 species of butterflies.
* Fact: Rainforests provide many important products for people: timber, coffee, cocoa and many medicinal products, including those used in the treatment of cancer.
* Fact: Seventy percent of the plants identified by the U.S. National Cancer Institute as useful in the treatment of cancer are found only in rainforests.
* Fact: More than 2,000 tropical forest plants have been identified by scientists as having anti-cancer properties.
* Fact: Less than one percent of the tropical rainforest species have been analyzed for their medicinal value.

Facts about the Threats to Rainforests, Indigenous People and Species:

* Fact: Rainforests are threatened by unsustainable agricultural, ranching, mining and logging practices.
* Fact: Before 1500 A.D., there were approximately 6 million indigenous people living in the Brazilian Amazon. But as the forests disappeared, so too did the people. In the early 1900s, there were less than 250,000 indigenous people living in the Amazon.
* Fact: Originally, 6 million square miles of tropical rainforest existed worldwide. But as a result of deforestation, only 2.6 million square miles remain.
* Fact: At the current rate of tropical forest loss, 5-10 percent of tropical rainforest species will be lost per decade.
* Fact: Nearly 90 percent of the 1.2 billion people living in extreme poverty worldwide depend on forests for their livelihoods.
* Fact: Fifty-seven percent of the world’s forests, including most tropical forests, are located in developing countries.
* Fact: Every second, a slice of rainforest the size of a football field is mowed down. That's 86,400 football fields of rainforest per day, or over 31 million football fields of rainforest each year.
* Fact: More than 56,000 square miles of natural forest are lost each year.

An area of a rainforest the size of a football field is being destroyed each second.
Butterfly Bullet Giant bamboo plants can grow up to 9 inches a day.
Butterfly Bullet The trees of a tropical rainforest are so densely packed that rain falling on the canopy can take as long as 10 minutes to reach the ground.
Butterfly Bullet In the moist rainforests of South America, sloths move so slowly that algae are able to grow in their fur.

Plants and animals are abundant in the canopy and understory.
A skillful climber
Leaf Bullet Some rainforest monkeys are omnivores, eating both animals and plants.
Leaf Bullet More than 2,000 different species of butterflies are found in the rainforests of South America.
Leaf Bullet The forests of Central Africa are home to more than 8,000 different species of plants.
Leaf Bullet Flying animals of Asian rainforests include frogs, squirrels and snakes.
Bug Bullet 80% of the flowers in the Australian rainforests are not found anywhere else in the world.
Bug Bullet Bats are essential for the pollination of many tropical foodstuffs such as bananas and mangoes.
Bug Bullet 1 out of 4 ingredients in our medicine is from rainforest plants.

Blood-sucker vampire bat

About 2,000 trees per minute are cut down in the rainforests.
Let's do everything we can to save them..

Rainforests are forests which grow in areas of high rainfall. Tropical rainforests are found between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. Those nearest the equator, where the climate is very hot and wet all through the year, are evergreen because the trees can grow all the time and so are always in leaf. Further away from the equator, the climate is more temperate and there are wet and dry seasons. The rainforests in these areas are deciduous and the trees lose their leaves during the dry seasons.

These deciduous rainforests are found, for example, in the cooler parts of Central America and India.

Cloud forests are yet another type of rainforest, so-called because they can be found high up mountains, where they are nearly always in cloud. The climate here is very cool but extremely wet.

Before humans started destroying the rainforests, they covered 15% of the Earth's land area. Today, they cover less than 7%. In the last 200 years, the total area of rainforest has decreased from 1,500 million hectares to less than 800 million hectares. (One hectare is equivalent to the

area covered by two football pitches). More than a hectare of rainforest is lost every two seconds, which means that at present rates of destruction, there will be no rainforest at all in just 40 years.

The disappearance of the forest is called DEFORESTATION. As populations have grown and demands for land and timber have grown greater, so the deforestation has accelerated. Logging only began in Indonesia ten years ago. It is estimated that in just ten more years, the timber stock will have been totally destroyed. In Thailand, 80% of the country's original forest has been cut down in the last 40 years.

Why are Rainforests Important?

Biodiversity
Climate
Erosion and Flooding
Medicine & Food

What are the Threats to the Rainforest?

Humans have cut down trees for thousands of years, yet concern over deforestation is fairly recent. The rate at which the forests have been cleared has accelerated during the latter part of this century. Since the end of the Second World War about half the world's rainforest has been felled. Gradually, the rainforest has gained the attention of the worldwide media, making most of us aware of the problems.

Forests are destroyed for a number of reasons:-

Population Growth
Tropical Hardwood
Cattle Grazing

The Future

Can the rainforests be replaced?
What can be done

Conserving rainforests is, and will probably continue to be, an extremely difficult challenge. The countries with rainforests are trying to cope with their immediate problems, brought about by population increase and enormous debts to the World Bank, so they have little time to think about the long-term effects of removing the forests. A shortage of money prevents these countries from carrying out suitable conservation programmes.

Only with financial assistance from developed countries, or by writing off all or at least part of the debts, can the rainforests be saved. This will not happen overnight. There is too much money at stake, and only strong public feeling in developed countries will lead to pressure being brought against those in control of Third World debt to help rainforest countries. Until this happens, the economic situation will force countries with rainforests to carry on cutting them down.

It is estimated that every minute, 80 football pitches of rainforest are destroyed! Each day, at least one species of animal or plant becomes extinct! There is little hope of preserving all the remaining rainforests exactly as they are today. Parts of them should be protected absolutely, but others can be used to benefit man as well as other species. There is no reason why development cannot harmonise with the forest. In this way we will be able to ensure that the unique rainforests, with their great diversity and importance for the environment, continue to survive.

Ideas for Projects

1. Pollinating The Plants
Birds, bats, bees, butterflies and moths all play an important role in the reproduction of rainforest plants. In most ecosystems, the pollen is carried from one plant to another by the wind. In a rainforest ecosystem, however, there is hardly any wind at all, so the animals are vitally important for plant pollination.

* What adaptations have rainforest plants and animals evolved to help with pollination?
* How do the plants attract the animals?
* Describe some specific examples of interdependence (the relationships between the animals and plants).

2. Dispering The Seeds
Some species of monkeys, bats and birds are very important seed dispersers. Even some species of fish are responsible for dispersing seeds! The plants produce large numbers of seeds and hope that at least some of them will be spread around the forest and end up in suitable places for germination. Without animals' help, this spreading around of the seeds would not be possible.

* How do plants attract the seed-dispersing animals?
* Describe how different types of animals manage to disperse seeds around the rainforest.

3. Predator and Prey
As in other ecosystems, most rainforest animals are herbivores (they eat plants), but some of them are carnivores and eat other animals. The animal predators come in many shapes and sizes, and include spiders, insects, amphibians,reptiles, birds and mammals. The largest predators, which are at the top of the food chain, are known as indicator species. These predators, such as the jaguar of South America and the tiger of India, need a lot of living space, and if an area of forest has a healthy population of such animals, then we can be pretty sure that the whole forest community is doing well. Any destruction of forest habitat, or a decrease in numbers of their prey will affect the population of large predators.

* Choose one of the groups of predators mentioned above, and find out details about where they live, their way of hunting, their prey etc.
* Construct food chains, and perhaps a food web, which include the predators you have chosen.

4. People of the Forest
Indigenous tribes (groups of people who come from a country or area) have only lived in rainforests for a short period in human history. In South East Asia and the Pacific Islands, people have lived in the forests for about 40,000 years, but the earliest signs of human settlement in African forests are no more than 3,000 years old. There are about 1,000 indigenous tribes in the rainforests of the world. Even though they may not have been there for very long, rainforest people have managed to develop ways of life which allow them to use the forest without destroying it. Whilst other civilisations have grown further and further from the natural world, rainforest people have had to grow close to nature in order to survive.

Forest Facts

Want to know more about the beautiful scarlet macaw or the strange dietary habitats of the three-toed sloth? Interested in learning how our precious forests affect the air we breathe and the food we eat? Or maybe you want to know what you can do to help conserve our planet’s rainforests? Read on for the answers to these questions and more:
Forest

* What is a Tropical Forest?

"Tropical forests" encompass the idyllic rainforest, the remote cloud forest, and the lesser-known but equally endangered dry forest, pine savanna, and much, much more. They are not one ecosystem, but millions of unique ecosystems. Tropical forests are both the fearsome Jungle of our fantasy and the fertile Eden of our myth. They are the central nervous system of our planet -- a hotbed of evolution, life, and diversity.

Tropical rainforests are home to over half the world's species, all squeezed into a narrow strip of equatorial land. They are also home to millions of human beings that have been a part of forest ecosystem for thousands of years. Together, tropical forests form a gallery of the most beautiful, awe-inspiring places and creatures on Earth.

Since the beginning of history, humans have relied on tropical forests. The "jungle" provided our ancient ancestors with a steady supply of wood, plants, and animals, and it gave us many of our first fruits, fibers, grains, medicines, cloths, resins, pigments, and other materials. As the millennia passed and many human communities moved farther and farther away from the Tropics, our ties to the forest did not weaken. Major trade routes, and even empires, developed to control the flow of the tropical forest's treasures.
Heliconia Plant

Today, most of the industrialized world senses little connection to the tropical forest, living in large, busy cities far away from these fertile ecological powerhouses. We forget that the forest regularly saves our global food supply by offering new, disease-resistant crops. We forget about the hundreds of billions of dollars worth of trade in tropical timber, non-timber forest products, and forest-derived drugs. We forget about things that are ultimately beyond value: the livelihoods of millions of forest peoples, a stable and livable climate for us all, the existence of most of our fellow species, and simple things we take for granted, like regular rain and clean air.

In tropical nations, many developing and debt-ridden, the forest is cleared in the hope of securing an economic future. Huge industrial interests, including timber, agriculture, and mining, see an "endless," profitable supply of cheap resources just waiting to be taken. Meanwhile, family farmers and loggers feel they have no option but to deforest in order to feed their families. However, innumerable studies and recent history show that little security can be found in tropical deforestation.

Thus far, our human family has erased half of our original endowment of tropical forests. Our world is now facing the greatest extinction crisis since the fall of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. The future of over 50% of Earth's plants and animals -- and hundreds of human cultures -- will be determined within the next few decades. Since our lives are so dependent on the forest's bounty, our future is at stake as well.

* Tropical Forests in Our Daily Lives

Tropical forests encompass not only mist enshrouded rainforests -- where the average annual rainfall is between 80 and 400 inches and temperatures hover consistently around 31 degrees Celsius (72 Farenheit) during the day -- but also remote cloud forests, endangered dry forests and pine savannas. Tropical forests are not a single ecosystem, but millions of unique ecosystems that are home to over half of the world's plant and animal species.

Exotic orchids, stealthy jaguars, giant armadillos, colorful songbirds, noisy monkeys and reclusive snakes are but some of the creatures that inhabit tropical forests -- along with millions of human beings who have relied on forest fruits, fibers, grains, medicines, cloths, resins and pigments for millenia.

While most of the industrialized world senses little connection with the tropical forest, living in large, busy cities far away from these fertile ecological powerhouses, we continue to rely on them for many of our most basic needs.

Food

The forest regularly saves our global food supply by offering new, disease-resistant crops. Although we have sampled only a tiny fraction of the potential foods that tropical forests offer, they already have a profound influence on our diet. An astounding number of fruits (bananas, citrus), vegetables (peppers, okra), nuts (cashews, peanuts), drinks (coffee, tea, cola), oils (palm, coconut), flavorings (cocoa, vanilla, sugar, spices) and other foods (beans, grains, fish) originated in and around the rainforest.

If we are not careful though, our appetites for these products could destroy the source from which they came as unsustainable farming methods continue to be a major cause of rainforest destruction and pollution worldwide. We can enjoy the rainforest food basket if we support Earth-friendly farming -- a balanced agricultural approach that may draw on both local farming traditions and cutting-edge science.

Medicine
Girl and Baby

One quarter of the Western medicines that we use today are derived from plants, yet less than 1% of these tropical trees and plants have been screened by scientists for pharmaceutical properties. Tropical forests have given us chemicals to treat or cure inflammation, rheumatism, diabetes, muscle tension, surgical complications, malaria, heart conditions, skin diseases, arthritis, glaucoma and hundreds of other maladies.

The United States National Cancer Institute has identified 3,000 plants that are active against cancer cells. Seventy percent of these plants are found in the rainforest.

In order to protect the pharmacy, we must also protect the pharmacists. Most medicine men and shamans remaining in the rainforests today are 70 years old or more. With the disruption and destruction of the indigenous forest cultures that protect and manage the forest pharmacy, thousands of cures will be lost, possibly forever.

Homes and Offices

Tropical forests yield some of the most beautiful and valuable woods in the world, such as teak, mahogany, rosewood, balsa, sandalwood and countless lesser-known species. These woods surround us at home, in shopping malls and in offices. Many are vital to our industries. But only recently has the industrialized world realized the limits to timber extraction. Just like agriculture, logging can either nurture or destroy an ecosystem. It is up to us to support environmentally responsible logging and promote smarter wood production and consumption around the world.

After all, a healthy forest can provide a lot more than wood. Tropical forest fibers are found in rugs, mattresses, ropes and strings, fabrics, industrial processes and more. Tropical forest oils, gums and resins are used in insecticides, rubber products, fuel, paint, varnish and wood finishing products. Tropical oils are key ingredients in cosmetics, soaps, shampoos, perfumes, disinfectants and detergents.

Climate Control
Trees

Tropical forests do not only provide goods, but invaluable services, as well. They are vital to the hydrologic cycle (rain and water systems), and they maintain some of the world's most fragile soils. Forests are one of the world’s primary carbon reservoirs, storing an estimated 610 billion tons of carbon. By absorbing carbon dioxide from the air, storing the carbon and giving us fresh, clean oxygen, tropical forests act as the world’s thermostat, regulating temperatures and weather patterns. More than 20% of the world’s oxygen is produced by the Amazon rainforest. Excess carbon dioxide produced by cars, industry and uncontrolled logging and burning in tropical forests are the major source of global warming, which is heating the planet even faster than scientists had predicted just a few years ago.

Responsible forestry helps us to turn down the global thermostat. By stopping the destruction of mature (old-growth) forests, we keep a huge amount of carbon from being released into the atmosphere, and by promoting Earth-friendly planting and management of young forests, we absorb large amounts of atmospheric carbon.

The Future

Nearly half of the Earth’s original forest cover has already been lost, and each year more than thirty million tropical forest acres are destroyed. Our world is facing the greatest extinction crisis since the fall of the dinosaurs some 65 million years ago. The future of over 50% of Earth's plants and animals -- and hundreds of human cultures -- will be determined within the next few decades. Because our lives are so intertwined with the forest's great bounty, our fate -- as well as that of millions of plants and animal species -- are at stake. It is up to all of us to act responsibly and to be good stewards by contributing to the sustainable production of all the goods and services that the Earth’s tropical forests provide.

* Animal and Plant Species Profiles

Amphibians

Red-Eyed Tree Frog

Birds

Blue-Gray Tanager,Andean Condor,Blue-Crowned Motmot,Blue-Gray Tanager,Cock of the Rock,Great Curassow,King Vulture,Ocellated Turkey,Ruby-Throated Hummingbird,Rufous-Bellied Thrush,Tennessee Warbler

Insects

Blue Morpho Butterfly,Leafcutter Ant,Praying Mantid,Japanese Macaque

Mammals

Amazon River Dolphin,Amazonian Tapir,Black Howler Monkey,Brown-Throated Three-Toed Sloth,Capuchin Monkey,Collared Peccary,Honduran White Bat,Jaguar,Nine-Banded Armadillo,Ocelot,Spectacled Bear.West Indian Manatee,Yucatan White-Tailed Deer

Plants

Poinsettia,Banana,Bromeliad,Cocoa Tree,Coffee,Heliconia,Kapok Tree,Orchid,Poinsettia

Soureces: http://www.rain-tree.com/facts.htm, http://www.nature.org/rainforests/explore/facts.html, http://www.srl.caltech.edu/personnel/krubal/rainforest/Edit560s6/www/facts.html, http://ypte.org.uk/docs/factsheets/env_facts/rainffacts.html, http://www.rainforest-alliance.org/resources.cfmid=facts