Destroying the rainforest

Our word is in danger, because air, sole, water are polluted; forests are destroyed; chemicals and waste kill it!

I am the Earth

And the Earth is me.

Each blade of grass,

Each honey of tree,

Each bit of mud,

And stick and stone

Is blood and muscle,

Skin and bone.

And just as I

Need every bit

Of me to make

My body fit,

So Earth Needs

Grass and stone and tree

And things that grow here

Naturally.

Ecology

Water and air pollution is a very serious threat to our environment. This is the result

of human activities: releasing poisonous chemicals, car fumes, throwing litter, oil

spills. Polluted air and water affect people’s health. About 1,4 billion people have

no access to safe drinking water. Polluted water also caused water animals to die.

• Most cities produce a lot of waste every day. If it is just thrown away or even dug up, it may be around for decades, and could even release dangerous chemicals into the soil. These poisonous can threaten the lives of the people that are living or working near by. If toxic or poisonous, liquid chemicals are poured into the water, it is possible to put large population of people’s health at risk. Even people hundred of miles away can be affected.

Why are people destroying rainforests? There is a short answer to that question : money . Countries with rainforests cut down about 50 000 km (square kilometers) of trees every year, and sell the wood to the rich countries of the world. International business buys rainforests in Latin America where land is very cheap. They cut down trees, sell the wood, and then use the land for feeding.

Japan doesn’t cut down the trees, which grow in Japan-but

forty per cent of all the world rainforests wood goes to this country.

Switzerland stopped buying rainforests wood in 1982. But have many countries done the same? If we want to help the rainforests, we must never buy furniture made of rainforests wood.

We need to learn more about the trees of the rainforests, before we destroy them. For example, one famous tree is the petroleum nut tree, from Philippines. This tree makes oil , which we can use for fires for cooking or lighting. One of these trees can make fifty litres of oil every year.

People make roads in rainforests. Without the trees to protect the ground, the heavy rain quickly washes away the soil near the roads and nothing can grow there again. Once in Madagascar there were thousands of animals lived there. Nothing can grow there now, and no animals can live there.

• Cutting down forests damages thousands of acres of land every day. The soil can easily be blown away and there is a less soil. Even if few are planted they cannot bring back the old forests that was part of a complex ecosistem that cleaned the air, trapped flood waters, and made a home for much wildlife.

Are we to destroy all the rainforests of the world? We must begin thinking of other ways to get money, we should begin planting young trees in the rainforests. We must think twice before cutting down trees in the rainforests. Certainly people will use the rainforests but they should protect them too.

• For millions of years , layers of gases have kept the earth warm enough so that people, plants and animals can live here. But some scientists are now concerned that the Earth’s surface will warm too much-to a dangerous degree.

Our sun produces a lot of ultraviolet radiation. Too much radiation is dangerous. But the ozone layer protects the Earth from the sun's dangerous radiation. The ozone layer is situated between the fifteenth and fifty kilometers above the Earth and consists of a gas called ozone. If you make a hole in the ozone layer, the radiation will through the hole and do a lot of damage on Earth.

People produce many gases go high into the air and damage the ozone layer. In 1984 some scientists found a hole in the ozone layer above Antarctica. The hole was as big as the USA. In Chile, under this hole, many sheep now have eye problems. The sun's radiation is also damages people's bodies.

The Antarctic ozone hole in September, from 1957 to 2001.

О zone hole, view from space .

The weakening of the ozone layer increases the flux of solar radiation on the ground and makes people rise in the number of skin cancers. Also from high-level radiation affects plants and animals.

• Moderate solar radiation causes the deposition of the pigment melanin (tan), a positive effect on health.
•   Excessive sun exposure, especially from 11 to 16 hours aggravates chronic diseases such as tuberculosis, causes rapid aging of the skin and contributes to cancer, mainly skin cancer.
•   The number of violations increases still further during the solar activity, as well as in areas with a thinning of the ozone layer over them.

Some of animals belong to endangered species. Man

destroys their habitats. It is important to help wild birds

and animals to survive. We must protect wild life on the

planet.