Rainforests once covered 14% of Earth’s land. Today, they cover only six. This is why.
The rainforest is our planet’s most valuable resource — and our future depends on it. This WORLD RAINFOREST DAY, learn about the threats the rainforest is facing due to climate change and what we can do to stop it.
Rainforests are the lungs and lifeblood of our planet, spanning across the tropical regions of our planet and covering 6% of our Earth. The rainforest is home to over 40 million unique species. Without the rainforest, our chances of preventing further damage from climate change will become impossible.
That’s because rainforests are a critical part of our planet’s carbon and water regulation system. We rely on the plant species found in the rainforest for medicine — if we lose the rainforest, we lose treatments to diseases like cancer. The rainforest is a necessity both for us and for the plant and animal species that call the environment beneath the canopies home.
But with rising temperatures, our rainforests are at risk of total devastation. The Earth’s temperature has increased 1.1 degrees Celsius since 1880. And it is estimated this temperature continues to rise 0.14 degrees Celsius each decade. This gradual increase in the Earth’s temperature has led to unpredictable seasons in the rainforest; including intense rainfall or and increased dry seasons leading to frequent forest fires, that make it challenging to sustain life.
Plants and animals are forced to adapt rapidly to the new climate if they wish to survive. Droughts caused by rising temperatures in the rainforest pose a unique threat due to the reliance of thousands of species on the rainy weather. The change in humidity as a result of the rainforests leave the environment at risk of forest fires. In only 2022, over 1,000 forest fires ravaged the Amazon rainforest. This devastating loss of trees, plants, and animals within the rainforest can take up to forty years to recover.
Conservation efforts are working hard to save our rainforests, but more efforts and funding are needed to guarantee its survival. The survival of the rainforest is directly tied to the survival of millions of species — including our own.
Now is our time to act – let’s save RAINFORESTS today.
