Fascinating Facts!!!

Rainforests are fascinating places.  Here are some things you might not know about them!!!

More than 65 million years old, rainforests are the oldest major vegetation types on Earth.

Although rainforests cover less than 2% of the Earths surface, they are home to more than half of all its living things!

Ancestors of human beings first evolved in rainforests.  Our closest genetic relatives, chimpanzees and gorillas, live there still.

Rainforests absorb nearly half the earth's rainfall, and gradually release it into rivers and streams.  The tropical rainforests release rainwater into watersheds slowly and evenly, preventing flooding and droughts.  When rainforests are intact, rivers run full and clear. When they are destroyed, rivers become muddy and dry up.

Rainforests play a critical role in global weather patterns, affecting prevaling winds, cloud formation, temperature, rainfall, and other important factors.

About 140 million people live in rainforests in more than 1,000 indigenous tribal groups.  Traditional rainforest people are the only human beings that can live in the rainforest without damaging it!

In an areas of forest half the size of the city of San Francisco, live 545 kinds of birds, 100 kinds of dragonflies and 729 kinds of butterflies!!!

Humans rely on rainforests for food. medicines and lumber.  Some of these everyday products include coffee, mangoes, antibiotics, tranquilizers, chocolate, bananas, vegetables, bamboo, rattan, rubber, wax, plastics, rice and citrus fruits.

Tropical rainforests provide between 25 to 40 % of all pharmaceutical products.   These include the ingredients for medicines that we take when we are ill.   3,000 plants have anti-cancer properties.  Of these, 70% grow in the rainforest.  So the next time you have to take medicine, take time to think about where it came from!!

Originally, 8 million square miles of rainforest encircled the planet.  More than half has been burned, bulldozed and destroyed.  Now, only 3.4 million square miles remain.  This is an area smaller than the USA.

In 2 hours, modern machines can cut down 900 tonnes of rainforest.  Every second, humans wipe out an area of rainforest the size of 2 football fields (2.47 acres)!!!

If these rates of destruction continue, scientists predict that 80 to 90% of the Earth's tropical rainforests will be decimated by 2020.

Without the rainforest to aid global weather patterns, devestating changes could occur, such as the melting of the polar icecaps!!

There were 6 to 9 milion native inhabitants living in the Brazilian rainforest in 1500.  In 1992, fewer than 200,000 remained.

During the 20th century alone, 87 unique tribes have become extinct in Brazil!!!

Experts estimate that 20 to 50% of rainforest plants have yet to be described!!Many plant and animal species are becoming extinct before their existance is even recorded!!

It is estimated that an average of 150 species of plants and animals become extinct every day!!

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