facts on the rainforests
Amazon rainforest: Visualing Numbers
There are many facts related to the Amazon jungle, some good and some very devastating. But the difficulty these events is that too often, the numbers are so large they can become incomprehensible, and certainly very difficult to visualize.
For example, The Amazon covers an area of 2.5 million square kilometers. That's a big number, but you can not really visualize what can? All we see is a lot of trees.
To put into perspective a bit, Australia is about 2.8 million square kilometers, so the Amazon is only slightly smaller than the entire continent of Australasia.
More surprising is the estimate that there are still about fifty housing Indian tribes in the Amazon rainforest that have never been discovered and never had contact with the outside world. But not only large figures are impressive – that is the contribution actual Amazon jungle for the survival of the planet that must be understood.
The Amazon forest has been frequently mentioned as the lungs of the planet and for good reason. Every day the Amazonian forests generate a fifth of all the oxygen in the atmosphere one. Without them, it quickly starts to choke. 70% All plants used in the treatment of cancer are found in tropical forests, and if you lined all and all plants, animals and insects in the world, each other of them live in the Amazon jungle.
It is easy to be surprised by these figures and images, but unfortunately not all good news. Imagine an acre and a half of the forest. It is simple, right? So imagine a football field, an acre and a half in size in place.
Now imagine the football field full of trees, animals and wildlife. Play exotic birds calling to each other, the soft drip drops of heavy rain footsteps through the leaves in the rich soil underneath. Imagine that a large area of magnificent forests and valuable.
Now open and close his eyes twice. He's gone.
Literally a half acre of the Amazon rainforest is destroyed for ever every second day. It is not difficult to see that?
Perhaps even more difficult of view is that is causing irreparable damage by destroying most beneficial natural resources and diverse on this planet. We must do something today, because tomorrow at this hours an area of Amazon rainforest over a half times the size of the UK are gone forever.
About the Author
For more information about deforestation in the Cameroon rainforest and Gabon rainforest, visit the Rainforest Foundation. You can also follow the work of the Foundation on their Rainforest Facebook page.
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What kind of soil is the best consumer of CO2?
Before answering the jungle with him, it is not. In fact, the forest is emitting far what they are eating. Look into Wikipedia. So what kind of soil is a better consumer per square meter? My front lawn?
Top CO2 consumer really is not land but sea. On land, plants grow, absorbing CO2, then they die and rot the release of nearly all the CO2 into the atmosphere. In the oceans, algae does the trick of photosynthesis itself, but the algae are then eaten as part of a long food chain. CO2 is food for algae, there are more, the food algae blooms throughout the food chain. Most of the algae absorb carbon permanently fixed ends (or "kidnapped") in the form of shells and fish bones that fall into the sea in thick layers. Millennia later dig it up and use it for many things, knowing as "chalk." The carbon from the CO2 that is captured in chalk (calcium carbonate) is very stable and remains permanently fixed unless they are particularly determined. Oceans cover two thirds of the planet, so do not think that what you do with your front yard will do much compared with that (unless your front yard is from California, course)
