Deforestation

Many people know that deforestation is an issue, but how important is it, really? Deforestation is incredibly problematic. People are killing forests to make more room for farms, to get wood, or to harvest resources like rubber and cacao. What they don’t know, or refuse to acknowledge, is that the forests are a critical part of the beautiful diversity of Earth, and a necessary resource that we need to preserve.

Much of deforestation is in rainforests. Deforesting rainforests hurts the ecosystem and habitat that houses many, many kinds of life, including more than two-thirds of the plants used to fight cancer, and the beans that are made into chocolate, and coffee. If deforestation continues, scientists estimate that there won't be any chocolate or coffee by the year 2100. That isn't as far away as it sounds. Only 78 years. A person can live 78 years.

In fact, not all the species in rainforests are known by humans. A new species is discovered about every two days, and each species has unique secrets that we can unlock to discover cures and solutions to problems that we don't know how to solve. There are thousands of plants that can help fight diseases and illnesses like cancer, and it's very possible we'll find cures in the same place. If we destroy rainforests, we'll lose all of this and more.

You might be thinking, 'can't they just grow back?' The answer: sort of, if we let them. It takes a couple hundred years for a forest of any kind to grow back, and people just can't wait that long. The rainforest is an ecosystem. All the life there relies on everything else, and they can't wait hundreds of years. It takes centuries for the trees to grow back and a few more centuries for the complexity of primary (old-growth) forests to grow back. 'Can't they just move to another part of the forest?' you might ask. Imagine that half of your neighbors' homes burned down (as well as half the supermarkets,) and they all came to live in your house. It would be overcrowded and miserable, and there wouldn't be enough resources to go around. Animals, just like people, need a certain amount of space to find food, get clean water, and stay away from hostile animals that might kill them. It just doesn't work to overcrowd a habitat. Many more animals die and eventually go extinct in this situation. Deforestation destroys the delicate ecosystems that make up our earth.

This all seems very big and out of reach, but YOU can help. Don't support deforestation. Try not to buy as many things that are products of deforestation such as rubber, paper, or lumber. Doing things as simple as double-siding your printed copies at home can help save the forests and save you money. Some of our recommendations are: buy FSC certified wood products (see image at the bottom for their logo, they stamp it on all of their certified products) Make sure not to buy products like foods and soaps with palm oil in them. Clearing space to grow oil palms is one of the biggest causes of deforestation.

As you now know, deforestation has a big impact on important things in our lives now, for our family in future generations, in science, for the lives of animals, and the future.