Daintree Rainforest Discussion

rainforestfighter · Joined: 15 Nov 2007 Posts: 1 Location: Oatlands, NSW

hi
i wrote this discussion for school and thought people might like to read it

Rainforest Destruction

Many people are arguing about rainforest destruction, should or shouldn’t it happen? Some people believe yes because we need more land, others no as they contain rare animals. Today I will talk about some of the reasons that people believe they should and shouldn’t be destroyed.

Many rare animals live in rainforests, if we destroy rainforests, some of those animals will become extinct. Imagine living in a world without rare animals like the red tailed phascogale (found in Western Australia), Lumholtz’s tree kangaroo (found in Queensland and Papua New Guinea) and the White Tiger (found in Siberia, Indonesia, South China, Bangladesh and Sumatra). These animals’ population has declined greatly in the past twenty years causing them to become endangered. This is mostly caused by rainforest destruction.

So many medicinal ingredients can be found in rainforests. Seventy percent of rainforest plants have cancer-fighting properties but less than one percent of that is actually used, leaving possible cures for cancer is still out there. Deforestation could make many of these plants extinct causing many people to die.

At least eighty percent of our diet originated in tropical rainforests. Deforestation could cause us to lose so many of the foods we love. Many of the three thousand fruits we have, two hundred of which we use, could become extinct. The exotic fruits are in most danger as they are only found in specific places. The exotic fruits in danger include rollinia from Brazil, carambola from South-East Asia and salak from Bali.

On the other hand, the rising population forces us to log them, as we need the room to build houses, schools, hospitals, etc., and we use the wood to build furniture, make fires and build houses anyway, so we don’t waste the wood logged. The wood is also used to make paper, which is recycled after it’s used so that’s not a waste either.

Backburning is a very important type of destruction, it prevents fires from starting and spreading too far. The backburning is started a safe distance from settlement, to keep the people safe, and burns all of the flammable materials causing the main fire to cease. Once the fire has ceased, firefighters can do the rest of their part and put the flames out with water.

Many countries are very poor, so, for money they log rainforests and sell the wood. The more wood they log, the more money they get to but food, clean drinking water and clothes. They can also get more money from this if they sell it to other countries, countries without enough wood.

In conclusion, rainforest destruction may provide jobs for people, but it definitely doesn’t create a beautiful world. I personally agree with not destroying rainforests as they provide us with oxygen and are home to many animals and plants which help keep rainforests alive.

Please, if you do destroy rainforests, stop and think about this next time you are about to.
It may just save someone or something’s life.

Written by
rainforestfighter