Most people have heard of Global Warming and understand that the Earth's weather systems will be dramatically impacted by the continued warming of the planet. There has already been significant melting of the polar ice packs. In 2007 the rate of melting increased dramatically. Since the ice packs reflect a large amount of the sun's rays back into space (thus cooling it), the continued decreasing of their size directly relates to the current increase of the average temperature of the planet.

Many, however, are unaware of the full scope of this ecological crisis that our planet is facing and the role that the rainforests play. What is not largely publicized is that the continued deforestation of the Amazon Rainforest has resulted in over 200 million tons of CO2 being released into the atmosphere per year. This classifies the Amazon as a major contributor to the global warming situation.

Worse still, is the fact that the Amazon rainforest also produces 20% of our planet's oxygen; so not only is the Global warming increasing as a result of deforestation; the amount of oxygen being generated is also decreasing.

Deforestation is the conversion of forested areas to non-forested areas. The main sources of deforestation in the Amazon are human settlement and development of the land.

Between 1991 and 2000, the total area of forest lost in the Amazon rose from 415,000 to 587,000 km², an area more than six times the size of Portugal, with most of the lost forest becoming pasture for cattle.

In February, 2008, the Brazilian government announced that the rate at which the Amazon rainforest is being cut down has increased significantly over the past few months.

During the last five months of 2007, more than 3,200 sq. kilometers (an area equivalent to the size of the state of Rhode Island) was deforested during a time when deforestation would normally drop.

Cattle ranchers, farmers, and loggers are mostly responsible for the massive burning of the forest.

Small ranchers burn the forest to clear the land to make pasture for their cattle. After the land is exhausted they burn some more forest and the cycle continues. We can not blame them, since they are just trying to feed their families.

The bottom line problem is that the local economy values deforested land more than forested land. Until that changes this cycle will continue.

Animal and plant species are meeting extinction on a at an alarming rate in the Amazon as a result of the increasing deforestation. Thousands of species are at risk of meeting the same fate.

Nobody knows how many long sought after cures have been lost because of he deforestation.

In 2005, parts of the Amazon basin experienced the worst drought in 100 years, and there were indications that 2006 could have been a second successive year of drought.

A 23 July 2006 article in the UK newspaper "The Independent" reported Woods Hole Research Center results showing that the forest in its present form could survive only three years of drought.

Scientists at the Brazilian National Institute of Amazonian Research argue in the article that this drought response, coupled with the effects of deforestation on regional climate, are pushing the rainforest towards a "tipping point" where it would irreversibly start to die.

It concludes that the forest is on the brink of being turned into savanna or desert, with catastrophic consequences for the world's climate.

Please check out our "Solutions" page to find out what you can do to help us stop this tragedy from ever occurring.