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THE AMAZON RAINFOREST - A LAND OF SPLENDOR BY JASMINE B Since the beginning of time, the Amazon Rainforest has been a fundamental aspect in Earth’s survival. The Rainforest provides nearly 50% of our planet’s oxygen supply, as well as feeds and nourishes nature and human kind with one fifth of the world’s water. In a 1994 study of the Rainforest’s landmass, it covered 67% of Brazil. Today, it covers only 58%, and seeing as how the Rainforest is home to billions of plant and animal species, useful and needed in an abundance of ways, it has reason to cause some concern.
Let’s face it, our
planet needs medicines. After all the cancers, viruses, diseases, and
countless numbers of illnesses, we need cures, not just simple treatments
to ease our suffrage, but real, permanent solutions. Lucky for us, there
is a place that can offer us such a solution, and it is known as the
Amazon Tropical Rainforest. However, we have found that what we value
more is money than answers. WE choose to hastily destroy possibly the
last natural resource that reportedly kills approximately two million
people each year around the world: Cancer. But no, we would rather slash
and burn that resource and plant some crops or attempt to raise a herd
of emaciated cattle for a few years, until the land becomes barren and
useless, then move on. Or we would rather harvest pulp and paper, or
build hydroelectric dams and anything else equally as destructive. What is so important about
the Amazon? Well, one quarter of our prescription drugs are obtained
from plants found in the Rainforest, while 1 400 have been found to
have cancer fighting properties. The Chinchona Bark relives the symptoms
of Malaria, with its powerful quinine ingredients, and from the venomous
mouth of one of the Amazon’s deadliest snakes, the Brazilian Pit
Viper, is derived a drug for high blood pressure. The Rosy Periwinkle
leaves contain alkaloids, which have been extremely successful in curing
Hodgkin’s Disease and childhood Leukemia. There is such a wealth
of plant species, that it is estimated that there are as many unclassified
plants in the Amazon as there are known plants in all of North America.
Approximately five centuries ago, there were an estimated 10 million natives residing in the Amazon Rainforest, while currently there are only around 200 thousand. Why? Well, the Rainforest is rapidly being obliterated by cattle ranchers, loggers, farmers, hydro electric dam construction, gold mining and iron ore mining, as well as the need to import charcoal to fuel iron ore because of smelting. If we choose to continue to recklessly devastate the Amazon at the rate we are presently doing so, it is estimated that by the year 2010, the magnificent Amazon Jungle will be irreversibly damaged, which could lead to colossal problems in South America’s and the world’s general financial, natural resource, and economic securities.
(Healthy Forest) http://www.ascendingenterprises.com/amazonherb.htm
Logging, ranching, and farming
are not feasible resources and are nonsensical financially in the Rainforest,
as we cannot regenerate it sustainably, because there is such a small
layer of top soil in the Amazon. We have realized there is not enough
nutrition for the crops and trees that we are planting in the areas
that we slash and burn, and are in fact finding that the nutrition in
the soil is coming from the life cycle within the jungle. We have recognized
that when we take away those trees, we take away the fertility in the
soil, resulting in useless arid desert terrain within a few years. This is an extremely immoral
operation, but regrettably is not the only misdeed that is occurring
in the Amazon. Hydro Electric Dam construction is advertised as a “sanitary”
source of energy that does not contaminate or pollute the atmosphere
with greenhouse gases, as in the cases of oil or natural gas. Believable?
Maybe to some, but what is actually happening is quite different. Because
of all the construction along these rivers, gases are released from
the water into the air, and this can result in rotting vegetation, as
well as an increase of greenhouse gases. However, obtaining hydro electric
energy by building dams continues to advance along the Xingu River,
the last of the great Amazon Rivers in good state of conservation. It
is estimated that nearly all the Amazon will be destroyed during the
first fifty years of this century. However, that is only if these incessant
trends are increased with the completion of major communications and
transportations production in the region. The carbon release resulting
from burning down the forest would be comparable to nearly 50 times
the present annual release of greenhouse gases in the United States.
In spite of this, energy consultant, Joaquim Francisco de Carvalho,
argues in favor of the construction of the Xingu hydroelectric plant,
all to please future Brazilian demand for electricity, a unanimous insistence
that comes hand in hand with “development.” So, what does all this demolition
and “development” result in? No cures; death; rainforest destruction
continually advancing to make room for dams, cattle, and crops; and
greenhouse gas emissions skyrocketing through the roof. That is merely
the beginning. One of the most important things, I believe, is also
being lost, and it hasn’t even been discovered yet. We are so close,
so painstakingly close to so many different cures, remedies, and solutions
in the area of modern medicine, that it is almost ironic. After all
the endless hours of research, investigations, studies, and analysis,
we are closer than ever to finding cures. But at the same time, due
to rainforest depletion, we have never been so far from it. A decision must be made
by the government of South America, by its people, and by humanity itself.
What will we do? What will you do? Is the future of your children, grandchildren,
or even great grandchildren important to you? Is the cleanliness of
the oxygen you are breathing into your lungs right now a concern to
you? Would you have preferred your aunt, brother, grandpa, or daughter
to not get cancer? Is a cure for SARS hiding in the fleshy leaves of
an exotic Brazilian tree? Possibly, but maybe it’s already extinct.
We are obviously trapping ourselves into a paradox, where in the end;
we will have no forests left, no wealth that is spoken of so fondly,
no relief from the mounting heat, no answers, no cures, and no future.
But we haven’t reached that point yet, and there is still time
for a turnaround. When Cancer is infinitely beaten, when Leukemia is
term and worry of the past, and when well being is rightfully returned
to all of humankind, I have no doubt that it will in some way be the
result of a discovery in the Amazon Rainforest.
http://web.mit.edu/12.000/www/m2006/ teams/furness/water.jpg
1996-2002, the Disappearing
Rainforests, http://www.rain-tree.com/facts.htm -Angel Rivas, Mike Moeller,
and Matt Haack -Sept. 12, 1995, Laurie
Goering~ Rainforest may Offer New Miracle Drugs, -Sean Henahan, the Shaman's
Apprentice, -1994, Philip N. Steinberg,
Cat's Claw, http://www.herbmed.com/catsclawarticle.html -Feb. 19, 1998, Roger Segelken,
Rodriguez: Medicinal fmds from rain forest will aid Indians, conservation
http://www.news.cornell.edu/Chronicle/98/2.19.98/medicinals.html-October
1999, Exploring the Amazon: http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag99/oct99_report2a.html |
