PROBLEM & SOLUTION: DEFORESTATION OF THE RAINFOREST.
We are losing Earth's greatest biological treasures just as we are beginning to appreciate their true value. Rainforests once covered 14% of the earth's land surface; now they cover a mere 6% and experts estimate that the last remaining rainforests could be consumed in less than 40 years. Even though we may not be able to bring back the rainforest land that we have already destroyed, we can save the land that is there now.
Some of the biggest problems that are caused by rainforest deforestation are that we are losing 137 plant, animal and insect species every single day which adds up to over 50,000 species a year. This means that we may be losing cures to life-threatening diseases with every passing day.
Another problem is that there used to be an estimated 10 million Indians living in the Amazonian land and now there is only approximately 200,000. Because of the destruction of the rainforest land, natives living in those areas are losing their homes. .
Not many people know that the rainforest deforestation is happening because the value of the land is only perceived as timber by short-sighted governments and logging companies. What they don't realize is that rainforest land converted for cattle purposes yields the owner $60 per acre, and if the timber is harvested, the owner yields $400 per acre. However, if these renewable and sustainable resources are harvested, the land owner will yield $2,400 per acre.
A solution to this problem is that by leaving the rainforests intact and harvesting it's many nuts, fruits, oil-producing plants, and medicinal plants, the rainforest has more economic value than if they were cut down to make grazing land for cattle or for timber, which will make people realize the value of all of these problems and so the destruction of the rainforests will slow with time and eventually stop.
This plan has already been taken into action and is working a little more each day.