The good news:
- The Amazon Rainforest covers over a billion acres and if it was a country, it would be the ninth largest in the world
- More than 20 percent of the world’s oxygen is produced by the Amazon
- More than half of the world’s estimated ten million species of plants, animals, and insects live in rainforests
- Around 20% of the world’s fresh water is in the Amazon Basin
- One hectare (2.47 acres) may contain over 750 types of trees
- 80% of the developed world’s common foodstuffs originated in tropical rainforest
- 3000 fruits are found in rainforests but only 200 are now in use in the West
The not so good news:
One and one-half acres of rainforest are lost every second
- Rainforests are being destroyed because the value of rainforest land is perceived as only the value of its timber
- Nearly half of the world’s species of plants, animals, and microorganisms in severe danger over the next 25 years because of deforestation
- We are losing more than 100 plant, animal and insect species every day due to deforestation (over 50,000 species a year).
Source: Raintree Nutrition
Comments
I would appreciate if you could link directly to the source. I have trouble finding evidence for the numbers with “Raintree Nurition” as only keyword (is this even correctly spelled?).
Look forward to hearing from you.
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