Rainforests are forests characterized by high rainfall, with definitions setting minimum normal annual rainfall between 1750–2000 mm (68-78 inches). The monsoon trough, alternately known as the intertropical convergence zone, plays a significant role in creating Earth's tropical rain forests.
From 40 to 75% of all species on Earth are indigenous to the rainforests.It has been estimated that many millions of species of plants, insects, and microorganisms are still undiscovered. Tropical rainforests have been called the "jewels of the Earth", and the "world's largest pharmacy", because of the large number of natural medicines discovered there. Rainforests are also responsible for 28% of the worlds oxygen turn over, often misunderstood as oxygen production, processing it through photosynthesis from carbon dioxide and through breathing to carbon dioxide.
The undergrowth in a rainforest is restricted in many areas by the lack of sunlight at ground level. This makes it possible to walk through the forest. If the leaf canopy is destroyed or thinned, the ground beneath is soon colonized by a dense, tangled growth of vines, shrubs, and small trees called a jungle. There are two types of rainforest, tropical rainforest and temperate rainforest.
Eating meat contributes to the destruction of rain forests, often called the “lungs of our planet” for the way they absorb carbon dioxide and emit oxygen. What we breathe out (carbon dioxide), trees breathe in; what trees breathe out (oxygen), we breathe in. We breathe each other into life and we are actively destroying that life support. Rainforests are the major source of oxygen for the planet; their survival and our survival are closely linked.
The Amazon Rainforest alone holds about 20% of the world’s fresh water and emits about 20% of the world’s oxygen, possessing beauty and sequestering carbon. Every year, gigantic amounts of rain forest, including 5000-11000 square miles [13000-28500 sq. km.] in the Amazon Rainforest, are lost and more than 1,000 plant and animal species that live there become extinct. About 2/3 [60-70%] of that land is currently used for grazing about 165 million cattle. 1/5 [20%] of the Amazon Rainforest has already been cleared. An estimated 80% of annual world deforestation is related to animal agriculture. While some Amazon rainforest in Brazil is also being cut down for soy fields, much of this (genetically modified) soy is being fed to animals being raised for meat – an even more inefficient and wasteful use of essential and irreplaceable rainforest. The meat production-and-consumption cycle is essentially transforming the world’s precious and mega-biodiverse tropical rainforests into carbon dioxide and cholesterol, thereby increasing disasters on both the personal and planetary levels.
Some extremely deadly viral diseases—including Ebola, Marburg Hemorrhagic Fever, and AIDS—have been called the “revenge of the rainforest”, as they have erupted and spread via the building of roads into forests, paving the way for deforestation and the hunt for bushmeat, especially primates, but other amazing animals as well, increasingly threatening many of these animals with extinction. In stark contrast, about ¼ of medicines, including those for leukemia, are derived from the rainforests, yet only about 1% of rainforest plant species have been tested for medicinal purposes. We are uprooting our potential miracle cures through the hamburgerization of our precious forests.
Further, underwater “forests” of coral reefs and mangroves are being decimated by “rape-and-run” shrimp farming (exploiting and polluting coastal communities for 2 to 5 years before abandoning them), commercial fishing, industrial shipping, and other meat and fish-related mega-activities.
Each vegetarian and vegan saves more than an acre (0.4 hectares) of trees every year as well as protecting valuable ecosystems, saving vanishing species, and maintaining precious biodiversity. Your dietary choices make a substantial difference!
Loka samasta Sukhinobhavantu,
Sarvejana Sukhinobhavantu,
-Karthik
