Rain Forests - the Burning Issue

Deforestation is one of the largest contributors to climate change.

Here are some very poignant facts:-

1. Over half of the world's plant & animal species are found in rainforests.
2. the Amazon forest releases 20 billion tonnes of moisture every day, helping to water crops thousands of miles away.
3.Deforestation releases more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than all the cars, planes and ships put together.
4. Healthy rainforests absorb up to 10% of man's carbon emissions each year.
5.Farmers in Brazil can make $3,000 per hectare by clearing forest and growing soybeans for export.
6. 15 million hectares of tropical forests are lost every tear - an area larger than the size of England.
7. 43 of the 100 best-selling products in British supermarkets contain palm oil, linked to rainforest clearance in Southeast Asia.
8. There are approximately 60 million indigenous people who rely on forests for their way of life. The Amazon basin alone is home to over 300 tribes. We stand in danger in loosing these people and their wisdom that they can impart to us.

BIODIVERSITY
1. At least 6 million different species live in the world's rainforests.
2.A single hectare of tropical rainforest species may contain more than 480 tree species.
3. 99% of rainforests species have still to be studied by science.
4. 137 species of plants, animals and insects become extinct every day in the rainforest. Who knows what natural medicines we are destroying on a daily basis.
5. By 2022 98% of the Orangutan's habitat in Borneo & Sumatra will have disappeared, all due to deforestation in the name of timber harvesting & palm oil plantation.

UK PUBLIC OPINION
A majority of UK adults (66%) agree they would be willing for their government to spend a small amount of taxpayers money each year on preserving rainforests.
Please help stop the madness and take action now. Please go to http://www.rainforestSOS.org & lend your support