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09 December 2009
One and one-half acres of rainforest are lost every second with tragic consequences for both developing and industrial countries. 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. There were an estimated ten million Indians living in the Amazonian Rainforest five centuries ago. Today more than half of the world's estimated 10 million species of plants, animals and insects live in the tropical rainforests. One-fifth of the world's fresh water is in the Amazon Basin. There are less than 200,000. The Amazon Rainforest has been described as the "Lungs of our Planet" because it provides the essential environmental world service of continuously recycling carbon dioxide into oxygen. More than 20 percent of the world oxygen is produced in the Amazon Rainforest. Experts estimate that we are losing 137 plants, animal and insect species every single day due to rainforest deforestation. That equates to 50,000 species a year. Most rainforests are cleared by chainsaws, bulldozers and fires for its timber value and then are followed by farming and ranching operations, even by world giants like Mitsubishi Corporation, Georgia Pacific, Texaco and Unocal.
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