Facts

10 Terrifying and Informative Facts about Deforestation and the Amazon Rainforest

 1.   Experts estimate that we are losing 137 plant, animal and insect species every single day due to rainforest deforestation. That equates to 50,000 species a year.

 2.   As the rainforest species disappear, so do many possible cures for life-threatening diseases. Currently, 121 prescription drugs sold worldwide come from plant-derived sources. While 25% of Western pharmaceuticals are derived from rainforest ingredients, less that 1% of these tropical trees and plants have been tested by scientists.

 3.  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.

 4.    The Amazon Rainforest covers over a billion acres, encompassing areas in Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia and the Eastern Andean region of Ecuador and Peru. If Amazonia were a country, it would be the ninth largest in the world.

 5.  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.

 6.  One-fifth of the world’s fresh water is in the Amazon basin.

 7.    Some trees in the Amazon alone host up to fifteen hundred species, and astounding abundance of different life-forms in a small space.

 8.There are 300 non-lizard reptile species, 175 lizard species, 500 mammalian species, and 1/3 of the world’s birds in the Amazon Rainforest. There are also 30 million insect species.

 9.    In every 2.47 acres of Amazonia, there are 1500 plant species, 750 tree species, and 900 tons of living plants. 438,000 species of plants have been registered as having economic or social interest.

10. It is estimated that in rainforests around the world, 150 acres of rainforest are burned every minute.