Introduction

Every year the Amazon rainforest through deforestation is reduced in size. Brazil is the biggest deforester (in terms of area and speed), accounting for about three-quarters of the total world rainforest clearance.  Recently between May 2000 and August 2005, Brazil lost more than 132,000 square kilometers of forest—an area larger than Greece—and since 1970, over 600,000 square kilometers (232,000 square miles) of Amazon rainforest have been destroyed. This is roughly the size of the Ukraine. This is a big deal because the rainforests are home to approximately 50% of all earthly life forms. Every year also many species of plants and animals go extinct. Experts estimate that we are losing 137 plant, animal and insect species every single day due to rainforest deforestation. Not only is deforestation having an impact on animals and plants, it is also a huge problem to the indigenous people of the Amazon. Deforestation is driving them out of a home and land. There were an estimated ten million Indians living in the Amazonian Rainforest five centuries ago. Today there are less than 200,000. There are many causes of deforestation which range from chainsaws, bulldozers and fires for its timber value and then are followed by farming and ranching operations. Deforestation also has a huge impact on the future of medicine, 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. With such stark statistics on rates of rainforest clearance have given rise to bleak forecasts about what the future holds in store.  Even though all of these statistics do not look great things are being done for the rainforest. In recent years deforestation of the Amazon has slightly dropped, deforestation rates have slowed since 2004, this is due to new restrictions in Brazil, many new organizations fighting for the rainforests, and more people being informed of the impact deforestation of the rainforests will and is having on the world. The struggle over the region’s future is fundamentally about justice and distribution; whether the Amazon becomes both a literal and moral desert – a land of exterminated Indians, evicted forest people, swollen urban slums and million upon millions of acres of degraded pasture and poisoned rivers. It is up to the people of today if this will or will not happen, we the people of the world need the rainforests to last and need to act to save and preserve what is left.