This interview was
conducted with Elizabeth McGovern a science teacher of biology for the Worcester
Public School System.
The latest statistics prove that rainforest land
converted to cattle operations yields the landowner $60 per acre; if timber is
harvested, the land is worth $400 per acre. However, if medicinal plants,
fruits, nuts, rubber, chocolate, and other renewable and sustainable resources
are harvested, the land will yield the landowner $2,400 per acre. With this being a fact why do you believe
deforestation still takes place?
-Unfortunately the
timber industry has brainwashed people into believing that they can make money
by cutting down trees and farming the land, when in fact it is the timber
industry who make the largest portion of the money. Also most of the poor only
know how to farm, they have not been trained in harvesting the land for
sustainable crops.
One way each and every person in the United States
can take part in this solution to save the rainforests is by helping to create a consumer market and
demand for sustainable rainforest products. Do you know of any other ways
people of the United Stated can help save the rainforests?
-By refusing to
purchase wood that is taken from the rain forest. Also by only buying goods
that are made from sustainable rainforest products and refusing to by good that
are not.
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. How do you believe the world would be impacted
without rainforests?
-The rainforests are
the earth’s lungs, that is to say after the ocean they are the largest carbon
dioxide sink and they give back oxygen. Because they are mostly found in the
tropics this happens year round.
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. What impact does deforestation have on not only
these species and water base but the rest of the world?
-There is the
possibility that one of those species could be a plant that could cure cancer
or heart disease. Without these plants possible cures would never be found.
The U.S. National Cancer Institute has identified
3000 plants that are active against cancer cells. 70% of these plants are found
in the rainforest. Twenty-five percent of the active ingredients in today's
cancer-fighting drugs come from organisms found only in the rainforest. What do you know about the benefits of the
rainforest when it comes to making medical drugs?
-I know that the breast
cancer drug taxol is made from yew trees that are found only in the temperate
rain forest of the Pacific northwest.
Tom Lovejoy, who now runs the Heinz Foundation,
initial work focused on traditional academic study, such as bird banding has
done more work than most popularizing the cause of the Amazon, both
internationally and within Brazil. He has done many things to help the Amazon,
one of the more popular things he did was write the article “Highway to
Extinction” which questioned the construction of the TransAmazon Highway. What do you believe other foundations run by big
corporations can do to help the rainforests?
-I think that they
should ban the use of any non sustainable resource taken from the rainforest.
Also as Lovejoy did these corporations should publicize what is happening in
the rainforests and what can be done to change it.
Restoration seeks to remove the pressures which
are altering or removing the rainforests, and then deliberately manage the
forest that remains in such a way as to encourage natural self-repair by the
ecosystem. Do you think there is
enough restoration taking place or do you think more should be taking place?
-There should be more.
Presently there is more restoration taking place then in the past but more is
needed.
Deforestation can also trigger global climate
change by altering atmospheric circulation patterns (via changes in the earth’s
latent heat flux) and altering atmospheric chemistry (via changes in greenhouse
gases). What do you know about
the correlation between deforestation and global warming?
-As I mentioned earlier
the rainforest is the second largest co2 sink, if it goes then the level or
atmospheric co2 will rise tremendously. This is a big correlation to global
warming because greenhouse gases cause global warming and 72% of greenhouse gas
emissions are co2.
All forms of life within the rainforest are
highly interdependent, so that even small changes in the habitat or species can
have serious knock-on effects throughout the ecosystem. With that being said how does the extinction of
a specie or the clearing of certain trees negatively affect other species?
-It will interfere with the food web, once one chain
within the web is gone the entire web can collapse. This can cause more species
to go extinct which will just continue this trend.
To end deforestation a wide variety of solutions have been suggested, including more
research and development on tropical resources, more and better educated about
the forests, more and better forest conservation and restoration schemes, more
widespread use of debt-for-nature swaps, increased commodity prices for and
import restrictions on timber, and increased co-operation between to seek
viable and sustainable uses of the rainforest. What do you think works/will
work best to end deforestation?
-Education! If more people become aware of how this
can affect them then they may start to do something about it.