Amazon Rainforest About 6% of the earth is covered byrainforests. The largest rainforest in the world is
Question:
Amazon Rainforest About 6% of the earth is covered byrainforests. The largest rainforest in the world is the AmazonBasin, which stretches over 2.3 million square miles in ninedifferent South American countries. This area is double the lengthof all the other remaining rainforests in the world. Brazilcontains 60%of the Amazonian rainforest, since it lies at the mouthof the river Amazon. This river is the second largest in the worldand contains more than one-fifth of the world’s fresh water. TheAmazon rainforest is a type of wet broadleaf forest. The weatherthere is very humid and warm as it rains quite a bit. Because ofthe high rainfall, the forest is very rich and green. The treeleaves are pointed and narrow so that the raindrops can easily dropoff wet plants. This tropical rainforest has more living speciesthan the entire European continent. There are over 400 types ofinsects living in one single rain forest tree for a total of 2.5million species. One square kilometer of rainforest may containover 75,000 types of trees and approximately 438,000 differentkinds of plants, which comes to a total of 90,000 tons of greeneryoverall. The Amazon rainforest is home to 2,000 birds and mammals,with one in every five birds in the world living there. Localfarmers have lived off this rich and diverse land for thousands ofyears. They have been able to find food and water here withoutdestroying the land. The Kayapo people of Brazil farm in anenvironmentally-friendly way. Instead of chemicals, they use burnedwood to enrich the soil, and plant banana trees, which attractwasps. These wasps then feed on leafcutter ants and get rid ofthese harmful insects. The rainforest also offers a lot of tropicalfruits, such as bananas and coconuts, as food. Cinnamon is madefrom the bark of a rainforest tree. Amazonian Indians use the fruitand stem of the Buruti plant as a drink, to make bread and to buildhouses. Many other plants are used as medicine. But the Amazonrainforest is in very big danger of disappearing. 9,169 squaremiles of forest have been cut down in 2003 in Brazil alone. An areaof the size of a football field is burned down basically everyminute, which means that the rain forest may be gone by the year2030.The dangers related to this type of activity are obvious.Trees take in poisonous carbon dioxide from the air and give offoxygen. There is more oxygen and less carbon dioxide around arainforest. When trees are cut down, however, the amount of carbondioxide increases, and the air gets warmer. This leads to globalwarming, which is extremely harmful to the environment. It isestimated that the burning of Brazilian rainforests alone produces200 million metric tons of carbon dioxide ayear. Another dangerconnected with destroying the rainforest is the disappearance ofplants and animals. When trees are cut down, plants and animalshave no more food left and slowly die out. Killing wild animals isillegal in Brazil, but there is plenty of stealing going on. 38million animals are stolen and sold illegally each year. The mosthunted animals are birds, especially parrots, followed by snakes and the jaguar.
Q: What is author’s implied intention in writing this article
a) species must be presented in artificial habits
b) Deforestation must cease immediately
c) It's important to know about the Amazon
d) South Africa is using the natural resources wisely
Expert Answer:
The authors aim in writing the above article is to make readers aware of Amazon forests richness and its contribution to planet in controlling global warming He mentioned how trees are being destroyed by forest fire The mentioned that valuable species of forest are hunters He also mentioned a important information that Amazon forest ... View the full answer
