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- When we eat rainforest beef, we don't
pay the whole price at the cash register. Every four ounces (a average
hamburger) is responsible for the destruction of 55 square feet of tropical
rainforest, the loss of 1,000 pounds of vegetation, and the death of between
twenty and thirty forms of life.
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- Tropical rainforests cover less than
6% of the land on our globe, but house more than half of our world's plant
and animal species, and contain 80% of the Earth's land vegetation.
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- It took up to 100 million years for the
tropical rainforests to evolve. It has taken only forty years to destroy
more than half of them. Every second, a football field sized chunk of lush
tropical rainforest is gone forever. Every year, we lose another 20 million
acres. Tropical rainforests once covered 14% of the land on our globe.
But because of pressure from industry, consumerism, and greed, tropical
rainforests now cover less then 6% of the Earth's land. Destroying the
rest of our rainforests could be one of the most tragic mistakes in the
history of human existence.
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- In every acre of rainforest that's destroyed,
huge numbers of plants and animals die too. Any one of them could be the
last of its kind. In the last hundred years, our forest practices have
caused up to a million species of animals and plants to be extinguished
forever. While the extinction of some species is a natural occurrence,
it is now happening 10,000 times faster than it did before the appearance
of human beings.
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- Steer Clear of Rainforest Beef
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- Rainforests are often cut down or burned
so that cattle can be brought in to graze. As they chew up the grass that
tries to grow on the deforested land, their hooves stomp on and wipe out
the last of the vegetation. Soon the land is no longer suitable even for
grazing cattle. Then the ranchers move further into the rainforest, cut
down more trees, and the stomping and chewing starts all over again. This
is the process that has already destroyed much of the rainforests in Latin
America. In 1960, 130,000 square miles of these thriving forests covered
Central America. Today, less than half of that remains.
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- When we eat rainforest beef, we don't
pay the whole price at the cash register. Every four ounces (an average
hamburger) is responsible for the destruction of 55 square feet of tropical
rainforest, the loss of 1,000 pounds of vegetation, and the death of between
twenty and thirty forms of life.
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- When we choose to eat less (or no) meat,
we are making a powerful choice for the rainforests.
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- Don't Buy Tropical Hardwoods
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- The United States is the world's number
one importer of processed tropical timber. We see teak, mahogany, and other
rainforest hardwoods almost every day in doors, tables, desks, bookshelves,
disposable chopsticks, houses and sometimes even our paper. The developed
world's huge demand for exotic timber is wiping out tropical rainforests
all over the world. In most cases oak, fir, maple, or pine can be grown
locally and sustainably, costing us less money.
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- As consumers, we can avoid tropical wood
products such as rosewood, teak and mahogany.
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- Who Is Responsible For Rainforest Destruction?
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- We can blame certain multi-national corporations,
who take advantage of the situation and see an opportunity to make some
quick bucks. Or we can point our fingers at the people whose actual hands
are on the chain-saws. Many of these people, driven by hunger and poverty,
destroy the forests because it is their only hope of making enough money
to survive (usually with cattle or mining). But one thing is certain: we
all become infinitely poorer when we lose our rainforests.
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- The destruction of our rainforests is
too complex to blame on one person or one company, on one industry or one
government. It has its roots in a way of relating to the world. Many of
us live in environments created by and designed for humans. Because of
this, we may come to believe that the world is made for us. We may come
to value trees only for their wood and paper, and animals only for their
meat, milk or eggs.
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- Some people are beginning to see that
this attitude doesn't work. They are realizing that the Earth is a community
in which we are participants, not a commodity to use and destroy. As individuals
change how they see the world, the solutions begin to emerge. Sometimes
the solutions are even better economically.
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- A recent study by the World Wildlife
Fund showed that Brazilians could make between three and 100 times more
money from a properly managed rainforest than by current methods which
destroy the forests. A well-managed forest will provide valuable goods
and money on-goingly, whereas cattle, mining, dams, and timber make the
land only valuable for a brief time, after which it becomes worthless.
Properly managing a forest includes the sustainable harvesting of things
like Brazil nuts, cashews, rubber, resins, and wild tropical fruits, ecological
tourism, and more.
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- In our attitude towards the rainforests,
as with so many issues humanity faces, we have many choices. We can choose
to think and act for short-term financial profit, or for the long-term
survival of life on Earth. Even though our rainforests are confronted with
enormous problems, we're lucky. Why? Because we still have enormous rainforests
to explore, mountains to climb, a great diversity of species to discover
and protect, and many priceless jewels of nature to preserve. And we have
something else that we might not have a few years from now: time. If we
act now, we still have the time to create the changes we want. Let's use
it.
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