SkillBuilder discussion Concluding and decision-making 1. List the products you use that you think come from a rainforest. 2. Do you think that we should rely on rainforests for these products? Discuss. 3. Rainforests are carbon sinks. What do you think this means and why is it important?
FIGURE5 Many of the foods we eat come from rainforests.
• Chocolate originally came from the cacao tree, native to the Amazon rainforest. Today it is sourced from plantations in West Africa. • Many fruits and nuts, now grown by farmers, were originally harvested from rainforests. These include Brazil and cashew nuts, cinnamon, ginger, pepper, vanilla, bananas, pineapples, coconuts, paw-paws, mangoes and avocados. • The gum used in chewing gum and the tree that produces rubber are both found in the rainforest. FIGURE6 Only 1 per cent of known rainforest plants and animals have been analysed for their medicinal potential. • Over 7000 modern medicines come from rainforest plants, addressing issues from headaches to malaria. Treatments for multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, leukemia, asthma, acne, arthritis, glaucoma, diabetes, dysentery and heart disease originate in rainforests. • Cacao helps lower cholesterol, blood sugar and heart disease risk. Australian tree frogs produce chemicals 13.7.4 Where have our rainforests gone? The world’s rainforests are being destroyed for economic gain (see FIGURE7 ). • Around 36 per cent of the Earth’s surface is covered by rainforests. • 21 per cent of the Earth’s rainforests are protected from deforestation. • More than 28.3 million hectares of rainforest were lost between 2000 and 2024. • Globally around 2400 trees are cut down each minute — enough to fill four Australian Rules football fields. • Collectively 2400 trees store 5660 metric tons of carbon — equivalent to the carbon emissions of 1230 cars driven for a year. • NASA estimates that by 2100 there may be no rainforest left. for healing sores, and South American frogs provide powerful painkillers. • Twenty-five per cent of all cancer-fighting drugs come from rainforests.
TOPIC13 Landforms and landscapes – diversity, significance and management 315
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