Damage to the Environment Overview Deforestation Chemical Dumping Global Consequences Since the drug producing and trafficking business is illegal and not controlled by governments, the number of crop fields cannot be controlled by environmental laws. The destruction of forests can greatly harm a country's economy. An acid rain cloud, once formed, can move to anywhere in the world. Acid rain can even damage paint on cars and the outsides of houses and buildings.
Greenhouse gases can build up in the air and damage the ozone layer that surrounds the Earth.
The ozone layer helps protect plants, animals, and people from some of the sun's most powerful rays. The increase in greenhouse gases may contribute to the rise in average temperatures around the world which some scientists believe is harmful to all living things. Medicine Tropical rain forest plants that are destroyed by slash and burn could hold the undiscovered cure for many different diseases. More than half of all plant species grow in rain forests, so the loss of every patch of forest is important because helpful plants growing there may be destroyed forever. The world relies almost exclusively on about 20 different types of plants as primary food sources.