If left unchecked, it will soon destroy the greatest tropical rainforest on Earth. The World Wide Web is or will become the greatest vehicle in the history of mankind for planetary sharing of information and mobilization for trans-border planetary renewal and change. While you were reading the above statistics, approximately 150 acres of rainforest were destroyed. Within the next hour approximately six species will become extinct. While extinction is a natural process, the alarming rate of extinction today, comparable only to the extinction of the dinosaurs , is specifically human-induced and unprecedented.
Experts agree that the number-one cause of extinction is habitat destruction.
Quite simply, when habitat is reduced, species disappear. In the rainforests, logging, cattle ranching, mining, oil extraction, hydroelectric dams and subsistence farming are the leading causes of habitat destruction. Indirectly, the leading threats to rainforest ecosystems are unbridled development, funded by international aid-lending institutions such as the World Bank, and the voracious consumer appetites of industrialized nations. If deforestation continues at current rates, scientists estimate nearly 80-90 percent of tropical rainforest ecosystems will be destroyed by the year 2020. 3 Recognizing the significance of the above, the unit will focus, though not exclusively, on the deforestation and destruction of the Amazon rain forest.