NewsHour Links:

Pacific Lumber strikes a deal to save California Redwoods
( 3-3-99)

Ravaged first by drought and then by fire, Brazil's rain forest suffers enormous ecological damage.
(4-14-98)

NewsHour Environment Index

PBS links:

Rainforest Facts

Manu, Peru's rainforest

Rainforest Currency
By Neela, age 16, New Jersey

"The Chair recognizes Australia."

"Thank you, Madame Chair. We, the delegates of Australia, gravely concerned by the present rate of destruction of tropical rainforests . . ."

No, this is not an excerpt from C-SPAN. This is a sample of what was happening a few weeks ago in my Comparative World Studies class, a course designed to expose students to the problems facing the world today.

We were doing our final project: a simulation of a United Nations debate on deforestation. Students generally take this project seriously because much of their grade depends upon it. But that day, my classmates and I spoke in grave tones and with somber expressions for a different reason.

As representative after representative went up to the podium and presented another familiar, but alarming, fact - two football fields worth of tropical rainforest is destroyed each second, six species will go extinct in the next hour, tropical rainforests could be completely destroyed by 2030 if action is not taken now - it dawned on us that deforestation is an urgent problem, not something to be discussed in class and then forgotten at the ring of the bell.

Actually, it was surprising that we could all rattle off so many statistics given that, a few weeks ago, all the twenty-six of us had to say about tropical rainforests was that they were tropical and they had a lot of rain.

As research began, however, we soon learned much more. Although they cover only six percent of the earth's land mass, tropical rainforests hold at least half of the world's species. In fact, a four square-mile patch of rainforest generally contains over 3,000 species of plants and animals. Also, one quarter of all medicines, including the only cure for childhood leukemia, the rosy periwinkle, come from the rainforest. A cure for AIDS, cancer - scientists can only dream of what further miracles lay in the rainforest. Deforestation, unfortunately, destroys those miracles before they can be found.

Once I was aware of the importance of tropical rainforests, I wished that I wasn't participating in model U.N., but instead that I was marching into the real UN and telling the world's leaders just what I thought they should be doing about deforestation.

Then it occurred to me that there was a much more effective (and realistic) way to make my point: my cash. By purchasing environmentally-friendly products, such as Brazil nuts and rainforest chocolate, while avoiding destructive items, such as disposable chopsticks or unrecycled paper, consumers send a clear message to companies.

Even teenagers with slim wallets can make a difference. For example, when an adolescent-driven campaign was launched against Burger King for using beef from cattle raised on deforested land, the fast food chain lost enough money to cause a policy overhaul.

Above all, people need to be informed. Numerous groups on the Internet, like the Rainforest Action Network, are extremely helpful in telling people what smart decisions they can make and why. Besides, once you're educated, when people ask you about tropical rainforests, you'll have more to say than, "They're tropical and they have a lot of rain."