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The Amazon Jungle is a place of intrigue and wonder to most of us in the Western world – a place as distant and mysterious as the planet Mars. Yet, unlike Mars, the Amazon is being taken away from us – disappearing at an alarming rate. If we don’t learn to appreciate what we have in this, the world’s largest greenhouse, now, very soon the Amazon Rainforests will be no more. The key to saving the rainforest lies in education, which will lead to appreciation and, in turn, it is hoped, to conservation. Here then are 9 key facts about the Amazon Jungle:
(1) Amazonia, as the Brazilians call it, sprawls over an area covering 8 countries in South America. In total the Amazon covers 2,700,000 square miles, which makes it as big as Australia.
(2) Despite, it’s being the world’s largest tropical rainforest, only about 65 % of it is jungle. The rest is made up of grassland, open country and shrub land.
(3) An arterial network of 50,000 miles of waterways criss-cross the Amazon, about 14,ooo miles of them being navigable.
(4) Over 60,000 species of tropical plant are native to the Amazon basin. That is about one quarter of all plant species on earth.
(5) Some 4,000 species of tree grow in the Amazon. Only about a half dozen of these, however, have been commercially utilised.
(6) A reported 14,712 species of animal life make their home in the Amazon. 8,000 of them are unique to that part of the earth.
(7) Three Hundred years ago, there were about 20 Indian tribes living in the Amazon, but now fewer than twenty now remain. Many of them have never seen a white man.
(8) The waters of the Amazon have a chemical purity equivalent to distilled water. The Amazonian waters account for 15 % of all the waters discharged into the world’s oceans.
(9) Every year the Amazon loses an area of rainforest the size of Brazil.
It is a mistake to conclude that the plight of the Amazon jungle doesn’t affect those of us living in the western world. Here is what one scientist had to say on the effects of Amazonian deforestation, “The destruction of existing ecosystems would upset all manner of delicate ecological balances and would entail the irreversible destruction of an enormous source of oxygen which is crucial for the survival of the biosphere.” Thus, the situation in the Amazon has been called the ‘world’s greatest natural disaster in the making.’ And is said to be posing an ‘incalculable threat to mankind.’
Yes, the destruction of man’s environment is something that we all will feel the brunt of. The sooner we start to respect the beauty of our magnificent home the better we – and our future generations – will be.
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