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Over
10,000 square miles ( 2.6 million hectares ) of the Amazon
rainforest is deliberately burnt down every year to make way
for soybean plantations and cattle pastures.
The pastures are very poor in nutrients, so support only very
low densities of cattle. The land is burned annually to
promote new grass growth and to destroy cattle parasites. The
fires often rage uncontrolled, setting fire to further areas
of forest.
Deforested areas are considerably hotter and drier than the
rainforests. As a result the average temperature of the entire
Amazon region rises and the humidity falls even more
dramatically. This causes major changes in the vegetation
structure of the remaining areas of forest, leading to reduced
biodiversity even in protected areas.
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Worldwide, 50,000 square miles of rainforest is deforested every
year. |
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Tropical
deforestation accounts for 20 percent of global carbon
emissions. |
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Every
second a slice of rainforest the size of a football field is
destroyed.
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Every
day 86,400 football fields of rainforest are destroyed. |
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Every
year 31 million football fields of rainforest are destroyed. |
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Rainforests
are home to over 50 percent of the world's plant and animal
life. |
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The Amazon rainforests and the cloudforests of the Andes
together account for about 40% of all butterfly species on
Earth. If deforestation continues at it's present rate, the
rainforests will have entirely disappeared within 50 years,
and almost half of the world's butterfly species will by then
be extinct, with nothing more than museum specimens and
photographs remaining.
learnaboutbutterflies
urges everyone viewing this website to take immediate action -
please
visit the
rainforestportal
and
mongabay websites
where you can find more detailed information, and take part in
on-line petitions to save the Amazon
and the rainforests of Africa and Asia.
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