| - Nowadays people talk much about the problem of disappearing rain forests, stressing the global importance of this problem. What can you say about it?
| - It may sound too categorical, but still, I would say rainforests are being destroyed because the value of rainforest land is perceived as only the value of its timber by short-sighted governments, multi-national logging companies, and land owners.
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| - I have heard, tropical rain forests are home to half the world's plant and animal species. It is something I can hardly imagine.
| - I quite agree with them.. We are losing Earth's greatest biological treasures just as we are beginning to appreciate their true value. Rainforests once covered 14% of the earth's land surface; now they cover a mere 6% and experts estimate that the last remaining rainforests could be consumed in less than 40 years.
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| - Everybody knows that trees make the nature more beautiful but we often forget to stress the fact that they make the air we breath cleaner. So, rain forests turn to be of great importance from this point of view as well.
| - Just think. Tropical rain forests give people food, new plant types, medicines, and climate control. The rain forest is host to 2,500 edible fruits (avocados, coconuts, figs, oranges, lemons, grapefruit, bananas, guavas, pineapples, mangos and tomatoes; vegetables including corn, potatoes, rice, spices like black pepper, cayenne, chocolate, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, sugar cane, tumeric, coffee and vanilla, nuts including Brazil nuts and cashews). In fact, 120,000 of the planet's 250,000 plant species live in the tropical rain forest. The diversity of life forms in a small area is greater in the rain forest than anywhere else.
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| - Professor, what are the rain forests being cut down for?
| - Yes, you are right. It is high time to take our seats.
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| - Thank you very much, professor. The bell is ringing. Let’s join the other participants taking their seats at the meeting. I hope we shall hear a lot of interesting reports on many other environmental problems today.
| - Absolutely right. I shall give you only one example. The Amazon Rainforest has been described by many ecologists as the “Lungs of our Planet” because it provides the essential environmental world service of continuously recycling carbon dioxide into oxygen. More than 20 percent of the world oxygen is produced in the Amazon Rainforest.
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