Introduction

The rainforests are disappearing at an astonishing rate! What are rainforests?  Rainforests are tropical climates that are always warm and moist.  The temperatures are usually around 70-85 degrees Fahrenheit year round.  Vegetation in the rainforest is very green and immense.  Rainforests are very damp and wet with rains that pour two inches of precipitation an hour, which is equivalent to four hundred inches of rainfall every year!  All rainforests are somewhat near the equator, which makes them tropical.  

Tropical rainforests are located all around the world on many different continents.  These main continents are Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Australia.  Latin America is home to more than half of the rainforests around the world.  One third of the rainforests are in Brazil, one fourth of the rainforests are in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands, and the remainder of the rainforests is in West Africa (about one fifth).  

Rainforests are very important to human beings.  Rainforests provide us with air to breathe, food, medicine, and many other products and items.  So why is the rainforest so important?  Let’s examine each of the “basic activities of man” to determine the answer!           

This report will discuss how the “Basic Activities of Man” impact and or relate to the rainforests.  For this report the “Basic Activities of Man” have been described as the following: transportation; producing, exchanging, and distributing; communications; protecting and conserving; providing education; making tools; providing recreation; organizing and governing; moral and ethical behavior; aesthetic needs.   

This site will discuss how the “Basic Activities of Man” impact and or relate to the rainforests. These activities are transportation, producing exchanging and distributing, communications, protecting and conserving the rainforest, providing education, providing recreation, organizing & governing in the rainforest, moral and ethical behavior, and aesthetic needs. I will also explain to you tropical forest characteristics as in what they do and what they’re like.

Rainforests have been called the lungs of the earth.  The Amazonian Rainforests alone produce an estimated 20% of the world’s oxygen.  In this report I will discuss in depth the why the rainforest is so important to life on earth, why and how we are destroying the rainforest, and what steps can and should be taken to prevent it's destruction.

We are rapidly losing the worlds rainforests. If destruction continues at this rate it is likely that future generations will not have the rainforests. It has been estimate that the last remaining rainforests could be consumed in less than 40 years. It is also estimated that 1.5 acres of rainforest are lost every second.                              

The issues surrounding rainforest destruction and protection are very complex and there are no simple answers or solutions.  Even in our own country the issue of forest protection is a political battleground.  President Clinton is trying to gain further protection for our national forests by putting 58 million acres off limits to logging and road building.  It is probable that the protection of our own forests will be an ongoing battle for quite a long time to come.  If forest destruction is a problem here in one wealthiest countries in the world you can imagine how bad the problem is in poorer countries.

This report will discuss how the “Basic Activities of Man” impact and or relate to the rainforests.  For this report the “Basic Activities of Man” have been described as the following: transportation; producing, exchanging, and distributing; communications; protecting and conserving; providing education; making tools; providing recreation; organizing and governing; moral and ethical behavior; aesthetic needs. 

The rainforests are living jewels that adorn our earth with beauty. Although there are many of them, they are endangered of extinction.  In the next ten subjects you will learn about the rainforest and how you can help it survive.  A lot of plants in the rainforest have unique adaptations to collect minerals and water.  For example