Got Lumber?

The information regarding the negative impact of rainforest deforestation is absolutely staggering. Unfortunately, the only "value" that too many people seem to understand is that of money. The rainforest has no value, the environment has no value, an estimated 50,000 extinct species a year has no value... our future has no value to big businesses because as long as someone is making money, it doesn't seem to matter exactly how they're making it.

I have to believe that the rainforests have fallen victim to the way business is done. We have allowed companies too much freedom in how they go about their business, and much of their decision making relies on pleasing the stockholders (people who only need to have money, not intelligence or a reasonable level of foresight, to qualify as such) instead of doing what is right. "Get all the resources you can, however you can, and line my pockets with dolla dolla bills, ya'll!" Silly. And devastatingly effective in terms of what gets done. The clear cutting of the rainforests isn't a slow procedure, and as much as many people might argue that it is a job undertaken with the knowledge of exactly what the rainforest can handle... all I know is that we wouldn't be having this conversation if "what the rainforest can handle" was even being considered, even half the time.

I never even thought about the genocide that occurs in the rainforests at the hand of the white man. My concentration is history, so I should have been able to connect the dots without having to be told about the tribes that have been wiped out of the rainforests since the beginning of the twentieth century. The European colonists, as far as I know, aren't exactly building schools in the rainforest, so this isn't even some blind nationalistic imperialism... which is sickening in itself, but at least with that a person could point to something, however wrong it may be, as the reason for someone's actions.

If you have read the page linked in class, you have read about what the rainforest has to offer. You have read that the rainforest is responsible for twenty percent of our oxygen - I don't know about you, but that's something I need to survive. As populations continue to increase worldwide, and people continue to live longer and longer, can we really afford to lose that much oxygen? Think about taking a jog where you live right now. Now, think about taking a jog about a mile above sea level... and I don't think the difference in oxygen level there is anywhere near twenty percent. Couple that with the increased number of people breathing the same air, and I can see a scenario where the world's human population is breathing oxygen faster than the global environment can replace it.

The rainforest is also home to twenty percent of the world's fresh water. Let's say we tear down the rainforest, develop that land, and... then what? Stupid people with their status symbol sport utility vehicles and ignorant lifestyles are going to pollute that water, blame the generation before or after theirs without any sort of inner reflection (because it's always someone else's fault), and we'll not only have twenty percent less oxygen, but we'll also have twenty percent less fresh water to go along with the ever increasing population.

Stop deforestation. Stop having so many babies. Stop being stupid. It's a thing, look it up.