Ask A Scientist© Environmental Science Archive

Author:     money
Text:       How is the burning of the rain forest really hurting the 
environment? What are the reasons for trying to save the rain forests?

Response #: 1 of 1
Author:     Don Libby
Text:       You ask how burning rain forests hurt the environment, and why 
people would try to save it. Without getting too philosophical, I do not think 
the environment can be hurt at all by anything we do we certainly can make big 
changes in ecological systems, and we can even destroy them -- but I cannot 
call this "harm" because the history of life on earth is all about adaptation 
to change. Obviously, burning rain forests causes the destruction of habitat 
for wild life, many species of which may go extinct because they cannot 
survive without the rain forest to support them. Similarly, there are people 
living in rain forests whose way of life depends on the rain forest for its 
support. People living in the United States have a stake in the future of rain 
forests not only because of the potential economic value of the timber, the 
life forms, and other forest products, but also because the forests play a 
major role in the earth's water cycle and carbon cycle. The earth's climate 
may be very different if the rain forests are destroyed, and that would impact 
food production all over the world.