tinuing and acelerating decline in the quality of the environment and its ability tosustain life" (Ehrlich 98). Increasing numbers of humans are intruding on remaining wild land-even in those areas once considered relatively safefrom exploitation. Tropical forests, especially in southest Asia and the Amazon River Basin, are being destroyed at an alarming rate for timber,conversion to crop and grazing lands, pine plantations, and settlements. According to researcher Howard Facklam, "It was estimated at one point inthe 1980s that such forest lands were being cleared at the rate of 20(nearly 50 acres) a minute; another estimate put the rate at more than 200,000 sq km (more than 78,000 sq mi) a year. In 1993, satellite dataprovided the rate of deforestation could result in the extinction of as many as 750,000 speices, which would mean the loss of a muliplicity of products: food, fibers, medical drungs, dyes, gums, and resins" (53). Sowhat kind of condition will the forests be in in the year 2050? If this rate of deforestation continues, there will be no tropical rain forest in the year2050. Therefore, preservation need to occur now in order stop the terrible loss of the rain forests and all that it can provide. Rain forest destruction has two deadly causes: loggers and miners. For example, imagine loggers on bulldozers rolling into the forest, tearing down not only trees, but the invisible barrier between the modern, materialistic world and the serene paradise under the forest canopy. Forest locals told Scholastic Update that "...so much forest has vanishedthat the weather has changed delaying rains and increasing heat...." (Leo19). Along with the loggers come miners seeking the gold and other minerals found in the forest. The article "My Trip to the Rain Forest" pointsout that the rivers of the rain forests become poisoned by the mercuryleaked in gold-mining. This exposes the tribes to diseases which they have no immunity t...
