metimes so thick that great palls of it drift for miles(140). These smoke clouds are affecting the weather patterns. "Weather patterns are changing too, and the consensus of informed opinion is that this too is a direct result of destruction of the forest"(Nichol 136). The slashing and burning of the Amazon forest is causing carbon monoxide build-up, promising severe damage to our security blanket of the ozone. This damage and the critically harsh and uncharacteristic weather pattern is slowly erasing some of our animals.The animals are the most diverse and ecologically sound species on this planet. They are not only being destroyed but exterminated. Many ecologist, say that such aspecies' loss has not occurred since the dinosaurs became extinct 65 million years ago. Why is this so? The last drastic species loss occurred when glaciers melted. Although converted waves of extinction have certainly occurred in paleolithic past, current and future losses will be so exponential that the implications are chilling. Average extinction "background rate" has a range of 2.0 and 4.6 families/species per million years and may rise to 19.3 during periods of mass extinction. The most complex and immense species that will not be present for much longer are insects. "The recent overburgeoning numbers of crop-destructive insects have been shown to be caused at least in part by a decrease in the country's population of insect eating birds," advises, Arnold Newman the author of Tropical Rainforest (135). A terrific example is the leaf cutter or parasol ants that are seen in the neotropical forests. These ants climb trees that are only indigenous to rainforest and cut out dime-sized pieces of leaves and flowers with their sharp mandibles. The leaves and flowers of these trees are the main and only food for these species of ants. And with the elimination of the forest will come the elimination of the leaf cutter ants. "All forms of life wit...
