Rainforests are being cut and burned form Brazil to Indonesia at such a rate that they could well disappear from the earth's surface before the year 2050. They are being cleared for valuable timber and other resources to speed up the economic growth of the nations in which they are located. The most recent figures show that the area of rainforest destroyed last year alone was bigger than the size of Great Britain and Ireland.

If the present rate of deforestation is allowed to continue, the consequences for the earth will be great. We shall see a massive upsetting of ecosystems, very large increases in soil erosion, increases in flooding and in drought, changes in rainfall patterns and regional, quite possibly global, changes in climate. We shall also probably lose many rare plant and animal species.

According to many scientists, the burning of rainforests is also directly contributing to the so-called greenhouse effect. This effect, they say, is raising average temperatures and sea levels as the polar ice caps recede.

The rainforest is essential in other areas also. It is a medicine chest of unlimited potential. The US National Cancer Institute has identified 2,000 rainforest plants which could be beneficial in fighting cancer. In today's pharmaceutical market, 15 of the 125 drugs derived from plants were discovered in the rainforest.

Plant species are not the only forms of life threatened with extinction in the rainforest. Rare birds and animals that cannot be found anywhere else in the world have been disappearing at the rate of one a year since the turn of the century.

In the face of all these facts, it seems senseless for countries to continue destroying their rainforests. However, the problem is not so simple. The countries in which the rainforests are located are all quite poor and overpopulated. One of them, Brazil, has a population of 140 million, about half of whom are living in absolute poverty. The governments in these countries are usually also too weak to stop large companies and powerful individuals from destroying the rainforests. They have no money, so when the poor whom they cannot feed find work cutting down trees or burning forestland, the governments often have no choice but to turn a blind eye. Moreover, for many of these countries, the valuable timber and other resources found in the rainforests are also a very important source of foreign exchange, which they badly need to pay off their foreign debts and purchase foreign equipment and other goods.

The only solution to the problem, then, seems to be for the richer countries of the world to help the countries where the rainforests are located. One way they could help would be by cancelling the international debts that countries like Brazil owe, while also working together with these countries to solve their other economic problems. At the same time, they could support programmes to teach the local people to regard the rainforests as gardens to be harvested, and not merely as places where the only way for them to make a living is by senselessly cutting down trees and burning.

Such programmes could teach the local people how to select trees worth exporting and to cut only those trees down while leaving the rest, so that the basic make-up of the forest would not be disturbed. This would also mean that the environment needed for the survival of the many rare species of animals and plants, as well as of the Indian tribes that live in the rainforest, could be preserved. The local people could also be taught to earn more money by cutting the selected trees and making them into furniture on the spot. In addition, they could learn how to harvest other valuable natural materials that are now being wasted, and sell them overseas to earn foreign exchange for their countries.

Last but not least, people in the richer countries of the world could also help save the rainforests by using wood-derived products such as paper more carefully and by recycling used paper products to help reduce the demand for newly cut wood.

從巴西到印尼，熱帶雨林正在被砍伐，正在被燒毀，其速度非常之快，以致于到不了2050年，熱帶雨林就會被砍光燒光而從地球表面上徹底消失。為了獲取貴重木材和其他資源，以加速處于熱帶雨林國家的經濟發展，熱帶雨林正在逐漸被砍伐得干干凈凈一棵樹都不剩了。最近的統計數字表明，僅去年一年被吸掉的熱帶雨林的面積比英國和愛爾蘭兩國的面積加起來還大。

如果聽任現在的熱帶雨林被毀掉的百分比繼續發展下去，給整個地球所帶來的后果將是十分嚴重的。我們將會看到（1） 各種生態系統的平衡均遭到大規模的破壞；（2）水土流失現象大規模地增加了；（3）水災和旱災大規模增加了；（4）降雨的方式改變了；（5）地區性的氣候改變，甚至完全可能導致全球性氣候的改變。我們也許會永遠失去很多種珍稀的植物和動物。

根據許多科學家報告，燒毀了熱帶雨林也直接導致了所謂的溫室效應。科學家們都說，這種溫室效應正在使全球平均氣溫升高，正在使南極和北極地區的冰蓋融化，隨之而來的也正在使全球海洋的水平面上升。

從其他方面來看，熱帶雨林對人類也是必不可缺的。熱帶雨林是一個有著無限潛在能力的取之不盡用之不竭的醫藥資源的萬寶庫。美國國家癌癥研究院已經證實了有2000種熱帶雨林中的植物對預防和治療癌癥有奇效。在今天的藥品市場上，在125種單味藥中，就有15種是從熱帶雨林中發現的植物中提取出來的。

各種植物在熱帶雨林中并不是受到滅種威脅的唯一的生物。世界上除了熱帶雨林而外，在其他任何地方都找不到的珍稀鳥類和珍稀動物，在這世紀交替的時候正在以每年消失一種的速度逐漸滅絕。

面對這一切事實，這些國家還在繼續毀滅他們的熱帶雨林，這令人覺得他們簡直太麻木不仁了。但是，這個問題并不是很簡單的。地處于熱帶雨林的那些國家都相當貧窮而且人口都相當過剩。熱帶雨林國家之一，巴西，人口有一億四千萬人。其中約有半數人生活在絕對貧困當中。這些國家的政府通常也都是十分軟弱的，以致不能制止一些大公司或有權有勢的人毀壞熱帶雨林的行為。那些國家的政府都沒有錢，所以當政府養活不起的那些窮人，找到了砍樹或在森林里燒樹開荒的工作時，政府別無選擇，只好睜一只眼閉一只眼。況且，對這些國家中的有些國家來說，熱帶雨林中的珍貴木材和其他資源也是他們所急需換取外匯的很重要的資源，以便用來償還外債和用來購買外國的設備和其他物資。

那么，令人覺得這個問題唯一的解決辦法似乎就是世界上較富裕國家應該援助地處于熱帶雨林的那些國家。援助的方法之一就是放棄或取消像巴西這類國家所欠他們的國際債務，同時還要同這些國家一起協作去解決他們的一些經濟問題。與此同時，他們還應該舉辦各種培訓班，教會當在居民把熱帶雨林辦成獲得大豐收的花園、果園、菜園、動植物園，而不要只把熱帶雨林看成是只能用極愚昧無知的砍樹燒樹的辦法來作為謀生的唯一手段的地方。

這類培訓班或者還可以教會當地居民如何精選出值得出口的樹木，只把有出口價值的樹木砍掉，而把其余的樹都保留下來，以便使森林中基本的生態平衡不被破壞。這樣做，也將意味著會把許多珍稀植物和動物賴以生存所必須的環境以及生活在熱帶雨林中的印地安人的各個部落所賴以自下而上的環境保存下來。也可以教會當地居民通過采伐精選的樹木并用這些樹木在當地加工成家具的辦法去賺到更多的錢。此外，當地居民在培訓班還可以學會怎樣去采集現在被浪費掉的其他珍貴的天然材料，然后把這些材料賣到國外去，以便為他們的祖國賺回外匯。

最后，同樣重要的是，世界上較富裕國家的人民，要更加注意節約使用以木材為原料的紙張之類的產品，回收利用紙制產品，以便有助于減少重新去砍伐樹木的需求量，從而有助于拯救熱帶雨林。