Transcript Rainforests - Laconia School District

Rainforests
By: Robert McCormick
Health
T-3
WAYS TO HELP
• You can donate money to a fund that helps
the rainforest.
• Recycle
• Riot
• Protest
Location
• There are rainforests in central America
and south America such as the Amazon
Rainforests.
• There are also Rainforests in Australia,
Africa, southeast Asia, and Madagascar.
• These rainforests are diminishing rapidly.
Map of Rainforests
How we rely on the rainforest
• About six billion people rely on trees and plants
to build houses, produce paper, make furniture
and produce wood to stay warm.
• We also rely on the rainforest for medicines for
diseases. Some of these cures have not even
been found yet.
• We may never find the cures for these diseases
because the rainforests are being cut down.
How the rainforest is disappearing
• Every second a part of a rainforest the size of a
football field is being destroyed.
• Over 1,000 tribes live in the rainforest and their
homes are being destroyed.
• Billions of species live in the rainforest and we
are wrecking their habitats. Some of these
species we have not even discovered yet.
• We are wrecking the rainforests because of
supply and demand needs.
• The rainforest used to take up 14% of Earth but
now only takes up 6%
Parrots
• The rainforest is home to more than half of
the worlds animals.
Medicines
• We get most of our medicines from the rainforest. We
could find more to cure diseases but rainforests are
being destroyed quickly.
• A periwinkle plant from Madagascar can be used to
create a medicine for childhood leukemia.
• Another plant source is Digitalis Lanata which helps
make Acetylidigoxin.
• Taxol/paclitaxel is a chemical that comes from the
pacific Yew tree. It helps with tumorous cancers including
breast cancer.
• Another plant that comes from the rainforest is the
Centella asiatica plant that makes Asiaticoside which
helps with vulnerary functions.
Periwinkle plant
Pacific Yew tree