The discussions these days are why are the rain forests depleting? Well this research will help change the opinions of many people. Some facts about rain forests are, "Tropical rain forests occupy about 7 percent of the earth's surface but harbor as much as 50 percent of the world's plant and animal species. Also about 57 percent of all rain forests remaining are in the tropics in the Western Hemisphere: 30 percent are in Brazil. At the current rate of deforestation, tropical rain forests could be wiped out in 177 years. Less than 5 percent of the world's tropical rain forests are protected within national parks and reserves (Steve Grant, 2)". Rain forests are becoming very scarce and should be taking into concern because depletion of rain forests is a problem.
             One method of cutting down rain forests is slash-and-burn agriculture. Grant defines slash-and-burn agriculture as "Smallholders that are cutting down four or five acres of forest and set it on fire. The resulting ash fertilizes the soils, which are notoriously poor in the tropics (1)". Grant explains that now that there is only charred stumps left, a lot of light reaches the ground and is oppressively hot (1). "In the past, a logger might take only a few trees per acre. While that would allow more light into the forest floor and raise the risk of fire (Grant, 2)". So when people decide to cut down forests they are increasing the risk of fire.
             Rain forests have been burning up lately. An analysis of satellite by the EDF indicates that burning of rainforest land in Amazon increased 28% from 1996 to 1997 (Amazon rainforest, 1). Research shows "A total of 19,115 fires are reported from the NOAA-12 satellite images in the sample in 1996, while 24,549 fires appear in the 1997 data over the period (1)". One reason for rampant burning is that Brazil's environmental agency has had no l
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