eforestation, which entails burning a conservative estimate of 28 million acres per year, by itself contributes 20 percent of the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Rain forest destruction affects whether patterns and contributes to global warming, the so-called greenhouse effect, which is the heating of the lower atmosphere that occurs when carbon dioxide traps heat that would other wise escape into space. In addition to the foregoing it can be noted that the Amazon contains the world's richest deposits of iron ore and other mineral resources. In Brazil half the region's precipitation comes from the Atlantic. It goes out again in the Amazon River. But the other half derives from moisture radiated back into the air by the canopy of the forest itself. When much of the forest is removed the rainfall will diminish and the rest of the forest will deteriorate.
             "Nearly 100 acres of tropical rain forest disappear every minute of every day". (Richter) Up to 8 percent of the two million square mile Amazon rain forest, an area about the size of California, has already been deforested. (White) When the big trees are cut down other species die also. Each tree is not quite like any other in the world when cut that patch of forest will never be the same again. Because of deforestation, millions of plants and animal species could become extinct before being given scientific names. (Richter) When observed as a living community, the forest is built in all its complexity upon the smallest of
             organisms. (White) To destroy any part of the forest aids in the extinction of the total Amazon area.
             Deforestation begin in a major way, with the government of Brazil, deciding that its 10 million poor rural families might be given acreage in the Amazon and allowed to engage in farming. Such a move, it was reasoned, would keep these people from adding to the number of extremely poor people already in the cities. It was felt th...