Amazon rainforest is the largest rainforest in the world, with an area larger than that of Europe, with 7 million square kilometers. It extends from the low slopes of the Andes to the Atlantic coast of Brazil. Amazon rainforest is very important to the health of the whole world and all living things in the world. Forests can absorb carbon dioxide, which makes the earth warm, harms the climate and even melts the polar ice sheets, causing floods. Trees also produce oxygen, which is necessary for human beings and all animals to live. Trees in some rainforests grow very tall, more than 60 meters high. Their leaves form a "crown", like an umbrella, blocking the light. Few low plants grow under the tree.

There are many kinds of wild animals in the Amazon Plain. At the end of 19, according to a British naturalist, there are 147 12 species of animals, of which more than 8,000 species are unknown. At present, there are more than 65438+ million species of animals and birds, and at least 27 species of beetles. There may still be millions of species waiting to be discovered.

Indigenous people in the Amazon plain have lived here for centuries. But after Europeans came here about 500 years ago, many indigenous people became slaves, died of diseases or were forced to give up their traditional way of life. The rain forest here is now in serious danger, because people are cutting it down at an alarming rate to open up land to grow crops or raise livestock to supply the American meat market.

Amazon Plain is the largest tropical rain forest area in the world, accounting for 50% of the total tropical rain forest area on the earth, reaching 6.5 million square kilometers, of which 4.8 million square kilometers are in Brazil. It is rich in natural resources, rich in species, complex in ecological environment and well-preserved in biodiversity, and is called "a paradise for biologists".

However, the Amazon rainforest is not loved by human beings because of its wealth. People began to develop forests from16th century. 1970, in order to solve the poverty problem in the northeast, the Brazilian president made another saddest decision: to develop the Amazon region. This decision destroys about 80 thousand square kilometers of virgin forest in this area every year. 1969- 1975, forests in central and western Brazil and the Amazon were destroyed 1 10000 square kilometers. Compared with 400 years ago, the forest area in Brazil has been reduced by half.

The reduction of tropical rain forest is mainly due to burning cultivation, excessive logging, overgrazing and forest fires, among which burning cultivation is the primary reason, accounting for 45% of the total area of tropical forest reduction. In the process of reclamation, people drove heavy tractors into the Amazon forest, cut down trees and set them on fire.

The reduction of tropical rain forest not only means the reduction of forest resources, but also means the deterioration of the global environment. Because forests have the functions of conserving water, regulating climate, reducing pollution and maintaining biodiversity.

Tropical rain forest is like a huge throughput, swallowing a large amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted by the world every year and producing a large amount of oxygen, so Amazon rain forest is known as the "lung of the earth". If the Amazon forest is completely cut down, the oxygen on which human beings depend will decrease 1/3.

The tropical rain forest is like a huge water pump, which absorbs a lot of water from the soil and then discharges it into the air through transpiration. In addition, forest soil has good permeability and can absorb and retain a lot of precipitation. The fresh water stored in Amazon rainforest accounts for 23% of the total fresh water. Excessive logging will cause soil erosion, soil desertification and soil erosion. Some areas in northeastern Brazil have become the driest and poorest places in Brazil because of the destruction of large areas of forests. In Peru, due to the destruction of forest stumps, 4,300 major mudslides and 1993 landslides broke out between 1925- 1980, and the direct death toll reached 46,000. At present, 3000 square kilometers of land and 20 cm thick topsoil are still washed into the sea every year.

In addition, the forest is a huge gene pool. Among the100000 species on the earth, 2-4 million species live in tropical and subtropical forests. On the sampling plot of only about 0.08 square kilometers in the Amazon River basin, 42,000 species of insects can be obtained. There are more than 1, 200 different kinds of plants per square kilometer in the Amazon rainforest, and 1/5 of the animals and plants on the earth grow here. However, due to the deforestation of tropical rain forests, at least one species disappears there every day. It is predicted that with the decrease of tropical rain forests, at least 500,000-800,000 species of plants and animals will be extinct after the lunar year. The loss of rainforest gene bank will become one of the greatest losses for mankind.