We receive several of the products we use everyday thanks to the Amazon. Cacao (chocolate!) coffee, sugar cane, bananas, ginger and black pepper all come from the Amazon. The Amazon is also well known for being one of the most important producers of natural rubber in the world (kbears.com).
Native people of the Amazon have created remedies using different plants, which have helped their health and survival (amazon-rainforest.org). Today, 25% of all drugs in the world, including quinine, muscle relaxants, steroids, and cancer drugs, derive from rainforest ingredients. Scientist are gradually discovering news ways that plants from rainforest can help treat or cure diseases such as AIDS, cancer, diabetes, arthritis, and Alzheimer's.
Aside from providing resources, the Amazon tropical rainforest also plays a role in the climate, which affects the entire world. Amazon-Rainforest.org compares the Amazon to a "great air conditioner" because it cools down the temperature in the entire world by 1 or 2 degrees Celsius (Amazon-Rainforest.org), which is definitely convenient. It also helps to balance the humidity and rain in several parts of the globe.
sources: http://www.amazon-rainforest.org/amazon-importance.html
http://www.kbears.com/climates/printtropical.htmlhttp://www.blueplanetbiomes.org/amazon.htm
No comments:
Post a Comment