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How are the Plants of the Amazon Rainforest Important to Every Human

There probably isn’t anyone thats been to school who does know something about the Amazon Rainforest. As  the largest eco system of it’s kind it has immense importance for all life on Earth.

You and I Owe the Amazon for Cleaning the Air We Breath

You can call the Amazon the air recycler and the lungs of this planet. At least 25% of the earths oxygen is due to the huge quantity of plants growing there. Carbon dioxide from the plants gets recycled into oxygen. It’s due to the huge proliferation of plant life in the Amazon Rainforest that supports this concept of the Amazon Rainforest being the lungs of the planet.

The Amazon Also Gives Us Fresh Water

We need a lot of fresh water on a continuous basis to not only fill not only the human water need, but also to keep the natural balance of  the earth. The rain that fall in the rainforest contributes to the rain fall all over the world, so much water flows out of the Amazon alone to alter the oceans salinity as much as a hundred miles from shore. Of coarse the plants need water to grow but the plants also contribute to more rain. With out the natural process for creating fresh water from the Amazon we will have a large problem fresh water shortage problem on this planet.

The Amazon Rainforest – Natures Pharmacy

The plants in Amazonia have the potential to address most of the health issues effecting human today. The amount of medicinal potential in the hundreds of thousands of different plant species has barely been touched upon. It’s estimated that only 3% of the Amazon’s plant species have been studied. Humanity has not even begun to really know or understand the immense potential these plants have for human health. Besides the natural pharmacy for natural medicine, 25% or more of the big pharmaceutical drugs on the market come from compounds found in Amazonian plants.
As far as the nutritional value, the botanicals growing in the Amazon have properties that can supply us with the anti oxidant and nutritional immune system support the human body needs. There are extremely effective and beneficial nutritional supplements available that are whole foods formulated, dried, in capsules, in beverages and other forms from the Amazon’s edible plants, trees and fruits.

The Need for Preservation is Critical

From reading the above information it should be quite clear that we can’t afford to have this Amazon eco system put in danger of destruction. With as much as 20% of the rainforest already deforested and 40% being the tipping point of no return, we must all take some kind of action to stop the potential of the die off of this eco system. This would mean the loss of the potential of the plant species, the animal species and the damage to the planetary balance that the Amazon eco system provides.

Environmental issues like climate change effects, water shortages and hunger will be multiplied 10 fold. It is calculated that human sustainability on Earth will be put in  further doubt with out the Amazon Rainforest eco system.

Even though most of us don’t live anywhere near the Amazon, what happens in the Amazon is directly in our interest. How the amazon is managed is of concern to all of our well being.