Rainforest destruction is the mass cutting down of trees in rainforests. Doing this can kill animals and destroy landscapes. Rainforest destruction started to make a big impact around the 1980s but it did happen long before.

Deforestation happens because people want to use the resources for money and supplies such as timber and fire wood. With the technology on hand nowadays trees can be cut down on a mass scale using tree choppers that can cut down hundreds of trees an hour. This is much faster than just using an axe.

The rate of destruction of trees in the Brazilian Amazon is displayed below: Period Estimated remaining forest cover in the Brazilian Amazon (km²) Annual forest loss (km²) Percent of 1970 cover remaining Total forest loss since 1970 (km²) Pre–19704,100,000——— 19773,955,87021, %144, –19873,744,57021, %355, ,723,52021, %376, ,705,75017, %394, ,692,02013, %407, ,680,99011, %419, ,667,20413, %432, ,652,30814, %447, ,637,41214, %462, ,608,35329, %491, ,590,19218, %509, ,576,96513, %523, ,559,58217, %540, ,542,32317, %557, ,524,09718, %575, ,505,93218, %594, ,484,53821, %615, ,459,29125, %640, ,431,86827, %668, ,413,02218, %686, ,398,91314, %701, ,387,38111, %712, ,375,41311, %724, ,367,9497, %732, ,360,9497, %739, ,354,7116, %745,289

Rainforest wood can be used in many different ways. For example: tropical hardwoods (such as teak and mahogany) are used in luxury furniture or veneers (for less luxury items). Paper is also another very good and helpful use for rainforest wood. Besides providing us with furniture and paper it also gives shelter for animals, so when loggers chop down trees they are also chopping down an animals home. Which usually results in that animals death.

This picture shows the astonishing affect of deforestation. If logging continues by around 2050 the rainforest could be wiped out entirely.

simple.