​WHY MUST WE SAVE THE RAINFOREST?

​Because rainforests are an absolutely essential resource:
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1. ​Indigenous people have thrived in rainforests since the beginning of time, their lives and spirituality are inextricably linked to the plants, animals and flow of life in this rich environment. They help us to learn what we need to know about the rainforest. Many of them are facing extinction as the rainforests diminish.
2. Almost half of the prescribed drugs that are used in the USA come from rainforest plants.
3. Children with leukemia are treated with a drug from a rainforest flower.
4. Malaria and heart disease are treated with some medicines made from rainforest plants.
5. Without the rainforest to soak up rain and release it slowly, floods and droughts become more common.  Global warming and climate change are accentuated.
6. Rainforests are a place for migratory birds to live during harsh Northern winters.
7. Many species of birds, animals, and plants will not be able to find the right conditions they need in order to live, and they will become extinct.
8. Costa Rica is a very small country in Central America, with its widest point being only 185 miles across. It is smaller than West Virginia but contains approximately 500,000 species of animals, birds, and plants.

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