Word: raining
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Dates: during 2000-2000
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Biologists estimate that more than half the species occur in the tropical rain forests. From these natural greenhouses, many world records of biodiversity have been reported--425 kinds of trees in 2.5 acres (1 hectare) of Brazil's Atlantic forest and 1,300 butterfly species from a corner of Peru's Manu National Park, both more than 10 times the number from comparable sites in Europe and North America. At the other extreme, the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica, with the poorest and coldest soils in the world, still harbor sparse communities of bacteria, fungi and microscopic invertebrate animals...
Earth's biodiversity (short for biological diversity) is organized into three levels. At the top are the ecosystems, such as rain forests, coral reefs and lakes. Next down are the species that compose the ecosystems: swallowtail butterflies, moray eels, people. At the bottom are the variety of genes making up the heredity of each species. How much biodiversity is there? Biologists have described a total of between 1.5 million and 1.8 million species. Yet this impressive achievement is only a small beginning. Estimates of the true number of living species range, according to the method employed, from 3.6 million...
...principal cause of both extinction and the slowing of evolution is the degrading and destruction of habitats by human action. While covering only 6% of Earth's land surface, about the same as the 48 contiguous United States, the rain forests are losing an area about half the size of Florida each year. Damage to intact forests, which occurs when they are broken up into isolated patches or partly logged, or when fires are set, threatens biodiversity still more. With other rich environments under similar assault, including coral reefs (two-thirds degraded) and salt marshes and mangrove swamps (half eliminated...
...eked out a living as a rubber tapper, collecting latex from the Amazon's trees. Yet Chico Mendes became Brazil's environmental conscience. He not only organized his fellow tappers into a rural workers' union but also formed them into human barriers whenever chain saws and bulldozers threatened the rain forest that was their livelihood. Mendes' Gandhi-like tactics brought him global acclaim--and enemies. A week after celebrating his 44th birthday with his children and his wife Ilza, shown with his picture, he was cut down by ranchers' bullets...
...planet, Leo joins a distinguished list of notables who have used their celebrity to draw attention to environmental issues. TV actor TED DANSON founded the American Oceans Campaign, Academy Award winner SUSAN SARANDON is an avid supporter of Mark Plotkin's Amazon Conservation Team, STING throws an annual rain-forest benefit concert in New York City's Carnegie Hall, writer ARUNDHATI ROY has campaigned to stop the building of dams on India's Narmada River, Hong Kong actor CHOW YUN-FAT has done promotional work for the World Wildlife Fund, and Brazilian singer GILBERTO GIL was so worried about water...