Source: Treehugger
While the rate of deforestation in the Amazon rainforest may be declining, it and other rainforests around the world continue to be cleared at an alarming rate. Figures that are quite alarming, like the fact that 17 percent of the Amazon rainforest has been decimated and 74 million hectares of Indonesian forests were completely destroyed, tend to lose their potency due to their unimaginable scope. Put in more manageable terms, every two seconds an area of forest the size of a soccer field is being destroyed in the world--a fact brought to life by this intriguing animation.The video was produced by Greenpeace in Switzerland, and illustrates just how quickly the world is losing its rainforests, like the oldest in Indonesia and the largest in the Amazon. But, more than just losing forest cover, deforestation devastates habitats and unique ecosystems--threatening a multitude of species found nowhere else on earth.
For example, according to Greenpeace, the number of Sumatran orangutans has decreased 91% since 1991. A similar fate awaits countless other species if the rate of deforestation does not drop dramatically.
In most cases, agricultural development and logging are the biggest threats to the world's forests--practices policies have been put in place to curb. Nevertheless, it continues and progress has come in fits and starts.
It would benefit the concerned spectator of environmental affairs to bear in the mind the video when deciding what action should be taken to combat the problem, for there is much more at stake than a soccer field made of matchsticks.