What is so important about the rainforest?
Tropical rainforests take in vast quantities of carbon dioxide (a poisonous gas) and through the process of photosynthesis, converts it into clean, breathable oxygen. If the Amazon region were a country, it would be the ninth largest on earth. Covering more than 1 billion acres (2/5 of the South American continent), the vast Amazon rainforest crowns nine nations: Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela. The most bioactively diverse region on the planet, the Amazon is our greatest natural resource. Because it continuously recycles carbon dioxide into oxygen, the forest has been dubbed the “lungs” of the earth. The Amazon, in fact, produces more than 20% of the oxygen we breathe.
