Answer: Rainforests only cover around 2 percent the total surface area of the Earth, but really about 50 percent of the plants and animals on the earth live in the rainforest. Rainforests are the forests that receive high amount of rainfall. You can find rainforests in many countries, not just in South America. They can be found in Alaska and Canada, as well as Asia, Africa and Latin America. Rainforests are found on all of the different continents, except for Antarctica because it is far too cold there for the environment to be conducive. There are two different types of rainforests, and they include both temperate and tropical. The tropical rainforests are the ones that are most commonly found around the world. Fact 6: Rainforests help to regulate the temperatures around the world and the weather patterns as well. A fifth of our fresh water is found in tropical rainforests, the Amazon Basin to be exact. Rainforests help to maintain our supply of drinking water, so they are critical in the sustainability of the earth. About 1/4 of natural medicines have been discovered in rainforests.
Within four square miles of tropical rainforest, you will find 1500 flowering plant species, 750 types of trees, and many of these plants can be helpful in combating cancer. 70% or more of the plants that are used to treat cancer are found only in the tropical rainforests on the planet. Over 2000 types of plants that you find in the rainforest can be used to help aide in cancer treatment because they have anti cancer properties. The Amazon rainforest is the largest tropical rainforest in the world.
rainforests have actually been analyzed to determine their value in the world of medicine. Rainforests are threatened each and every day, especially by practices such as agriculture, ranching, logging and mining. There were around 6 million square miles of rainforest in the beginning, but now because of deforestation, there are really only less than half of that still found in the world.
