Question: Would half of the trees in the amazon rainforest would disappear in the next 10 years?

Amelia Frizell-Armitage answered on 19 Mar 2014:

Rainforest used to cover 14% of the planet, and they now only cover around 6%. Most of this is due to humans, cutting down the rainforests to make space for towns, roads and farms. This deforestation is still happening at a very shocking rate. We won’t quite lose half in 10 years, but you’re not far off. We’ll probably lose about a quarter of forest in that time.

Many experts think that all the rainforest will be gone within 40 years if we don’t reduce the amount we are cutting down. This is pretty scary because nearly half of the world’s plant, animal and microorganisms actually live in the rainforests. All these species will likely go extinct if we cut down all their habitat. Some scientists already think that 137 animal, plant and insect species are going extinct A DAY due to cutting down rainforest. That is equivalent to 50,000 a year!

It is really important that people start to understand how important the rainforests are so that we reduce the amount we are cutting down, and maybe even begin to plant more!