I am interested in researching the advantages and disadvantages of keeping the earth's rainforests alive compared to tearing them down for their resources because both sides have strong arguments and if action is not taken soon, it might be too late.  Initially, I was drawn to this topic because I have always loved nature and do not want it to disappear.  When I started my research, I discovered that many modern medicines come from the rainforest and less than one percent of species have been tested for medical benefits.  Then, when I read that over 80,000 acres of rainforests are torn down each day, I knew that I wanted to write my research paper on this current issue.  Killing off plants and animals with the potential to save lives goes against what I believe in.  Having the luxuries the rainforest provides us with is nice but advancing modern and future medicines would benefit a larger majority of the world's population.  Personally, I have been impacted by this fight over the rainforest because I have taken some of the medicines that come from the rainforest.  If nothing is done, then we might lose the chance to cure many minor or fatal diseases.


In this article, Rhett is saying that humans are the major cause for the destruction of the Amazon Rainforest.  Each year, humans tear down rainforest land that equals the size of New Jersey driving many plant and animal species into extinction.  On a much smaller scale, rainforests are also being destroyed by droughts.  With the combination of the two, rainforests will be gone before we know it if nothing is changed.

This article is interested in preserving the Amazon Rainforest as a whole along with the many plants and animals within it.  We are using up the resources much faster than they can be replaced.  The reasons for doing this are wood, land for farms, livestock, paper, roads, and energy.  All of these resources are traded and are part of the world's economy, but is there a larger economic value that is not being used?

This is a very reliable and credible source for information about the rainforests.  Mongabay is the most popular source for information on the tropical forests.  The information is acclaimed by many of the leading tropical scientists.  The site is run independently by Rhett Butler, meaning that large groups or corporations do not have a say in the facts provided.


In this article, Dasgupta is concerned with the number of tree species in the Amazon Rainforest that are facing or will be facing extinction in the next few years due to deforestation.  The forest lost over 12% of its cover and almost half of the 15,000 tree species are in danger.  The southern and eastern portions of the Amazon are at the highest risk for deforestation because they are not protected.  This area is called the "Arc of Deforestation" and will see many tree species become extinct in the next fifty years.

This article is concerned with the extinction of many tree species that make up the Amazon Rainforest.  At the current and predicted rate of deforestation, tree species that have survived in the amazon for many years will be wiped out by humans.  It is wrong to cut back the edge of the forests or build roads through them because it changes the heart of the forest and creates new edges.

This is a credible source for information about tropical forests.  Mongabay specializes on the research of rainforests around the world and the effects people are having on them, both positive and negative.  The author of this article, Dasgupta, has been writing about deforestation for many years now and is a reliable source for information.  However, she does has a bias on this topic since she is concerned with preserving the rainforests around the world and writes to make people more aware of the issues.


The central claim of this article is that the rainforests of the world have a lot that we could benefit from.  We have started to take advantage of the medical benefits of the plants but have barely scratched the surface.  The medicine of the future is very unclear but it is believe that the Amazon rainforest is a good starting place because of the progress scientists have made so far. 

The interest of this article is to keep the rainforests alive and protected in order to discover new medicines that could save lives in the future.  We have already used plant species in the amazon rainforest to make medicines that lower blood pressure, fight against fungi, fight liver disease, and fight against cancer cells just to name a few.  Destroying these curing flower and plant species is selfish because we are not thinking about the benefits these plants could have in the future.

This is a reliable source for medical research found in the Amazon rainforest.  Their research is based off of what has been proven to work in the medical field.  The potential reward for preserving the rainforests is much higher than the gains from tearing them down.  This is a biased source because it is focused on the preservation of the plants and does not address the other side of the argument at all.


Are Rainforests more valuable dead or alive? This is a very arguable question because right now they are more valuable dead but current research is proving their economic value to be worth more alive due to the medical purposes.  When comparing the sources I found, I noticed that they all saw the importance of the rainforest for its oxygen and environmental importance.  However, my sources differed in that should be done about it.  The three viewpoints are preserving the forest completely, tearing down the forest for its resources, and preserving the rainforest to do research for medical purposes.  This affected my own perspective because I saw which side I agreed with more and I now know that I should narrow my research to only the Amazon rainforest.  
