50 Simple Steps to Save the World's Rainforests: How to Save Our Rainforests with Everyday Acts

Despite the very best conservation and environmental policy-making efforts, at least 80,000 acres of tropical rainforest disappear each day. If action is not taken now, experts estimate that the world’s rainforests will mostly disappear within 50 years. Currently, the destruction of tropical forests is responsible for 17 percent of man made carbon emissions—more than what comes from all the world’s cars, airplanes and ships combined! Tropical rainforests need our help—and that’s where 50 Simple Steps to Save the World’s Rainforests comes in. The future of the world’s rainforests lies to a large extent in the collective hands of consumers and how they shop, since demand is what fuels the forces driving deforestation—agriculture, logging, and resources extraction. Through the 50-step journey, you will learn how, as a consumer, you may unwittingly support rainforest destruction and more importantly, precisely how you can make different choices that help save rainforests. For example, you will learn how your paper use and purchases of rayon clothing affects Indonesian rainforests where Sumatran tigers are critically endangered or how simply eating Brazil nuts helps save the Amazon rainforest. You will discover how the cultivation of palm oil, a common ingredient in confections, baked goods, soaps and biofuels, is fueling rampant deforestation in Malaysia, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea and how you can avoid it. You will also learn about how closely connected you are to the rainforest in your daily living. 50 Simple Steps to Save the Rainforests is the ultimate primer for anyone wanting to take action to help save this ecosystem, which is so critical to the future of mankind.