A rain forest is an area in which the annual rain fall is high(over 80 inches in a year). Many rain forests are located between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. They are mostly found in the north part of South America.The climate is hot, wet and humid.

There are four levels in a rainforest. The forest floor, understory, canopy, and the emergent layer. The two toed sloth lives in the canopy layer and gets its food from the canopy and sometimes the forest floor.

For more information on the two toed sloth's diet and facts about it, visit our two toed sloth page, and the fun facts page.

Picture Source
http://mrsgebauer.com/rainforestweb/layers.jpg

The rainforest is an unique ecosystem. In the rainforest they get over 80 inches of rain fall in one year! Half of the world's plant and animal species live in the hot, wet climate of the rainforest. There are many exotic and undiscovered plants and animals. The rainforest contains over 50% of the worlds plant and animal species. It has some of the worlds most uniqe animals. Surprisingly the species of the rainforest often work together like a community. There could even be a cure for cancer hiding in the rainforest. Rainforests are sometimes called the Lungs of the Earth because all the trees produce over 20% of the oxegen in the found in the Earths atmosphere.

The rainforest is of great importance to the  world. The rainforest helps to balance Earths' climate and many plants and animals live there. The abundance of vegetation helps to protect the area from natural disasters like erosion, droughts and floods. Many medicines and foods can be found in the rain forest. The rain forest is also home to many plants, animals, and tribal people. Since there are so many trees a lot of oxygen is produced. Life on Earth would be very different without rain forests.

The rainforest is unique. Its hot,wet climate and its location in a tropical area help many plants and animals thrive in the rainforest. Since there is plenty of sunlight, which is a key factor for photosynthesis lots of vegetation can grow. Since there is so much vegetation there is lots of food for many  animals species. The layered structure of the rainforest provides many places for plants to grow and animals to live.

Rainforest all over the world are disappearing. Cutting down trees to sell as lumber reduces the number of homes for animals ans places to grow for plants. Land is used for farming, raising animals, and mining. All the mining is done by people in poverty, with no other way to make money. They hope to find gold in these mines. Rainforest land is also given to poor farmers with no where else to live. With the disappearance of rainforests, many undiscovered plants will stay undiscovered and animals will lose their home. 

Technology has impacted the rainforest. One peice of technology that has impacted the world in a bad way is the tree cutter. The tree cutter provides humans a faster way to cut dowm trees in the rainforest. Before the tree cutter was invented, people had to cut trees one by one which took a lot of time considering that they used axes. The tree cutter has speed up the affects of deforestation on the world.

Not all technology is bad for the rain forest. The internet has helped impact the rainfoest. People are more likely to look at the internet raither than a old newspaper article, to find information.People are more aware of the rainforest because of the internet. It is also useful when you want to spread the word faster. Hopefully if people are more aware of the rainforest, they mighthelp it, which might help to heal some of the damage done.

People all over the world should be educated about the rainforest so that they can understand what is happening to it and the importance of rainforests to the world. By learning that things that we have been doing have been hurting the rainforest, we can find an alternative way of getting what we want. If everyone tried hard and got a good education, it will mean that they will get better jobs, and less people will be in poverty. A lot of the people who cut down trees in the rainforest are people in poverty, because they have no other way of of making money so that their family gets the resources they need. With a good education you can build companies who are green, or even help to buy pieces of the rainforest to protect it. You can make good choices about about helping the enviorment and living greener when you have a good education.

With the destruction of rainforests there are less and less trees standing every day. With out as many trees there is less oxygen in the air. Trees take in carbon-dioxide and produce oxygen. If there are less trees, the trees will not be able to take in as much of the carbon-dioxide that they use to,so the trees will produce less oxygen which contributes to globbal warming. Many undiscovered plants and animals are now lost forever because the destruction of the rainforest. There could have been cures for diseases, and because of the deforestation they are now gone. The more space created, there is more pollution. More pollution increases the speed of affects due to global warming. Plants and animals are losing there homes. Some plants and animals are local only to this area and if there habitat is destroyed,  their species might go extinct or become endangered or threatened. For any food web, when a part is missing something will go wrong. If a bird colony dies the rainforests fragile food web could collapse.  Most of the world does not realize that without rainforests life on Earth would be very different.

 The rainforest used to cover almost all of nothern South America and many other parts of the world. But due to deforestation and discovery of North and South America the number of acers the rainforest covers has gone down drastically. This is due to many things, littering, lodges, resorts, communities, slash and burn agriculture and much more.The rainforest is a unique ecosystem, where many plants and animals thrive. Today due to deforestation, animals and plants are losing their homes. The rainforest used to be untoched by pollution, but now there are roads, cars, tourists and many more things, which has affected the rainforest.