Johann Hunt
There’s something hypnotic about the sound of rain hitting leaves the size of dinner plates. Yet beyond their beauty, the world’s rainforests act like Earth’s lungs, regulating temperature, producing oxygen, and storing carbon. Lose them, and the ripple effects reach everything from your food to your weather. Here’s why they matter more than ever.
Amazon Rainforest
Home to 10 percent of all species known to science, the Amazon sprawls across roughly 2.3 million square miles—about the size of the contiguous United States. Its tangled canopy holds over 16,000 tree species and 390 billion trees, releasing nearly 20 billion tons of water into the atmosphere daily through evaporation and transpiration.
That vapor feeds rainfall across South America and even influences climate patterns as far away as Texas. Scientists often call the Amazon a “flying river” because its moisture cycles literally make weather. Its trees also absorb vast amounts of carbon dioxide, which helps combat global warming. Cut too many, and the Amazon could shift from rainmaker to dry savanna—a tipping point the planet can’t afford.
Congo Basin Rainforest
Stretching across six Central African nations, the Congo Basin is the world’s second-largest rainforest. Its dense greenery hosts around 450 mammal species, 300 reptiles, 200 amphibians, and over a thousand birds. It’s the only region on Earth where all three gorilla subspecies still roam, alongside forest elephants and rare okapis.
Hidden beneath the trees lie peatlands that lock away billions of tons of carbon—roughly equal to three years of global fossil fuel emissions. If those peatlands dry out or burn, that carbon enters the air. So even if you live thousands of miles away, a healthy Congo means cleaner skies for you.
New Guinea Rainforest
The island of New Guinea might look like a green blur from the air, but down below it teems with life found nowhere else. Covering about 303,000 square miles, its forests contain at least five percent of the world’s plant and animal species, even though the island accounts for less than one percent of global land area.
Two-thirds of its wildlife is endemic—think tree kangaroos, crowned pigeons, and butterflies larger than a human hand. These rainforests act as both shield and source: they store carbon while offering new genetic material for medicines and crops. Their preservation safeguards ecosystems worldwide and keeps future cures within reach.
What’s At Stake—And What You Can Do
Rainforests keep the planet steady by cycling moisture and storing carbon that would otherwise heat the atmosphere. When trees vanish, local climates shift, rainfall weakens, and faraway regions feel the strain through floods or dry spells that affect farming and water supplies.
Inside these forests lives an unmatched web of species—some known, many not yet studied. Additionally, hidden within them are chemicals that have led to new drugs and resilient crops. Losing that variety means losing future answers to problems humans haven’t solved yet.
You can help by choosing products sourced from responsible forestry, avoiding goods tied to forest loss, and backing restoration programs. Each mindful habit slows destruction and strengthens the systems that keep Earth livable.
A Future Rooted In Green
The health of the planet is affected by rainforests. Their steady rhythms of growth, decay, and renewal are what keep the air breathable and the climate livable. Preserving them isn’t an abstract environmental ideal—it’s an investment in health and survival. Every acre saved today shapes the world your children and grandchildren will inherit.