• Question: Have you got any plans to join a campaign in stopping the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest, so that vital plants which are instrumental ingredients in medicines will not become extinct?

    Asked by chickeny to Lyn, Katy, Paul, PB, Ruth on 21 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Peter Balfe

      Peter Balfe answered on 21 Jun 2013:

      I’m too busy to do that myself, but applaud those who do it! Does belonging to Friends of the Earth count?

    • Photo: Ee Lyn Lim

      Ee Lyn Lim answered on 21 Jun 2013:

      The Amazon rainforest is not the only place where important plants and animals are being driven to extinction! All over the world, nature is being destroyed. Right this moment, in Indonesia, people are setting fire to the tropical rainforests on purpose, just so that they have clear ground to plant rice or build houses on. Not only does that destroy the flora and fauna in the area, it also releases huge amounts of greenhouse gases and contributes to global warming. And there’s a lot of smoke! In Malaysia and Singapore, which are neighbours with Indonesia, people can’t see ten feet ahead of them because of the haze, and it’s giving lots of people breathing problems and asthma.

      I’m a donating member of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), and they have this programme where they send you news about campaigns going on all around the world. Everything from sustainable fishing in the Bering Sea, to protecting wild tigers in Asia, to stopping government plans to drill for oil or build dams where it will harm the environment. They’ll help you write letters to the Member of Parliament in your area, or tell you about new projects that they’re doing, so that you can donate if you have the money. It’s not much, because all I’m really doing is reading the emails and clicking a few buttons on a computer, but if I get the chance to do something bigger, I will!

    • Photo: Ruth Mitchell

      Ruth Mitchell answered on 23 Jun 2013:

      No, I don’t. Although that is a good cause.

    • Photo: Katy Brown

      Katy Brown answered on 24 Jun 2013:

      I don’t have any particular plans to do that, although I would think about it. I am interested in something called conservation genetics – using genetics to try to protect endangered species. I once worked for a couple of months on a project looking at marine iguanas in the Galapagos islands – trying to find out how their immune systems are controlled, to see if there is a way to breed them to make them less vulnerable to diseases.

    • Photo: Paul Waines

      Paul Waines answered on 25 Jun 2013:

      Hi chickeny- you’re right to say that the amazon is vital for this- its also vital for the health of the planet (the rainforest is sometimes called the ‘lungs of the earth’). A major reason the rainforest is being lost is because of our need for palm oil, which is used in all sorts of things. Until we can find alternatives, or learn to live without it, I worry that we’ll continue to lose the rainforest. I think humans can be very short-sighted in this respect, and we need to think of the planet’s long term health.
      I already donate to the Worldland trust, which works to save this kind of envrionment: http://www.worldlandtrust.org/supporting/donate?gclid=CNOHierm_rcCFRMPtAodVR0AGw

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