Rainforests clean up our athmosphere from pollution

Intact amazonas rainforest in Surinam (Courtesy: MPI of chemistry, Mainz, Germany)

Rainforests are the most important factor for the world climate. This has been known all along since several decades. And they are extremely endangered by human activities as well. But now a new and surprising finding has been done by scientists from the Max-Planck-Institute of chemistry, Mainz, Germany. The results which recently have been published in "nature" clearly show that intact tropical rainforests can very effectively cleans up the surrounding athmoshere from pollution. The scientists measured in a widely unpopulated area of Surinam (South America)  - with no anthropogenic pollution  - the air and calculated with complex computer programs the chemical reactions occuring in the athmosphere above the rainforests.

Naturally plants emitt hydrocarbons, presumably as protection from dehydration. These substances have to be removed by the athmosphere. This is done in complicated chemical processes where free hydroxyradicals play a key role, a molecule type that not only can recycle and clean up the air from plant emissions but also from pollution which stems from human activities. This side effect of this natural balance between intact rainforest and the air is most important for the self detergence of the atmosphere which we all live in.

Destruction of intact rainforests will have severe consequences 

When the forests are destroyed and replaced by agricultural land and human settlements this self cleaning power is lost. The result is increasing smog and polluted air world wide. Next to their importance for world climate the still very large rainforest areas on earth (still covering millions of square miles in Africa, Asia and South America) obviously play a key role in worlds cleaning capacity for the athmosphere of our planet.
With the alarming speed of rainforest destruction of course we are now sawing the branch we are sitting on.

World Wide rainforest conservation is a question of the survival of mankind which should not be sacrificed for short minded greedy interests of a globalised and out-of-control jungle capitalism.

Source:
J. Lelieveld, T. M. Butler, J. N. Crowley, T. J. Dillon, H. Fischer, L. Ganzeveld, H. Harder, M. G. Lawrence, M. Martinez, D. Taraborrelli and J. Williams: Atmospheric oxidation capacity sustained by a forest.
Nature 10. April, 2008

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