Almost all development in the Amazon involves clearing the land by burning. On a single day in 1988, scientists recorded 6000 "man-made" fires burning in the Amazon. The consequences, to the forest and the world are devastating!

As environmental concerns have shifted focus from local to global, the relationship between the burning of the rain forest and the global warming phenomenon called the "greenhouse effect" is one of the most alarming.

To some extent, the greenhouse effect is a necessary process, keeping the earth warm enough to support life. It works the same way as a gardener's greenhouse does: molecules of carbon dioxide allow the sun's rays to pass through the atmosphere -- like they pass through the glass panes -- and warm the earth, but the gas traps the heat by absorbing infra-red radiation. (A car works the same the way -- that's why it gets so hot inside on a sunny day even if the air temperature is cool.)

Trees felled in the tropics add to environmental warming because carbon is released into the atmosphere when the debris of a felled forest burns or rots. Estimates suggest that one-fifth to one-third of all carbon dioxide pollution comes from tropical forest destruction, but this could rapidly increase if the Amazon rainforest continues to be burned.

Accumulating carbon dioxide is the largest single cause -- about 50% -- of global warming. Global warming could result in rising sea levels, changes in world-wide weather and wind patterns, floods and droughts.

Chlorofluorocarbons from plastics, aerosols and refrigeration are another major contributing factor to the greenhouse effect.