Window On the Rainforest Crisis

I enjoy looking at store windows as I walk in the city and I frequently admire the artistry of the displays. But when I walked by this window for ABC Carpets in New York City, it was the message that stopped me in my tracks:

Every minute 147 acres of rainforest is cut.

How is that possible I wondered as I quickly tried to calculate the impact of say a year's time. (147 x 60 x 24 x 365 = 77,263,200 acres, I later figured.) At the rainforest site they say:

Rainforests are some of the world's most ancient and complex ecosystems. They cover a mere 2% of the Earth, yet more than half of all plant and animal species live there. The rainforest is home to creatures as famous as the jaguar and poison dart frog, as well as lesser-known and even unidentified species.

At rainforests.net they have a running tally on the home page that estimates the "rainforest acres cut so far this year" and the "species extinctions this year." It's easy to see that these ecosystems are an amazing resource that is quickly slipping away. If you'd like to help save the rainforest, you can adopt an acre through The Nature Conservancy.
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For an intimate collection of more than 500 breathtaking animal and plant portraits, and the fascinating stories behind them, read Rainforest.
To educate children ages 4-8, read The Rainforest Grew All Around.