(英会話リスニングスクリプト)
Around the world large areas of forest are
disappearing.
Some are burned to the ground to make more
land for agriculture, and others are cut down to make paper,
furniture and firewood.
Tropical rainforests, which grow in warm,
rainy areas, have been especially badly hit.
Rainforests help to control the earth's
climate and rainfall, because leaves catch rain, and then
release water back into the air.
They also produce much of the world's oxygen.
When rainforests burn, they release carbon
dioxide into the air, which increases global warming.
In the 1980s, over 10% of the world's rainforests
were destroyed.
Apart from the effects on the climate and
the atmosphere, many plants and animals will become extinct
if the forests are destroyed.
Rainforest ingredients are used in 25% of
medicines.
It is probable that treatments of AIDS and
cancer will use such ingredients.
Many tribes of Indians have lived in the
rainforests for thousands of years, but now their existence
is threatened.
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