What effect does this have

1. What effect does this have? The rainforest has an effect on our weather and our climate. The difference between climate and weather is time. Weather is what it is doing today and tomorrow, climate is what we expect it to do over the year. We expect it to be warm is the summer and cold in the winter. Both the weather and the climate can change. © Cool Earth 2008

2. Weather What our weather is like depends on lots of things from all over the world. Heat and rain are the more important factors. © Cool Earth 2008

3. Water moves around the world in a great big cycle. This diagram shows a simple version of how water gets moved around. There is a limited amount of water in the world so we can’t get more if we run out © Cool Earth 2008

4. The rainforest plays a very important part in the water cycle. The trees remove water from the water table to use during photosynthesis The heat from the sun evaporates lots of this water into the air where it forms clouds and rains Without the trees the water would stayed locked in the ground and there would be less rain in the rainforests and the rest of the world This is problem because when it does rain the soil on the ground gets washed away into streams and rivers (making it difficult for things to live) and without the forests to soak up the rain there is more chance of floods So by cutting down the trees there is less soil and less rain. This makes is very difficult for any thing to grow back. The remaining forest becomes hotter and drier and at more risk of fire © Cool Earth 2008

5. Climate There are gases in our atmosphere that trap heat in. These are called greenhouse gases and examples are carbon dioxide and methane The more of these gases that are in the air- the more heat gets trapped. This makes the earth a hotter place which can cause all sorts of problems for everybody across the world This is known as global warming The rainforests play an important part in helping the world from getting too hot © Cool Earth 2008

6. Rainforest are vital because: 1. Trees store up lots of carbon by taking it out of the atmosphere to use to make energy (photosynthesis). But when the trees are cut down they are no longer able to take the carbon dioxide out of the air 2. Burning down the rainforests releases all the carbon dioxide that had been stored back into the atmosphere © Cool Earth 2008

7. And this means… This contributes more greenhouse gases to trap the heat in and make the earth even hotter Global warming is being caused as too many greenhouse gases are getting released into the atmosphere It is estimated that up to one third of the carbon dioxide being released is from rainforest fires, the rest is released from burning fossil fuels (coal, oil and gas). Increasing the temperature of the world can lead to changes in our weather, melting of the icecaps and causing the sea levels to rise. © Cool Earth 2008

8. © Cool Earth 2008