亚苏尼国家公园，厄瓜多尔 Yasuní National Park in Amazonian Ecuador (© Paul Bertner/Minden Pictures)

亚苏尼国家公园，厄瓜多尔 Yasuní National Park in Amazonian Ecuador (© Paul Bertner/Minden Pictures)

地球之肺 The lungs of Earth

World Rainforest Day

Perhaps no other place on Earth plays a more crucial role in sustaining life as we know it than the Amazon rainforest, the largest in the world. The Amazon spans nine countries in South America including Ecuador, where this pristine ecoregion is protected by the Yasuní National Park, shown here. Today is set aside as World Rainforest Day, to remember the vital role of this and other rainforests and to champion efforts to protect them. The world's rainforests are under threat like never before from deforestation driven by agriculture and cattle ranching. Some studies have indicated humans have degraded or destroyed more than half of the world's rainforests. Fewer trees mean warmer temperatures, which increases the risk of drought and wildfire and compounds the damage of deforestation.

The Amazon has been called the lungs of the planet because the estimated 390 billion trees here convert much of the oxygen humans and other animals need to survive. The Amazon also cools our planet by capturing and storing carbon. It is as much the planet's air conditioner as it is its lungs. For that reason, the health of rainforests is crucial to arresting climate change.

The other gift of rainforests, and of the Amazon in particular, is biodiversity. The number of species of plants, animals, and insects in the Amazon is not in the thousands, but in the millions. Scientists estimate half of the planet's biodiversity exists in the Amazon. In fact, many of our modern pharmaceuticals are derived from Amazon plants. That makes the Amazon not just the Earth's lungs and air conditioning, but also its medicine cabinet.

世界雨林日

也许地球上没有其他地方比世界上最大的亚马逊雨林在维持生命方面发挥着更重要的作用。亚马逊河横跨包括厄瓜多尔在内的南美洲九个国家，这里的亚苏尼国家公园保护着这个原始的生态区。今天被定为世界雨林日，以纪念这片和其他雨林的重要作用，并支持保护它们的努力。由于农业和畜牧业造成的森林砍伐，世界雨林受到前所未有的威胁。一些研究表明，人类已经退化或破坏了世界上一半以上的雨林。树木减少意味着气温升高，这增加了干旱和野火的风险，并加剧了毁林的破坏。

亚马逊河被称为地球的肺，因为这里估计有3900亿棵树转化了人类和其他动物生存所需的大部分氧气。亚马逊还通过捕获和储存碳来冷却我们的地球。它既是地球的空调，也是地球的肺。因此，雨林的健康对于遏制气候变化至关重要。

热带雨林，尤其是亚马逊的另一个礼物是生物多样性。亚马逊河流域的植物、动物和昆虫种类不是数千种，而是数百万种。科学家估计，地球上一半的生物多样性存在于亚马逊地区。事实上，我们的许多现代药物都来自亚马逊植物。这使得亚马逊不仅是地球的肺和空调，而且还是它的药柜。