In “The Doomsday Book” by Marshall Brain, the chapter on rain forest collapse is one of the most depressing. The Amazon rainforest represents an irreplaceable two million square mile biological jewel, and humanity is busy destroying it as quickly as possible. Combined with global warming, the rainforest is on a fast track to collapse unless humanity makes a radical change of direction. You can understand the destructive process in a nutshell by looking at the city of Sinop in Brazil:

All of the light-colored areas that you can see on this map are fields for soybeans or cattle pastures. The dark areas are the remaining patches of rainforest. This article points out the reason for the destruction:

The rain forest here in Brazil has progressively fallen victim to global demand for soy and beef. And the country’s biggest customer for both is China. The story of the Amazon has become entangled not simply with the story of Brazil’s poor protection of its forest frontier but also with that of the rise of this new superpower and its food-security strategy. Soy is China’s weak link, the main food commodity it needs from the outside world. The country imports the crop, which it mostly uses to feed its pigs, and Chinese state-owned companies also invest directly in Brazil’s supply chain so the South American country can increase its own exports. This growing hunger for soy has incentivized Brazilian prospectors to keep pace by razing pristine jungle, thereby accelerating deforestation.

Unless humanity takes steps to stop it, the process of deforestation and destruction will continue to the point where the rain forest collapses. The rain will stop, and the rain forest will be completely destroyed. These videos illustrate the problem:

“The Doomsday Book” by Marshall Brain lays out this scenario in amazing detail and offers solutions to prevent this doomsday scenario from unfolding. You can order the book today on Amazon and other retailers.