Although the rainforest is the Earth’s oldest living ecosystem and has been around for millions of years, it may not be around for much longer. At the present rate of destruction, the rainforest will be gone in 20 years or less. And, unlike North American rainforests, once the Amazon Rainforest is destroyed, it doesn't come back.

The Amazon Rainforest supplies most of the air in our lungs and when the rainforest is gone, so is most of our air. This definitely caught my attention. I work in a hospital and see many people having to pull oxygen tanks around with them in order to catch a breath of air. Without the rainforest, in 20 years or less, none of us will be able to breathe without these tanks.

Destruction of the rainforest is the second largest cause of global warming. Scientists believe that if global warming continues, it could cause serious problems like floods and droughts in different parts of the world. We have already seen evidence of this worldwide. I live in Texas, and last summer we experienced the longest drought in our state’s history.

One out of every four medicines in pharmacies today comes from the rainforest. These include treatments for serious diseases like cancer, heart disease, arthritis, and childhood leukemia. However, many of these plants are being destroyed before even being studied for their life saving qualities. My grandmother and my father have had cancer. Is there a cure out there? Three thousand plants have anti-cancer properties. Of these, 70% inhabit the rainforest and right now they are going up in smoke.

Land half the size of San Francisco contains 845 kinds of birds, 100 species of dragonflies, and 729 types of butterflies. It has 205 kinds of mammals and 10,000 different varieties of plants and trees. I live in North Texas, and I don’t even have a tree in my yard.

About one million people call the Amazon home. These people’s ancestors have lived in the Amazon for thousands of years, and the survival of their culture depends on the rainforest’s survival. The rate of destruction is approximately two football fields per second. In the time it takes to read this editorial, hundreds of lives have been destroyed or changed forever.

Am I an activist? I never thought I was, but I am indeed passionate about something I believe in. The destruction of the Amazon Rainforest is not just a horrible thing happening somewhere else. The actual cause may be happening somewhere in South America in the Amazon, but the effect is right here, right now, right where you and I live. When the Amazon Rainforest is gone - it is gone forever.

I can’t save the rainforest all alone. But I have heard it said, and I have found it to be true, there is mighty strength in numbers. Won’t you help? Twenty dollars can save approximately 150 trees, hundreds of plants, flowers, animals and all the life that depends on it and calls it home.

Please don’t wait until you have to buy air in a bottle before you see how this really does affect you and your families.