Biological Resources
(Purely personal perceptions, not necessarily correct !)
There are at least 50 million species on the earth, and tropical rainforests are the richest in biodiversity, Survive more than half of the world’s species. However, tropical rainforests are now the most rapidly destroyed, and the top three countries in the world with tropical rainforests, Brazil, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Indonesia, are all at historical lows in terms of forest cover. These countries are mostly developing countries, and have to cut down heavily to increase their income because of poverty and rapid population growth. Once the tropical rainforest is destroyed, it is impossible for humans to restore it. Because the soil of tropical rainforests is very poor, vegetation mainly depends on the dry branches and fallen leaves. There are many trees that are hundreds or thousands of years old. If the trees are cut down in large numbers, it will not be able to produce dry branches and fallen leaves, coupled with frequent rain, nutrients can not be stored, the remaining vegetation will slowly die. Therefore, the tropical rainforest is like the mineral resource, once destroyed, it disappears. The environmental pollution and destruction has led to many natural disasters, and the extinction of species has been further accelerated by the massive hunting and killing. According to the Red Book, 110 species and subspecies of mammals and 139 species and subspecies of birds have disappeared from the earth in the 20th century. More than 593 species of birds, 400 species of animals, 209 species of amphibian reptiles and 20,000 species of higher plants are on the verge of extinction. If even more microorganisms are counted, 140,000 species are going extinct every year. Many species have disappeared from the earth before scientists have had a chance to discover and name them.
In contrast, the human population is increasing, As of June, 2022, the total global population of 238 countries is 7.898 billion. But in June 2019, the global population is only 7.579 billion. In other words, the world population has increased by more than 300 million in the past three years, despite the double impact of the epidemic and the economic downturn.