The ceaseless conflict among interpreters, whatever master truth may be thought to lie just ahead of their farthest energetic probing, simply renders cloudy the supposition that sense of truth is the central experience of those who join the assemblage with special expectations and are in some ways satisfied. With the King fire burning more than 72,000 acres and all the other fires burning in the United States of America, deforestation is a major concern, but not only because of fires, but also because of logging as well. The World’s great forests play major roles in the biosphere. Forest watersheds are like giant sponges that absorb, hold, and release water gradually. By influence the downstream of water flow, forests help control soil erosion, flooding, and sediment buildup in rivers, lakes and reservoirs and also keeps moisture in the soil. Deforestation, the removal of trees from large tracts of land, leads to loss of fragile surface layers of soil and disrupts watersheds. The disruption is especially pronounced in watersheds with steep slopes. In tropical regions, soil loss mean long-term fertility loss as nutrients are quickly washed out of the system, leaving nutrients missing from the soil, and the ground deficient of the food it needed to be of use for planting and feed vegetation. The tropical rainforest is one of the most beautiful wonders in the world. They cover billions of acres of land, mountain sides and waterways.

A rainforest is a collection of very tall and exotic trees, and some of the World’s most hungry and some of the largest insects, animals, tress and birds ever seen. The trees in a rainforest can grow as tall as 150 feet. These trees are generally found in regions that are warm year-round and also receive a lot of rain. Tropical rainforests may cover less than 6 percent of the Earth’s surface and produce 40 percent of the Earth’s oxygen. Typically, a rainforest receives 4 feet to 21 feet of rain each year. Since these naturally beautiful forests thrive in warm conditions, tropical rainforest are usually located around the equator. However, Berkeley, California and much of New York, New York used to also be a rainforest. Nonetheless, some of the largest rainforests are currently located in South America, Africa, Indonesia, Asia, Hawaii, and the Caribbean Islands. In fact, one of the largest rainforest in the world is located in South America and would cover two thirds of the Continental United States of America. They are home to the greatest variety of spectacularly plumages birds and to the plants with the largest flowers. Trees in the rainforest must grow tall and fast to reach the peak of the canopy, where the sun is. Since these some of the fast growing trees are not very wide, they produce prop roots, which drop down to the ground and dig into the earth to support the tree. Also, the tree may not have branches for the first 50 feet.

Large animals are not as profuse as they are in other parts of the World, but they are splendidly represented, in a variety of species. The large animals in the rain forest are usually tapirs, monkeys, and jaguars of South America to the apes, okapi, and leopards, and tigers of Africa. African cats are in danger, as sample to highlight the issue of deforestation and hunting, we have selected the tiger population. Give us minds possessing foresight; give us minds obeying what foresight tells. Tigers are beautiful, majestic and mysterious creature, which are in great danger of becoming extinct. In the 1900s, there were over 100,000 tigers in the wild. However, over the last 100 years, the World has lost more than 97 percent of the tiger population; there are less than 3,200 left in the wild. Tigers are some of the largest cats in the World, they are about three and a half feet tall, and are anywhere from five feet long to nine feet in length, and they weight about four hundred to seven-hundred pounds. The tail of a tiger is about three feet in length. At least four species of tigers are extent, including: Bali tiger, Javan tiger, Caspian tiger, and there are only a few South Chinese tiger left, but they are all in captivity.

 The World still have nearly seven-hundred Malayan tigers, four hundred and fifty Sumatran tigers, four hundred Siberian tigers, about one thousand Indochinese tigers, and eighteen hundred Bengal tigers. Tigers eat about 88 pounds of meat, at one time. Tigers like to feed on antelope, baby elephants, berries, buffalo, carbs, deer, fish, frogs, lizards, snakes, and wild boar (pigs). Be careful around tigers, they like meat and will devour you. Tigers like to kill by sinking their teeth into the neck of their prey (food). Tigers mainly live in Africa, Asia, and they used to even live in Russia. Tigers are sensitive to heat and like to swim a lot. Tigers, in the wild, live about ten to fifteen years, but in captivity, they can live as long as twenty to twenty-six years. Tigers like to live in the tropical forest, mountains, swamps, and they usually keep to themselves, until mating season. Tigers will usually mate from November to April. Their gestation (pregnancy) period is about one hundred and three days, and they will usually give birth to 3 or 4 baby tigers, also known as cubs. When the tiger is about three years old, they leave their mothers and start their own lives, in the wild. Tigers are in danger because they are hunted for their meat, deforestation, and logging of trees. It is illegal to eat tiger meat, but many people like to consumer it like it is a steak and even make tacos out of tiger meat. There is a restaurant, in Florida, called “Taco Fusion,” which serves tiger meat tacos, and they are about thirty-five dollars each. Tigers also hunted for their beautiful orange and black stripped coats; sometimes they are white and black strips, and their eyes, teeth and paws. Orange and black tigers usually have yellow eyes, and white and black tigers have blue eye. Unlike other cats, tigers have pupils. There are also hybrid tigers called ligers, which occur when male lions mate with female tigers.

 Ligers usually have the main of a lion, but strips like a tiger, but there are some variations. The first liger was produces in the year 1798, in the country India, by scientist Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire. Ligers are about ten feet long, about five feet tall, and seven-hundred pounds. So please do not hunt or harass tigers, there are not many of them left, and we want to preserve them for future generations. It is very hard for a fool not to be a fool. Fools must live in the World, but you do not have to become like them. I have seen wicked men and fools, a great many of both; and I believe they both get paid in the end; but the fools first. Forgiveness is never denied to sincere repentance. Meanwhile in the rain forest, specimens of trees from the rain forest may have made their way into your home or your dentist’s waiting room in the form of girl scout cookie boxes, furniture, or ficus benjamina, rubber plants, and tree ferns, to name a few. Also, it is important to keep in mind that the Girl Scouts and Barbie use materials from the Rain Forest for packaging and labeling, which is sad because rare trees and animals are being destroyed. Too bad they cannot just use recycle Christmas trees. In the forest themselves, vines twist around tree trunks and grow up toward the sunlight. Below the tall canopy trees, in the rainforest, there are also smaller trees, and shrubs. The foliage below the canopy usually does not grow very tall because they are not exposed to as much sun. The rapid growth in the rainforest can be attributed to all the fallen leaves, which quickly decompose, releasing important nutrients for plants to grow.

 The rainforests have more types of trees than any other area in the world. There are between 100 to 300 different species of trees located in the rainforest, and 70 percent of the rainforest is composed of trees. The rainforest usually gets up to 93° Fahrenheit and usually do not drop below 68° Fahrenheit. The rainforest is very important because it produces oxygen, regulates the temperature and is a home for many rare animals and insects. The rainforest also produces medicine that helps to treat cancer, muscle pains and other ailments. Furthermore, the U.S. Cancer Institute has identified 3,000 plants that are active against fighting cancer cells and 70 percent of these plants are found in the rainforest, and 25 percent of pharmaceutical medications come from trees and plants in the rainforest, and this is amazing considering only 1 percent of the organisms in the rainforest have been tested to see how they can benefit human recovery. Orchids, mosses, lichens, and other planets and flowers grow on tree branches, absorbing minerals brought to them in rain water. Entire communities of inspects, spiders, and amphibians live breed, and die in small pools of water that collect in the leaves of aerial plants. Developing countries, in Latin America, Africa, and Southeast Asia have been clearing their tropical rain forests on massive scale. Those countries have great and growing numbers of people and not enough food, fuel, or lumber. If people not allowed to cut trees down, in the forest, for lumber, often times, as retribution, these individuals would start forest fires. (One of every four human lives in those countries, in 1990, were responsible for about 33 percent of the World’s human population growth.)

At present rates of clearing, most tropical forest will disappear by 2050. Nevertheless, many people only value the rain forest for lumber and are cutting down the trees to build homes, offices, ships and furniture. It is estimated that in 40 years, there will be no more rainforests left in the world, and this is alarming because of the health benefits that come from the rainforest and also because they produce more than 40 percent of the oxygen in the world. Without rainforest, we would lose a lot of medication that helps to save lives, we could experience more drought, warmer weather, and more floods. Also, there are more than 3,000 fruits found in the rainforest, many of which most people have never tasted. Experts say, if left intact, that the rainforest is by far more valuable because they harvest of the fruits, nuts and oil producing plants are very valuable. Anthropologists also say that Berkeley, California, USA used to be a rainforest, now it is home to housing projects, colleges, and other businesses. Similarly, Manhattan, New York was once filled with forest, swamps and hills. As the population was increasing, the Commissioners’ Plan of 1811 divided New York, all most all of the trees were removed, and officials filled in the swaps to make room for homes and office buildings. Lower Manhattan was created by dumping trash into the river and cementing it so they could expand the land mass. As a result, the river in Manhattan became narrower, and today it is eroding the land. In the near future, the tunnels in Manhattan will flood due to the way it was constructed. So please preserve our rainforest, it may save the world and the people in it.  

For purely ethical reasons, many condemn the total destruction of a major chunk of the biosphere. For practical reasons, consider how the destruction might affect your own life. The World’s food supply depends on a very small number of crop and livestock species. That base of food production can be broadened and made less vulnerable if we can develop new or hybrid crop plants. By using genetic engineering and tissue culturing methods, we can tap the diverse organisms of tropical rain forests as genetic resources. They also can be tapped for developing new antibiotics and vaccines. Many tropical planets already give us the alkaloids for drug treatments of cardiovascular disorders, cancer, and other illnesses. Aspirin, the most widely used drug in the World, was formulated by using a chemical blueprint of a compound extracted from the leaves of the tropical willow trees. Coffee, bananas, cocoa, cinnamon, and other spices, sweeteners, Brazil nuts, and many others foods we love originated in the tropical rainforest. Massive destruction of tropical rain forests is changing the mixture of gasses in the atmosphere. Among other things, the burning releases carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, nitrogen dioxide, and nitric oxide—and atmospheric concentrations of these gases are increasing contribution to acid rain, smog, and dissipation of the ozone layer, and probably increases the World temperatures. If the World is to face another ice age, global warming may counter act that, allowing for climate change and not permafrost.  

As an individual, you might choose to cherish, brood about, or ignore any aspect of the World of life. However, I want you to keep this in mind, whatever choice you make, the fact of the matter is that you and all other organisms, on Earth, are in the together. Your lives interconnect, to degrees that many are only now starting to comprehend. Some suspect that the internet is allowing ghost to take human form and that time travel is subtle taking place, and that astral planes are intercepting your timeline and distorting reality. There are all kinds of concepts going around, some even think the United States has an iron dome protecting us around the clock. Whatever the truth maybe, human population has undergone rapid and exponential growth since the mid-eighteenth century. Today, there are 7 billion people on Earth, we have the technology, and the cultural inclination to use energy and modify the environment at astonishing rates. The World of life ultimately depends on energy from the Sun, Moon, Ground, Air and Water, which drives complex reactions between the atmosphere, oceans, and land. The accumulation of human-generated pollutants in the atmosphere especially is disrupting those interactions. Those disruptions may have alarming consequences in the near future. Humans, as a species must come to terms with the principles of energy flow and resources utilization that govern all systems of life on Earth. I am not pushing an agenda; I am just giving you the facts. More than this, deforestation also can change regional patterns of rainfall as a result of altered rates of evaporation, transportation, and runoff.

Between 50 and 80 percent of the water vapor above tropical forest alone is released from the trees themselves. Without trees, annual precipitation declines, and the region gets hotter and drier. Rain that does fall rapidly runs off the bare soil. This has been a major concern after the rim fire– the Rim Fire was a wildfire, in the central Sierra Nevada region, and in Tuolumne and Mariposa counties, of California, in the United States of America. The Godzilla of a fire started on 17 August 2013, during the 2013 California wildfire season, and a major drought. Keith Matthew Emerald, accused of starting the massive Rim Fire, last year, in Stanislaus National Forest and Yosemite National Park, pleaded not guilty in U.S. District Court in Fresno. He is facing sentence of 11 years in prison and more than $500,000 in fines. The Rim Fire engulfed 257,000 acres, causing more than $130 Million in damages, and was the third largest wildfire in California history. Also, as the local climate gets hotter and drier, soil fertility and moister levels decline even more. Eventually, sparse grassland or even desert like conditions might prevail, where we once had rich tropical forest. The 2013, Black Forest Fire in Colorado cost $85 Million in damages, killed two people, destroyed over 430 houses, and burned more than 14,223 acres of land. Clearing large tracts of tropical forest also may have global repercussions. These forests absorb so much of the solar radiation reaching the equatorial regions of the Earth’s surface, when the forests are burned, logged, or otherwise cleared, the land becomes shinier, so to speak, and reflects more incoming energy back to space, which heats up the planet. 

The trees of these vast forested regions help maintain the global cycling of carbon and oxygen through their photosynthetic activities. When they are harvested or burned, the carbon stored in their biomass is released to the atmosphere, in the form of carbon dioxide—and this may play a role in the amplified greenhouse effect. Almost half of the World’s expanses of tropical forests have already been cleared for cropland, grazing land, timber, housing, parking, landfills, and fuelwood. Deforestation is greatest in Brazil, Indonesia, America, Colombia, and Mexico. Another problem with ripping up forests is we are disturbing some dinosaurs like giant alligators, who have been alive since other dinosaurs walked the Earth. Alligators are as old as the dinosaurs, and now they are also on the verge of extinction. The alligator species is over 150 million years old, and they managed to outlive the dinosaurs, which died out 65 million years ago. Alligators live in fresh water like rivers, lakes, and swamps; they mostly live in the Southern United States, places like Louisiana and Florida. Sometimes alligators will sneak into swimming pools. In general, alligators live to be 35-50 years old and can grow as large as 20 feet and 1,000 pounds. On average, alligators are anywhere from 10-13 feet. Alligator babies’ hatch from eggs, they only take 40 days to be born; alligator babies are about 6-8inches long when they are born. The diet of the alligator is composed of fish, turtles, snakes, other small animals and sometimes pets or humans.

At one time, alligators were the most dominant animal on Earth, but now they are on the verge of extinction, as only 12 species of alligators remain. Alligators are killed and their skin is used to make shoes, purses, wallets, briefcases, and other leather items. Alligators are also hunted for their meat, and some are caught and sent to other countries. Alligator meat is actually very healthy, low in fat and very expensive, a pound of alligator meat cost about $7, and alligator skins can fetch $25 per foot. Because alligators are endangered, farmers have opened over 30 alligator farms, which are very successful. They produce about 300,000 pounds of meat and 15,000 skins a year. That is about 2.5 million a year in revenue for farmers. Please be kind and save our animals. Once they are gone, we cannot replace them. We have to live with Mother Nature. Only when the last tree is cut down, the last fish has been caught and the last stream has been poisoned will we realize you can’t eat money. At present rates of clearing and degradation, only Brazil and Zaire will have large tracts of tropical forests in the year 2016. By 2035, most of those forests also will be gone, leading to desertification. Yet, whatever come through has a validity that one would never deny. Even when a defenseless town is given up being sacked and pillaged, military officers do not put helpless men, women, children or animals to the sword with that just proportion of coolness with which a hangman ties the fatal noose, or a lawyer draws up a brief by which he beggars the wretched family he is employed against.

The Winchester Mystery House

 The Winchester Mystery House is a riveting haunted house mystery that will keep you guessing. https://winchestermysteryhouse.com/