Student Weekly
Student Weekly online : April 2nd, 2007 edition

CHATROOM

Photos courtesy of Bangkok Post/AFP

Letter of the week

FOREST PEOPLE

I have been studying about the Amazon Rainforest. I think we should stop deforestation because if we cut trees, there will be too much carbon dioxide.

We create a lot of carbon dioxide through pollution and we need trees to use it up.

If there is too much carbon dioxide it will cause global warming. When there is global warming, the glaciers will melt and cause a lot of floods in the world.

Another reason is that in the Amazon Rainforest there are people called Yanomami. The Yanomami have lived there for thousands of years. If you cut

the trees, you are stealing the land of the Yanomami people.

Also, if you cut the trees these people would have no animals to eat. The animals would not have any place to live. The Yanomami can�t move because they have already lived there for thousands of years. If the Yanomami people die, we cannot learn about their culture.

A third reason is that the animals that live in the Amazon Rainforest are not found anywhere else in the world. If we are cutting trees, we are destroying the animals� habitat.

Let�s get together to help make the world a better place. Stop deforestation in the Amazon.

Thapadit Susakorn, Bangkok

Thank you for a very well-written � and easy-to-read � letter. The destruction of the Amazon Rainforest is a very serious problem that affects the whole world, and I�d like to thank you and your classmates for writing in about it. The only thing that I would add is that you don�t have to go all the way to South America to see the effects of deforestation. All across Asia � as well as here in Thailand � you can see the problems caused by cutting down ancient forests. So along with saving the Amazon, we also need to work harder to protect our own forests. � Editor


TREES FOR ALL

I have been researching what is happening to the Amazon Rainforest. I think we should save the Amazon Rainforest because the trees are disappearing. That means many other things are disappearing too, like oxygen, animals and more.

Trees are important because they give us what we need, like dyes, oils, medicines, drinks, food and oxygen. These all are disappearing, and the amount of carbon dioxide is rising.

Scientists have found out that we need one tree per person in this world. If we cut down more trees, we will not be able to live. There will be more people creating pollution, so the amount of carbon dioxide is even more than before.

If there are not enough trees, the carbon dioxide will not be used up. This will cause global warming.

If we cut down more trees, the animals will die too. The more trees we cut, the more animals disappear. The more animals we lose, the fewer animals we will be able to learn about, because the animals there are different from the ones in other places.

The people that live in the Amazon Rainforest are being forced to move to other places because their homes are being destroyed and their forest is disappearing. They will not have enough things to use or eat.

They also have no other place to live because they already know everything in the

Amazon Rainforest, but don�t know modern ways. If they die, we will not be able to learn about their culture, beliefs and religions.

Please try to do what you can to stop people from cutting down trees. I will always thank you if you do.

Choy Lok Yan, Bangkok


STOP THE DESTRUCTION

I am writing this letter to everyone because I have important news to tell you. This news is about life in the Amazon Rainforest. I think people shouldn�t destroy the Amazon Rainforest because it gives us many things we need in life.

First, there are people in the Amazon Rainforest. They are different from us in almost every way. They don�t have businesses and jobs. They just do the things that they need to do to survive. They do everything almost the same way they did it 1,000 years ago, so we can learn from them.

Second, there are many plants. Plants in the Amazon give us many things. There are many kinds of plants in the Amazon that are different from the ones in other places.

They also give us oxygen and take in carbon dioxide. They also give us things that we need, like food, medicine and other useful products. We shouldn�t destroy them.

Third, there are many animals. There are many kinds of animals in the Amazon Rainforest that are different from anywhere else.

As you see, there are many reasons to save the Amazon Rainforest. I hope that you will choose to do something to help stop the destruction of it. Thank you.

Sitibhum Chaiwatanarat, Bangkok

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I�d like to thank all the students at Wells International School who took the time to write in about the Amazon Rainforest. We didn�t have the space to run every letter, but we did read them all � and they were all very nice letters. Keep up the good work! � Editor

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deforestation (n): the act of cutting down or burning the trees in an area
glacier (n): a large mass of ice, formed by snow on mountains, that moves very slowly down a valley
habitat (n): the place where a particular type of animal or plant is normally found
dye (n): a substance that is used to change the colour of things such as cloth or hair

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