We believe that as early as 1991, because of the cumulative shortsighted destruction egregiously caused by Homo Sapiens to all life ecosystems, humanity entered a gray zone where the Omega Point may be crossed for our species at any time. We can tell you with all assurance that we will pass the Omega Point somewhere between the years 2012 - 2016 at our present rate of Rainforests destruction.

Between the years 2012 - 2016 we will go below the 10% / 50% Safeguard Threshold Providence ( STP ). This will occur when 10% of Virgin Rainforest Area ( VRA ) with 50% of Rainforest Species ( RS ) are all that remain from what originally had been. This was before our population started growing exponentially 12,000 years ago with the advent of the new food energy technology, known as agriculture.

The beautiful providence that nature safeguards is the diversity of life itself. If we fell, level or slash and burn 90% of the Virgin Rainforest Area, only 50% of Rainforests Species will go extinct. Somehow in the last 10% of VRA nature magically holds on to 50% of RS. Lucky for us we realized this in time, before we violate nature's inherent limits.

*The 10% / 50% Safeguard Threshold Providence is based upon Island Biogeography discovered by Robert MacArthur and Edward O. Wilson. A good explanation of this can be found on pages 220-221 of "The Diversity of Life" by Edward O. Wilson.
( W.W. Norton & Company )

We use the beauty of this built-in natural threshold, as the barometer to tell us when the Omega Point for Homo Sapiens will occur. If we ever go below this 10% / 50% Safeguard Threshold Providence, we will become extinct. This is analogous to when humans lose more than 90% of their liver function, they will almost always die. If they lose less than 90% of their liver, they most likely will survive.

As of November 1, 1999, all that remains of the Virgin Rainforest Area is 23.88% with 57.71% of Rainforest Species. The amount of VRA that is being destroyed by humanity this year alone is equal to the land area of all the following states put together: Rhode Island, Delaware, Connecticut, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Hawaii, Maryland and South Carolina. This is almost the size of the United Kingdom.

This bleak situation of breaking the 10% / 50% Safeguard Threshold Providence between the critical years 2012 - 2016 gets even worse when you take into account the enormous momentum of our exterminating machine. It will take about 3 to 6 years for us to put on our brakes to stop it. This means that as early as 2006 if we have not created the awareness and changed our status quo lifestyles we will slide through the Safeguard Threshold Providence of 2012.

There is yet another factor that hastens this outcome by approximately 1 more year, and that is, there is a difference between a Virgin Rainforest Area that has never been touched by man and one that was. If we were to walk from a VRA to a Rainforest leveled 1000 years ago and left alone for the intervening years, we would not recognize the difference between them. They look very much the same to the untrained eye.

Now we have learned in the Rainforest leveled a 1000 years ago, only about 17% of the original inhabiting species are found today. This means 83% of the original biodiversity has still not returned. Nature takes her own time to heal and fully restore. It can take as short as one to two million years, providing there is a favorable geological environment for nature to rebalance and achieve full self organization restoration.

Therefore when only 10% Virgin Rainforests Area remains, somewhere between 5% and 10% of these Rainforests will not be virgin. They will have been touched by man at sometime in the past, resulting in many fewer species. This means we will reach 50% Rainforest Species remaining, when there is about 11% Virgin Rainforests left.

This is where the 10% / 50% STP will lose another year. Then minus the 3 to 6 years to stop our momentum and we are looking at the years 2005 to 2012. This leaves us as little as only 5 years to become aware and take action before it's too late.

Nothing is more important than the issue of these mass Rainforests extinctions. This is the number one issue now facing humanity.

With the manmade ecological disaster of mass species extinctions we are losing the full richness of nature's beauty. Each time we lose a species we lose their invaluable genetic code. Their form-field vanishes forever. The fabric of life is losing too many strands and is quickly beginning to unravel to a point of no return. Homo Sapiens cannot survive without this Web of Life that supports us all.

What about all of the still unknown detrimental effects that Rainforests destruction and mass species extinctions will have on the oxygen / carbon cycle, the hydrological cycle and the electromagnetic cycle? And what about the 50% or more of all the drug compounds to help cure diseases that are found in the Rainforest? They are forever gone with every extinction of life.

What do we do to stop future plagues, when in fact, it is we who are creating them by the very destruction of the Rainforests in the first place? Mass species extinctions are creating havoc with the checks and balances found throughout nature. Plague causing life forms will run amuck and spread uninhibited up the food chain. A quick and certain Catch-22 to extinction for Homo Sapiens, if we let it be. We must change our ways immediately. We must become sustainable so that we may leave our future generations a beautiful Earth upon which they may flourish.

Rainforests Biodiversity Scale Of Destruction
( see scale below ) shows in an easy to understand way the exact scale of annihilation we humans are causing to the Rainforests. Over a 37 year span it shows year by year what percentage of Rainforests Land Area and what percentage of Rainforests Species remain. It also shows what percentage of species are going extinct per year and how many are going extinct per day.

The scale is based on the 25 million square kilometers of Rainforests that once covered our beautiful Earth and the current rate of deforestation, 222,000 square kilometers per year. These numbers are computations from many sources including satellite imagery, World Resources Institute, Friends of the Earth, The United Nations and most recently the Woods Hole Research Center.

This scale also takes into account that if the current trends are to continue, we would peak at 250,000 square kilometers per year in the period from 2005 to 2010 and then would begin to fall because not enough Rainforests would remain to sustain such high declines. As of today, November 1, 1999 there are 5.97 million square kilometers left or 23.88% Virgin Rainforests Area, with 57.71% Rainforests Species remaining.

You will find Rainforests scale a useful tool to help yourself, your family and friends to understand the ramifications of not taking action immediately. Once again let us remind you, there is nothing more important than the issue of these mass extinctions. It is the number one issue now facing humanity. Please share this study and scale.

Next - Part II: Scale of Destruction