Ashes To Ashes
Oil On Canvas  |  216" x 108"
One to two acres of rainforest are cleared every second for grazing livestock or growing animal feed. 91 percent of deforestation is caused by animal agriculture. The Amazon rainforest is the home for at least 10 percent of the world's known biodiversity. Believed to be the oldest and most complex land-based ecosystem on earth, containing over 30 million species of plants and animals. That's half of the Earth's wildlife and at least two-thirds of its plant species! Hundreds of plant, animal and insect species are lost because of the burning and destruction of these biodiverse regions. In 1950, about 15% of the Earth's land surface was covered by rainforest. In fewer than fifty years, more than half of the world's tropical rainforests have been burned. If deforestation continues at current rates, scientists estimate nearly 80 to 90% of tropical rainforest ecosystems will be destroyed by the year 2020. Adding more fire to the flame, using fire to clear the land is the highest cause of air pollution for the entire planet. The atmosphere becomes contaminated with nitrogen oxides, particulate matter, and other toxic pollutants. Deforestation is in fact considered the second major driver of climate change. Without rainforests continually recycling huge quantities of water, feeding the rivers, lakes and irrigation systems, droughts would become more common, potentially leading to widespread famine, and disease. Each of us has the power to personally put a stop to this today. You can easily take deforestation off the menu at your table. If we actually ate the foods we feed to farmed animals, we wouldn’t need to grow nearly as many crops, and we could eliminate the need to decimate the rain forest. We must understand the consequences of our diet and the footprint it makes on our planet. Plant based foods are in the best interest of all living things. We can choose to stop now before ashes return to ashes.
SEE THE FOREST THROUGH THE TREES
Oil On Canvas