Margaret Lowman (Rainforest scientist)

        I have been on the ship for three days, and other then some minor sea sickness, it has been fun and interesting. Once in a while a scientist or explorer will come and give lectures (talks) to the passengers. The scientist this time was Margaret (Meg) Lowman. She was the first scientist/explorer in the world to study the canopies of rain forests. This interesting woman specializes in the study of leaves and how bugs eat them. Since leaves can't run away from bugs that are eating them, leaves have chemicals in them that bugs don't like. Meg looks for certain leaves that haven't been eaten by bugs, and when she finds them, that means that that certain kind of leaf has strong chemicals to keep bugs away. Those chemicals can be processed and turned into medicines and other products.
        Another thing she does is help native tribes and people to understand the great importance of rain forests. Her association has built over 25 bridges/walkways around the world in the canopies of rain forests so that people can go up there and study and learn about their forests. Almost nobody has taken the time and money to learn about the rain forest. In fact, humans know more about the soil on the moon than the soil in rain forests! That is what the Tree Foundation (Margaret Lowman's association) is trying to improve.
        We missed her first lecture because of a weird time change, but she was nice enough to give us a private talk! It was very interesting and fun to learn about. Did you know that more than 50% of all living things live and thrive in canopies? Its completely true. Anyway, she talked a lot about deforestation and the causes of it all over the world. People think that they can cut down these beautiful and important forests, but that is a huge mistake. About 80% of original forests are gone, and that huge number is rapidly rising. 32 million acres of forest are cut down every year, and less than half of that is planted back. Madagascar has lost 95% of their forests, and West Africa has lost 90% of their forests due to illegal logging. In fact, illegal logging isn't just a problem in Africa, the percentage of lost rain forests is both sad and disappointing: 90% in Cambodia, 75% in Indonesia, 80% in Bolivia, and even more in some places.
        Some people wonder what is so good about rain forests, and there are a million things that rain forests do for us. Rain forests can provide many ecosystem services to us, such as medicines, climate control, energy, oxygen, carbon storage that offsets air pollution, building materials, homes to many people and animals, water cycles, soil conservation, and much more. On top of all that, the carbon dioxide level all over the world is rising rapidly due to lack of oxygen, because of deforestation. (Trees provide oxygen, so the more trees that get cut down, the less oxygen we have!)

Meg's Websites:
www.canopymeg.com
www.jason.org
www.neoninc.org