{{B}}
Text{{/B}} All over the world, forests are safeguarding the health
of the planet itself. They do this {{U}}(26) {{/U}} protecting the soil,
providing water and {{U}}(27) {{/U}} the climate. Trees {{U}}(28)
{{/U}} soil to mountainsides. Hills {{U}}(29) {{/U}} the trees have
been felled lose 500 times as {{U}}(30) {{/U}} soil a year as those with
trees. Trees catch and {{U}}(31) {{/U}} rainwater. Their
leaves break the impact {{U}}(32) {{/U}} the rains, robbing them of
{{U}}(32) {{/U}} destructive power. The roots of trees allow the water
to go into the soil, {{U}}(34) {{/U}} gradually releases it to flow down
rivers and refill ground-water reserves. Where there are no {{U}}(35)
{{/U}}, the rains run in sheets of water off the land, {{U}}(36)
{{/U}} the soil with there Land {{U}}(37) {{/U}} with trees and
other plants {{U}}(38) {{/U}} 20 times more rainwater than {{U}}(39)
{{/U}} earth. As they grow, trees absorb carbon dioxide, the main
{{U}}(40) {{/U}} of the "greenhouse effect", which {{U}}(41)
{{/U}} irreversibly to change the world's climate. Together, the world's
trees, plants and soils contain three times as much carbon as {{U}}(42)
{{/U}} is in the atmosphere. The world's forests
{{U}}(43) {{/U}} the vast majority of its animal and plant species. The
tropical rainforests {{U}}(44) {{/U}} have well over half of them,
{{U}}(45) {{/U}} they cover only about 6% of the Earth's land
surface.