Lily Allen Braves Tarantulas to Help Save the Brazilian Rainforest

Photo via Lily Allen

In a recent visit to witness the impacts of deforestation in the Amazon rainforest first-hand, Lily Allen was confronted with an unwelcome guest in her bed – a tarantula. It’s safe to say that screaming and fleeing the room soon followed.

I won’t recap the spider’s gruesome fate here. (Let’s just say it involved a shoe.) In Lily’s defense, she didn’t exactly order a hit on the lil’ fellow, so let’s give her a break on that one.

Lily’s trip brought her to Acre in Brazil, where WWF and Sky are partnering on the Sky Rainforest Rescue campaign. The campaign aims to fight climate change by saving over one billion trees. Their focus is educating local communities on more sustainable ways to earn a living from the forest than cattle ranching, which is one of the main causes of deforestation.

For example, the Sky Rainforest Rescue campaign supports projects to sustainably harvest Brazil nuts and rubber. Part of Lily’s trip included touring a condom factory where rubber tappers can get a fair price for their product. (Stop giggling!)

The Amazon is one of the most biologically diverse areas in the world, not to mention extremely important in regulating the Earth’s climate. Rainforests absorb lots of carbon dioxide as well as release oxygen into the atmosphere. The impact of deforestation is huge – it accounts for over 15% of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide.

Lily hopes her visit will draw attention to the issue and get people involved, especially because deforestation’s consequences aren’t always immediately visible.

As Lily explains:

“The situation in the rainforest has implications for all of us. The solutions are not easy, but we need to tease out those complexities – just because there’s not a human face it doesn’t mean this isn’t serious.”

The Sky Rainforest Rescue campaign hopes to raise £2 million (about $2.9 million) for this project over the next three years. Sky will match all donations, bringing the campaign’s total to £4 million (about $5.7 million). You can support the campaign by sponsoring an acre of forest, adopting a jaguar, or making one-time donation.

via ecorazzi