Over the past 10.000 years humans have caused an area the size of Africa in rainforest to have been cleared to make space for human ambitions such as farming and villages, even cities. Rainforests are important as they take carbon dioxide from the air, which slows Global Warming. Once a rainforest loses too much area they can no longer sustain themselves due to too much disturbance in its hydrological cycle. This process is called a 'tipping point'.