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Effects of deforestation on earth
The Impact of Deforestation on the Environment
Effects of deforestation on earth
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It is predicted that in approximately forty to one hundred years from now, there will no longer be any rainforest. People have been deforesting the Earth for thousands of years, primarily to clear land for crops or livestock. Deforestation happens in many different ways: when trees are cut down to grow crops, for livestock, logging so wood can be used for building things like houses and furniture, for roads and neighborhoods, for firewood, and forest fires. Deforestation can also be good for farming purposes and making houses.
Deforestation began about 450 years ago by European civilization. The trees were the only source ancient civilization had available for firewood and shelter. Forest produce vital oxygen and provide homes for people
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Yes deforestation destroys land the animals live on, but it also makes useful land for farming purpose. The land is used a lot for the food that shipped around the world and eventually consumed. The land is not only used to grow food. It is also used for things like improving road systems and economy stimulating businesses can be built.
Deforestation helps make civilization opportunities. A reporter from Nature World News named Luts stated "Forests also provide additional benefits to society - water and nutrient retention capabilities, providing habitat for a myriad of bird and animal species, aesthetic beauty, cultural and religious values to residents," Deforestation does not only affect the world negatively, but it provides additional benefits. When trees are cut down, the wood is used for a purpose. The wood from trees are used for lumber and other types of wood products. Some of the wood is used as firewood to keep warm. Deforestation also creates a strong revenue source for governments. This helps to stimulate the economy, especially in developing countries. Deforestation provides land for people who are not as fortunate. A vast majority of the land is unusable, so this helps feed hundreds of starving people. Deforestation may provide better climate benefits for certain areas than if the trees were left standing. Deforestation has economic and climate benefits in high-latitude areas where snowfall is common and timber productivity is low. At high elevation and latitude, the forests in White Mountain National Forest in New Hampshire receive substantial amounts of snowfall. Deforestation can help with places that receive lots of snow. Deforestation does not always have to be a negative topic, sometimes deforestation can be beneficial in some
The main reason deforestation happens, is because of farming. They need to clear out land in order to plant crops and vegetables. Another loss from deforestation is that many animals lose their habitat. The loss of animals habitats will lead to migration, or possibly even extinction. And when this happens this will ruin the food chains which will affect even more animals.
Deforestation is the clearing of a forest and/or cutting down of trees for human benefits such as agriculture, wood exports, etc. Deforestation is the cause of numerous environmental impacts such as habitat loss, flooding and soil erosion. It can also cause climate change, by reducing the amount of rainfall and changing the amount of sunlight reflected from Earth’s surface and increases the risk of forest . Tree growth is important for biodiversity because they absorb carbon dioxide which is a harmful greenhouse gas . However, since deforestation reduces natural carbon sinks, it disrupts the balance between oxygen and carbon dioxide in the air causing the amount of carbon dioxide in the air to increase. This poses a serious threat since carbon dioxide traps the sun’s heat and radiated light inside the earth’s atmosphere. So, with the increase in carbon dioxide more heat is trapped and thus adding to the effects of global warming. Among the many places where deforestation takes place, Amazon seems to be one of the most affected ones. More than 20 percent of it is already gone, and much more of it is severely threatened due to deforestation . It is estimated that the Amazon alone is vanishing at a rate of 20,000 square miles a year .
Environmental issues affect every life on this planet from the smallest parasite to the human race. There are many resources that humans and animal needs to survive; some of the most obvious resources come from the forests. Forests make up a large percentage of the globe. The forests have global implications not just on life but on the quality of it. Trees improve the quality of the air that species breath, determine rainfall and replenish the atmosphere. The wood from the forests are used everyday form many useful resources. Moreover, thinning the forests increases the amount of available light, nutrients and water for the remaining trees. Deforestation (forest thinning) is one of the most critical issues of environmental problems that are occurring today.
Deforestation is the immense and damaging cutting down of trees all around the world. Deforestation is a social problem because there are many who support the continuation of the cutting down of these trees because they maintain it allows for necessary resources, while others argue that it negatively affects the environment.
General Information: First off, deforestation is the clearing of forests or areas with trees to be converted into something else after. There are a few different ways forests are cleared. Clear cutting is simply removing everything in sight. Patch cutting is the removal of trees in specified patches. Strip cutting is removing trees in selected strips. The most environmentally friendly method is known as selective cutting. This is the removal of only selected trees, leaving the others un-harmed. The technique used most during deforestation is the slash and burn technique. This uses the basic cutting method of clear cutting, but afterwards everything that remains is burned to ash.
Deforestation began with man’s ability to manipulate his environment. Wood has always been a primary source for shelter and has been affected by human expansion. As the worlds population grew, so to did the need for wood to make housing. As cities grew so did the demand for space to accommodate the growing population. Throughout history and even today, man has manipulated the environment affecting it’s resources.
“The Earth is 4.6 billion years old. Scaling to 46 years, human have been here 4 hours, the industrial revolution began 1 minute ago, and in that time, we’ve destroyed more than half the world’s forests.” - Unknown. One major environmental problem in our world is deforestation - what is that, you ask? According to the Merriam Webster Dictionary, deforestation is the action or process of clearing of forests. Some consequences of this include a large contribution to global warming and climate change (about 1.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide each year), loss of biodiversity especially in tropical rainforests, and the extinction of many known or yet to be discovered species. But, through some Debt-for-Nature Swaps, leaving forests
Deforestation, defined by biologist Charles Southwick as "the destruction of forests; may involve clear-cutting or selective logging" (p. 365), is a predominantly human-driven process that is dramatically altering ecosystems worldwide. "Clear-cutting" involves the indiscriminant removal of every single plant and tree species from within a selected area. The other major process of deforestation, "selective logging," focuses removal efforts on only specific, predetermined tree species within a chosen area. The statistics gathered about human deforestation over time are considerable, and they can be somewhat controversial. Depending on the source and the location selected, the magnitude of deforestation varies. Southwick estimates that, approximately 10,000 years ago, 6.2 billion hectares (23.9 million square miles) of forest existed on earth (p. 117). That figure is equivalent to 45.5% of the earth's total land. He further estimates that, by 1990, this amount had declined 30%, with only 4.3 billion hectares of forest remaining (p. 117). Southwick also acknowledges other estimates that place the total amount of deforestation between 50% and 75% (p. 117). NASA has similar deforestation statistics that confirm these trends. According to their website, 16.5% of the Brazilian Amazon forests have been destroyed. They also note similar magnitudes of deforestation in Southeast Asia (Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam), despite the significantly smaller total area of forest within these countries. These grim figures are somewhat tempered by the NASA finding that, over the past ten years, the deforestation rate has declined from 6,200 square miles per year to 4,800 square miles per year. Though this trend is n...
Deforestation is the amputation of trees from forest areas more swiftly than they can be replanted or regenerate naturally. The fact that trees play an incredibly momentous part in stabilising climate, atmospheric composition and soil structure, removing trees rapidly becomes a major problem. There are numerous reasons behind the felling of trees by mankind. The Amazon basin is a prime example of humans exploiting rainforests. Within this tropical rainforest lie a vast variety of tree species, with many uses, giving humans even more reason to exploit this area.
People have been deforesting the Earth for thousands of years, primarily to clear land for crops or livestock. Although tropical forests are largely confined to developing countries, they aren’t just meeting local or national needs; economic globalization means that the needs and wants of the global population are bearing down on them as well. Direct causes of deforestation are agricultural expansion, wood extraction (e.g., logging or wood harvest for domestic fuel or charcoal), and infrastructure expansion such as road building and urbanization. Rarely is there a single direct cause for deforestation. Most often, multiple processes work simultaneously or sequentially to cause deforestation.
Deforestation is destroying species. The Amazon Rainforest is home to about 50% of all species on earth. Many of these species are going to be in danger because their home is disappearing. Many acres of the Amazon Rainforest is destroyed every day. This means that everyday species who live on those acres lose their homes. When people want to clear land in the forest they can use a method called slash and burn. The slash and burn method clears big sections of land fast although it does not save any lumber. This method creates a large amount of carbon dioxide gas and this is no good for the animals. Many species will die if we continue doing what we are now.
Solutions to the Problem of Deforestation Personal: There are many things that one can do personally to rectify the problem of Deforestation. These include such things as using wood sparingly, planting indigenous trees, purchasing the most ecologically sensitive products, recycling paper, reducing consumption of wood related products, communicating your opinions to the proper authorities, calling on forestry companies to act responsibly, and more. Education, however is the most effective catalyst for change, we must respect the forests as living communities not just resources to be exploited. Government: There are many things that governments are doing to rectify this problem. Probably the most effective of these are Forest Protection Schemes, Farm Forestry and plantations, and Raising Awareness/Education.
An immediate effect of deforestation is removing natural habitats of several species residing in the forest. This has caused many different species to become endangered or extinct. The atmosphere is also impacted when deforestation occurs. Trees take in carbon dioxide and produce oxygen. When trees are removed less oxygen is produced and more carbon dioxide remains damaging the ozone layer. “The reason that logging is so bad for the climate is that when trees are felled they release the carbon they are storing into the atmosphere, where it mingles with greenhouse gases from other sources and contributes to global warming accordingly” (Moss and Scheer 1). There is also a physical impact of deforestation. When forests are removed the soil is disturbed and loose, so when a large rainstorm comes through the area all of the loose soil is washed away. This causes major landslides and mudslides. This can damage homes, roadways, business, and endanger life. There is a major need to change the world’s dependency on wood and land before it is too
Scientists themselves are just beginning to understand the serious problems caused by deforestation. Deforestation occurs all over the world by all types of people. Peasant farmers even add to the problem because in most tropical countries the farmers are very poor only making between eight hundred and fifty four hundred dollars annually (NASA Facts). Therefore, they do not have enough money to buy what they need to live therefore they must farm to raise crops for food and to sell. In these poor countries the majority of people are peasant farmers this farming adds up to a great deal of deforestation. These farmers chop down a small area of trees for there plot to farm on and burn the tree trunks (NASA Facts). The combined number of farmers maintaining this process creates a great deal of clearing and burning of the land they need to cultivate, which results in land being treeless. Commercial logging is also another common form of deforestation. This commercial logging wipes out massive amounts of land sometimes deforesting several miles at...
There are many bad things that go on in the world that have an effect on the environments climate and the way it has changed over the years. Deforestation is one these. Deforestation is the act or result of cutting down or burning all the trees in an area (Webster1). The world’s forests could could completely disappear in hundreds of years at the current rate of deforestation. Twelve to fifteen million hectares of forest are lost each year. One hectare is the equivalent to ten thousand square meters.