Nowadays, earth has been facing a series of severe environmental issues which require urgent attention to make the ecology friendly, and global warming is considered as the most vital one. Although some people doubt and disagree that global warming is happening, climate change is real and it is mainly influenced by human activities through the increased production of green house gases such as methane and carbon dioxide. Global warming has the effect of melting polar ice caps and glaciers, which will lead to sea level to go up. Moreover, due to the rise of sea level, the survival of those people who live in islands and coastal cities can ultimately be threatened. Deforestation has been considered to be one of the most important contributing factors to global climate change. Also, since trees absorb greenhouse gases, reduce carbon emissions, and produce oxygen, without trees, the greenhouse effect can be improved tremendously. As World Resources Institute has pointed out in the data, forest loss contributes between 12 percent and 17 percent of annual global greenhouse gas emissions. Thus, what is “deforestation”? Why do people have to deforest? How does it affect environment?
By definition, deforestation is the permanent destruction of forests in order to make the land available for other uses. Such as the conversion of forestland to farms, ranches, and urban use. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations has reported that an estimated 18 million acres of forest are lost each year and about half of the world's tropical forests have been cleared. Also, according to Bastien Sachet, “…tropical deforestation is responsible for approximately 20% of world greenhouse gas emission…Every year, 13 million hectares of the world’...
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...e intensively, such as high-yield hybrid crops. These methods are often dependent on chemical inputs to maintain necessary yields. Moreover, in many parts of the world, especially in East Asian countries, reforestation and afforestation are increasing the area of forested land.
We have known that deforestation can lead to decline in biodiversity and land degradation. As John Donne has said, “No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main”, not only governments are supposed to be responsible for deforestation, individuals should also take responsibilities. There are some things that we can do to help better the situation. For instance, we can refuse to use throwaway chopsticks and purchase wooden furniture, reduce the usage of papers by printing less, and educate others to cherish the forest resources.
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 .
Deforestation has always been a part of what people do. When people came from England, they had to make room for themselves to live. People cannot completely stop deforestation. The main effects of deforestation is the loss of species and animal habitats. To try to deter from this, people can respect wildlife conservation projects. This means that people can stop trying to tear down forests that have endangered plants or animals in them. People should see to detrimental effects that deforestation can have. Most of all, people need to have a understanding of what global warming is. These ways can help to slow down
“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 is fast becoming one of the world’s worst environmental/geographical occurring disasters known to mankind, and is due to humankind’s greed, ignorance and carelessness when considering the future of our environment.
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.
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, 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...
The forests around the world a supply a plethora of community amenities and commercial goods , nevertheless forested terrain progressively is becoming transformed to accommodate other uses, including cropland, pasture, mining, and urban areas, which can produce superior private financial returns. The wide array of benefits the forest provides that vanish directly tied to deforestation have resulted in several policies drafted with the sole intention to reduce the frequency of deforestation. This paper has two primary objectives. First, this paper will review and summarize both the preceding and current research on deforestation. Second, it will emphasize the significance of future research and development, as well as other solutions needed
Forests are vital for life and have many important functions. They are home to millions of species and protect soil from erosion. Along with this they produce oxygen which is vital for human life, store carbon dioxide and help control climate. They also provide humans with shelter, food and medicines vital for life.
Many people count on the production of deforestation to bring in a consistent income and livelihood. There is a heavy reliance on the production of deforestation. “Trees can be very valuable. In North America, they are used for landscaping, building material, maple syrup production, and pulp wood for paper products. In the more tropical regions, the wood products may be cut down for fuel, cleared for farmland, or exported, such as teak or mahogany” (Salata, 2015). In fact, according to Combes, Motel, Minea, & Villieu, in countries that are underdeveloped this is a reliable and significant source for government revenue (n.d.). Without this profit generated from cutting the down trees, these countries may not be able to obtain sustainability, due to the lack of financial funds. Thus, by not being able to proceed with infrastructure to areas such as these, most communities will not be able to maintain effective living
To overcome this problem person has to get awareness regarding what deforestation is and what are the effects of it if we continue to practice it on the same scale. Actually, trees are the only source to filter the harmful gasses which are present in the atmosphere and can balance the harmful effects of those
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...
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.
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 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.