The Environmental Abuse Of Defoorestation: The Environment And The Environment

Air, food, and water are the basic needs to sustain human life. And where do they come from? - the environment. The environment, just like our bodies, can take a certain amount of stress or abuse before something breaks or is thrown out of balance. Some of the time, environmental abuse is done by humans intentionally to gain wealth. One of these abuses is called deforestation. Deforestation, the act of intentionally cutting or burning all trees in a specific area, can have catastrophic effects in a localized area and all around the world. The environmental abuse of deforestation leads to detrimental effects on the climate, wildlife, and human civilization. Although occurring worldwide, deforestation can be seen predominately in the rainforests

As previously noted, deforestation directly impacts the climate and wildlife population. Due to these two areas being effected, a chain of events transpires to affect human civilization. For example, consider the basic human need for food. According to Akyena Benjamin in her column Deforestation: A Threat to Human Survival, "the presence of trees help to disperse rainfall over a more even area" (Benjamin). This may not sound like a big deal, but farmers depend on rainfall to grow crops. The increasing droughts due to deforestation mean that there is very little water for crops. In addition to droughts, deforestation not only leads "locally to soil erosion by rain and wind," (Diamond 108) but it creates flooding in areas of no vegetation (Tangley 93). Droughts, erosion, and flooding caused by deforestation have a rippling effect on human civilization. Farmers are affected economically by a loss of income from crops. Furthermore, people are detrimentally impacted by the loss of a food

Altered hydrological cycles, air quality, erosion, and declining wildlife populations are just a few of the side effects which detrimentally impact human civilization. Fortunately, several authors point out that many of these situations can be overcome and prevented if people simply take care of the environment. They all agree that educating the public on the dangers of deforestation is a great step in working toward a solution to the problem. As Dr. Seuss states at the end of the film, The Lorax, "Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It 's