Merriam-Webster defines deforestation as “the act or process of cutting down or burning all the trees in an area” (Def. 1). Sometimes, deforestation can occur unintentionally because of forest fires, changes in climate, floods, and insects. Most deforestation happens intentionally by humans in order to use the land for farms and cities or to use the trees for paper and wood products. This practice has existed since the dawn of man, and in that time, about 80% of the Earth's forests are gone. If we continue at this rate, all of the rain forests in the world could disappear in a hundred years. Deforestation is harmful because it can lead to biodiversity loss, soil erosion, and desertification.
According to the World Wildlife Fund, tropical rain forests hold about 80 percent of the known species on Earth, which is where a majority of deforestation is taking place. Endangered species that live in forests, such as bonobos, giant pandas, and Asian elephants, are especially at risk of extinction because of deforestation. When one certain species is wiped out of an area, it impacts the whole food chain in that ecosystem. This is known as the domino effect. If a certain plant is removed from an ecosystem, the insect that relied on that plant will die out from a lack of food. The snake that ate said insect will also have no food. Deforestation can have a disastrous effect on nearly every species living in the forest.
Deforestation not only affects living creatures, but the soil and nutrients in forests as well. When trees are cleared from an area, it removes the protective covering and shading that the plants in the forest need. If the plants die out, soil erosion occurs. The roots and water storages of trees, which hold soil and nutrien...
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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 .
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’...
Now is a critical time to address the issue of deforestation. Around the world forests are logged for timber and paper pulp. South America contains a large amount of mahogany and rosewood—highly coveted types of wood—within the Amazon basin. Forests are also cleared to make room for the planting of cash crops, such as coffee and soy, as well as livestock farms. After only a few years, overuse of these lands for crops typically causes soil erosion that quickly turns deforested regions into wastelands. Deforestation is responsible for 20 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, which is more than all emissions all motorized transportation added together. The destruction of forests does not just threaten our climate; it threatens the livelihoods of billions of people that rely on forests for food and economic activities. The modern world relies on rainforests more than for the well-known reason. People receive many of their fruits and medicines from plant species that survive solely within the heart of a rainforest. Let’s not forget that forests also serve as habitats to wildlife a...
Deforestation has accumulated many multifaceted controversies over time. The main one, however, is the impact deforestation has on water flow. People have different perceptions on how deforestation affects the flow of water, this lead to a controversy between conservationists and a group of theorists. Many years ago, water was used as a way for almost all the mills to function. Changes in the ecosystem depend on the rate and extent of deforestation and determines how drastic the changes will be.
Deforestation is an act of destruction and removal of the large area of the forest. There are several reasons to why deforestation occur. Mining, logging, urbanization, logging, agricultural clearing and various other natural disasters are mostly the factors behind such change. While deforestation occurs worldwide, it has been a critical issue for the Amazon Rainforest. The Amazon Rainforest can be found in 9 different countries but the majority of it (around 60%) is located in Brazil. The rest of the rainforest can be found in Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana. As it spreads into several counties and a vast land, it can be difficult keep track of deforestation at times. Due to deforestation, several species of plants and animals are almost in verge of extinct. The longtime effect of deforestation is irreversible and devastating and in terms of Amazon rainforest, experts have measured the destruction rate at more than 360 square miles in just one month.
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.
“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
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.
As described by Alan F. Arbogast in his book Discovering Physical Geography, deforestation is “the process through which large tracts of land are cleared of trees by humans” (270). Today, deforestation is described as quite a major issue because the amount of forest cover in our global society is being reduced dramatically. In fact, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, continents South America and Africa experienced a -5.2% and -11.7% change in forest cover from years 1990-2010 respectively (Arbogast 271). South America and Africa’s forestland cover have declined these percentages, which many researchers believe contribute to deforestation. Too much forest cover is being used and not much attention is being paid to taking care of the land. When these natural lands are cleared, many problems can emerge, such as biodiversity in the tropical forest biomes, global warming, and ultimately, the “extinction of plant and animal species that have yet to be discovered” (Arbogast 271). Deforestation is an ongoing issue in our society today and has many reasons why it is caused in the first
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...
Thesis: Forests provide the earth with a regulated climate, strong biodiversity, and good nutrient rich soil for plants to strive on.
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.
Firstly, Deforestation cause loss of habitat for millions of species. Seventy percent of animals and plants live in forests, and many cannot survive the deforestation that destroys their homes. Many animals that live in the forests are herbivorous, such as giraffes, deer and tapirs, they are enforced to leave what once was their home to search for food. As a result, many starve to death. Other times they wonder out into areas inhabited by humans and get injured. In the meantime, carnivorous animals that prey on herbivorous animals find it more challenging to find food and starved to death however wandering off into human-populated areas can also kill. The damage of just a very small region can therefore lead to the destruction of animal species. Very often animals that live in the forests require specialized habitats. When deforestation happens, these animals have gradually fewer areas in which they can live. Once these areas are destroyed, the species become extinct. Animals promote in balancing our ecosystem, food chain and perform as food for us. Therefore, it is really a disgrace for us to destroy their habitat. Deforestation destroys their natural homes and habitat forcing them to relocate, sometimes they try to move into inhabited area looking for food or shelter a...
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...
Deforestation is the elimination of existing trees from the earth; attributable factors include urbanization, logging, ranching, and farming and to some extent land speculation. Land speculation can be included as cleared land is more valuable than forested land. Deforestation, done in the name of progress, and the long-term, devastating effects of it, is killing our planet.