Environmental Science: Deforestation

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Environmental science

Deforestation

One would be amazed to learn all of the things that our environment provides for our everyday life, one of those things being trees. Trees do so many amazing things for us; they allow us to live on earth by providing oxygen, preventing soil erosion, provide housing for many different animal species around the world, providing heat and energy for us. They play such a big part of our daily lives that many people may not even realize it. Some little known benefits that trees provide us are that they actually increase our homes property value, we use them when we go to school, notebooks, when we eat lunch on fieldtrips, paper lunch bags, and so much more. Trees are an essential part of our everyday lives, but unfortunately, “three to six billion trees are getting cut down each year.” (Olson)

Whether we may be aware of it or not we use trees in almost everything we use. Some of the lesser know materials that are made of wood include; photographic film, coffee filters, chewing gum, vitamins, shatterproof glass, nail polish, imitation bacon, diapers, irrigation piping and hundreds of other things. We, as humans, take everything that the environment gives to us for granted. And to know that one-day maybe not in our lifetime but our children’s lifetime, that they won’t have access to something as basic as forests in their lives, is terrible.

Deforestation is a topic that is constantly being debated. Many people don’t really see it as that big of a deal. People think; they are just trees, then shouldn’t they grow back in time? But what people don’t understand is that unfortunately, the way civilization works is we want it all and we want it now, there is no moderation. Since the 1950’s we have al...

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...ebank. N.p., 07 Jan. 2013. Web. 20 Apr. 2014. .

Global Deforestation." Globalchange.umich.edu. 04 Jan. 2010. Web. 27 Mar. 2014. .

Szalay, Jessie. "Deforestation: Facts, Causes & Effects." Livescience.com. N.p., 06 Mar. 2013. Web. 27 Mar. 2014. .

Naseem, S. "No Trees... No Humans." Nature.com. N.p., 12 Apr. 2011. Web. 24 Mar. 2014. http://www.nature.com/scitable/blog/our-science/no_trees_no_humans

"Modern-Day Plague." Http://environment.nationalgeographic.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Mar. 2014. .

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