Many are oblivious of the critical roles that the world’s forests plays in executing several functions within the environment and reducing multiple factors that cause global warming. The human species is only continuing to worsen global warming by participating in deforestation. Deforestation is the removal of a large quantity of trees from land in a forest that is then converted for alternative uses. Deforestation most often occurs in tropical regions such as the Amazon. The issue of deforestation is impacting the environment on a global scale due to rising temperatures and the decrease in rainfall, creating a negative impact on agriculture. Natural habitats are being destroyed causing the possibility of many wildlife and vascular plants to …show more content…
Annually, about 18 million acres of forests are being destroyed by deforestation (Bradford 2015) . This is because the time it takes for a forest to recover and regrow moves at a much slower rate than the amount of deforestation occurring. Also the quality of the soil post deforestation often makes it difficult for the regrowth of trees and other vegetation due to the lack of proper minerals and nutrients. Although deforestation occurs throughout the world, higher rates of deforestation take take place in tropical regions such as the Amazon. In the Brazilian Amazon, deforestation claims 25,000 to 50,000 kilometers of forests each year. If this rapid rate continues, it is predicted that the Amazon forest would most likely be completely destroyed between the years 2040 and 2090 (Nobre et al. 1990). The biodiversity of the Amazon is greatly impacted by deforestation and holds the possibility of extinction of several …show more content…
The forests perform several key functions including sustaining certain climates, providing homes for the majority of the world’s species, and acting as a natural sink for carbon dioxide. As deforestation occurs, the density of forests decline, thus leading to a less efficient sink for carbon dioxide. Without the high absorption of carbon dioxide, climates become warmer and drier. This often provokes El Niño weather patterns that leads to droughts and wildfires. This change in climate can have a devastating impact on agriculture. Deforestation occurs in order for urbanization to spread. Urbanization is leading to the endangerment and extinction of many plant and animal species due to habitat fragmentation. If deforestation continues at its current rate, several forests around the globe will be completely destroyed, increasing the extinction of a several species and pollution will
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 .
Tropical deforestation has been estimated to account for about 15 percent of the world 's global warming pollution, and the world cannot fully address global warming without addressing this source (The Union of Concerned Scientists, 10).
“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
Thus, deforestation is one of the biggest problems in the world that people have to consider because it has three main long term effects: land desertification, species extinction and climate change. The research paper will discuss and consider the long-term negative effect on the Amazon rainforest which is caused by deforestation. First, the paper will present the causes and effects of land deforestation. Another consideration is endangered species extinction that could affect the Amazon’s biodiversity. Finally, the paper will focus on how climate change and global warming affect the Amazon and what people should do in order to save the forests and solve those problems.
The Amazon Rain Forest crosses several national boundaries in South America, although the majority of it is located in Brazil. It covers over 3,562,000 acres, making it the largest in the world. But globally, over 138,600 acres of rain forest are lost each year to deforestation, 50,000 of those in Brazil alone (Holdsforth), and the world's rain forests are quickly disappearing. Deforestation in the Amazon occurs primarily for three reasons: clear-cutting, fragmentation, and edge effects.
On average millions of hectares of forests are destroyed each year resulting in severe consequences that will affect not only our lifestyle, but also all the animals with which we share our planet. Many species of animals and plants will become extinct and if we continue with the destruction of our forests, earth will be unable to sustain life.
Nowadays deforestation is the one of the most important and controversial environmental issues in the world. Deforestation is cutting down, clearing away or burning trees or forests. Particularly tropical rainforests are the most waning type of forests because of its location in developing countries such as Indonesia, the Philippines, India, central African countries and Brazil. Deforestation rate in those regions is high enough to worry about, because of large economic potential of forest areas. As the result of causes such as agriculture land expansion, logging for timber, fire blazing and settling infrastructure there might be serious impacts in future. For instance, extinction of endemic species of animals and plants which will be feral, increase of greenhouse gas emissions which may lead to global warming and consecutive catastrophes, destruction of home for indigenous residents which is considered as violation of human rights. Some people can argue with these drawbacks telling that deforestation have more valuable benefits such as growth of economics, production of food and providing better opportunities for life for poor families. However, these benefits are quite temporary and government of that countries and world organisations tries to halt deforestation proposing several solutions. Deforestation problem is especially acute in the Brazilian Amazon, where its rate is much high comparing with other regions. This paper will describe world-wide rainforests, causes and effects of deforestation, and evaluate possible solutions of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon.
Of all of the issues that effect the planet Earth from a Global Change standpoint, one of the most visible and highly publicized is the issue of rainforest destruction. The loss of this emerald on the planet's crown will end life as we know it, if something is not done...
One reason that people should stop cutting down the rainforest is because many plants and animals are being harmed and losing their homes. The Amazon is home to many more than half of the world’s specimen of plants and animals. Over 70% of the rainforest’s animals and plants live on the subcanopy, or the second highest level of the trees. When you destroy even one tree, many plants and animals, either die or have to find new homes. Many of these tropical plants also have medicinal values such as curing malaria. Sadly, according to Michael Greenwell, the deforestation of the Amazon has led to 26 species of plants and animals and 644 species to be on the brink of endangerment. According to UNEP, about 857,666 square kilometers of land has been lost in one year. The area lost is approximately the size of Venezuela. To keep cutting down trees in the rainforest would be dooming 38 species to extinction. It may seem that the Amazon is vast in recourses and cutting down one tree will not harm much, but if we ...
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.
In South America lies the largest and most wondrous rainforest in the world, the Amazon Rainforest. This 1.4 billion acre forest represents over half of the planet's remaining rainforests, and comprises the largest and most bio-diverse tract of rainforest in the world. Ten percent of all known species on the planet are found in this rain forest, most of which have yet to be discovered. For the past century, the Amazon has been gradually decreasing in size due to agricultural expansion, ranching, infrastructure projects, energy exploration and illegal logging. In its current state, the Amazon is losing land equal to the size of the state of Delaware every year.
People are deforesting the planet for thousands of years, primarily to clear land for crops or stock. though tropical forests square measure for the most part confined to developing countries, they square measuren’t simply meeting native or national needs; economic economic process means the wants and desires of the worldwide population are bearing down on them also. Direct causes of deforestation square measure agricultural growth, wood extraction (e.g., work or wood harvest for domestic fuel or charcoal), and infrastructure growth like road building and urbanization. seldom is there one direct cause for deforestation. Most often, multiple processes work at the same time or consecutive to cause deforestation.The single biggest direct cause of tropical deforestation is conversion to cropland and pasture, mostly for subsistence, which is growing crops or raising livestock to meet daily needs. The conversion to agricultural land usually results from multiple direct factors. For example, countries build roads into remote areas to improve overland transportation of goods. The road development itself causes a limited amount of deforestation. But roads also provide entry to previously inaccessible—and often unclaimed—land. Logging, both legal and illegal, often follows road expansion (and in some cases is the reason for the road expansion). When loggers have harvested an area’s valuable timber, they move on. The roads and the logged areas become a magnet for settlers—farmers and ranchers who slash and burn the remaining forest for cropland or cattle pasture, completing the deforestation chain that began with road building. In other cases, forests that have been degraded by logging become fire-prone and are eventually deforested by repea...
Though deforestation has increased at an alarming rate throughout the past fifty years, deforestation has been performed during the course of history. According to the World Resources Institute, a majority of the world’s enduring naturally occurring forests are found in Alaska, Canada, Russia and the Northwestern Amazon. Research has demonstrated forests are more likely to be destroyed and repurposed where economic revenues tied to agriculture and pasture are prominent, typically attributed to advantageous weather conditions, or lower expenses of demolishing the forest and delivering merchandises to the global
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 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.