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The effect of deforestation on the earth
The effect of deforestation on the earth
The effect of deforestation on the earth
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How critical are the effects of deforestation on climate change?
Introduction:
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.
They also purify the air we breathe and water that we need to survive. Deforestation by humans is causing these functions to be lessened and damaging the atmosphere even further. (www.climateandweather.net) Deforestation is one of the major factors contributing to the greenhouse effect and desertification
(www.businessdictionary.com/definition/deforestation).
Climate change is the long-term shift in weather patterns in a specific region or globally. Climate change refers to changes in a regions overall weather patterns. These include temperature changes, precipitation and cloud cover (www.ecolife.com).
Deforestation:
There is powerful evidence showing that clearing tress not only spews carbon into the atmosphere, it also leads to major shifts such as increased temperatures and rainfall worldwide
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But they can become carbon sources when they are cut or burned. Tropical forests hold more than 210 gigatons of carbon and deforestation represents around 15% of greenhouse gas emissions. These GHG emissions lead to rise in temperatures, weather changes, water changes and increase the chance of extreme weather events. In Sumatra, for example rainforests on deep peat lands are being cleared and converted to plantations, leading to the high GHG emissions in Indonesia. These climate changes can affect forest creatures due to loss of food and water, while some can adapt species losses can occur
Climate change describes the changes that are happening to the planet in different countries or regions (NASA, n.d.). Climate change is caused by global warming,
The dense levels of vegetation absorb tremendous amounts of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and help slow down the rate of climate change that the planet is experiencing. This process also produces high levels of oxygen that help to support life around the world. Coupled with the high levels of rainfall that benefit the water cycle, the rainforests are an integral part of the many systems that exist. These forests contain a wide variety of plants that a source of different chemicals that are used to create medicines. The degradation of these areas could potentially lead to the loss of medicines that could cure some of the deadliest diseases and illnesses that
The dictionary defines climate change as a change in global or local climate patterns such as heat and precipitation. The trees that provide oxygen, the water that keeps us hydrated and the animals along with plants that gives us food grant Earth with features that make it adequate to live in. Global warming, as stated in the name, occurs when Earth 's atmosphere starts getting warmer. Global Warming has become a problem throughout the world that will need to be addressed over the coming years because it affects animals, sea level and landscapes around the world.
Climate change occurs when there is a significant variance in the climate which last for several decades or longer and not for a short period of time. Climate change includes changes in elements such as temperature, precipitation and wind patterns.
Countries such as Brazil and Indonesia have been greatly affected by deforestation with well over two million hectares of naturally forested land now rendered barren (See appendix 1).
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.
Climate change is a long-term change in regional or global climate patterns. From the mid twentieth century to now, there has mostly been a significant increase in average global temperatures. Climate change is a major issue in the world today, and a lot of people feel very differently about the cause of it. The common argument is whether climate change is a natural occurrence or if the recent increase in temperatures is because of humans. Climate change is a natural cycle in the Earth’s weather.
Restate thesis: In reality forests are better left alone, forests provide the earth with a regulated climate, strong biodiversity, and good nutrient rich soil for plants to strive on.
Everyone needs to respire in order to live, which includes plants and animals. Trees and plants help to regulate the carbon cycle. When the trees take in the carbon dioxide from the environment, they give back to oxygen. When trees are cut down, there is a break in the carbon cycle, and there is no exchange in both oxygen and carbon dioxide which causes a spike in carbon dioxide levels. When these occur carbon dioxide moves in the atmosphere and stores there as a greenhouse gas. “However, deforestation still remains the second leading cause of greenhouse gas emissions, just behind industrial emissions” (Culas). Greenhouse gases disturb the normal regulation of the weather. When greenhouse captures and stores heat problems occur. When the carbon dioxide levels in the greenhouse gases are increased, then the atmospheric conditions becomes unstable, which causes global warming. Global warming is the increase in the temperature of the earth, which is mostly caused by the greenhouse effects. Global warming present itself by affecting the environment by causing drought, floods, change in ecosystem, less fresh water available and other environmental issues. Trees play a big role not only in keeping the soil rich, regulating the water table, providing a stable anchor for soil to lessen soil erosion and providing nutrient rich soil for agriculture but it also helps in the absorption of carbon emission in the atmosphere.
What is also becoming increasingly clear is the effect that forests have on the climate and the climate has on forests, and how changes in one system will affect the other. Losing forest makes it worse. Clearing forests also releases large amounts of carbon dioxide. Worldwide deforestation means we don’t have as many trees to absorb the extra CO2. This means more of it stays in the atmosphere, trapping more heat. Forest are cut down for many reasons, but most of them are related to money or to people’s need to provide for their families. The biggest driver of deforestation is agriculture. Farmers cut forest to provide more room for planting crops or grazing livestock. Often many small farmers will each clear a few acres to feed their families by cutting down trees and burning them in process known as “ slash and burn” agriculture. Therefore, not all deforestations is intentional. Some is caused by a combination of human and natural factors like wildfires and subsequent overgrazing, which may prevent the growth of young trees. Deforestations has many negative effects on the environment. The most dramatic impact is a loss of habitat for million of species. So seventy percent of Earth’s land animals and plants live in forest, and many cannot survive the deforestation that destroy their homes. A more workable solution is to carefully manage
Simply speaking, rainforests are basically the foundation of the earth. The most important role that rainforests play is ‘the lungs of the earth’. This is extremely vital to the earth’s survival as the trees and plants absorb carbon dioxide which they use to help grow and let out oxygen which we need to live. This system is known as the carbon-oxygen cycle and with numbers of rainforests declining, it is highly threatened. The largest rainforest in the world, the Amazon, alone is known to produce half of the world’s oxygen. A break down in the carbon-oxygen cycle means that we will not only have less oxygen, but an increase in carbon dioxide which eventually leads to global warming. This occurs as carbon dioxide traps heat which actually keeps the earth warm, with the right amount of carbon dioxide that is. This is called the greenhouse effect and occurs naturally however due to decreasing number of trees, there is more carbon dioxide than needed which traps extra heat making the earth hotter than needed, this is known as global warming which also causes a rise in sea level.
This is alarming since recent data indicates these enormous forests are land-dwelling carbon absorbers that could help to slow worldwide climate alteration. The United Nations ' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates “eighteen million acres of forests have been destroyed worldwide;” and NASA forecasts “that if current deforestation rates are not reduced, rainforests could become entirely eradicated in a century.” The nations with substantial deforestation are Brazil, Indonesia, Thailand, Africa (The Democratic Republic of Congo included), and remote areas of Eastern Europe. Indonesia, the country with the greatest deforestation within the last century, has lost approximately forty million acres of indigenous
National Geographic credits agriculture for being the main reason deforestation occurs. The importance of our planet’s forests is highly underestimated. Without trees and forests, greenhouse gases cannot be absorbed and are therefore left in the atmosphere. Deforestation cannot solely be blamed on human activity, as it is also a part of the natural causes that influence climate change, but, humans societal needs for wood and paper are a detrimental part of the issue. Also, deforestation actually creates more carbon dioxide than cars do (Scientific American, Deforestation and Global
Climate change is triggering major changes in our planet. A simple rise or fall in general temperature can have a large effect on precipitation patterns and the frequency of storms. The rise in the sea level, which has been accounted for and is constantly rising has been the result of melting of ice and glaciers.
In the statistical distribution of weather condition and its perfect pattern in an amount of time ranging from decades to centuries to millions of years, a substantial, long-lasting and drastic change is largely known as Climate change. It may be a change in more or fewer extreme weather events or in the distribution of weather more or less the average conditions or in average weather conditions. With the usage of theoretical models and observations methods, scientists, experts and specialists in this particular field actively works in order to perfectly understand past and future climate under certain situation and circumstances.