Shireen Sayareh Professor Bystrom EngWr 300 12 October 2014 Detriment of Deforestation Image a planet without trees. This is a scary planet where the temperature is very hot and the air is very difficult to breathe. This planet will have nothing to protect people from the sun, nothing to slowdown the forces of the wind, and nothing to anchor topsoil from eroding in the rain. The conditions at this imaginary planet can become our reality on earth if we do not stop deforestation. There are many negative effects of deforestation. However, for the scope of this paper, I will discuss three primary issues on how deforestation harms our environment. I will begin this paper with a brief look at some arguments that support deforestation, followed …show more content…
In Amazonia, recent research has confirmed that more than half of the total uncertainty stems from the carbon stocks created in deforested regions (Baccini). Carbon is not necessarily the problem; the problem arises when this greenhouse gas gets trapped in the atmosphere causing abnormal temperature conditions around the world. It was not until recently that areas of the world became unsuitable for living because of the lack of natural regulation of these gases. CO2 currently accounts for over 80% of the greenhouse gases caused by human activity (Baccini). The number of species, including plant life and other animals, threatened by deforestation continues to rise. The desolation of these forests is equivalent to the destruction of one’s home and way of life. The hunting grounds of animals disappear, which decreases self-sufficiency while also altering their overall state of mind. Most animals, such as elephants, need a large area to roam; when this cannot be accomplished, mating habits are transformed for the worse. This is mainly due to their heightened shift of focus to survival, when facing desperate circumstances. The lack of forest causes animals to be vulnerable victims against surrounding predators. Because CO2 causes a global transition in way of life and forests hold cleansing aspects beneficial to the environment, animals are always making unnecessary adjustments. Polar bears have been struggling, due to melting ice caps in their native region.
Brazil’s rainforests and America’s rainforests are great examples of the negative effect that deforestation has on these specific areas. One of the rising challenges in our rapidly growing world is the destruction of rainforests and how it is slowly ruining the world that we live in. Deforestation has a lot of destructive impacts on the environment that is surrounding us, one of the most important being its effect on the climate. The fast rise in the world’s population, calling for high demand of resources, is only hastening the effects of deforestation, which can hopefully be put an end to through the enforcement of a handful of simple, key, and sustainable solutions.
Rainforests, forests, and jungles cover a massive part of our Earth. Every day, trees are being cut down. Henceforth, the trees carbon dioxide is being released back into the air. According to Climate Change, Deforestation, and the Fate of the Amazon, published by the non-profit organization American Association for the Advancement of Science, “Amazonian forests have a substantial influence on regional and global climates. Hence, their removal by deforestation can itself be a driver of climate change and a positive feedback on externally forced climate change”. If the number of deforested lands rises, our atmosphere will be full of carbon. Climateandweather.net concurs, “It is estimated that more than 1.5
Although deforestation has occurred for hundreds of years, the number of cases in which forests have vanished has increased. When the forest is being cut down dramatically, the habitats of many animals are being taken away, making it harder for animals to stay alive. For example, the disappearance of the forest has led to 90 percent of the lemurs being endangered. Even
The affect of environmental issues occur everyday and in particular deforestation is becoming a highly ranked subject. From animals to the human race, the alacrity of trees that are cut down affects every individual in a variety of ways. Not only do people need to help the planet but they need to help themselves and further generations to come, such as children and grandchildren because these natural resources that are being taken away from society are as well shaping the future. For comprehensible reasons, forests use to make up the world, until man made creatures started to destroy and destruct the most important supply to human kind which are trees. Trees are crucial to every living entity for the reason of providing oxygen to all.
The many advantages trees have on earth is immense, when trees are lost it affects the worlds atmosphere and air quality. Trees are home to many ecosystems, they give shelter and food to the animals in their community, but they are being taken down. Animals without homes are more vulnerable to predators and hunters, and it is all a disruption to the ecosystem. Once taken down, the increase in greenhouse gasses rise,” Forests help to migrate carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions, but they become carbon sources” (Kerry Cesareo), much of these gasses have an impact in rising temperatures. The water cycle is also an important role in the rainforest and it has also been disrupted by deforestation. Erosion of soil,” And as fertile soil washes away, agricultural producers move on, clearing more forest and continuing
The scale and pace of change is dramatic; for example, the extinction of species is occurring at around 100-fold pre-human rates4. The population sizes of vertebrate species have, on average, declined by half over the last 45 years5. More than 2.3 million km2 of primary forest has been felled since 20006. About
However, forests around the world are under threat from deforestation, jeopardizing these benefits. Deforestation comes in many forms, including fires, clear-cutting for agriculture, ranching and development, unsustainable logging for timber, and degradation due to climate change. This impacts people’s livelihoods and threatens a wide range of plant and animal species. Some 46-58 thousand square miles of forest are lost each year, which is equivalent to 36 football fields every minute.
Today, the total percentage of forest cover of the earth is approximately thirty percent (“Deforestation”). That is about nine percent of the world’s total surface. The largest rainforest is the Amazon River Basin, located in South America. The Amazon is home to many species of animals, insects, plants and trees. Many of the trees and plants in the Amazon produce about twenty percent of the oxygen on earth, and absorb carbon. However, the Amazon is decreasing in size every day due to the ongoing deforestation of the land. Deforestation is when the forest of the land are cleared or destroyed, in order to be used for other actions (“Deforestation”). The Amazon is twenty percent less than it was about forty years ago (Wallace). In just about
In today’s world, hardly any species of wildlife become extinct from natural causes. Europeans hunt animals to such an extent that we classify it as overhunting. We destroy their habitat, and introduce other animals that are a threat to endangered animals or are competition for resources and food. Habitat destruction is the greatest threat to both animals and plants.
As we lose more and more habitats, it could create a domino effect causing many other complications in the world's ecosystem.
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.
Ninety percent of the earth’s trees between three and four hundred years old have been cut down. The remaining ten percent is all we will ever have (Gallant, 97). The definition of deforestation by the Random House Dictionary of the English Language is "to divest or clear of forests or trees.” Deforestation is one of the most significant issues of our time; considerable measures must be taken to prevent further pillaging of our unique forest resource.
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
The rate of deforestation is increasing and the tropical forests are falling at approximately 140,000 acres per day (Miller & Tangley 1991: xvi). The forests are crucial to the environment. They are important in minimizing erosion, providing a stable habitat for many animals, and helping to keep the environment clean. Deforestation has devastating effects, not only on the biological dependents within the depleted forests, but also on the surrounding human-populated communities.
Deforestation is one of the many problems this world faces today. Many people are unaware of how harmful deforestation can be towards the environment and the animals that inhabit the area. Many people don’t even know what deforestation is and that it’s actually happening. To sum it all up, deforestation is the process of destroying forests by cutting them down or burning the trees down, destroying hundreds of acres in order to make more land available for other uses thinking that the benefits outweigh the costs. However these “uses” leave negative effects causing the population of forests and animals that inhabit it too decrease tremendously all for shopping plazas and new freeways with hundreds of tolls. Not to mention the unexpected effects that could happen towards the environment for example global warming. The act of deforestation for new land is harmful towards the environment and should be stopped. Many forests are being destroyed and leaving many animals and other species without a home to survive which plays a factor on the rise of endangered species.