Deforestation in Australia
What is the issue?
Australia is among one of the wealthiest nations. It has a small population of almost 24million but has a high rate of extensive deforestation and degradation since the later 18th century during European settlement. Most of Australia, around 7.6million km2,is covered in dry desert unsuitable for forest growth, but the thriving coastal and hills areas have seen decline in forest cover and quality over the last 60 years, especially between 1999 and 200 where an average of 325,900 hectares were being wiped out each year. Once European colonists began to expand in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, deforestation and clearance occurred widely along the most fertile soils near the coast. Due to
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The smaller and more isolated the habitats are, the less likely they are to survive, particularly animals, as their habitats are being destroyed, leaving them home-less. Australia holds around 2336 known species of amphibians, mammals, reptiles and birds showing from figures of the World Conservation Monitoring Centre. 67.5% of these do not exist in other countries and 8.9% are threatened. All animals in Australia are at risk of becoming threatened due to deforestation and land clearance as their habitats are being wiped out and water is being adapted.
Deforestation also affects the increase of salinity of the soil, when the saline drains from these areas is affects the downstream water quality. It has been shown that around 7% of Western Australia is being faced with this issue due to deforestation. Studies in Australia’s tropics show that soils only have a limited capacity to recover after the impact of
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This includes planting pine forests for controlled removal of trees. The Australian government are taking out $2.3 million to reduce and help deforestation in the Asia-pacific region. In March 2008, Kevin Rudd and PNG Prime Minister, Michael Somare signed a PNG-Australia forest carbon partnership and a month later Climate Change Minister announced $3 million to help reduce greenhouse gases emitted from deforestation.
How has science helped?
Through science, we have been able to see the damage that is being done through a series of different tests including testing the soil quality and water salinity levels. It has helped us monitor these levels over a number of years. Satellite readings have helped view the land that has been disturbed and see which areas have been affected by it, they also show weather readings and are able to give required information for whether the area is suitable for replantation.
What can we do as an
Water is the most relied upon resource on earth and if it disappeared life could not and would not exist on this planet. So if one of our main sources of water in South Australia, The Murray Darling-Basin, becomes unusable then we would need to find the problem and do everything possible to stop it or counteract it. This report investigates on salinity in the Murray Darling-Basin, using the issue question “Is there enough being done to counteract the effects of salinity in the Murray?” as the focus. Salinity is a key significant environmental challenge which the Murray faces and if left unmanaged it could cause serious implications for water quality, plant growth, biodiversity, land productivity, infrastructure and could lead to a loss of
Deforestation has lead to terrible living conditions and 38 species have been driven to extinction. John Vidal, author of “The Sumatran Rainforest Will Mostly Disappear Within 20 Years,” writes about the ways logging companies are getting past regulations to take more land and logs away from the forest and natives. Ian Sample, author of “Amazon’s Doomed Species Set to Pay Deforestation’s ‘Extinction Debt,’” on the other hand mostly talks about the affects deforestation has on animals. Vidal has the better argument over Sample because his explanations about its effects on humans and corruption from companies and the government.
The Murray-Darling Basin (MDB) is Australia’s primary productive river basin, accounting for $19 billion of agricultural output and providing nearly half of Australia’s food supply. In the last century, the MBD has suffered from rising salinity rates which has jeopardised Australia’s water quality and supply, biodiversity and land productivity. Moreover, human activity such as irrigation development and land clearing for urbanisation has exacerbated these salinity rates, suggesting an urgent call for action. This essay attempts to explore this important issue, drawing on two significant impacts salinity has on the MDB and their implications for productivity and sustainability.
Dryland salinity has become a large problem in Australia. As salt start to accumulate near the soil surface, plants find it harder to absorb water and then start to slowly die, as they become dehydrated. 30% loss of field crops can occur, even before the effect of soil salinity is visible.
As you can see deforestation is man made, not intentionally man made, but instead intentionally made for industrialization. Predominantly Indonesia has the highest rate of deforestation in the world and also is the world's third-largest producer of greenhouse gases behind China and the US, with 85% of its emissions coming from forest destruction and degradation (theG). The statistics as you can see are more alarming than perceived in the media and it is extremely imperative to help regulate and help with this mast tragedy of the
Deforestation plays a big role in global warming. The “land use connection” referred to as “land use changes” is a huge contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions. Land use change involves all the destructions of land in order to produce and distribute food. Every year rainforests are demolished for agriculture intentions. “The biggest factors are the destruction of vital rainforests through burning and clearing and the elimination of wetlands” (Lappe 753). Deforestation of these habitats leads to the discharge carbon dioxide into the environment.
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
The causes of deforestation vary in number a few have made a big impact on the problem. The USA's population has increased by over a hundred million people since 1970, more than half of the whole population at the time. As seen many factors come along with a growth in population things such as, a need for more space, and a need for more wood for conventional uses, all contribute to the huge increase of deforestation. With nearly one-quarter of America’s tree canopy existing in our backyards, city streets and parks, our population has a huge responsibility,according to, “United states, plant a billion trees”. The next big contributor to the problem of deforestation in the U.S. is land for livestock. In the U.S. one of the biggest causes of deforestation is land for livestock. The single biggest direct cause of tropical deforestation, is conservation to cropland and pastures, mostly for subsistence, which is growing crops or raising livestock to
Deforestation is not only a problem in the rain forest. What is left of the forests in the United
Forests have covered the earth for millions of years, providing habitat and food for animals and humans. These forests have stabilized different ecosystems and have continued the natural cycle that keeps plants and animals in check. The discovery of fire changed all of this. It was the beginning of deforestation, a process that has continued and increased over the last 200,000 years. Humans are the responsible party for the deforestation that has occurred. Humans discovered that animals could be driven with fire. This led to accelerated forest loss due to uncontrolled burning for hunting use (Miller & Tangley 1991: 28). Agriculture was the next problem
With new technology such as satellites systems, low altitude photography and side looking radar scientists now figure that the world is losing about twenty million hectares of tropical forests annually. It has been suggested that the high deforestation rates are caused partially by the fact that the new surveys are more accurate and thus reveal old deforestation rates that were miscalculated with previous methods (Westoby, 202).
Forest is one of the subunits that deforestation had influenced on. The government cost was significantly influenced by deforestation in the forest. According to the BBC news, a new study estimated that the annual cost of forest loss for the global economy is
Australia has many breath-taking rainforests despite being one of the harshest and driest continents. Rainforests now cover less than 6% of the Earth’s surface, scientist estimate that more than 50% of all the known plants and animal species live in rainforests. Rainforests also produce 40% of the Earth’s oxygen and play an important role in the ecosystems. Australia has approximately 4.2 million hectares (o.5% of Australia’s landmass) of lush rainforests. The rainforests are distributed evenly, extending from the Kimberley region in Western Australia, across the Northern Territory to Cape York (Queensland) and running down the east coast through New South Wales, Victoria and finally to Tasmania.
Deforestation is a major global problem with serious consequences to the planet. These consequences have a negative effect on the climate, biodiversity, the atmosphere and threatens the cultural and physical survival of life. Deforestation is the permanent destruction of indigenous forests and woodlands. It has resulted in the reduction of indigenous forests to four-fifths of their pre-agricultural area, so that now indigenous forests cover only 21% of the earth's land surface. The world Resources Institute regards deforestation as one of the worlds most pressing land use problem.
Deforestation is one of the largest environmental issues facing humanity in the twenty-first century. This type of environmental degradation involves cutting down trees in natural areas, mainly forests, in order to make room for human developments such as agriculture or infrastructure. Deforestation has been occurring for centuries all around the world, but as technology becomes more efficient and the human population continues to grow, the effects of deforestation now are greater than before. More land is being removed to provide for human needs and desires, which has, in turn, negatively affected the places being degraded as well as Earth’s environment as a whole.