The articles “The Climate Crisis at the End of Our Fork” by Anna Lappe and “Why Bother?” by Michael Pollan urge us to see the connections between food and the environment. In the article “The Climate Crisis at the End of Our Fork”, Lappe insists the methods used in food production and distribution have a massive impact on the planet. In the article “Why Bother”, Pollan provides us reasons why people should bother to help stop global warming. There are three main causes between food production and food distribution that play a big role in global warming. Changing the way food is produced and distributed could diminish the dangerous effects of global warming. However, in order to stop global warming everyone has to assist as a group instead of individuals. 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.
Agriculture contributes to global greenhouse gas emissions. The “agriculture connection” is any direct impacts agriculture has on climatic change. “Carbon dioxide is the
What most people will find surprising is the fact that the industrialized agricultural and food systems is a great contributor to global warming, as its carbon emission are increasing year after year. This is something that the general public is unaware of. There are several statistics that shows the grand scale of damage that this
Forests play a critical role in mitigating climate change because they act as a carbon sink soaking up carbon dioxide that would otherwise be free in the atmosphere and contribute to ongoing changes in climate patterns. Deforestation undermines this important carbon sink function. It is estimated that 15% of all greenhouse gas emissions are the
Deforestation is the destruction of a wide area of forest land into a cleared land that is used for a variety of reasons. The impact on the environment from cutting down, burning and damaging forests is very detrimental and there are severe consequences for the environment and future generations because of deforestation. According to the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization approximately 7.3 million hectares of forests are being destroyed per year in the world (Bradford, 2015). In this essay, I will explore the impact that deforestation on the environment and I will also look at the actions that are being taken to prevent deforestation. There are various reasons why deforestation is occurring despite its negative effects on the environment. Deforestation can cause very serious environmental problems such as climate change, flooding, loss of habitats as well as others.
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
Forests control the amounts of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere therefore contributing to global warming. However we as a planet have a problem… deforestation.
“If we’re serious about the climate crisis, say’s Lappe, we have to talk about food.” Food processes and consumptions are being overlooked. The only thing that we do know when we shop at our local food markets is that we do not know what is exactly in the food, where it came from, and what route it took to get on to the shelf in our towns. Lappe addresses these questions within her book that sets the scene for many different products, corporations, and the effects that are taking place because of these methods that are helping the global warming crisis. The corporations are not assessing the risk and rewards of food production; they are sucking up the rewards and looking the other way. Taking responsibility is the first step to solving a problem and as you can see in the movie Cowspirarcy no one is willing to admit that food and productions are apart of the global warming event. The long view of our existence means we must take care of our habitat and build today for our children tomorrow instead of thinking about only today. To do this Lappe provides a list of seven principals of a climate friendly diet; “Reach for real food, Put plants on your plate, Don’t panic, go organic, Lean towards local, Finish your peas…the ice caps are melting, Send packaging packing, and Do it yourself
Deforestation is another known contributor to global climate change. This is by contributing to global warming. According to Nanda (2011), trees are the main absorber of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Therefore, deforestation contributes global warming because less carbon dioxide was absorbed. Furthermore, decaying of these trees produces carbon dioxide. Therefore, governments should make legislation aimed at conserving and rehabilitating destroyed forests (Solomon et al., 2011).
In fact, the Amazon provides about 20 percent of the world’s oxygen (“Destruction of the Amazon”). Conversely, as more of the Amazon forest is deconstructed, the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will rise and the amount of oxygen produced will decrease. The increased effects of Global Warming over the years are a result of the deforestation of the Amazon. If the entire rainforest is demolished the Earth would begin to rapidly hold more heat from the sun, due to the build of carbon dioxide and lack of oxygen. The beautiful forest is one of the many keys to maintaining livable conditions on earth.
Earth’s climate is on a downward spiral, and our agricultural industry is a main cause. Climate change is upon us, and it’s happening faster than scientists predicted over a decade ago (Pollan 872). Most People don’t care about climate change; things have gotten worse than what the models have predicted, despite being what the data predicts the outcome will be. Agriculture is a major part of climate change, and it’s already happening today such as droughts, flooding, erratic weather shifting, and longer growing seasons (Lappé 854). The massive demand on agriculture, and its growth directly contributes to climate change, and our insatiable appetite is to blame. The dilemma with climate change, is that the sum of every little every day choice that we make that affects our environment, because we are 70 percent of the economy that affects the climate (Pollan 872). The only probable solution to our dilemma is to start making better decisions, and to be conscious of our environment. A key decision we could make to
Ongoing practices of deforestation will cause detrimental effect on the entire ecosystem throughout Asia and the world. It is evident that deforestation contributes a substantial volume of carbon emissions globally, with deforestation in most developing countries accounting for approximately 30 percent of global emissions (Johnson 2009). Dense atmospheric CO2 concentrations from land clearing and logging will produce too much carbon dioxide to linger in the atmosphere. Moreover, forest fires are resulting from deforestation as moisture from the soils are dried up, therefore causing further destruction of forests (Mongabay 2006). Once the trees are burnt, it will also release leftover carbon that was previously stored as carbon dioxide within it. This will lead to greater concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere which would then modify the surface temperature due to the creating a
all of our tropical forests in about 50 years. It has been suggested that the
Additionally, deforestation is highly linked as a contributor to climate change. The trees in the Amazon supply Earth with a huge supply of oxygen from its
One of the primary and notable effects of Deforestation is Climate change, specifically in Global Warming. Climate change is defined as the changing in our planet’s temperature and is considered as the effect of deforestation. On the other hand, global warming refers to the fact that the average temperature on Earth is significantly rising and the period of warming is occurring more rapidly than before. Losing trees and forests will affect the carbon sink and the greenhouse gas in the atmosphere, resulting in more carbon dioxide appeared, more heated being trapped. As a result, the global temperature is significantly rising, hence, causing climate change and global warming. The author of the article “Climatic Effects of Amazonian Deforestation: Some Results from ABRACOS” concluded that “Observations at the local scale show that deforestation produces an immediate change in the surface climate. The reduced evaporation and increased sensible heat flux in dry season pasture produce the strongest effect, with higher daytime temperatures being the most obvious feature” (Gash & Nobre, 1997).
Nowadays it is needless to mention that global warming becomes one of the biggest problem for human beings to deal with. There are a lot of bad effects global warming, for instance, alteration of ecosystems, abnormal weather, rising in sea level, etc. Accordingly, the energy consumption problem is one major task, and Michael Pollan, the author of “Farmer in Cheif”, make interesting remarks during PBS 's debate, " Agriculture is the biggest contributor to greenhouse gases." How does agriculture add to global warming? Also, what can we do for it?
Global warming has become a serious problem for us, and the Earth itself. Global warming is when Earth’s temperature increases, due mainly to human activity and the greenhouse effect. This is affecting our atmosphere, causing an increase in temperature. This is mostly humans’ fault since we are the ones that contribute the most to global warming. Due to overpopulation, the demand for many of the things we use everyday have increased dramatically. Factories and the burning of fossil fuels for example, contribute a great part to global warming. Deforestation however, is a greater problem than the two previously mentioned. There are many trees being cut down for different reasons, and this has become a major driver of global warming, responsible for up to 20 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions–more than all the cars, trucks, planes, boats and trains in the world combined” (Solutions to Deforestation).