Deforestation is a significant driver of climate change. Forest soils are moist, but without protection from tree cover to block out the sun, they quickly dry out. Trees help perpetuate the water cycle by returning water vapor back into the atmosphere. According to National Geographic, rainforests receive over half of the earth’s rainfall every year. When it rains, these trees serve as catchment areas for this rainfall, they absorb the water, clean it and put it back into the earth. Then when the earth heats up, the water returns to the atmosphere through evapotranspiration (evaporation from trees and plants), and is preserved in the form of a cloud. This cloud then carries the water until it becomes too heavy to remain in the atmosphere, and then it is released in the form of precipitation, back into the earth. Without trees to fill these roles, many former forest lands can quickly become barren deserts (Information and descriptions curtsey of Mr. Boardman Smith).
Removing trees also deprives the forest of portions of its canopy, which blocks the sun’s rays during the day and holds in heat at night. This disruption leads to more extreme temperatures swings that can be harmful to plants and animals. Trees play a critical role in absorbing the greenhouse gases that fuel global warming. Fewer forests means larger amounts of greenhouse gases entering the atmosphere and therefore increased speed and severity of global warming. (Global Deforestation. Global Change Curriculum. University of Michigan Global Change Program. January 4, 2006.)
Since 1979 to 1990, more than 5 million acres of rain forests have been destroyed each year, by logging, urbanization, and highways, harming the intricate balance of the forest, displacing native tribe and indigenous people and potentially adversely affecting the world's climate. Logging affects the environment in several ways. Since trucks and large equipment need to get into the forest in order to access trees and transport timber, loggers must clear large areas for roadways. Highways have been built through the Amazon in Brazil and in Central America, countless trees have been removed to make way for cattle pastures. Soil in this area will have already suffered degradation from the removal of trees, but will continue to degrade with constant grazing, making it only viable for a few years.
Forests support biodiversity and foster conservation of medicinal products like honey, resin and herbs. Deforestation destroys genetic variations and results in a permanent loss of various rare plant, animal and insect species. Damage to forests, believe it or not, affects every citizen's living standard. Over-utilization of forest products and logging has resulted in creased dependency and in turn is exposing us to environmental issues associated with the large scale deforestation in the absence of an re - forestation program in place.”
“We have claimed much of our forest cover to accommodate growing populations and for industrial purposes in recent years. The logging and/or burning of trees for fuel and to create pasture and plantation lands has in turn created a monster in the form of depleting forest cover and a major climate change. Today, infringement of forest land to accommodate human settlements has witnessed the razing or felling of trees without timely address of sufficient reforestation”.
Tzeporah Berman, campaign director and founder of Forest Ethics on the fact that over 70 countries in the world no longer have any intact or original forests. 95% of the earth’s old growth forests are already gone. Substantiated by Wes Jackson, president of the land institute, who argues that well over 30% of the soils of the planet have been put into the category of serious degradation.
“Deforestation has not only resulted in irreversible damage to the natural habitat of many wildlife species, but has also resulted in loss of biodiversity and increase in aridity. Forest cover that is razed to meet the demand for timber within different industrial segments has degraded 'green' lands into useless 'waste' lands. Disregard and lax management of our forest cover threatens the survival of many already endangered species and has caused drastic changes in global climate. Desertification and the relocation of numerous indigenous people are the result of deforestation. Deforestation results in permanent habitat loss and the subsequent irreversible loss of thousands of species that enrich the wildlife and ecosystem on the planet.”
Andy Lipkis, president and founder, Tree People
“Deforestation follows a ripple-on trend and has resulted in permanent changes to world geography. It is a major contributor to things like, Global warming, emission of greenhouse gases, global climate change, carbon stores in soil, reduced net oxygen levels, biosphere instability and so on.”
David Suzuki, a Scientist and Environmentalist who was also featured on the Environmental documentary – The 11th Hour. He estimated what it would cost the world to take carbon dioxide out of the air and replace it with oxygen as well as re-pollinate all the flowers in the world. The estimate came to 35 trillion dollars per year to do “what all the green things do for us for free”. He then contrasted that figure to the net profit all the economies in the world. The sum? 18 trillion dollars. And in the madness of contemporary economics, this calculation, does not feature in the euation.
Stephen Hawking, a Professor of Mathematics at the Cambridge University has warne that the human race cannot continue to pollute the atmosphere, poison the ocean and exhaust the land. There isn’t any more available.
Photo taken by: Ashleigh Gallagher
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