Deforestation: Destroying the Lungs of Planet

Written by: Farkhunda A.

Deforestation is the permanent removal of trees on a large scale which results in damaging the ecosystem. Trees are cut on a massive scale to gain short term benefits in exchange for long term benefits. Though forests occupy 30% of the Earth’s land and they provide medicine, food, fuel for more than one billion people and it is the habitat of more than 80% of animals and plants living on land., they are vanishing rapidly due to human activities. According to the World Bank, Earth has lost 1.3 million square kilometers of its forests. In addition, in the past 50 years, 17% of the Amazon forest has been cleared and the destruction of forests is still on the rise. Furthermore, estimates suggest that due to deforestation, approximately 4000-6000 rainforest species go extinct every year.

Causes of deforestation

Deforestation is caused either directly or indirectly. Direct causes include:

• Natural: floods, fires, hurricanes, and parasites

• Human: agriculture, mining, logging, urbanization, timber extraction, and oil extraction

Indirect causes include:

• Failure of government: corruption, and wrong public investments

• Political and socio-economic causes: population growth and continues wars and conflicts

Here is an in-depth exploration of the direct causes of deforestation.

Agriculture expansion: It is a large cause of deforestation due to the high demand for land to grow crops and to graze cattle. In addition, cattle in the forest area not only destroys the grass and plants but pulls its roots. Furthermore, 40-70% of deforestation in the Amazon forest is due to cattle ranching.

Logging: Logging is another major cause of deforestation due to the increase in wood-based industries that provide paper and wood products. Some of these industries extract wood from forests illegally and build roads on forests to ease their access to the forests.

Urbanization: Increased population leads to the need for more housing and settlements. Thus, to fulfill these needs trees are cut and forests are destroyed.

Mining: Most of the forests are rich in minerals. To extract these minerals, a huge amount of forest land has to be deforested and the pollutants produced by mining further contaminate the weather and environment.

Palm oil plantations: Trees in forests are cleared to plant palm oil trees, as it is cheap and can be used in both personal products such as lipsticks, shampoos, and food products.

Fires: Fires are caused by the extremely warm weather conditions in different parts of the world such as wildfires in the Amazon rainforest, fires in Australia, and recently in the United States.

Impacts of deforestation

Soil erosion: When trees are destroyed it causes the soil to erode and wash away which leads to heavy floods. Such as the recent floods in Afghanistan which killed at least 160 people.

Increased greenhouse gases: When trees are cut they release stored carbon dioxide to the air and more carbon dioxide would stay in the atmosphere since there are fewer trees to absorb carbon dioxide.

Disruption of the water cycle: Trees play a crucial role in regulating the water cycle given that trees store water and then transport it to the atmosphere. As a result of deforestation, water would no longer be able to be released into the atmosphere resulting in dryer climates.

Solutions

• Agricultural Industries should reduce deforestation, instead they should adapt to sustainable farming methods and new technologies that do not require a large area.

• Restore the forests by planting trees.

• Reduce the usage of paper when it is possible

• Reduce the consumption of palm oil products

• Practice the 3 Rs: Reduce, reuse and recycle

• Donate a small amount of money to the organizations that fight deforestation

Edited by: Happy J.

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Bibliography:

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Carter, Cavarrio. “Deforestation: A New Threat to Global Food Security.” BORGEN, 23 June 2014, www.borgenmagazine.com/deforestation-new-threat-global-food-security/. Accessed 07.09.2020

“The Causes of Deforestation.” Eniscuola, www.eniscuola.net/en/argomento/rain-forest/deforestation/the-causes-of-deforestation/.Accessed 07.09.2020

“Effects of Deforestation: The Pachamama Alliance.” Pachamama Alliance, 2019, www.pachamama.org/effects-of-deforestation. Accessed 07.09.2020

Nunez, Christina. “Deforestation and Its Effect on the Planet.” Deforestation Facts and Information, 25 Feb. 2019, www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/deforestation/.Accessed 07.09.2020