Deforestation: Good or Bad?
By Tristan McDermott
(Final Copy) Deforestation is a controversial environmental issue, with some people believing that it is necessary to cut down trees to make room for things such as buildings and roads, while others believe that it is bad because it is destroying the environment. I believe that deforestation, while it does have a few positive effects, mainly has negative effects that massively outweigh the positive effects. According to an article written by National Geographic, (https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/deforestation/) deforestation is a major contributor to global warming: “Trees also play a critical role in absorbing the greenhouse gases that fuel global warming.
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According to the World Wildlife Fund, (https://www.worldwildlife.org/habitats/forest-habitat) 80% of the world’s biodiversity is found in rainforests. Not just animals and plants are affected, though; bacteria are also affected. According to Klaus Nüsslein, a scientist from UM Amherst: (quoted in this article: http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1112753888/amazon-deforestation-microbial-communities-122512/) “We found that after rainforest conversion to agricultural pastures, bacterial communities were significantly different from those of forest soils. Not only did the pasture soils show increased species numbers, these species were also less related to one another than in rainforest soil.” This is important because these new species of bacteria could be very harmful to the plants that they are surrounded by, and potentially cause crops to die. These effects of deforestation are obviously very bad, but there is one major positive effect of cutting down trees: it will help the economy. In developing countries, cutting down trees and selling their lumber could potentially become a major source of revenue for the government.
In addition, they will also have more space to build things such as farms, which will boost the economy by giving more people
Today, there is nearly a total of three thousand serial killers and ten thousand victims of their violent rampage in the United States. Part of those ten thousand victims are the eight, casualties of Dayton Leroy Rogers, aka The Molalla Forest Killer. Although their deaths were unfair and tragic, Roger’s experience allowed for more information to be contributed to help solve and prevent future crimes. Born in Idaho on September 30, 1953 and quickly moved to Oregon, Rogers was enrolled into a life full of crime, already shooting cars with BB guns in the seventh grade. By the time he was nineteen his desire for crime was fulfilled when he reached over to kiss a girl on their second date, but “according to police reports, he stabbed her in
Deforestation is still an unbeleafable issue even to this day. With our trees being cut down to make supplies and furniture, we struggle with keeping our ratio of trees being destroyed and trees being planted equal. It seems like that was also the case in the past. There was a significant amount of trees being cut down in 1920, the land looking much more barren than it did in 1650 (Document A, map). These trees, some of them taking more than three thousand years to rise tall, are being cut down.
When this happens it causes adverse effects on the environment. It can be done in a variety of ways from cutting to burning. Either way mass deforestation is bad and needs to stop before it is too late. One culprit of our deforestation is
Subject- Deforestation affects majority of the population, including people and animals, across the nation and in my community. Situation or Problem- Deforestation is the action of eliminating trees, in forests, by cutting them down. The objective of deforestation is to create more land for construction and land establishments with the idea of not restoring thee trees back or replacing them. How it affects my community- Deforestation can disrupt the homes of many animals, including birds and fish.
As the World Economic Forum emphasizes with the Center for Global development infographic, forests play a vital role as carbon sinks. Trees in particular act as carbon sinks, taking in and storing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. When trees are taken out of their original homes, this stored carbon is being released into the atmosphere. This released carbon dioxide further contributes to global warming. Alarmingly, “Carbon emissions released by land clearing across Australia are equivalent to about a third of the total emissions released by all of the coal-fired power stations in the country” (“Deforestation In Australia”).
They provide massive amounts of oxygen and store carbon dioxide. Every second one and a half acres of forest is being cut down. The rate of deforestation per minute is equal to the same amount as 19 football fields, if this rate continues there are not going to be any forests within 100 years. This is a rapid amount and is expected to increase. Many rain forests have already been cleared.
Tropical rainforests are essential to the global ecosystem and human survival. They form a world like no other and are incomparable in terms of their biological diversity. Tropical rainforests are a natural reservoir of genetic diversity which offers a rich source of therapeutic plants, high yield foods, and a myriad of other useful forest products. They are an important habitat for nomadic animals and continue as much as 50 percent of the species on Earth, as well as a number of diverse and unique cultures.
“It is estimated that in 100 years, there will be no rainforests left. The rate of deforestation is equal to the loss of 20 football fields every minute.” (“Deforestation Facts” 1) As a result, there are fewer trees to absorb carbon emissions and groundwater, which affects climate and the water table. Deforestation is the loss of trees, usually due to manmade causes, such as urbanization, mining, logging, and agricultural activities.
Deforestation results in the loss of biodiversity Deforestation is having its most devastating effect on biodiversity in tropical rainforests. The destruction of millions of hectares of forests by human activities means: • The removal of the bases of numerous food webs • The loss of habitats for many species of flora and
It is likely that the destroyed areas will not regenerate with the same diversity as before (World Book; Amazon Rainforest). Humans have impacted Brazil’s Amazon Rainforest through the clearing of land for cattle ranches, logging, mining, agriculture, and construction operations (Facts on File; Amazon River). 80% of the logging done in the Amazon Rainforest in Brazil is done illegally (Facts on File; Amazon Rainforest). This destroys the habitats of organisms as well as the organisms themselves, and it disrupts the way organisms live in the rainforest (Facts on File; Amazon River). Many plant species can be used to create drugs in order to treat diseases such as cancer, Rodriguez 4 AIDS, and
Global Warming Proposal Introduction The phenomenon of constant increase in the earth’s temperature is known as global warming. The excessive use of fossil fuels is destroying our environment as well as wildlife. It is a great threat to human life too, as this activity is causing intense pollution and also results in damaging the ozone layer.
A Proposal & Annotated Bibliography Although there are positive impacts and effects of Deforestation so that we gain more land to cultivate crops and fed thousands of people, I claim that Deforestation can cause negative effect to the people and other living flora and fauna because due to deforestation nature is experiencing serious drought that directly causes negative impact on the people and the natural ecosystem, it causes global warming which is one of the serious environmental issues in the present context and causes soil erosions like landslide, floods etc that directly concern with the health and safety issue of wildlife as well as peoples. Annotated Bibliography Robbins, Jims. “Deforestation and Drought’.
Without the transpiration of trees, deforested areas become drier. Changes in weather and shelter cause deforested areas to undergo a tremendous loss of biodiversity. The scientist hasn’t even come close to testing 1% of the plants in the tropical rainforests for medicinal use, but they regularly discover species that are helpful to us the people. But, these forests and their potential benefits are looking like they may disappear by the end of this century if we don’t stop
Sustainable forest management requires three major criteria which are the maintenance of ecological processes within the forest (soil formation, energy flow, biogeochemical cycles (carbon, nutrient and hydrological cycles), maintenance of biodiversity of forest, improving the net social benefits derived from the mixture of forest uses within the constraints by considering the future. Forest provides habitats for more than half of the fauna and flora on the Earth (SCBD, 2001). Forest biome plays an important role in mitigating climate change by serving as carbon sinks (Hassan et al., 2005). Forest land is the most fundamental natural resources which become reduced mainly due to anthropogenic pressures. For proper management of land, it is essential to have information about existing land cover and about the naturalness of the land.
Hence, deforestation increases. This is another effect of overpopulation that impacts the worsening of the environment [2]. For example decreased forest size increases the amount of carbon in the environment. More specifically, deforestation affects the wildlife and results in biodiversity loss and species extinction [1].