Deforestation Identifying the Problem

Deforestation is the removal of related ecosystems or rainforests into ecosystems that are less biodiverse such as croplands, pastures, or plantations. Also, more people need wood to make furniture, houses, and many more everyday things. An estimated 18 million acres of forest are lost each year. Believe it or not but in 100 years if the current rate of deforestation continues all forests will be gone. This will cause terrible effects on the global climate and it will get rid of the majority of plant and animal species on the planet. Deforestation is mainly due to our acts that are totally against the laws of nature. To create new land area for people forests are being destroyed. This trend shows the greed of humans and the increasing needs. There are two different types of deforestation: Clear Cutting and Slash and Burn. Clear Cutting is cutting down a large area of trees that are standing at the same time. Slash and Burn is when people cut down all the foliage in a forest and burn it to access the nutrients. (4)

A lot of the countries with high amounts of deforestation are the ones that are developing. For the countries to grow and develop their economies they need access to more resources, employment of people, logging to manufacture more timber products, and agricultural expansion. The solution to getting all these positive things is deforestation. The world’s highest rates of deforestation are happening in the economies of Nigeria, Indonesia, and Brazil. The Deforestation Index states that economic growth, corruption, poverty, and the constant rise of biofuels are among the major causes of deforestation in a total of nine different countries. These countries have been classified as “extreme risk”. These nine countries are Indonesia, Nigeria,Bolivia, Brazil, Papua New Guinea, DR Congo, North Korea, Nicaragua, and Cambodia. Deforestation is occurring in 180 countries which poses significant threats to carbon, water tables, carbon sinks, indigenous peoples, and habitat for biodiversity. Brazil is one of the countries in which deforestation is occurring the most. Brazil is a global hotspot for deforestation. The reason that there is so much deforestation occurring in Brazil is because there are so many acres of rainforests. (3)

History of Problem

When people began living in wooded areas deforestation started. Other trees were cut down to plant fruit and nut trees or to make medicine and dye. People cut down forests for houses, farms, and even for wood needed in big cities. Many years ago thousands of forests covered the earth but, because of these reasons, only a few of the original forests remain today. The world population is increasing every day therefore the demand for wood supplies is going up. Half of the earth's surface was covered by forest 10,000 years ago and it has gone down by a lot because of deforestation. It started as a small thing but it got worse and worse. Another reason deforestation got bigger is because people just didn’t care and didn’t think of it as something that could become as big a problem as it is today. Some 4000 years ago were the first human actions of deforestation. Humans burned down forests to make the area available for agriculture and then later for increased urbanization and animal domestication.Grazing animals was also one of the leading causes of deforestation. (l) Deforestation started in areas where people lived and where there was plenty of forest. People thought they didn’t need that much forest so they burned part of it down to use the land for other reasons. Before people knew they could burn trees to get them down they cut them with flint or stone axes. Getting trees down doesn’t require any technology. Brazil was and is still one of the biggest contributors to there being a big problem with deforestation. A large amount of deforestation occurred in Western Europe from 1100 to 1500 AD because of the expanding human population in the area. A lot of wood in Europe was also used to make wooden sailing ships to use in different ways such as trade, exploration, and slave trade. When roman expansion occurred it devoured the forests around the Mediterranean. When the nations in Europe expanded across the world the nations took their need for timber with them. Some examples of demand for tree clearance included cotton and tobacco in America, tea in India, and sugar in the Caribbean. The people that started deforestation were the people that needed the positive affects and the resources that came out of it. Most of these people included Europeans, farmers, and people that lived in rainforest covered areas. The people didn’t know what the result would be of what they were doing. (4) The industrial revolution was what caused deforestation to become a bigger problem. The invention of metal, saws and then power made it much easier for humans to get rid of trees and therefore cause the rate of deforestation to get much bigger. An example is that between the 17th and 20th century 16,556,060 acres of forest were cut down in central European Russia. The number would never be as large if all the new technology was never invented. During the revolution the American pioneers pushed into the west and were cutting down trees daily. Approximately 177 million square miles of forests had gone down by 1850 and another 300 million by 1910. (3) Deforestation started mainly because people wanted the valuable resource of wood or they needed the land that all the forests covered. People want these resources and they don’t know that they can reduce the amount they need because doing it is causing deforestation. (5)
Economic Impact of the problem Deforestation can affect an economy in big ways. Most are negative ways but surprisingly some can be positive. Forests provide plenty of renewable resources that can help contribute to economic growth. Deforestation can be a benefit in many ways to the economy because of the resources that it produces. Cutting down large amounts of trees can be very negative though. It devastates the environment and the ecosystems where the deforestation is occurring. Another negative impact is tourism. A lot of tourists are attracted to seeing the countries with big rainforests. Deforestation is making the number of visitors very little though. No one wants to see dead animals, tree stumps, polluted rivers, and wasteland. There are so many different ways that can make deforestation be good and bad for the economy. There are a big amount of resources that come from deforestation that can help the economy. Two big resources that help largely are timber and palm oil. Timber is used to manufacture many things while palm oil is something we use everyday and it is in a lot of foods. Deforestation is such a hard problem to solve because it can bring out many positive effects. If we do too much of it though then a lot of negative things will start occurring. (2) Deforestation is affecting governments in bad and good ways economically. The government has more resources when more deforestation is occurring. It can be negative on the other hand because it doesn’t attract many tourists. People do not want to see cut down trees and polluted areas but prefer to visit beautiful rainforests. The government gets a lot of money from tourists. Deforestation doesn’t affect people in ways that are very bad now. It is more of a positive thing. Trees are cut down to make space for people or to get the required resources they need. This doesn’t have a negative effect on people. It won’t be a problem for them until there won’t be enough trees. (3) Every year something occurs that people call “Boom and Bust”. An Amazon village cuts down its forest to make money fast. They get quick bucks from selling all the resources that come from the trees they cut down. In the end they end up just as poor as before and don't have any more or less money than before they cut down the trees. It’s called boom and bust because in the beginning they get more resources but at the end they end up busting and having the same amount as before. Deforestation wasn’t affecting the economy as much as it is today 10 to 20 years ago. Every year more and more trees are cut down. As you know the more trees you cut down the more positive impacts will come but also negative. 10 years ago there wasn’t as much deforestation so the impact on the economy wasn’t as big. (7) With deforestation becoming a big problem economies are becoming more involved so they can try to get rid of the problem. Big economies like Brazil are starting to make new laws such as not allowing people to cut down trees in a certain area or a certain amount of trees. There are a lot of laws against deforestation in the Amazon because it is such big area with so many trees. It is the perfect place to do deforestation. That’s why lots of countries in South America are creating laws against it. Countries also lose a lot of money if illegal logging occurs. Illegal logging brings down timber prices by seven to sixteen percent depending on the product. With this occurring America ends up losing at least 460 million dollars each year. (8)
Long Term Impact of the Problem Deforestation has a lot of negative effects on different things. A cause of deforestation is climate change. The ground of the forest areas is moist but without the trees to provide shade from above the ground dries out from the hot sun. Trees also keep the water cycle going by sending the water vapor into the air. Without the trees the forest lands can quickly turn into desert land. Removing trees will make the portion of canopies also go down. The canopies block the sun rays during the day but they hold in the heat during the night. This causes major temperature swings. It is a very negative effect for plants and animals. Another negative effect is that more global warming will occur. Trees absorb the greenhouse gases but with less trees there will be more greenhouse gases. Greenhouse gases fuel global warming. Lastly a big event that happens because of deforestation is soil erosion. Without trees to make fertile soil erosion can possibly occur and sweep through to create rivers. The plants that replace the trees that have been cut down cannot hold on to the soil and end up dying too. Scientist estimate that one third of the world's cultivable land have been lost through erosion. (3) The worst effect that happens from deforestation is that millions of species lose their habitats. Seventy percent of animals live in a forest area and with the amount of forest land going down that also means that the habitats for animals is going away. Humans are getting affected by deforestation in terrible ways too. Many humans lose their houses because they are destroyed in the act of deforestation. They have no place to go afterwards and end up homeless. Deforestation has ruined their lives. Also millions of people around the world rely on the forests for things such as medicine, gathering, and hunting. Without the forests they aren’t able to get hold of the materials they get from the forests that they need to survive. (4) An analysis coming from a satellite that had an image of the rainforests for the past 25 years shows that deforestation is becoming a bigger and bigger problem each year. Researchers have discovered that the rate of deforestation has gone up an astonishing 62 percent between 1990 and 2010. Thats a huge difference. It has jumped up from 15,000 square miles cut down every year to 25,000 square miles cut down annually. A great example of how many trees deforestation eliminates is that roughly every year the area of trees the size of West Virginia are destroyed and every five years the area of New Mexico. There has been no sign of the rate slowing down or coming to an end soon. The only way it will come to an end soon would sadly be if all the trees in the world were cut down. The country where deforestation is getting worse and worse the most is Brazil. The percentage of the loss of trees in the Amazon rainforest has gone up to 33 percent between the 1990s and the 2000s. Many different people think that the rate of the loss of trees is improving but it's not this way according to advanced researchers and satellite proof. (6) Scientists and researchers have found out that if deforestation continues 80 to 90 percent of the rainforest ecosystems will be gone. It is also said that if the current rate of deforestation continues there will be no more rainforests in less than 100 years. Without trees humans might not even be able to survive for long. There are a shocking 121 natural remedies that can cure illnesses that are found in the rainforest. Another example of why we need the rainforest is that the Amazon is where 25 percent of cancer curing organisms are found. Without trees we wouldn't even be able to survive. Trees absorb carbon and have a big role in making oxygen for us. Without them living things wouldn’t have enough oxygen to be living. (8)
Solutions
Deforestation may be a huge problem on earth but we could contribute to solving it. If people could raise awareness for it some people might notice how negative the results can be. If the awareness spreads more and more people will know about it and more will want to do something about it. Currently deforestation is a huge problem but most people don’t even realize how bad it is. If people found out that if deforestation continues there may not be any forests in 100 years they would most likely start freaking out. We could also slow down deforestation in another way. We contribute to deforestation significantly with our lifestyle. If we started buying and using less materials that are produced through deforestation it would help at least in a small way. If everyone did it it would help in a big way. Another way people could help is recycling. When you use paper or paper products don’t throw it in the trash; recycle it. Also maybe buy more products that are made out of recycled materials. There are also small things that can make a difference such as using renewable energy, going paperless, or being careful with food choices. Cattle grazing is a big cause of deforestation so maybe take it easy on fast food and check the origin of the meat at your local grocery store before buying it. (5) Organizations can also contribute to stopping or reducing deforestation. They can do many things to stop it. Organizations can spread the negative impacts of deforestation the easiest. They are bigger and popular and more people know about them. Organizations can also raise money to spread the negative effects of deforestation and try to bring an end to it. There are many organizations trying to stop the huge problem. (5) Deforestation is worse in some countries than others and those countries need to do something about the problem. The best way countries can do something against the problem are making laws and policies. They should only let people cut down a certain amount of trees or certain kinds of trees. If deforestation was illegal and had huge consequences there wouldn’t be as much of it going on. People would be scared and follow the rules. Governments in the countries have money. They can support the organization so people will understand the message. Another way of making deforestation better is doing the act of reforestation. In reforestation you cut down the tree but you replace the cut down ones with younger new trees. This way there will be no trees lost. An old one will be cut down but in return a new one will grow back. Another way of reducing deforestation is using alternatives to the way trees are cut. Clear cutting is a very popular way to get rid of trees. A different way is strip cutting. Narrow rows of trees are cut down. The nearby trees give seeds so new ones grow back. There are many different things countries can do to help and they need to start doing them now. (5) There are many global organizations addressing the problem of deforestation. The World Wildlife Fund promotes positive actions to support many different negative events occurring around the world. Another organization is Green Terra Firms. It is an organization that provides information for people so they realize how bad events like deforestation are. One more organization is Greenpeace. Greenpeace focuses on campaigning to stop world problems such as climate change, deforestation, and overfishing. (5)

Bibliography

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