Deforestation - Man's Sin

Modern predictions and indicators paint a bleak outlook for the planet and unfortunately it is all due to human actions. Deforestation and the spread of barren, arid and useless land is increasing in pace and we are the only ones who can call it to a halt. Modern predictions and indicators paint a bleak outlook for the planet and unfortunately it is all due to human actions. Deforestation and the spread of barren, arid and useless land is increasing in pace and we are the only ones who can call it to a halt. The questions that need answering quickly before it is too late are how and when. When is obvious, unless we act immediately we will be too late, how is less clear but unless we find the answers soon then we could find ourselves left with nothing but a arid infertile desert of a planet and sooner than you might think. The questions that need answering quickly before it is too late are how and when. When is obvious, unless we act immediately we will be too late, how is less clear but unless we find the answers soon then we could find ourselves left with nothing but a arid infertile desert of a planet and sooner than you might think.
Perhaps we can blame the men who cut down or burn huge swathes of forest and watch the animals flee to die of starvation after their home and food supply has been destroyed, or those who profit from their actions. Only someone who was insane would do such a thing surely? You certainly wouldn't want to be associated with those that were involved in such wholesale destruction and slaughter and certainly wouldn't be involved yourself,

Deforestation for Profit

Forests contain many valuable natural resources and the land they cover is also valuable to an ever-increasing human population. People have been making use of these resources since we first appeared. Deforestation is a way of making a living, the timber can be sold, and the land can be used for growing crops or grazing herds or to provide land for homes and businesses. Why is this allowed to happen? Those people that are entrusted by us

with the planet are those who are destroying it. Governments give permits and licenses to those who have the money to buy them they then strip the land and make their money. The governments are often poor and the land is more valuable to large corporations than used for conservation and tourism. But these governments are selling off the planets life support system and that cannot continue.
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EFFECTS OF DEFORESTRATION ON ENVIROMENT

Deforestation is probably one of the greatest challenges we face. We need the forests to maintain the atmosphere alongside the burning of fossil fuels our destruction of the forests is a major contributory factor to the rising levels of carbon dioxide and global warming, the effects of which we are only now beginning to feel. Large-scale deforestation for agricultural and industrial purposes transforms rich and diverse habitat in barren arid land. The resources are quickly repeated and another massive are of forest has to be destroyed to provide yet more. The damage to the land and soil has been done and little can grow on these areas once they have been finished with. Deforestation needs to be stopped before we end up with a planet that is little more than an arid wasteland incapable of supporting life. To recap, the effects of deforestation are enormous; there is no doubt that the full repercussions of human actions are yet to be experienced. Changes include: cutting down entire forests. a)demolishing coral reefs. b)creating holes in the ozone layer. c)causing the extinction of millions of species, and more.
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Said changes are irreversible at their current pace, and human survival on this planet will be increasingly difficult as resources are exhausted and global climate changes. The global effects of deforestation can be simplified into: environmental and social, both local and global effects.

Deforestation
Deforestation is the clearing or removal of trees from an area of woodland or forest for many differing reason usually commercial. Deforestation usually doesn't apply to cases where the trees are replaced, usually as saplings, in the same or alternative location in order to replace those that were cut down. Also usually refers to large scale clearing of whole areas rather than limited or selective clearing.

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Deforestation & Agriculture

Tropical rainforest removal is primarily caused by the need for agricultural land. This trend is on the rise, with sectors of forests becoming spaces of crops in South America. The concern in the region of South America is that the forest will be gone within 250 years . Tropical rainforests are being depleted at alarming rates in an attempt to feed the worlds populous: agriculture is noted as accounting for almost 90 percent of all deforestation in the tropics . Current estimates by the UN place South America at losing over four million hectares annually (Sample); this reality of landscape change is guaranteed to affect the sustenance of life. The removal of rainforest for farmland creates a precarious tip in the global scale, effects of which are preventable with a sustainable mindset.

Between 2000 and 2005, over 27.2 million hectares of rainforest was cleared in the tropics to create space for farming; all in an effort to increase agricultural yield from the Earths landscape (Sample). In third world countries: deforestation acts as a cheaper equivalent to a good dose of fertilizer for increased agricultural production in the near term. The question then lies in the sustainability of this human-created perception: the necessity to convert forested land into harvested areas. Figure 2.3.1 reveals the millions of hectares of rainforest removed for farmland in recent years. The red areas reveal the reduction in forest cover by a half between 2000 and 2005. The image is only an estimate of deforestation, showing where areas of forest have been removed and not replaced. This does not include areas of logging or replanting or general degradation of the South American forests (Sample). NASA earth observatory states: The single biggest direct cause of tropical deforestation is conversion to cropland and pasture. This regards subsistence: where small scale farmers use the land for crops or livestock in an effort to survive on a day to day basis. This action has dominated deforestation in the past but now industrial-scale activities are having a more widespread impact. Cattle ranching and soybean production in the Amazon is contributing to both world markets and the removal of trees (Lindsey). Government policies and subsidies sadly also work to encourage forest loss. Brazil, containing about two thirds of the Amazons rainforest, is a prime example of the affect of subsistence farming and government benefits. Its production of soybeans replaces the value of forests with land capable of exporting goods. This monetary gain cannot be sustained in economic terms: though Brazil has a place on the world agriculture markets, it is in a declining relationship with the land. Total opportunity cost is neglected in the pursuit for short-term gain. www.effects-of-deforestation.com

Land Conversion
Tropical soils have a limited capacity to store nutrients. Almost all of the soil fertility comes from the natural, overlying, vegetation: in the live plants and the decomposed organic layer on the ground. The wet, warm and shaded nature of the forest is the perfect setting for fungi and bacteria. These organisms almost immediately decompose any fallen or deceased species found on the topsoil, and regenerate it, providing a constant recycling of precious organic compounds. However, unlike preferred farmland, where nutrient filled soil can extend down several feet, tropical topsoil is quite thin. Beneath the layer of fertile soil lies a deep bed of clay. When deforestation takes place for agriculture, and other purposes, the sun quickly dries out and kills the bacteria and fungi. This leaving the farmers a short period of one or two seasons, to plant their crops before harsh rains and hot temperatures erode the topsoil and expose the useless clay. The brief period of growth produces such great results that it is beneficial for these farmers to use the land until it can bear no more and move on to the next deforested spot. In deforesting an area, farmers tend to burn the vegetation ground cover, including trees, in the popular slash-and-burn method. This produces a fertilizing ash layer, but also eliminates the nutrient reservoir and increases the effects of flooding and erosion in the area. The soil eventually becomes unsuitable for farming and is further reduced to pasture land. This lessens the chance of forest recovery, as the land is now also compacted under the hooves of cattle (Lindsey). Figure 2.3.2 (1) shows pasture in what was once an area of forests, in the Amazon.
Deforestation in most areas currently produces favourable yields: aided by the layers of ash from burned vegetation, resulting in the positive relationship between natural biomass and agricultural production . However, it is evident that rainforest removal reduces the potential of farmland: as tropical soils reflect the nutrients of their surrounding tree canopies, root structures, decaying ground cover, and living vegetation. The balance between the fragile topsoil and the forest comes crashing down with the removal of the trees; erosion becomes an issue and declining agricultural yields result. Converting large areas of forest to agriculture affects the water cycle. This process in which water evaporates, or transpires off plants, then condenses into clouds and falls as precipitation, occurs in relative proximity to its location of origin. Almost thirty percent of the rainfall received in the rainforest is moisture which the tropical forests previously recycled into the earths atmosphere (Lindsey). www.effects-of-deforestation.com

Evaporation cools the surface of the Earth just as perspiring reduces body temperature in humans. With this reaction, if deforestation continues at todays pace, science predicts the tropics will experience future climates that are drier and hotter. Such a change affects not only ecosystems but can be applied to the global scale and balance. Desertification is a threat to any land reacting to natural or human induced vegetation removal. The assisted process that leaves the land deprived of nutrients and cover and through erosion and increased temperatures, deserts result. The tropics turning into a Sahara would devastate the biodiversity, inhabitants and climate, leaving food production to scramble for land elsewhere to meet the need of a growing world population. Forests have utmost value in their upright position, not only as timber and agricultural land providers.

Sustainable Expanse
Estimates place South America at losing 0.4 percent of its tropical rainforests annually . Agricultures contribution to the world amounts to nourishment through occupied and harvested space. Planting in the rainforest involves removing trees, planting, reaching maximum yield, exhausting the soil, and destroying entire ecosystems. The leftover landscape is barren and unable to support much life. In this way, cost of agriculture in the forests of South America outweighs the return in the long term: The current situation in which the cheap forest biomass is the primary input in agricultural production in the tropics is not sustainable Sustainable is a label worth having, with its expense paid in full for future generations, aiding the health and balance of the globe. Sustainability, in regards to deforestation by agricultural expansion in South America, lies in the application of the precautionary principle. Precautions towards the effects of tree removal and change in land use include increased research and awareness and government participation. Alternatives to large scale agriculture and timber harvesting include taking the forest at face value: conservatively utilizing its resources but maintaining the vegetation diversity and structure. www.effects-of-deforestation.com

Shade farming is an encouraged sustainable alternative to clear-cutting and burning. Technologies to improve the way areas are farmed, would work to increase yield, and continue to provide for the growing demand. Sustainable techniques would not equate to an immediate increase in agricultural yield, but guaranteed in the long term. Actions would also result in the preservation of the rainforest; its species and surroundings. Agricultural development is necessary wherever possible on Earth, especially with projected population growth. However, this does not entitle farmers and governments to act on the ideology of by whatever means necessary. With a precautionary mindset, actions include developing sustainable agriculture production. Goals include:Improving economic well-being of inhabitants without risking future needs Utilizing resources in a manner that does not degrade them Using resources to promote equity and social justice Maintaining biological and ecosystem diversity Improving the quality of the environment for the future
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THE EFFECTS OF DEFORESTATION ON OUR ENVIRONMENT TODAY

a) Demand for land for cultivation. This has been seen both in Kenya and other parts of the world especially countries that have Agriculture as the backbone of their economy. Trees have been cut down to obtain land for cultivation of both subsistence and cash crops, both by governments and individuals. b) Need for firewood People, especially those who live in rural areas where electricity and gas are unavailable, resort to use of firewood as a source of heat. Here, wood is cut down and burnt. c) Need for land to build industries industries require a lot of land and while industrialization is important for every country, it is the bane of large tracts of forest. People need jobs in order to provide for their daily needs. d) Need for land to build houses With the worldwide increase in population, land to build houses for people to live in is very much required. e) Need for wood for furniture, pencils, paper e.t.c

Whereas the above needs are important and have to be satisfied, cutting down trees is not the most probable solution to these problems. Why? This is because, most people who cut down trees do not plant others in their place. Also, if all the above needs are to be met by cutting down of trees, even planting two for every tree cut will not prevent desertification. This is because trees take so long to grow and mature, especially so for hard wood trees. Deforestation has the following dangers: Destruction of carbon sinks: Carbon sinks are huge stores of carbon, e.g. Swamps and forests Soil Erosion: Deforestation makes soil prone to erosion by agents such as wind and water. The roots of trees hold the particles of soil together thus, preventing the fertile top soil from being carried away. Soil erosion leads to loss of productivity of the land due to loss of mineral nutrients and soil microorganisms Destruction of animal habitats: Apart from domesticated animals and marine and fresh water animals, all other animals need forests as their habitats. These forests do not only provide a place for the animals to roam day but also provide their food and act as a source of protection from predators through camouflage. Destruction of the animals habitats literally kills the animals. Medicinal Plants: Some trees are used as herbs. Trees such as the Cinchona have been used as treatment against Malaria since time immemorial. Destruction of these forests leads to destruction of medicinal plants that could be used as treatment for various ailments. Trees act as windbreakers: Absence of these trees enables strong winds and or storms e.g. Hurricanes and Tornados. I write this in the wake of a Tsunami at the Indonesian coast where about 150 people have just lost their lives. Hurricanes like Katrina are still fresh in our memories. I cannot over emphasize this point. Greenhouse effect and global warming: Nature balances the flow of energy and nutrients. Forests plan a very vital role in these cycles e.g. the carbon cycle where deforestation causes carbon dioxide to remain in the atmosphere. Accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere acts as a blanket that traps long wave radiation of heat and prevents it from escaping the surface of the earth back into the atmosphere. This phenomenon is known as the greenhouse effect. The trapped radiation is converted into heat. This heat causes global warming. Destruction of forests also causes modification of climate of an area mostly leading to desertification and aridity.

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Deforestation and Climate Change

Throughout history forests have spread and retreated as the environment changed now they are fast disappearing. They shelter the vast majority of land animals and hold most of the land biodiversity. These beautiful and complex ecosystems are essential to the environment and help to regulate the atmosphere. Hence deforestation and climate change are closely connected and have the ability to control one another.
Unfortunately the forests, which should be our first line of defense against rising carbon dioxide levels, are vanishing rapidly. 80% of our previously forested areas are gone drastically reducing the planets ability to absorb carbon dioxide and contributing to the high levels of the green house gas by releasing it after being cut down making the situation worse. The fact that deforestation can further affect the atmosphere should stir us into action to prevent any further reduction in the world's forests. We will just be adding to the devastating effects of climate change if we don't take action to stop further deforestation.

Major Carbon Storehouses

It has become increasingly apparent that forests play a vital role in climate control by storing carbon and water and recycling it. It is a fact that the destruction of green area is a contributory factor in climate change and eliminates their ability to

regulate the climate. It has been estimate the 18% of all carbon emissions come from deforestation and we are effectively turning our prize weapon against global warming against ourselves instead. Mature forests are the largest stores of carbon dioxide though all plants store carbon. Other stores include the soil, vegetation frozen underneath the arctic permafrost even the algae in the sea. The world largest forests such as the Amazon represent our largest carbon stores, it's destruction would undoubted lead to quick and devastating climate change. www.effects-of-deforestation.com

Climate Change
A combination of deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels releasing much larger amounts of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere than would occur naturally whilst simultaneously disabling the planets ability to absorb and cope with this influx in green house gases has lead to the current climate changes and noticeable global warming. The main effects of of climate change have been a rise in temperature throughout the year leading to widespread environmental change species moving their ranges further north to follow the increase in temperature. Melting of the polar icecaps leading to a reduction in range for polar species. A consequent rise in sea levels leading to flooding of low lying land. More violent and extreme weather systems leading to the devastation of affected areas and causing huge loss of life.
This isn't a prediction of what will happen in the future it's happening now and maybe irreversible already. So now a immediate damage limitation exercise need to take place to ensure the climate doesn't get out of control this has to involve the protection and restoration of the worlds forests

Amazon Rainforest Deforestation

The Amazon is the largest and most incredible of the world's rainforests. Where is the Amazon rainforest? Located in northern part of South America it spans 9 different countries including 60% of Brazil.The Amazon basin is a giant record-breaking river system, it's waterways densely crowded by trees, plant and animal life. The diversity and scale of the Amazon rainforest is difficult to imagine. Only a tiny fraction of the plant and animals species which live there have been seen by humans and even fewer recorded by science. www.effects-of-deforestation.com

It is so huge that the atmosphere of the planet would change dramatically if it were destroyed. It takes in so much carbon dioxide that it is currently the largest factor in preventing global warming. However with more and more of the Amazon being destroyed by deforestation this may change. The effects of loosing the Amazon on the planet would be on scale simply incomparable to current figures on climate change. The massive levels of carbon dioxide released would cause the planets temperature to rocket causing untold catastrophe.

The Roots of Deforestation in the Amazon

Every year gigantic areas of the Amazon are cut down or burned to make way for agriculture. Small farmers do it to provide food for an impoverished people whilst large companies do it on a much larger scale. Logging also plays a huge part on a small scale locals use the wood to build and to use as fuel whilst large companies again do the same on a much larger scale. Local use of the forest doesn't have much impact and the clearer areas grow back quickly once left but the large scale destruction by big corporations has a lasting effect in permanently reducing the forest in size and splitting it in to smaller and smaller remnants. This causes animal and plant species that can never be brought back to become extinct as their habitat changes or is destroyed. The massive demands these companies make mean that the land is quickly depleted and little can grow or recover on this land. Humans can have a devastating effect on the environment.

The Outcome of Deforestation in the Amazon

The Amazon is a unique and vital natural resource, where will we get wood once it and forests like it are gone. We need to work with nature in a sustainable way to preserve the wonders and life giving properties of this ecosystem. The destruction of the Amazon would result in widespread flooding (worlds largest river system and flood plain), massive climate change resulting in the deaths of millions and the vast resources and natural treasures of the Amazon (most not yet discovered) being lost. Including plants with medicinal properties, which may hold the key to curing many currently difficult to treat illnesses. The Amazon protects not only from floods but drought, soil erosion and thus famine.

The homes of the tribal people who live there will also be lost, some previously unknown tribes. People who have had no contact with the modern world were
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recently seen shooting arrows at a plane that went overhead, they too will be affected and could loose their home and way of life. Finally we will loose one of the worlds most spectacular natural wonders leaving the world a poorer place for our descendants if they manage to survive in the changed planet we leave behind.

Deforestation Facts
The Planet's forests and woodlands are under and ever increasing pressure from deforestation, to provide timber for the lumber and paper trades. Land for development, agriculture as well as activities such as mining and hydropower. These pressures show no sign of stopping or slowing down. Such activities threaten the way of life of the indigenous peoples and the lives of the dazzling array of plants and animals that live there causing extinction on a massive scale. So why is deforestation on the increase? Greed and the need to feed and provide for an ever-increasing human population. Yet there is such waste if we used the world's resources sustainably we could provide plenty for all and still protect the balance of nature. But while once fertile land turns to dust, we cut down more forests to replace it and we have only ourselves to blame. Nature strikes back in a variety of ways, fires, storms, cyclones, flooding and drought are just a few, yet we are the cause of it all, nature is simply responding to the conditions we create by releasing carbon dioxide. Forests provide protection from these disasters by taking in green house gasses, slowing down climate change yet we still cut them down hastening our own demise. Forests are also instrumental in preventing flooding and drought by acting as sponges that absorb water when there is a lot and are able to retain it when there is little.

The Truth of how our Forests Disappear

We are destroying the last of our precious natural resources, just as we are beginning to wake up to how vital they are. Rainforest once covered 14% of the land now it's down to a mere 6%.Scientists predict that the rest could disappear in less than 40 years.

Thousands of acres are cut down each second with dire consequences for the countries involved and the planet as a whole. rest could disappear in less than 40 years. Thousands of acres are cut down each second with dire consequences for the countries involved and the planet as a whole.
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groups of plant species) and as these plants disappear before science can record them so does the opportunity to gain useful knowledge and possible medical cures. Currently 121 registered drugs are produced from plants, 25% of pharmaceutical ingredients come from forests, yet not even 1% of the world's flora has been tested for medicinal properties and we are rapidly loosing the chance to do so. 50% of the world's flora and fauna is thought to be vulnerable to extinction in the near future.

Mankind's Drive to save Nature

If we don't stop abusing nature then its total annihilation (us included) is the only possible outcome. Yet nature is resilient and the possibility of repairing the damage is within our reach if only we take the big steps necessary to make amends. Sustainable use of the world's forests will allow nature and it's life-giving properties to flourish whilst providing everything we need. Balancing the needs of every living thing with capitalism is never easy but even the greediest corporation has to sit up and listen if we make a stand. It will be too late when resources start to dry up so dont wait for governments and big corporations to get on board but support the green moment now. We are now aware of the damage our actions are having and it will be our biggest test to see if we can change in time to save the planet. The Earth can provide for us endlessly if only we work with her and not against.

How to Stop Deforestation

Satellite images of what until only a few years ago was a rich and abundant rainforest teaming with life, thousands of creatures per square meter, some rare, some endangered, some never seen by human eyes. Now show nothing but a deserted and desolate arid wasteland upon which little grows next to a track that heavy trucks use to cart timber and equipment from the remaining patch of forest now miles away. The statistics are equally desolate 80% of all forested areas have been compromised since 2003. As deforestation

continues unabated the remaining pockets of forest get smaller and smaller and more widely dispersed. Controlling deforestation is a divisive issue. We can plot the rate of the rainforests disappearance, but are we simply plotting our own demise. If we are no careful we may find nature flourishing without us there to witness it.
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Only now are we waking up to the fact that we need to do something and fast as it may already be too late. If we don't act then all life on the planet may be at risk. Forests are the lungs of the planet keeping the atmosphere supplied with oxygen and taking out carbon dioxide and storing it in the plant's cells. This finely tuned system is being affected by man as once a tree is burned carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere and with far fewer trees much less oxygen is being released. This system is what makes the planet habitable for all life. We should be thanking and preserving the forests for this life giving service not destroying and abusing it. We need to restore this natural balance before things get out of control.

Simple things you can do to preserve the plant

Though distant forests seem miles away from your life living in the urban or suburban sprawl the choise you make daily influence the lives of

plants and creatures on every continent. One example of this is palm oil, used in a wide variety of products found on your
supermarket shelf. Palm oil comes from the Indonesian islands such as Borneo, where rainforest is cut down to supply room for evermore of this crop. Without the heavy canopy and root system of the rainforest the soil quickly erodes and nothing can grow not even oil palms so more land has to be found. This trade is quickly driving the orangutan to extinction in the wild. A simple choice not to buy products containing palm oil can make a huge difference. This is just one example among many but by being aware of where the things you buy and use daily come from and how they are produced allows you to make

decisions, which will help save the planet. The two simple rules are buying local (less food miles) and buy only sustainable or recyclable products. Other things you can do include using energy and fuel efficiently and as little as possible by making our home, work and transport as carbon neutral as possible. Minimizing our carbon footprint doesn't mean cycling everywhere or sitting in a cold damp house through the winter, it just means not wasting energy; by not leaving electric items on standby and switching off what we don't need.
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Making sure our appliances and cars are as efficient and environmentally friendly as possible and going for those green energy tariffs. One thing we can all do is lobby government to make the necessary large-scale changes in legislation needed to preserve the environment. However there is no need to wait for government action, you have the power to act now!

Future Paths
The deforestation of the planet will only stop if enough people say No! The decision rests with humanity; the consequences of this decision are immense and will influence the lives and deaths of millions. Many thousands of lives have already been lost to global warming and preserving the forests may be the factor that tips the scales back into our favor.