Deforestation
- is clearing Earth's forests on a massive scale, often resulting in damage to the quality of the land. 
Forests cover roughly 30% of the world's land. Unfortunately, the current rate of deforestation would eliminate the world's rain forests in just one hundred years. Our future generations won't have the opportunity to enjoy the rain forest for all its splendor and glory. Can you image visiting a place like Costa Rica and instead of acres and acres of rain forests, all that remains is flattened treeless land?
The National Geographic has written extensive articles on this topic. Here is some of what they have to say:
"Deforestation has many negative effects on the environment. The most dramatic impact is a loss of habitat for millions of species. Seventy percent of Earth’s land animals and plants live in forests, and many cannot survive the deforestation that destroys their homes."
"Deforestation also drives climate change. Forest soils are moist, but without protection from sun-blocking tree cover they quickly dry out. Trees also help perpetuate the water cycle by returning water vapor back into the atmosphere. Without trees to fill these roles, many former forest lands can quickly become barren deserts."
"Trees also 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 increased speed and severity of global warming."
The solution to deforestation; stop cutting down trees and start planting more trees. Each country needs to be held accountable for allowing illegal logging and excessive deforestation. The solution will require countries to look beyond the short sighted financial benefit of selling trees and consider the lives of our future generations. Human activity can change and it must change in order to preserve one of the greatest natural wonders of the world: Rain forests.
Deforestation is a perfect segway into the next letter: G is for Global Warming!! Stay tune :)
5 comments:
I'm wondering what you think we can/should individually do about this.
1. Plant trees, 2. Recycling and reuse, there will be less dependence on paper products and less demand for trees 3. Become informed...ignorance is not bliss 4. Help pass laws to prevent excess deforestation and/or laws requiring loggers to plant new trees where they cut down trees.... just to name a few.
Krista! I love your A-Z series. Nobody can do everything, but everyone can do something!
This post really resonated with me as I had a personal experience with deforestation (random, I know).
My husband served his mission in Brasil, and we went back after graduating college to visit friends and families he knew there. One friend, a really nice guy and active member, as well as an ambitious entrepreneur, was interested in doing business here in the U.S. He has started a company that built advertising boards around Sao Paulo, and hoped he could do something similar here.
My husband would love to be involved in a start up, so he was eager to discuss the business prospect. One primary area of concern however, was how they were going to afford the materials needed to build these advertising "stations”. We were both surprised, however, when our friend told us he had family with ranching land near the Amazon, and that they could easily get an abundance of Amazon lumber and ship it in. This would be cheap, but also illegal. He told us, however, the way around it was to brand the lumber with a logo from a southern region, so it would look like it came from non-restricted forest land. "No big deal" he said. I remember feeling so confused as to why he would want to contribute to the destruction of the Amazon, the pride and joy of his own country. We discovered we cared far more about it than he did, what was driving him (and many others) was the business prospect. In places like Brasil where poverty is abundant and getting by is a luxury, they are naturally more worried about feeding their families than considering the ramifications of things like deforestation. Today the rainforest in Brasil is being cut down for sugarcane fields, because of the new U.S demand for corn ethanol. They shifted their old sugarcane fields to corn for our business (as the US has gone gung-ho on the corn ethanol bandwagon) and in turn have to find new places to grow what drives their economy, and also what fuels their energy (sugar cane and sugar ethanol). Unfortunately the Brazilian economy, while largely progressive is being influenced by what makes the world go round: money.
Long story short, my husband did not get into this business, and we don't think his friend ever did start exporting illegal lumber to the U.S. At least we hope. Maybe just getting the chance to express to his friend why we felt it was unethical to fraudulently-brand illegally-cut Amazon trees made a difference. I hope it did.
Martha, What a perfect story for this post. I am glad that you commented on why deforestation has increased in recent years and how impoverished locals are forced to think about their families above the future ramifications of deforestation. Maybe if the governments created jobs that employeed these same locals to replant trees in devasated areas, it might help balance this cycle. Thanks for your heart-felt comments!
I plant trees and shrubs but I also have to pay Rumpke $10 a month to recycle my recyclable garbage (which is a very limited list of what they will take). There is something wrong with that. Most people in our neighborhood don't have "red" containers for recycling because who wants to pay that extra $10? So where does their recyclables go? Right in the landfill.
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