Deforestation and Habitat Loss. Do We Really Need Trees? Apparently Not.

Out of all the land on the Earth, only 30% is covered  by trees, and only 20% by grass. This boggles my mind considering not long ago (in the long run) the majority of the world was covered in vegetation, minus the rock and ice. Groups of trees, approximately the size of Panama are cut down each and every year. It makes sense that in the future, the amount of deforestation will increase as the population increases and more wood is needed to build things such as houses or provide space for farming, etc. If we continued at the current rate, and did not increase the amount of trees that we cut down at all in the next hundred years, the world's rainforests will have completely vanished. Logging operations, which provide the world’s wood and paper products, also cut countless trees each year. Loggers, some of them acting illegally, also build roads to access more and more remote forests—which leads to further deforestation.

While deforestation is harmful to our environment in many ways, the largest impact it has had is on the animals that call these forests their home. 70% of the land animals on earth live in forests and cannot survive without them.

If that isn't enough, deforestation also impacts the climate severely. Forest soils are moist, but without protection from sun-blocking tree cover they will quickly dry out. Trees also help perpetuate the water cycle by returning water vapor into the atmosphere. Without trees to fill these roles, many former forest lands will quickly become barren deserts. Removing vast amounts of trees robs the land of shelter from the sun during the day, and inables them to trap in heat during the night- leading to more extreme temperature swings; affecting thousands of species.

But every problem we have seems to lead back to global warming, doesn't it? People are probably tired of hearing it, but losing trees will critically advance the effects of global warming. Trees absorb significant amounts of greenhouse gases (the cause of the heating of the planet and depletion of the ozone layer), in turn, a grotesque amount of greenhouse gases would be allowed into the atmosphere, thereby increasing the speed and severity of global warming.

The biodiversity of the Amazon is threatened more than ever, with statistics revealing that the land covered by forest will be a mere 10% of what it is today by 2030. The problem with telling people what the world will be like in 20 years is that people are convinced that things will "never get that bad". So what if I told you that there are places around the world that were once thriving with untouched forest land that now stands tree-less? For example, Nigeria has now permanently lost 80% of its forests, Brazil has lost 90-95% of its forests, and harvesting of forest cover has left Afghanistan with less than 25% of its' original forest.



The loss of trees will not be the end of our problems if we do not stop this process. Not only will we face problems with our air (as trees release significant amounts of the oxygen that we breathe), but trees leave the ground moist and fertile. Without them, only a fraction of the plants that grow today would be able to grow without the presence of trees. Thus, leaving us with only a fraction of the fruits and vegetables that we have today to eat. The loss of trees would essentially eliminate almost all plant life on earth, and leave the ground dry, resulting in soil-erosion. This meaning that you would be unable to grow anything, and it would be subject to things like severe flooding as it would not absorb water. With the loss of plants comes the loss of species and the starvation of humans.

Over utilization of forest products and logging has resulted in increased dependancy and in turn is exposing us to environmental issues associated with the large scale deforestation in the absence of an afforestation program (restoration of destroyed forests and cleared land) in place. Finding a way to restore the forests that have been destroyed at the same time preserving the forests that still stand and meet our needs of wood products would impact our planet hugely, and in turn, promote the growth of both plant and animal life on Earth.


Bulldozer found clearing protected forest where video footage of baby tigers was filmed just days earlier by WWF.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=iv&v=Fu-6taW9JNk&annotation_id=annotation_593937