Inquiry Based Essay

Ahmed Iftiak

Samantha Bellamy

English 110

October 24, 2019

Deforestation

(What are the cause and effects of deforestation and what can we do about it?)

          Global warming is real, and we can’t ignore it. One way or another Global warming will affect our life. Most people say that Global warming will affect future generations, but nobody realizes that we are the future generation. There are many factors involve in Global Warming, deforestation is one of them. Deforestation is the removal of a forest or stand of the tree where the land is thereafter converted to a non-forest use. Forest accounts for a 30% carbon cycle and cutting down or burning forests not just disrupts this cycle. Deforestation is widely known, but most people don’t know the real reason behind this issue, like deforestation in the Amazon, and the recent wildfires. The effect of deforestation is increasing the rate of Global Warming and the cause of the extinction of biodiversity in the forest. These are not only the cause and effect of deforestation, but there are also many more. The sad part is that we all are involved in deforestation without knowing it, but we are not acting either to solve this situation or to prevent it from being overwhelming.

There are many reasons why deforestation occurs, one of them is wildfire. This year there are record-breaking fires in the Amazon. Most of the wildfires in the forest occurs naturally because of the high temperature and droughts, but Amazon rain forest is exceptional, in the New York Times article What We Know About the Thousands of Fires in the Amazon, the Planet’s ‘Lungs’ states that “Natural fires in the Amazon are rare, and the majority of these fires were set by farmers preparing Amazon-adjacent farmland for next year’s crops and pasture”. (Symonds). We are setting those fire for our needs, forgetting about the environment, also not caring about the dangers that come because of deforestation like local flooding and mudslide. Showing that we are ignorant and care about only ourselves and our current state. And we are not just setting fires to clear the forest for farming, we cut down trees for wood, clear land for infrastructure like malls, factories, and for housing. We, humans, are the cause of deforestation, we are creating our doomsday. The fire in the Amazon is unlike we have seen before. On the same article, it states that “INPE’s figures represent a 79 percent increase in fires from the same period in 2018” (Symonds). This, not a small increase if last year there were 100 fire this year there are 179 fires almost double. One-way deforestation causing Global Warming and another way Global Warming causing deforestation but not the way you might think.

As I mentioned that one of the causes of Global Warming is deforestation, but Global Warming tied to the fires as well, but differently, the article state that “These fires were not caused by climate change. They were set by humans. However, climate change can make fires worse. Fires can burn hotter and spread more quickly under warmer and drier conditions”. (Symonds. Hot weather means low moister in the air so the leaves and tree trunks that in the ground of the forest are dry but, in a rain-forest, those leaves, and trunks are usually wet because of moister. Without moister, everything is dry so it’s easier to catch fire. Because of this, it is easier to set fire in the forest, making the human job much simple. The magnitude of this issue is unpredictable, we are losing forest every day and it is affecting the climate badly “Last year, the world lost about 30 million acres of tree cover, including 8.9 million acres of the primary rain forest, an area the size of Belgium, according to data from the University of Maryland.” (Symonds). Losing the forest is harmful to the whole plant. It’s may not be the Planet’s lungs, but the forest does contribute to removing forest pollution from the air. But the numbers of deforestation are growing every day and the wildfires are not the only cause of deforestation, other factors are involved in deforestation.

After cutting down a forest or setting fire the deforested land not only used for infrastructure or farming crops, but it also used for livestock. As the demand for meat increases the need for more land for the cattle ranch rises as well. In the Washington Post How beef demand is accelerating the Amazon’s deforestation and climate peril. state that “cattle ranchers in the Brazilian Amazon …single the biggest driver of the Amazon’s deforestation, causing about 80 percent of it, according to the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies” (Ingraham) increasing the demand of the beef drives deforestation much faster, as the beef production increase more and more land required for the livestock so the cattle rancher make more space by clearing the forest. The beef industry is one of the biggest causes of deforestation. The same article state that “From 2010 to 2017, beef exports climbed 25 percent…according to the Brazilian Beef Exporters Association. To accommodate that growth, cattle ranchers have been pushing their herds into the Amazon… Today, nearly 40 percent of Brazil’s cattle population is in the Amazon region, according to government data”. (Ingraham) the growth of the beef industry is not good for Amazon because Brazil is the biggest beef exporter. Because of the high demand beef industry turn to the illegal farmer who grows livestock’s in the forest illegally. Deforestation caused by this illegal farmer is much worse, instead of cutting down trees in a controlled manner they set fires which burn down more area than they need. And this is not just happening in the Amazon, it’s happening everywhere. People cutting down and burning forests without any control or ethics, causing mass destruction to the environment.

So far, I have been talking about the cause of deforestation and there are many other reasons for deforestation. It is also important to learn about the effect. How it affects the forest ecosystem, our life, and global temperature? Because of the tree removal, the ecosystem of the forest is greatly affected. Thousands of animals live in the forest and some of them are endangered species. A Pakistani magazine article DEFORESTATION STIFLES BIODIVERSITY states that “the removal of trees without sufficient reforestation has resulted in damage to habitat, biodiversity, and aridity… Due to massive deforestation, about 50 to 100 species of animals are lost each day.” (Badar). Animals are in front of the fire caused by humans. There are thousands of animals are facing extinction because humans are cut down their homes every day. If somebody came and set your home on fire how would feel? You will be devastated, we are doing the same thing to them. We must protect the forest to save the animals that are going extinct because of our selfish acts.

I have mentioned numerous times that deforestation is one of the causes of Global Warming. But how it affects global temperature? Deforestation not only affects the carbon cycle, but it also releases the carbon stored in the trees in the atmosphere. The tree absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, which used to produce require nutrition for the tree, also release oxygen in the process and the process called photosynthesis, which is using sunlight and CO2 to produce Glucose and Oxygen is the by-product. When a tree brunt (burning occurs when Carbon reacts with Oxygen in the air and produces CO2) or left to rot on the ground causing it to release the stored carbon in the back into the air increasing the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere. And less tree also means low carbon absorption. since CO2 is a greenhouse gas, which traps heat that supposed to re-radiate way into space. The earth absorbs heat from the sun, which then re-emitted into space as infrared radiation. But some of it absorbed by the greenhouse gas, which makes the earth’s ideal temperature otherwise it would have been colder. But when the concentration of greenhouse increases the temperature increases as well. Increasing the overall temperature of the Planet. The Pakistani magazine article also states that “Tropical deforestation is responsible for approximately 20 percent of world greenhouse gas emissions” (Badar). As the rate of deforestation increases the rate of increase in temperature also increases and that going to reflect on Climate change.

We might think that deforestation going to affect only local temperature. But the effect of deforestation on temperature is both local and global and there are many studies has been done to examine the effects. On a study called Impacts of forestation and deforestation on local temperatures across the globe. state that “In tropical regions, impacts of deforestation on local climate were higher than that of forestation (0.38°C versus -0.18°C, respectively), because forest loss was more expensive than forest gain” (Prevedello). the graph provides more information on the effect of deforestation and afforestation on the temperature. The major of deforestation and forestation on tropical and temperate regions than boreal regions. Tropical regions are near the equator, and near equator regions, most of the rainforest are found. That explains the greater temperature difference in the tropical areas. And the temperate regions are in between tropical and polar region which is also affected by deforestation and afforestation. Which explains the effect of deforestation around the world and it does not just affect local temperature. The data form the study prompt that we should plant more trees and work against deforestation. Many other factors are affected by deforestation that affecting our life as well.

Another effect of deforestation is the flood that causes because of the disrupted water cycle. You might think that how it’s related to flooding and water. The magazine article DEFORESTATION STIFLES BIODIVERSITY farther states that “One of the vital functions of forests is to absorb and store great amounts of water quickly when there are heavy rains. When forests are cut down, this regulation of the flow of water is disrupted, which leads to alternating periods of flood and then droughts in the affected area” (Badar). They not just absorb the excess water and store it. Trees absorb water from the ground to get the nutrients that need to grow but they don’t use all the water, most of the water released back into the air as water vapor, this process called transpiration. And this function plays a vital role in the cloud formation and rain, and one of the sources of fresh drinkable water because when evaporation occurs it purifies the water which then rains back. But because of deforestation in places where there is no nearby water body, that can greatly affect the rainfall in that region. And this led to desertification, without trees and rain the land become desert, making the land not useful for anything. This effect can be much worse for places where already leak freshwater. There also some debate and miscommunication about the issue related to deforestation.

One of the debates is that deforestation contributes to flooding and soil erosion. In the article The Great Flood Myth: the author states that “There is not a shred of scientific evidence to suggest that logging or deforestation play significant roles in massive floods. And the myth is doing great damage to farmers who need forests to survive” (Kaimowitz). This is surprising because in the last paragraph I mentioned that deforestation is involved in flood and soil erosion, but maybe other reasons cause massive floods. The author clarifies that deforestation is contributing to localized flood, but the big flood tends to occur when it rains everywhere at the same time and soil cannot absorb any more water, so with or without forest water runs off into already filled streams. And trees do prevent small scale mudslide, but they have little effects on huge landslides. The author also states that because of soil erosion build-up silt in the rivers causes water to run over the river line. Calling the major flood solo effect of deforestation causes small farmers and loggers to lose their source of income but overall it does have local flooding which can be proven through planting trees. There are other misunderstandings about deforestation.

Some misunderstandings could be used to prevent deforestation and some misunderstanding that could be used to promote deforestation. Another Washington Post article “Five myths about tropical rainforests” state some myths. The 1st misunderstandings is that “logging companies drive deforestation” (Weisse) which is true because they cut down trees and clear forest for wood, but the myth is that logging is a primary driver of deforestation and in the top four, but reality, loggers are only responsible for 10% which is not ignorable but loggers cut down trees in control manner selectively useful tree unlike clearing the whole land by setting the fire. But that doesn’t make them good, they should be accountable for the destruction of the forecast. They can make it right by planting new trees in the same place. 2nd myth is that “The Amazon rainforest functions as the Earth’s ‘lungs… And produce 20% of our planet’s oxygen” (Weisse) the Amazon does produce oxygen and absorb CO2, but the oxygen that produced it used by rainforest itself. We can still call the Amazon as a vacuum that sucks the CO2 out of the air (which by the way released by factories, cars, and fires) and store it as trees. This is understating can n be used as a good myth because calling Amazon as earth lungs make to pay more attention and care for the forest. These myths can be used to raise awareness among people who have less knowledge about this situation. But that doesn’t mean that we should spread lies and feed people the wrong information about the forest. Spreading the truth is the right way to prevent deforestation.

In the last paragraph, I highlighted the misunderstanding that could help to prevent deforestation but that is not the right way to do it. Other myths are that it could be used to promote deforestation instead of preventing it. The same article “Five myths about tropical rainforests” states that “The rainforest is uninhabited wilderness… the tropical rainforest is “virgin” and “untouched” (Weisse) the truth is Amazon occupied by local Indigenous people and the Indigenous territories protect the Amazon, but the myth is harmful to these people. This myth can be used to raise fair among people that Amazon is not safe, and we should make it habitable. But this will disrupt the ecosystem that thrives in the Amazon and we should leave it as is. The 4th myth is “Tropical rainforests are doomed.” (Weisse) this myth bad for the forest because it sounds hopeless and we fail to save the forest, but there is still time and we can make it better. If we act now there many ways, we can save the forest. The article state that some countries have managed to reduce deforestation and we can stop deforestation by law enforcement. The 5th one is the most controversial “We need to clear rainforest to feed the world” (Weisse) unlike other, this myth promotes deforestation for agricultural reasons that going to be harmful to the rainforest. This another cause of deforestation and most of the deforestation is occurring because some people believe that the forest lands are wasted, and we should use it for food production. But it does not make sense because we waste more food than we consume. We live in a world where devolve countries have a surplus of food and poor countries can even provide food for everyone. We already have caused enough problems and this kind of myth makes it worse. As I mention we should spread truth no matter how harmful or helpful the truth is. Now it is time to do something for good.

The solutions for deforestation are simple and effective, but not easy to enforce. One way to stop deforestation is by making laws. A website called Reducing tropical deforestation: states that “establishment of protected areas, law enforcement, the presence of indigenous peoples, and payment for ecosystem services are associated with slowing forest loss” (Seymour). Laws are most effective against illegal deforestation. Laws like banning logging in a protected forest, investigating wildfires to see if that caused by humans or not, keeping an eye on farmer or business to prevent illegal activities in the forest or cutting trees to clear land. But it is hard to enforce these laws because electing and convincing the political leader to act on the favor of nature is hard and often not good for the economy. If the government is unwilling to make any law to stop, we should protest to force the government to make the laws.

There are other ways to protect forests like REDD which is an organization called Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation mentioned in the website article, which works to reduce deforestation. In a video, I watched state that the forest needs for making drugs used to treat disease, and the Amazon rainforest influences rainfall in the United State which makes it a remote problem but global effects. The video also some other reasons and impacts that I have discussed already. Palm oil is another driver of deforestation and it also involves CO2 emission. The video also discusses the Norwegian government given Indonesia billion dollars for protecting the forest. We can all do that to protect the forest, by donating a small amount of money to the organization that fights to protect trees and plants all over the world, which is an influential way to do something about this issue. This mouth same YouTubers start a collaboration to Plant 20 million trees by the end of this year and they are also donating a big amount of money to a tree-planting organization called Arbor Day Foundation. The movement is called #teamtree, 1 dollar equal to 1 tree. So, work against deforestation and support forestation to reverse the effect that already being done.

 

 

 

 

Work cited

  • News article: Symonds, Alexandria. “What We Know About the Thousands of Fires in the Amazon, the Planet’s ‘Lungs’.” New York Times, 24 Aug. 2019, p. A8(L). Gale OneFile: News

https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A597229139/STND?u=cuny_ccny&sid=STND&xid=6f432205. Accessed on 21 Sept. 2019

 

 

 

 

 

  • Academic article: Kaimowitz, David. “The great flood myth: cutting down trees contributes to local flooding and soil erosion. But the claim that deforestation leads to big floods is bad science, and it is ruining the lives of poor farmers.” New Scientist, 19 June 2004, p. 18. Gale Academic OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A118893419/AONE?u=cuny_ccny&sid=AONE&xid=679a3760. Accessed 21 Oct. 2019.

 

 

 

 

 

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