Deforestation :
One of the main cause of GLOBAL WARMING that goes on unnoticed .
Trees play a major role in balancing the ecology system. Deforestation means cutting down trees for making pastures , industrial and house holding purposes , increasing human population etc. to make space. Additional tree cutting for urban purpose breaks the eco system’s balance and it is very bad for the environment. It is useless to say that deforestation has many adverse effects on the nature.
There is one major disadvantage in deforestation and that is deforestation disrupts the earth’s water cycle. Drawing up water from the soil and releasing moisture to the atmosphere are the top responsibilities of trees. Another disadvantage of deforestation is climate change and it is discussed separately . During the photosynthesis process forests lock the atmospheric carbon and trees contain a huge amount of carbon from the atmosphere.
Clearing forests may affect the environment in negative ways. Increase of carbon and other greenhouse gases are results of the clearing forests and cutting trees. Burning forests may results in emission of a huge amount of carbon dioxide into the environment . Carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases like oxide nitrogen heats the earth surface and oceans and called as global warming. Increase of the temperature may increase the sea level. Global warming cause to melting glaciers and the sea level will increase. We should take necessary steps to prevent from this damage quickly.
Deforestation: A Cause of Global Warming That Goes Unnoticed
In present clearing forests adds a huge global warming pollution to the atmosphere than all the vehicles in the world. Most of the calculations on deforestation in tropical rainforests shows that it adds more carbon dioxide to the atmosphere than the sum total of the cars and trucks on the world’s roads adds carbon to the environment. World Carfree Network (WCN), shows that vehicles account for about 14% of global carbon emissions and 15% of global carbon emissions are added from deforestation.
Logging is so bad for the climate because when trees are felled they deliver the carbon they are keeping into the atmosphere, where it mixed with greenhouse gases from other sources and causes to global warming. We should be doing as much to avoid deforestation as we are to expand fuel efficiency and decrease the amount of automobile usage.
The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) shows, a leading green group, 32 million acres of tropical rainforest has been cut down each year in 2000 to 2009 and the pace of deforestation is only increasing. EDF says that “Unless we change the present system that rewards forest destruction, forest clearing will put another 200 billion tons of carbon into the atmosphere in coming decades…,” .
EDF’s reports shows
“Any realistic plan to reduce global warming pollution sufficiently—and in time—to avoid dangerous consequences must rely in part on preserving tropical forests,” But it’s difficult to convince the poor residents of the Amazon basin and other tropical regions of the world to end cutting down trees when the forests are still worth more dead than alive. EDF says “Conservation costs money, while profits from timber, charcoal, pasture and cropland drive people to cut down forests,” . Exacerbating global warming is not the only negative impact of tropical deforestation. It also removes biodiversity which means more than half of the earth’s plants and animal species lives in tropical rainforests.
One way some of the tropical countries are decreasing deforestation with the participation in the United Nations’ Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) program. REDD works and helps to establish incentives for the ones who like for the forest to manage it sustainably and still being able to give advantages economically.
As examples using small land and cutting few amount of trees for activities like coffee growing and meat and milk production. Participating nations can then accrue and sell carbon pollution credits when they can prove they have lowered deforestation below a baseline. The REDD program has channeled more than $117 million in direct financial aid and educational support into national deforestation decrease efforts in 44 developing countries through Africa, Asia and Latin America since its 2008 inception.
Brazil is between the countries embracing REDD among other efforts to decrease carbon emissions. Because of the program, Brazil has slowed deforestation within its borders by 40% since 2008 and is on track to achieve an 80% decreased by 2020. Environmentalists are optimistic that the initial success of REDD in Brazil bodes well for decreasing deforestation in other parts of the tropics as well.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/deforestation-and-global-warming/
