[ about ]

October 5, 2006 at 1:47 am (Information)

This blog, or rather… information archive was created so that a few articles about the different effects that deforestation has on the environment, what can we do to stop it and exactly how it works, to begin with.

Questions such as ‘When did it start?’, ‘Who started it’?, ‘What’s causing it?’, ‘What are some major factors that could be changed in order to make this a much smoother transition for the environment’, and a few more will be answered within this archive.

Please note that this is part of a school project and there wouldn’t be much of a point in trying to plagiarize something like this so… don’t do it. Thanks.

Comments Off

[ deforestation ]

October 5, 2006 at 12:52 am (Consequences, Deforestation, Information, Stats)

In jot form… here’s what deforestation mainly is and what it affects, in general.

- conversion of forested areas to non-forests

- removal of forests resulted in a degraded environment with reduced biodiversity (the diversity of life)

- it can also shape climate and geography

- result of the removal of trees without sufficient reforestation

- causes include slow forest degradation, sudden and catastrophic wildfires

- it can also be because of deliberate removal of forest cover for agriculture or urban development or unintentional consequence of uncontrolled grazing

- combined effect of grazing and fires can be a major cause of deforestation in dry areas

- edge effects and habitat fragmentation can greatly magnify the effects of deforestation

- deforestation alters the hydrologic cycle

- increases or decreases the amount of water in the soil and groundwater and the moisture in the atmosphere

- valuable habitat for wild mushrooms and medicinal conservation and the recharge of aquifers

- shrinking forest cover lessens the landscape’s capacity to intercept, retain and transport precipitation and weather

- shrinking forest cover lessens the landscape’s capacity to intercept, retain and transport precipitation and weather

- lessens atmospheric moisture which in some cases affects precipitation levels downwind from the deforested area

Comments Off

[ consequences of deforestation ]

October 4, 2006 at 12:35 am (Consequences, Deforestation)

 

Because of deforestation our earth is suffering in a number of ways

-the amount of precipitation goes up or down

-new medications are being lost forever, i.e. taxol

-flash floods start happening

-the natural storing of carbon will stop

-the air will be polluted even more than now without the trees to filter it

-a stable biosphere will no longer exist.

-erosion will thrive

-tree roots bind the soil together, without roots landslides will occur.

-numerous amounts of animals will die from their habitats being taken away.

Deforestation is killing and putting more and more animals on the endangered species list, especially animals that live in the rain forest. If you go and think back to the food chain, by killing animals in the trees you are not only killing them and destroying their homes, but you are also killing the animals that eat the animals that live in the trees, in turn by killing those animals you kill off the animals that eat them and so on. It is a never-ending chain of species of plants and animals dying, eventually this chain of endangerment and extinction will catch up to people. So by helping save our forests and the animals that have made their homes there you’re also helping yourself in the long run.

Comments Off

[ statistics in the last 10-30 years ]

October 2, 2006 at 11:36 pm (Deforestation, Information, Stats)

Since the world wide demand for wood has increased significantly because of the furniture and paper, along with construction all of our world’s forests are being chopped down. The need for wood and agricultural developments in Mexico, Brazil and Indonesia has caused it to move into the rainforest zone. In between the period of 1960 to 1990 one fifth of the world has been destroyed. For a comparison of how major this is, the world’s population to date is approximately 6,446,131,400 people, now if it were in the same situation as the rainforest right now 1,289,226,280 people would be dead. At the rate deforestation is going the rainforests should be completely gone by 2090.

Since the threat of deforestation is so real and close to where we are today, there are forest management programs being put up to protect what precious rainforest we have left.

Of course, it is not just or rainforests that are in danger, other normal forest and trees are also in danger. Fortunately, afforestation is in affect. Basically afforestation is just the opposite of deforestation. In China it is required by law for every able bodied citizen from the ages of 11 to 60 is to plant three to five trees a year. According to the Chinese government, they say at least one billion trees have been planted since 1982.

Lastly, because of deforestation the amount of precipitation in China has decreased by one third between the 1950’s and the 1980’s. It’s only going to get worse if we don’t look out for the forests we still have.

Comments Off

[ comic strips ]

October 2, 2006 at 11:30 pm (Consequences, Deforestation, Drawings, Solutions)

This comic strip was also created for part of our project and… it pretty much speaks for itself.

There’s another one here which will also explain the results of deforestation further.

Comments Off

[ book article ]

October 2, 2006 at 11:13 pm (Articles, Consequences, Deforestation)

One thing that has been a result of this and a perfect example as to why we should stop this is Ethiopia. Ethiopia was once covered with rainforests and now it is a barren desert. People still try to farm there but because of the frequent droughts the result is famine, which kills thousands of people. It’s not only Ethiopia that has been effected by the cutting of the rainforest, Thailand, Bangladesh, and the Philippines are having heavy rainfall which is a disaster.


Comments Off

[ newspaper article #1 ]

October 2, 2006 at 11:01 pm (Articles, Consequences, Deforestation, Information, Stats)

Back in May of 2004, a team of U.S. and Brazilian scientists did research and came to the conclusion that the rate of deforestation has increased in Brazilian Amazonia since 1990. They also predicted that the deforestation in that particular area will keep increasing more and more over the years. The only way that this could be changed is if the Brazilian Government changes the ways in which they plan for highway and infrastructure expansion.

Deforestation increased the most in the southern and eastern parts of the Amazon because rainforests are more seasonal and that way they burn a lot easier. During the last two years, back then, they realized that almost 12 million acres of rainforests have been destroyed which is equal to 11 football fields per minute.

The team mentioned the fact that one of the main reasons due to deforestation is simply because of the Brazilian government policies and because in the year 2000, Brazil announced that they will become the largest infrastructure-expansion plan in the history of the Amazon. The projects within this development included highways, roads, power lines, gas lines, hydroelectric reservoirs, railroads, and river-canalization projects. Because of these on-going projects, it had increased access for loggers and colonists into the forests.

Once the public started alarming over the fact that the deforestation trends were getting worse and worse as each day went by, the Brazilian government came up with more strict measures in order to slow down this process. They did this through increased satellite monitoring of deforestation, and the involvement of additional government ministries in efforts to reduce illegal deforestation and forest burning.

The research team, however, said that these measures aren’t nearly enough because they don’t actually have anything to do with one of the biggest problems as to why deforestation is caused. This being the fact that with the development of new highways and the like, it penetrates deep down into a roots and heart of the Amazon rainforests which causes a lot of damage.

Comments Off

[ newspaper article #2 ]

October 2, 2006 at 10:59 pm (Articles, Consequences, Deforestation, Information)

A study done by biologists and climatologists at the University of California, Berkeley shows that trees, especially the ones with very deep roots affect the climate in a lot more ways that they had first thought it would.

Plants and trees are necessary in our environment so that the air gets filtered out of the excess carbon dioxide and we get something more pure, fresh, and healthy. Considering the fact that the Amazon is one of the largest areas covered in forests in the world, and that deforestation around that area keeps increasing more and more, it will impact both the environment around and also the climate.

Also, the trees and some of the plants there store water from the rainy season for the dry season, which might also result in decreased photosynthesis for the plants and trees during the next dry season.

Comments Off

[ solutions ]

October 2, 2006 at 10:47 pm (Deforestation, Solutions)

What is the answer to this ongoing threat of losing our precious forests? Well, my partner and I believe that if we follow suit with the Chinese by planting lots of trees each year, but not just this. It’s not good enough to just plant trees. While this will help immensely trees take hundreds of years to grow to a healthy sturdy state (if they can make it that far before they get some type of disease or chopped into fire wood) so they cannot have a fighting chance unless we protect our trees by putting on a larger limit for how much are allowed to be cut down. We should definitely without a doubt protect our rainforests, for they are fighting a losing battle. All destruction of trees in the rainforest should be halted completely. They should be put on the endangered species list until the rainforest can grow back and is able to grow at a steady rate.

We realize that doing this would cause us to have to give up a few things that we are so used to having and at times take for granted. What you have to think about is this: would you rather have a healthy and safe environment for all of our generations to come, or a new wooden chair? Think about it and then maybe we can save our trees, for good.

Comments Off

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.