Deforestation

Technological University

Environmental engineering

English class

Deforestation


Professor Bishop

Index
The Past ------------------------------------------------------------- 4
Deforestation and Food Insecurity -------------------------- 4 - 5
Deforestation and climate change -------------------------- 5 - 6
Deforestation and Global Warming------------------------- 7 - 8
8-Basic-Ways-of-Preventing-Deforestation ------------- 9 - 10

Introduction
By destroying the tropical forests, we risk our own quality of life, gamble with the stability of climate and local weather, threaten the existence of other species, and undermine the valuable services provided by biological diversity.
The most immediate impact of deforestation occurs at the local levelwith the loss of ecological services provided by tropical rainforests and related ecosystems. Such habitats afford humans valuable services such as erosion prevention, flood control, water treatment, fisheries protection, and pollination. Functions that are particularly important to the world's poorest people, who rely on natural resources for their everyday survival. Forest loss also reduces theavailability of renewable resources like timber, medicinal plants, nuts and fruit, and game.

Over the longer term, deforestation of tropical rainforests can have a broader impact, affecting global climate and biodiversity. These changes are more difficult to observe and forecast from local effects, since they take place over a longer time scale and can be difficult to measure.

The PastMuch of the Earth was once covered by trees, but the majority of these were cleared long ago to make way for an ever expanding human population. This is particularly true in regions with a temperate climate such as Britain and other parts of Europe where agriculture took an early hold of the landscape. Interestingly, the World Wide Forest Report found that when the Roman Empire was in control ofEurope 90% of the continent was forested, and sadly Western Europe has now lost over 99% of its primary forest. It is only in relatively recent times that the tropical forests have come under severe attack. On a global scale there was twice as much tropical forest at the turn of the 20th century as there is today, and only around 700 million of the original 1.5 billion hectares remain.Deforestation and Food Insecurity

Every living thing on earth needs forests. Forests are not only one of the most valuable natural resources but also crucial to ensure decent living conditions for all plants, animals, and humans. According to the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization, over 30 million acres (or 13 million hectares) of forests are destroyed by human activity every year. Populationgrowth, the expansion of agricultural land use, and indiscriminate logging, are all combining to push many forests to the brink of extinction. If deforestation continues at the current rate, mature natural forests in Papua New Guinea will be gone in 15 years or less and Indonesia and Myanmar, in about 10 years. The Philippines and Thailand have already logged most of their natural forests.Deforestation devastates biodiversity and natural habitats. Tropical rainforests are home to over 70% of all organisms on Earth. Beyond the devastation of many species of flora and fauna, the loss of these rainforests would deprive humans of the main source of genetic material used to develop new and improved crop varieties, as well as to protect existing food crops from pests and diseases. As an example,deforestation is detrimental to bees that play a crucial role in pollinating crops. In the last three years, billions of bees have vanished from their hives, leaving billions of dollars of crops at risk and potentially threatening our food supply. Rainforests have also been the source of about 25% of medicines essential for human and animal health. If forests disappear at their current rate, we...