Deforestation is the act of clearing out of a forest or wide area of trees for the purpose of converting the land to farmland or for other urban uses. The trees are used to provide the lumber to build power plants, factories, shops, housing for humans and more. The effects that deforestation is having on the planet are widespread and are taking their toll on our rainforests, our environmental health, our climate and on hundreds of thousands of animals and creatures that depend on these areas to live, hunt, breed and thrive. Canopies and tree cover of the forests shelter the land below. Trees proving housing and shelter to thousands of animals, rodents, and insects. The problem with deforestation is that it has the ability to impact the world on a larger scale than can be incomprehensible without fully looking at scientific evidence and research. Studies following the changes in the earth and the land before and after an area is cleared shown that areas that have undergone deforestation suffer an increase in environmental pollutants, rapid extinction, rising water temperatures and more.
Deforestation causes devastating ecological and environmental damage. According to multiple academic journals and peer-reviewed sources, deforestation is one of the major causes of global warming as well as other detrimental environmental changes. According to previous research, one way to stop or prevent global warming is by preventing deforestation. Studies have concluded that deforestation releases gases such as CO2 into the atmosphere, which exerts a warming influence on the Earth’s climate and thus begins the global warming cycle by warming up waters as well as polar caps that historically are cold. “ Catchment deforestation is one of the most important threats to stream ecosystems worldwide (Allan, Vörösmarty), with tropical streams currently experiencing particularly fast rates of deforestation (Fugère, Nyboer, Bleecker, & Chapman, 2016).” Deforestation is a major issue that is causing global warming due to the chemicals emitted, lack of shelter for animals and lack of covering/shade in places that used to require it leaving the water and grounds to heat.
The loss of specific tree cover in the rain, Amazonian and other forests are associated with the increases in which solar energy may cause a rise in water and ground temperature. According to several studies on the effects of deforestation, research proves that it is directly linked to the rise in water temperature. “For example, some authors have found a 4°C difference in mean water temperature between forested and agricultural streams in tropical regions (Carlson et al., 2014; Macedo et al., 2013).” A loss of woody debris and tree covering can impact fish as well as other invertebrates as well as their food chains for the tree covering keeps water temperatures consistent and without them there is no way to regulate the water temperatures as well as sun exposure and when that occurs the animals prey also cannot survive leading to starvation and or death in species. Not only is there a lack of food source available there is also a lack of shelter available for those animals.
While deforestation is considered a major environmental issue to many scientists and politicians, there are still skeptics out there who do not believe in the cause and effect of this practice or in global warming. Skeptics argue that deforestation does not cause ecological or environmental damage and or global warming specifically. These critics believe that the argument could be that trees can be planted in place of those demolished during the deforestation and that animal populations can eventually adapt to the new environment. The problem with this alternative argument is that there is scientific proof that changes are occurring that can be directly related to deforestation. Another problem with this argument is that evolution and adaptation cannot occur overnight. Evolution takes thousands of years to occur, but by the time the animals were to adapt most of them will have become extinct due to diminished food supplies and a lack of adequate shelter available. According to Amazonian Deforestation and Regional Climate Change by Carlos A. Nobre, Piers J. Sellers, and Jagadish Shukla, it was found that when the Amazonian tropical forests were replaced by a form of grass pasture, there was a significant increase in the surface temperature. Roughly the surface temperature increased by 2.5°C or 77 degrees Fahrenheit.
In addition to the increase in weather, the climate change over the past thirty years has led to an astonishing number of species either becoming extinct, endangered or at the very least had led to a drastic depletion of populations. New scientific models have improved the ability project of species’ likelihood of survival and made distributions for future climate scenarios possible. Predictions can now be determined as to what the climate will be like by the year 2050. According to research 15–37% of species will be ‘committed to extinction’ based on the grounds of the current way humans are treating forests as well as global policies.
Animals are dying, the air has become more toxic and the access to fresh cool water has diminished in places where once great shaded forests stood. Studies and science provide a clear picture and plenty of evidence to show that deforestation has a direct impact on the world and that it is playing a key role in causing climate change. While skeptics may not be ready to believe or easily persuaded to believe otherwise, it is important to understand that scientific data has been collected in order to prove that something is happening to the world and the humans have the ability to stop the quick progression of extinctions as well as save the world from further damage that is being done by cutting down forests.