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All the details and
information about The Effect Of Deforestation and
lots more!
Deforestation is the
process of converting forested lands into
non-forest sites that are ideal for crop raising,
urbanization and industrialization. Because
deforestation is a serious concept, there are also
serious effects to the surroundings.
 Effects
of deforestation can be classified and grouped into
effects to biodiversity, environment and social
settings. Because deforestation basically involves
killing trees in forests, there are so many effects
that can be enumerated as results of the
activity.
When forests are
killed, nature basically requires people to renew
the forest. Reforestation is one concept that is in
the opposite direction as deforestation, but is
proven to be a much harder effort than
deforestation.
So the rate of
deforestation has not been offset by the rate of
reforestation. Thus, the world is now in a troubled
state when it comes to issues concerning the
environment.
Pollution is rapidly
growing along with population. Forests are greatly
helping reduce the amount of pollutants in the air.
So, the depletion of these groups of trees is
greatly increasing the risk that carbon monoxide
would reach the atmosphere and result in the
depletion of the ozone layer, which in turn results
to global warming.
Environment
change
One major effect of
deforestation is climate change. Changes to the
surroundings done by deforestation work in many
ways. One, there is abrupt change in temperatures
in the nearby areas. Forests naturally cool down
because they help retain moisture in the
air.
Second is the long
process of global climate change. As mentioned
above, deforestation has been found to contribute
to global warming or that process when climates
around the world become warmer as more harmful rays
of the sun comes in through the
atmosphere.
The ozone layer is a
mass of oxygen or O3 atoms that serves as shield in
the atmosphere against the harmful ultraviolet rays
from the sun. Because ozone is made up of oxygen
atoms, oxygen react with carbon monoxide. Such
reaction would use up oxygen atoms.
It follows that when
there are more carbon monoxide atoms going to the
atmosphere, the volume of oxygen would decline.
Such is the case of ozone depletion.
The third effect to the
environment would be on the water table underneath
the ground. Water table is the common source of
natural drinking water by people living around
forests.
Water table is
replenishing. That means, the supply of water
underground could also dry up if not replenished
regularly. When there is rain, forests hold much of
the rainfall to the soil through their
roots.
Thus, water sinks in
deeper to the ground, and eventually replenishing
the supply of water in the water table. Now,
imagine what happens when there is not enough
forests anymore. Water from rain would simply flow
through the soil surface and not be retained by the
soil.
Or other than that, the
water from rain would not stay in the soil longer,
for the process of evaporation would immediately
set in. Thus, the water table is not replenished,
leading to drying up of wells.
Effect to
biodiversity
Forests are natural
habitats to many types of animals and organisms.
That is why, when there is deforestation, many
animals are left without shelters. Those that
manage to go through the flat lands and residential
sites are then killed by people.
Through the years, it
is estimated that there are millions of plant and
extinct animal species that have been wiped out
because they have been deprived of home. Thus,
biodiversity is significantly lowered because of
the savage deforestation practices of some
people.
Wildlife advocates have
been constantly reminding that several wild animals
left in the world could still be saved if
deforested forests would only be reforested and the
practice of slash and burn of forests would be
totally abandoned.
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