Deforestation and Its Effects

This is a picture of a coniferous forest. This forest does not only not emit greenhouse gas, but actually processes them, thereby removing them from the atmosphere. This makes these forest very valuable "carbon sinks". Not only are these forests beautiful, they play an important part in helping to protect Earth's climate and environmental health. Yet these forests are continually threatened. These forest are uprooted, the trees turned into timber, and the land developed for other purposes. This modern deforestation is considered part of the climate change problem by global climate researchers. In the southern hemisphere areas of the Amazon Forest have been deforested to make way for the development of agriculture land. This has resulted in not only poor soil quality, but also been very harsh on the whole ecosystem and environment. While North America was largely deforested in the Industrial Revolution, there are still forests within America that can be preserved.

     Deforestation effects not just the atmosphere. The mass removal of trees means that groundwater that normally would have been drawn up by trees and released into the atmosphere remains buried. This means dry climates with less water easily accessible. The soil in the area also erodes more quickly as it has no protection from wind or water. This means that the top soil of an area may vanish completely (such as in deforested areas of the Amazon Basin). Ecologically it is a disaster as creatures that lived in a ecosystem intertwined with trees may not survive past the removal of forest and loss of their habitat.