Deforestation Cause and Effects

“Scientist fear that 20 percent of the trees will be lost over the next two decades” (From “Last of the Amazon” by Scott Wallace). Deforestation can be caused by many things, natural or unnatural. The number one cause can be said to be illegal logging or erosion, but we all know that is not it. Deforestation in the world is caused by man and the effects are devastating to the environment and can also effect global warming. Man can cause deforestation because of his greediness to want everything.

For example, loggers in the Amazon are illegally cutting down trees to either make space for crops and cattle, or to get the wood and sell it. Man can also show his greediness when it comes to money, well, to be exact gold. Back in the 1850’s when the gold rush started in California; people began to chop down redwood trees in order to build their homes and towns. Eventually, by the 1900’s most of the original old redwood forest was gone.

As a result of man, the effects, such as deforestation, are devastating to the environment. In addition to all the illegal logging being done, erosion can affect the surrounding areas. Erosion washes away the soil that other trees or plants in the area need adding on to future deforestation. Furthermore, the mass logging being done can also disrupt the water cycle. By cutting down a large amount of trees, the rainfall in that area can decrease because the moisture released by the trees also decreased.

As a matter of fact, this can then cause a drought and make things even worse. Global warming can also be elicited by deforestation. The cutting down of a large amount of trees can increase the amount of greenhouse gasses that can be released to the atmosphere. To illustrate, if trees are cut down, the amount of carbon dioxide that is taken by them decreases. As a result, the carbon dioxide that was not taken by the trees goes up to the atmosphere, trapping heat and creating global warming.

Furthermore, trees are 50 percent carbon, meaning that when they have fallen or burned, the CO2 they store escapes back into the air. In summary, global warming and the devastation being done to the environment are all caused by deforestation taking place because man. In the end, the effects of man’s greediness have almost caused the extinction of the redwood tree and it is now affecting the whole world with global warming. In my opinion, there should be a law that makes loggers plant a new smaller tree after they cut down the big old one.