Causes and Impacts of Deforestation

In one hundred years from now, researchers around the globe will be anticipating that there will be no rainforests at all in the world mainly due to deforestation. In general, deforestation, which is seen as a rising global issue, is defined as the action of cutting down trees and clearing forests for multiple purposes by the human population. This essay will focus on the causes of deforestation in terms of agriculture and socio-economic growth, as well as the negative effects in terms of climate change and land degradation.

One of the main causes of this phenomenon is the growing agriculture activity by humans exploiting the natural resources in the forests. Dr. Carlos Medina, a physician who is also the first minister of environment in Honduras, stated that America's rainforests are being disrupted up to 50 acres per hour (Golden & Miller, 1994). Slash-and-burn is a common method used by farmers to clear the forests by chopping down trees and burning them in order to convert the land for agricultural use.  Gillis (1996), in his book entitled Vital Speeches of the Day, claimed that in the early nineties, worldwide tropical rainforests reduced as much as 142,000 square kilometres each year and around 56% of the amount is caused by the slash-and-burn technique (as cited in Golden & Miller, 1994). In addition, cattle ranching are also known to be a major reason for deforestation due to the fact that these ranchers clear the tropical lands for their own personal use. It is considered a favourable alternative because only a small amount of workforce is needed and is seen to be commercially successful and profitable in the short-term period. Furthermore, as more soya for cattle feed is demanded, at a future date, a greater expansion will be made deeper into the forests such as in Central and South America (McLeish, 2007). Ultimately, agriculture has contributed to worldwide deforestation.

Another cause that leads to deforestation is the socio-economic growth of a nation, as it draws nearer to urbanisation. As stated by the United Nations Population Fund (UNPF) "It took hundreds of thousands of years for the world population to grow to 1 billion – then in just another 200 years or so, it grew sevenfold" ("World population trends," n.d., para. 1). The world population climbed up to 7 billion in 2011 and as of today, it reached a total of approximately 7.6 billion people. Looking back at the Mayan civilisation, it is estimated that the total population was around 5 million people (Pakenham, 2005). On account of that, more food and land were needed to fulfil everyone's need and therefore led to an increase of forests exploitation. In order to support the human civilisation, they opt for clearing the woods to gain food supply and natural resources such as timber. Moreover, the constructions of highway lanes and road infrastructures in the forests have also caused the Earth's rainforests to shrink within the last couple of years, up to 10,000 square kilometres. Cochrane and Laurance’s study (2008, as cited in Fraser, 2014, para. 7) showed that in the seventies, the Trans-Amazonian Highway that was built in Brazil has resulted in a rapid increase of deforestation. It is believed that up to 38,000 kilometres of new forest border is constructed every year. Consequently, economic and social developments are both responsible for the rising of deforestation in the world every year.

As a result of these reckless human activities, deforestation may take a toll on the ecosystem and lead to a multitude of negative effects. Though there are many other reasons contributing to climate change and land degradation, nonetheless, deforestation is believed to be one of the main factors leading to these destructions.

The most apparent impact of deforestation deals with the climate change as its pattern evolves from time to time. Trees in the forest play a very significant role in stabilising the Earth's temperature, as they absorb carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Nonetheless, when trees are chopped down and forests are cleared, more heat will be trapped on the Earth's surface, which eventually causes the average temperature to rise, hence leads to global warming. It is believed that up to 1.5 billion of carbon is released a year due to deforestation of the rainforests (Earth Eclipse, 2017, para. 4). According to The World Meteorological Organization (WMO), a recent record stated that the year 2017 was classified to be one of the three hottest years in history (Harvey, 2017, para. 1). This predicament has also contributed to a new crisis known as ocean acidification, which refers to a decrease in the ocean's pH level as it absorbs the increased concentration of the atmospheric carbon dioxide. It is noted that "today, the ocean pH is around 8.1, a drop of 0.1 pH units, representing a 25% increase in acidity over the past two centuries" (National geographic, 2017, para. 5). Ultimately, the threatened marine life will cause many species to fall into extinction such as shells that will rupture in toxic waters after forty-five days. Therefore, it is undeniably true that the changes in climate are affected predominantly because of fewer trees in the rainforests.

Furthermore, deforestation has also impacted the land as it starts to degrade over time. Utilised lands for agriculture are known to be polluted with the excessive use of pesticides on crops. Normally, pesticides are used to get rid of pests and insects that harm the harvests but unfortunately, they leave a side effect that is considered to be detrimental to the environment (McLeish, 2007). Some of the chemicals will mix with water and thus resulting in soil toxification, as it absorbs the mixture. Consequently, as the ground is now contaminated, the water supply will also be tainted, causing marine life to die, as it is poisonous and leads to acid rain. Due to the poor condition of soil after trees are cleared, another critical issue will be raised, which are floods and mudslides, wet landslides that usually occur during a heavy rain. With the absence of trees, roots are unable to anchor the soils to the ground causing it to slide off easily during rainy days. When the soils from high lands are washed down by rainwater, more sediment will be created in the lowland rivers (Pakenham, 2005). In August 2017, a catastrophic mudslide in Sierra Leone, Africa led to a total of 14,400 deaths and it is surmised that 600 remaining were still missing. According to Rahall (2017), the executive director of Green Scenery, the principal cause of this disastrous occurrence was because of anthropogenic activities, for instance, forest mountain clearance due to house constructions (Jah, 2017, para. 2). Hence, it is proven that land degradation is initially caused by human activities such as farming due to deforestation.