Defrostation

Name

Instructor

Course

Date

MILESTONE 2

Deforestation

Section 1

The various earth cycles include water, hydrogen, oxygen, phosphorous and sulfur, they are the biological and geographical processes that cause energy emissions, and some have a significant influence towards deforestation. The interaction between the earth cycles such as the water cycle leads to the formation of water droplets in the cloud which finally leads to rain and a change in the weather (Olien 12).

The water cycle causes rain; rain is a mass of water droplets falling from the clouds to the ground.  When the rainwater hits the ground, it flows over the land downhill while carrying soil with it. Water flows along various channels, it flows all over land whenever it can, as the runoff water flows over land, it carries with it soil. Rainfall with a high intensity, large amount, and high duration can cause massive soil erosion.

The soil is responsible for holding trees firmly to the ground when the upper soil layer is wiped off, the firmness that the tree had on the ground weakness and accompanied with winds most of the trees get uprooted. Rain also comes along with storms which are responsible for uprooting many trees. Rain wets the ground and weakens it hence it becomes hard for trees to hold firmly on the ground during the rain storms (Olien 25-32). These scenarios are mainly common during winter.

[pic 1]

A man runs for shelter next to a tree that has been uprooted by the ongoing rains, as shown in Fig. 1.

Section 2

The earth systems are various interacting physical, biological and chemical processes in the earth; they include the hydrosphere, atmosphere, geosphere, and biosphere. There is a significant amount of interaction between the Earth systems, a volcanic eruption in the geosphere can lead to effects on the hydrosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere, and the interactions can also lead to earthquakes accompanied with the volcanoes (Ernst  65-69).

Volcanoes erupt lava and ash, the volcanoes burning and scarring the environment. The earth crust is broken up into plates by the volcanoes and when the plates collide disasters such as deforestation happens. When volcanic eruptions occur, they come with them large forces that shake the nearby grounds; the forces lead to earthquakes. When the ground trembles, the plants on soil surface such as trees also shakes hence in most instances some of them end up falling because they can’t hold on the ground. Volcanic eruptions also come along with substantial amounts of hot lava; the hot lava causes mountain glaciers. The hot lava is responsible for burning the nearby vegetation in case volcanos occur, most of the trees are burnt beyond recognition (Onman  93-106).

[pic 2]

 A tree that has been uprooted and burnt by the lava flow from Kilauea volcano in Pahoa the big Island of Hawaii, as shown in Fig. 2.

Section 3

Human beings are frequently cutting down trees in forests mainly for timber or to clear land for cultivation. Deforestation is mainly carried out in tropical rain forests; it is very dangerous for the environment because many people who cut trees do not even bother planting other trees to compensate those that have been cut. Most people live in the areas where deforestation is taking place or has taken place so that they can acquire land for cultivation. Most of the people particularly those who live near forests are known for cutting down trees so that they can increase their pieces of land.

Human presence in deforested areas is increasing the risk of more damage to the forests. People are very greedy; they will always want to increase the volume of lands they occupy hence they will have to cut down more trees (Miller 22-24). As the population of people living in deforested areas grows, it will increase the need for more land for settling and cultivation; hence people will continue cutting down trees. The presence of humans is also a threat to the ecosystem, trees or forests are home to very many wild animals, as the people continue settling in forests, they will continue piling pressure on the animals living there. It is a case of human beings occupying land that is not meant for them but animals (Miller 30-45).