Meat eaters are huge
contributors to Global Deforestation
A Major Global Warming Issue.
Deforestation: The hidden cause of
global warming
Information and photos TD's Mike Smith; May
2008
Travelers Digest makes no claims to
ownership of these articles, videos or photos, which are simply posted as a public service. The
information was obtained from various
scientific and global sources and are deemed to be as accurate as
possible, at this time.
Its hard to
believe that supposedly intelligent people actually elected Bush the
moron...and did it...twice and now we're in 2 wars and an economical
crisis. The even sadder issue...is Bush, Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney are
still free and wealthy.
In the next 24 hours, deforestation
will release as much CO2 into the atmosphere as 8 million people flying
from London to New York. Stopping the loggers is the fastest and
cheapest solution to climate change. So why are global leaders turning a
blind eye to this crisis?
The accelerating destruction of the rainforests
that form a precious cooling band around the Earth's equator, is now
being recognized as one of the main causes of climate change. Carbon
emissions from deforestation far outstrip damage caused by planes and automobiles
and factories.
Watch the below video of
global destruction with music from Pink Floyd
The rampant slashing and burning of tropical
forests is second only to the energy sector as a source of greenhouses
gases according to report published today by the Oxford-based Global
Canopy Programme, an alliance of leading rainforest scientists.
(Pic.. burning the Amazon)
Figures from the GCP, summarizing the latest
findings from the United Nations, and building on estimates contained
in the Stern Report, show deforestation accounts for up to 25 per cent
of global emissions of heat-trapping gases, while transport and
industry account for 14 per cent each; and aviation makes up only 3
per cent of the total.
"Tropical forests are the elephant in the living
room of climate change," said Andrew Mitchell, the head of the GCP.
Scientists say one days' deforestation is
equivalent to the carbon footprint of eight million people flying to
New York. Reducing those catastrophic emissions can be achieved most
quickly and most cheaply by halting the destruction in Brazil,
Indonesia, the Congo and elsewhere.
No new technology is needed, says the GCP, just the
political will and a system of enforcement and incentives that makes
the trees worth more to governments and individuals standing than
felled. "The focus on technological fixes for the emissions of rich
nations while giving no incentive to poorer nations to stop burning
the standing forest means we are putting the cart before the horse,"
said Mr. Mitchell.
Watch the below video
"Wake Up America"
Most people think of forests only in terms of the
CO2 they absorb. The rainforests of the Amazon, the Congo basin and
Indonesia are thought of as the lungs of the planet. But the
destruction of those forests will in the next four years alone, in the
words of Sir Nicholas Stern, pump more CO2 into the atmosphere than
every flight in the history of aviation to at least 2025.
Indonesia became the third-largest emitter of
greenhouse gases in the world last week. Following close behind is
Brazil. Neither nation has heavy industry on a comparable scale with
the EU, India or Russia and yet they comfortably outstrip all other
countries, except the United States and China.
What both countries do have in common is tropical
forest that is being cut and burned with staggering swiftness. Smoke
stacks visible from space climb into the sky above both countries,
while satellite images capture similar destruction from the Congo
basin, across the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Central African
Republic and the Republic of Congo.
According to the latest audited figures from 2003,
two billion tons of CO2 enters the atmosphere every year from
deforestation. That destruction amounts to 50 million acres - or an
area the size of England, Wales and Scotland felled annually.
The remaining standing forest is calculated to
contain 1,000 billion tons of carbon, or double what is already in the
atmosphere.
As the GCP's report concludes: "If we lose forests,
we lose the fight against climate change."
Standing forest was not included in the original
Kyoto protocols
and stands outside the carbon markets that the report from the
International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) pointed to this month as
the best hope for halting catastrophic warming.
The landmark Stern Report last year, and the
influential McKinsey Report in January agreed that forests offer the
"single largest opportunity for cost-effective and immediate
reductions of carbon emissions".
(Pic. Brazil logging)
International demand has driven intensive
agriculture, logging and ranching that has proved an inexorable force
for deforestation; conservation has been no match for commerce. The
leading rainforest scientists are now calling for the immediate
inclusion of standing forests in internationally regulated carbon
markets that could provide cash incentives to halt this disastrous
process.
Forestry experts and policy makers have been
meeting in Bonn, Germany, this week to try to put deforestation on top
of the agenda for the UN climate summit in Bali, Indonesia, this year.
Papua New Guinea, among the world's poorest nations, last year
declared it would have no choice but to continue deforestation unless
it was given financial incentives to do otherwise.
Richer nations already recognize the value of
uncultivated land. The EU offers €200 (£135) per hectare subsidies for
"environmental services" to its farmers to leave their land unused.
And yet there is no agreement on placing a value on
the vastly more valuable land in developing countries. More than 50
per cent of the life on Earth is in tropical forests, which cover less
than 7 per cent of the planet's surface.
They generate the bulk of rainfall worldwide and
act as a thermostat for the Earth. Forests are also home to 1.6
billion of the world's poorest people who rely on them for
subsistence. However, forest experts say governments continue to
pursue science fiction solutions to the coming climate catastrophe,
preferring bio-fuel subsidies, carbon capture schemes and
next-generation power stations.
Putting a price on the carbon these vital forests
contain is the only way to slow their destruction. Hylton Philipson, a
trustee of Rainforest Concern, explained: "In a world where we are
witnessing a mounting clash between food security, energy security and
environmental security - while there's money to be made from food and
energy and no income to be derived from the standing forest, it's
obvious that the forest will take the hit."
Watch the below video; We
all have just one address; Earth
Amazon rainforest
'could become a desert'
And that could speed up global warming with
'incalculable consequences', says alarming new research.
By Geoffrey Lean in Manaus and Fred Pearce Sunday, 23 July 2006
The
vast Amazon rainforest is on the brink of being turned into desert,
with catastrophic consequences for the world's climate, alarming
research suggests. And the process, which would be irreversible, could
begin as early as next year. (Pic. of stripped
river in Brazil)
Studies by the blue-chip Woods Hole Research
Centre, carried out in Amazonia, have concluded that the forest cannot
withstand more than two consecutive years of drought without breaking
down.
Scientists say that this would spread drought into
the northern hemisphere, including Britain, and could massively
accelerate global warming with incalculable consequences, spinning out
of control, a process that might end in the world becoming
uninhabitable.
The alarming news comes in the midst of a heat wave
gripping Britain and much of Europe and the United States.
Temperatures in the south of England reached a July record of 36.3C on
Tuesday. And it comes hard on the heels of a warning by an
international group of experts, led by the Eastern Orthodox "pope"
Bartholomew, last week that the forest is rapidly approaching a
"tipping point" that would lead to its total destruction.
The research carried out by the
Massachusetts-based Woods Hole centre in Santarem on the Amazon river
has taken even the scientists conducting it by surprise. When Dr Dan
Nepstead started the experiment in 2002 by covering a chunk of
rainforest the size of a football pitch with plastic panels to see how
it would cope without rain he surrounded it with sophisticated
sensors, expecting to record only minor changes.
The trees managed the first year of drought without
difficulty. In the second year, they sunk their roots deeper to find
moisture, but survived. But in year three, they started dying.
Beginning with the tallest the trees started to come crashing down,
exposing the forest floor to the drying sun.
By the end of the year the trees had released more
than two-thirds of the carbon dioxide they have stored during their
lives, helping to act as a break on global warming. Instead they began
accelerating the climate change.
The Amazon now appears to be entering its second successive year of
drought, raising the possibility that it could start dying next year.
The immense forest contains 90 billion tons of carbon, enough in
itself to increase the rate of global warming by 50 per cent.
Dr Nepstead expects "mega-fires" rapidly to sweep across the drying
jungle. With the trees gone, the soil will bake in the sun and the
rainforest could become desert.
Dr Deborah Clark from the
University of Missouri, one of the world's top forest ecologists,
says the research shows that "the lock has broken" on the Amazon
ecosystem. She adds: the Amazon is "headed in a terrible direction".
Fred Pearce is the author of 'The Last Generation' (Eden
Project Books), published earlier this year.
Watch the below global warming video from
the Blue Man Group
Global warming may be the most serious global social problem
threatening life on Earth. We need to fight global warming on the
governmental and corporate levels, and we also need to fight global
warming on the everyday and personal levels. It is now the time to do
more than change our light bulbs...it is time we unite and stop the
maddening destruction of our planets with our dining choices. (Pic.
of global thermal heat)
Dan Brook is an
instructor of sociology at San Jose State University and author of
"Modern Revolution" (University Press of America, 2005).
The effects of global warming, as well as
deforestation have far reaching and devastating circumstances for us and
the world's creatures.
(Pic. of a polar bear in the
melting icecaps)
Deforestation is the conversion of forested areas to
non-forest land for use such as arable land, pasture, urban use, logged
area, or wasteland. Generally, the removal or destruction of significant
areas of forest cover has resulted in a degraded environment with
reduced biodiversity. In many countries, massive deforestation is
ongoing and is shaping climate and geography.
Deforestation results from removal of trees without sufficient
reforestation, and results in declines in habitat and biodiversity, wood
for fuel and industrial use, and quality of life.
From about the mid-1800s, the planet has experienced an unprecedented
rate of change of destruction of forests worldwide. Forests in Europe
are adversely affected by acid rain and very large areas of Siberia have
been harvested since the collapse of the Soviet Union. In the last two
decades, Afghanistan has lost over 70% of its forests throughout the
country. However, it is in the world's great tropical rainforests where
the destruction is most pronounced at the current time and where
wholesale felling is having an adverse effect on biodiversity and
contributing to the ongoing Holocene mass extinction. (Pic.
of a baby Polar bear)
About half of the mature tropical forests, between 750 to 800 million
hectares of the original 1.5 to 1.6 billion hectares that once covered
the planet have fallen. The forest loss is already acute in Southeast
Asia, the second of the world's great biodiversity hot spots. Much of
what remains is in the Amazon basin, where the Amazon Rainforest covered
more than 600 million hectares. The forests are being destroyed at a
pace tracking the rapid pace of human population growth. Unless
significant measures are taken on a world-wide basis to preserve them,
by 2030 there will only be ten percent remaining with another ten
percent in a degraded condition.80 percent will have been lost and with
them the irreversible loss of hundreds of thousands of species.
Many tropical countries, including Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia,
Bangladesh,
China, Sri Lanka, Laos, Nigeria, Liberia, Guinea, Ghana and the Cote d'
lvoire have lost large areas of their rainforest. 90% of the forests of
the Philippine archipelago have been cut. In 1960 Central America still
had 4/5 of its original forest; now it is left with only 2/5 of it.
Madagascar has lost 95% of its rainforests. Atlantic coast of Brazil has
lost 90-95% of its Mata Atlântica rainforest. Half of the Brazilian
state of Rondonia's 24.3 million hectares have been destroyed or
severely degraded in recent years. As of 2007, less than 1% of Haiti's
forests remain, causing many to call Haiti a Caribbean desert. Between
1990 and 2005, Nigeria lost a staggering 79% of its old-growth forests.
Several countries, notably the Philippines, Thailand and India have
declared their deforestation a national emergency. (Above
Pic. burning of Malaysia's forests)
Below Video of our Planet's
Rapid Destruction
Impact on the environment
Generally, the removal or destruction of significant areas of forest
cover has resulted in a degraded environment with reduced biodiversity.
In many countries, massive deforestation is ongoing and is shaping
climate and geography.
Deforestation also enhances global warming, [citation needed] and
although 70% of the oxygen we breathe comes from the photosynthesis of
marine green algae and cyanobacteria, the mass destroying of the worlds
rain forests is not beneficial to our environment. In addition, the
incineration and burning of forest plants in order to clear land
releases tonnes of CO2 which increases the impact of global warming
[citation needed].
Deforestation affects the amount of water in the soil and groundwater
and the moisture in the atmosphere. Forests support considerable
biodiversity, providing valuable habitat for wildlife; moreover, forests
foster medicinal conservation and the recharge of aquifers. With forest
biotopes being a major, irreplaceable source of new drugs (like taxol),
deforestation can destroy genetic variations (such as crop resistance)
irretrievably.
Shrinking forest cover lessens the landscape's capacity to intercept,
retain and transport precipitation. Instead of trapping precipitation,
which then percolates to groundwater systems, deforested areas become
sources of surface water runoff, which moves much faster than subsurface
flows. That quicker transport of surface water can translate into flash
flooding and more localized floods than would occur with the forest
cover. Deforestation also contributes to decreased evapo-transpiration,
which lessens atmospheric moisture which in some cases affects
precipitation levels down wind from the deforested area, as water is not
recycled to downwind forests, but is lost in runoff and returns directly
to the oceans. According to one preliminary study, in deforested north
and northwest China, the average annual precipitation decreased by one
third between the 1950s and the 1980s.
Long- term gains can be obtained by managing forest lands sustainable to
maintain both forest cover and provide a biodegradable renewable
resource. Forests are also important stores of organic carbon, and
forests can extract carbon dioxide and pollutants from the air, thus
contributing to biosphere stability. Deforestation (mainly in tropical
areas) account for up to one-third of total anthropogenic carbon dioxide
emissions. Forests are also valued for their aesthetic beauty and as a
cultural resource and tourist attraction.
Economic impact
Historically
utilization of forest products, including timber and fuel wood, have
played a key role in human societies, comparable to the roles of water
and cultivable land. (Pic. of Amazon logging)
Today, developed countries continue to utilize timber for building
houses, and wood pulp for paper. In developing countries almost three
billion people rely on wood for heating and cooking. The forest products
industry is a large part of the economy in both developed and developing
countries. Short-term economic gains made by conversion of forest to
agriculture, or over-exploitation of wood products, typically leads to
loss of long-term income and long term biological productivity (hence
reduction in nature's services). West Africa, Madagascar, Southeast Asia
and many other regions have experienced lower revenue because of
declining timber harvests. Illegal logging causes billions of dollars of
losses to national economies annually.
Characterization
Throughout most of history, humans have considered forest clearing as
necessary for most activities besides forestry. In most countries, only
after serious shortages of wood and other forest products are policies
implemented to ensure forest resources are used in a sustainable manner.
Typically in developed countries, as urbanization and economic
development increases, land previously used for farming is abandoned and
reverted to forests. Today, in the developed world, most countries are
experiencing forest restoration and most losses in forest land are
primarily driven by expanding urban areas.
In developing countries, human-caused deforestation and the degradation
of forest habitat is primarily due to expansion of agriculture, slash
and burn practices, urban sprawl, illegal logging, over harvest of fuel
wood, mining, and petroleum exploration.
It has been argued that deforestation trends follow the Kuznets curve
however even if true this is problematic in so-called hot-spots because
of the risk of irreversible loss of non-economic forest values for
example valuable habitat or species loss.
The effects of human related deforestation can be mitigated through
environmentally sustainable practices that reduce permanent destruction
of forests or even act to preserve and rehabilitate disrupted forestland
(see Reforestation and Tree Planting). These methods help the cause and
provide a sustainable growth of forests and allow lumber to become a
renewable resource
Definitions of deforestation
Deforestation defined broadly can include not only conversion to
non-forest, but also degradation that reduces forest quality - the
density and structure of the trees, the ecological services supplied,
the biomass of plants and animals, the species diversity and the genetic
diversity. A narrow definition of deforestation is: the removal of
forest cover to an extent that allows for alternative land use. The
United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) uses a
broad definition of deforestation, while the Food and Agriculture
Organization of the UN (FAO) uses a narrow definition.
Definitions can also be grouped as those which refer to changes in land
cover and those which refer to changes in land use. Land cover
measurements often use a percent of cover to determine deforestation.
This type of definition has the advantage in that large areas can be
easily measured, for example from satellite photos. A forest cover
removal of 90% may still be considered forest in some cases. Under this
definition areas that may have few values of a natural forest such as
plantations and even urban or suburban areas may be considered forest.
Land use definitions measure deforestation by a change in land use. This
definition may consider areas to be forest that are not commonly
considered as such. An area can be lacking trees but still considered a
forest. It may be a land designated for afforestation or an area
designated administratively as forest.
Use of the term deforestation
It has been argued that the lack of specificity in use of the term
deforestation distorts forestry issues. The term deforestation is used
to refer to activities that use the forest, for example, fuel wood
cutting, commercial logging, as well as activities that cause temporary
removal of forest cover such as the slash and burn technique, a
component of some shifting cultivation agricultural systems or
clear-cutting. It is also used to describe forest clearing for annual
crops and forest loss from over-grazing. Some definitions of
deforestation include activities such as establishment of industrial
forest plantations that are considered afforestation by others. It has
also been argued that the term deforestation is such an emotional term
that is used "so ambiguously that it is virtually meaningless" unless it
is specified what is meant. More specific terms terms include forest
decline, forest fragmentation and forest degradation, loss of forest
cover and land use conversion.
The term also has a traditional legal sense of the conversion of Royal
forest land into purlieu or other non-forest land use.
Levels of causation
The causes of deforestation are complex and often differ in each forest
and country. It may be difficult to determine the cause of deforestation
in a particular forest. For example, a rise in the price of soybeans may
result in soybean farmers displacing cattle ranchers in order to expand
their farms. This might cause cattle ranchers to shift to land
previously used by slash and burn farmers. The farmers in turn shift
further into the forest that has been made accessible by roads built by
loggers. In this case it may not be clear who "caused" deforestation. In
this case it could be claimed that while the loggers caused forest
degradation and that the slash and burn farmers were agents of
deforestation, the cause was demand for farm land. The underlying causes
may be poverty or the trade in international commodities.
Historical causes
Further information: Timeline of environmental events
Prehistory
Deforestation has been practiced by humans since the beginnings of
civilization. Fire was the first tool that allowed humans to modify the
landscape. The first evidence of deforestation appears in the
Mesolithic. It was probably used to drive game into more accessible
areas. With the advent of agriculture, fire became the prime tool to
clear land for crops. In Europe there is little solid evidence before
7000 BC. Mesolithic foragers used fire to create openings for red deer
and wild boar. In Great Britain shade tolerant species such as oak and
ash are replaced in the pollen record by hazels, brambles, grasses and
nettles. Removal of the forests led to decreased transpiration resulting
in the formation of upland peat bogs. Widespread decrease in elm pollen
across Europe between 8400-8300 BC and 7200-7000 BC, starting in
southern Europe and gradually moving north to Great Britain, may
represent land clearing by fire at the onset of Neolithic agriculture.
An array of Neolithic artifacts, including bracelets, axe heads,
chisels, and polishing tools. An array of Neolithic artifacts, including
bracelets, axe heads, chisels, and polishing tools.
The Neolithic period saw much more extensive deforestation for farming
land. Stone axes were now being made not just from flint, but from a
wide variety of hard rocks from across Britain. They include the famous
Langdale axe industry in the English Lake District, quarries developed
at Penmaenmawr in North Wales and numerous other locations. Rough-outs
were made locally near the quarries, and some were polished locally to
give a fine finish. This step not only increased the mechanical strength
of the axe, but also made penetration of wood easier. Flint was still
used from sources such as Grimes Graves but from many other mines across
Europe.
Evidence of deforestation has been found in Minoan Crete; for example
the environs of the Palace of Knossos were severely deforested in the
Bronze Age.
Pre-industrial history
In ancient Greece, Tjeered van Andel and co-writers summarized three
regional studies of historic erosion and alluviation and found that,
wherever adequate evidence exists, a major phase of erosion follows, by
about 500-1000 years the introduction of farming in the various regions
of Greece, ranging from the later Neolithic to the Early Bronze Age. The
thousand years following the mid-first millennium BCE saw serious,
intermittent pulses of soil erosion in numerous places. The historic
silting of ports along the southern coasts of Asia Minor (e.g. Clarus,
and the examples of Ephesus, Priene and Miletus, where harbors had to be
abandoned because of the silt deposited by the Meander) and in coastal
Syria during the last centuries BC.
The famous silting up of the harbor for Bruges, which moved port
commerce to Antwerp, also follow a period of increased settlement growth
(and apparently of deforestation) in the upper river basins. In early
medieval Riez in upper Provence, alluvial silt from two small rivers
raised the riverbeds and widened the floodplain, which slowly buried the
Roman settlement in alluvium and gradually moved new construction to
higher ground; concurrently the headwater valleys above Riez were being
opened to pasturage.
A typical progress trap is that cities were often built in a forested
area providing wood for some industry (e.g. construction, shipbuilding,
pottery). When deforestation occurs without proper replanting, local
wood supplies become difficult to obtain near enough to remain
competitive, leading to the city's abandonment, as happened repeatedly
in Ancient Asia Minor. The combination of mining and metallurgy often
went along this self-destructive path.
Meanwhile most of the population remaining active in (or indirectly
dependent on) the agricultural sector, the main pressure in most areas
remained land clearing for crop and cattle farming; fortunately enough
wild green was usually left standing (and partially used, e.g. to
collect firewood, timber and fruits, or to graze pigs) for wildlife to
remain viable, and the hunting privileges of the elite (nobility and
higher clergy) often protected significant woodlands.
Major parts in the spread (and thus more durable growth) of the
population were played by monastically 'pioneering' (especially by the
Benedictine and Cistercian orders) and some feudal lords actively
attracting farmers to settle (and become tax payers) by offering
relatively good legal and fiscal conditions – even when they did so to
launch or encourage cities, there always was an agricultural belt around
and even quite some within the walls. When on the other hand demography
took a real blow by such causes as the Black Death or devastating
warfare (e.g. Genghis Khan's Mongol hordes in eastern and central
Europe, Thirty Years' War in Germany) this could lead to settlements
being abandoned, leaving land to be reclaimed by nature, even though the
secondary forests usually lacked the original biodiversity.
From 1100 to 1500 AD significant deforestation took place in Western
Europe as a result of the expanding human population. The large-scale
building of wooden sailing ships by European (coastal) naval owners
since the 15th century for exploration, colonization, slave – and other
trade on the high seas and (often related) naval warfare (the failed
invasion of England by the Spanish Armada in 1559 and the battle of
Lepanto 1577 are early cases of huge waste of prime timber; each of
Nelson's Royal navy war ships at Trafalgar had required 6000 mature
oaks) and piracy meant that whole woody regions were over-harvested, as
in Spain, where this contributed to the paradoxical weakening of the
domestic economy since Columbus' discovery of America made the colonial
activities (plundering, mining, cattle, plantations, trade ...)
predominant.
In Changes in the Land (1983), William Cronon collected 17th century New
England Englishmen's reports of increased seasonal flooding during the
time that the forests were initially cleared, and it was widely believed
that it was linked with widespread forest clearing upstream.
The massive use of charcoal on an industrial scale in Early Modern
Europe was a new acceleration of the onslaught on western forests; even
in Stuart England, the relatively primitive production of charcoal has
already reached an impressive level. For ship timbers, Stuart England
was so widely deforested that it depended on the Baltic trade and looked
to the untapped forests of New England to supply the need. In France,
Colbert planted oak forests to supply the French navy in the future; as
it turned out, as the oak plantations matured in the mid-nineteenth
century, the masts were no longer required.
Norman F. Cantor's summary of the effects of late medieval
deforestation applies equally well to Early Modern Europe:
"Europeans had lived in the midst of vast forests throughout the earlier
medieval centuries. After 1250 they became so skilled at deforestation
that by 1500 AD they were running short of wood for heating and cooking.
They were faced with a nutritional decline because of the elimination of
the generous supply of wild game that had inhabited the now-disappearing
forests, which throughout medieval times had provided the staple of
their carnivorous high-protein diet. By 1500 Europe was on the edge of a
fuel and nutritional disaster, [from] which it was saved in the
sixteenth century only by the burning of soft coal and the cultivation
of potatoes and maize."
Specific parallels are seen in twentieth century deforestation occurring
in many developing nations.
Deforestation Today
Jungle burned for agriculture in southern Mexico.
Slash-and-burn is a method sometimes used by shifting cultivators to
create short term yields from marginal soils. When practiced repeatedly,
or without intervening fallow periods, the nutrient poor soils may be
exhausted or eroded to an unproductive state. Slash-and-burn techniques
are used by native populations of over 200 million people worldwide.
While short-sighted, market-driven forestry practices are often one of
the leading cause of forest degradation, the principal human-related
causes of deforestation are agriculture and livestock grazing, urban
sprawl, and mining and petroleum extraction. Growing worldwide demand
for wood to be used for fire wood or in construction, paper and
furniture - as well as clearing land for commercial and industrial
development (including road construction) have combined with growing
local populations and their demands for agricultural expansion and wood
fuel to endanger ever larger forest areas.
Agricultural development schemes in Mexico, Brazil and Indonesia moved
large populations into the rainforest zone, further increasing
deforestation rates. One fifth of the world's tropical rainforest was
destroyed between 1960 and 1990. Estimates of deforestation of tropical
forest for the 1990s range from about 55,630 to 120,000 square
kilometres each year. At this rate, all tropical forests may be gone by
the year 2090.
Ethiopia
Main article: Deforestation in Ethiopia
The main cause of deforestation in Ethiopia, located in East Africa, is
a growing population and subsequent higher demand for agriculture,
livestock production and fuel wood. Other reasons include low education
and inactivity from the government, although the current government has
taken some steps to tackle deforestation. Organizations such as Farm
Africa are working with the federal and local governments to create a
system of forest management. Ethiopia, the third largest country in
Africa by population, has been hit by famine many times because of
shortages of rain and a depletion of natural resources. Deforestation
has lowered the chance of getting rain, which is already low, and thus
causes erosion. Bercele Bayisa, an Ethiopian farmer, offers one example
why deforestation occurs. He said that his district was forested and
full of wildlife, but overpopulation caused people to come to that land
and clear it to plant crops, cutting all trees to sell and use as fire
wood.
Ethiopia has lost 98% of its forested regions in the last 50 years. At
the beginning of the 20th century, around 420,000 km² or 35% of
Ethiopia's land was covered with forests. Recent reports indicate that
forests cover less than 14.2% or even only 11.9% now. Between 1990 and
2005, the country lost 14% of its forests or 21,000 km².
Madagascar
Massive deforestation with resulting desertification, water resource
degradation and soil loss has affected approximately 94% of Madagascar's
previously biologically productive lands. Most of this loss has occurred
since independence from the French, and is the result of local people
trying merely to subsist. The country is currently unable to provide
adequate food, fresh water and sanitation for its fast growing
population. It was just a few decades ago one of the most stunning and
forested regions on Earth and home to some of the planets most diverse
wildlife.
Nigeria
Deforestation in Nigeria
According to the FAO Nigeria has the world's highest deforestation rate
of primary forests. It has lost more than half of its primary forest in
the last five years. Causes cited are logging, subsistence agriculture,
and the collection of fuel wood.
Brazil
Main article: Deforestation in Brazil
In Brazil the rate of deforestation is largely driven by commodity
prices. Recent development of a new variety of soybean has led to the
displacement of beef ranches and farms of other crops, which, in turn,
move farther into the forest. Certain areas such as the Atlantic
Rainforest have been diminished to less than 10% of their original size
and the Amazon Rainforest is awaiting the same fate at 600 fires daily.
Although much conservation work has been done, few national parks or
reserves are efficiently enforced. In 2008, Brazil's Government has
announced a record rate of deforestation in the Amazon.
Indonesia
There are significantly large areas of forest in Indonesia that are
being lost as native forest is cleared by large multi-national pulp
companies and being replaced by plantations. In Sumatra millions of
hectares of forest have been cleared often under the command of the
central government in Jakarta who comply with multi national companies
to remove the forest because of the need to pay off international debt
obligations and to develop economically. In Kalimantan the consequences
of deforestation have been profound and between 1991 and 1999 large
areas of the forest were burned because of uncontrollable fire causing
atmospheric pollution across South-East Asia. A major source of
deforestation is the logging industry, driven spectacularly by China and
Japan.
United States
Deforestation in the United States. 1620, 1850, and 1920 maps: The
Relation of Geography to Timber Supply, Economic Geography. "Today" map:
compiled from road-less area map in The Big Outside: A Descriptive
Inventory of the Big Wilderness Areas of the United States. The
descriptions are only virgin forest lost; most of the forest lost since 1620
has re-grown. The Relation of Geography to Timber Supply,
Economic Geography. A Descriptive Inventory of the Big Wilderness Areas of the
United States..
Prior to the arrival of European-Americans about one half of the United
States land area was forest, about 4 million square kilometers (1
billion acres) in 1600. For the next 300 years land was cleared, mostly
for agriculture at a rate that matched the rate of population growth.
For every person added to the population, one to two hectares of land
was cultivated. This trend continued until the 1920s when the amount of
crop land stabilized in spite of continued population growth. As
abandoned farm land reverted to forest the amount of forest land
increased from 1952 reaching a peak in 1963 of 3,080,000 km² (762
million acres). Since 1963 there has been a steady decrease of forest
area with the exception of some gains from 1997. Gains in forest land
have resulted from conversions from crop land and pastures at a higher
rate than loss of forest to development. Because urban development is
expected to continue, an estimated 93,000 km² (23 million acres) of
forest land is projected be lost by 2050, a 3% reduction from 1997.
Other qualitative issues have been identified such as the continued loss
of old-growth forest, the increased fragmentation of forest lands, and
the increased urbanization of forest land.
Species extinctions in the Eastern Forest
According to a report by Stuart L. Pimm the extent of forest cover in
the Eastern United States reached its lowest point in roughly 1872 with
about 48 percent compared to the amount of forest cover in 1620. Of the
28 forest bird species with habitat exclusively in that forest, Pimm
claims 4 become extinct either wholly or mostly because of habitat loss,
the passenger pigeon, Carolina parakeet, ivory-billed woodpecker, and
Bachman's Warbler.
Australia
Victoria and NSW's remnant red gum forests including the Murray River's
Barmah-Millewa, are increasingly being clear-felled using mechanical
harvesters, destroying already rare habitat. Macnally estimates that
approximately 81% of fallen timber has been removed from the southern
Murray Darling basin, and the Mid-Murray Forest Management Area
(including the Barmah and Gunbower forests) provides about 80% of
Victoria's red gum timber.
Environmental effects
Atmospheric pollution
This atmosphere sustains all life...our
pollution ascertains death of all life! This is insanity...
Deforestation is often cited as one of the major causes of the enhanced
greenhouse effect. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change deforestation, mainly in tropical areas, account for up to
one-third of total anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions. Trees and
other plants remove carbon (in the form of carbon dioxide) from the
atmosphere during the process of photosynthesis. Both the decay and
burning of wood releases much of this stored carbon back to the
atmosphere. Deforestation also causes carbon stores held in soil to be
released. Forests are stores of carbon and can be either sinks or
sources depending upon environmental circumstances. Mature forests can
be net sinks of carbon dioxide (see Carbon dioxide sink and Carbon
cycle).
The water cycle is also affected by deforestation. Trees extract
groundwater through their roots and release it into the atmosphere. When
part of a forest is removed, the region can not hold as much water and
can result in a much drier climate.
Biodiversity
Some forests are rich in biological diversity. Deforestation can cause
the destruction of the habitats that support this biological diversity,
thus contributing to the ongoing Holocene extinction event. Numerous
countries have developed Biodiversity Action Plans to limit clear
cutting and slash and burn agricultural practices as deleterious to
wildlife and vegetation, particularly when endangered species are
present.
Water cycle and water resources
Trees, and plants in general, affect the water cycle significantly:
* Their canopies intercept a proportion of precipitation, which is then
evaporated back to the atmosphere (canopy interception); * their litter,
stems and trunks slow down surface runoff; * their roots create
macropores - large conduits - in the soil that increase infiltration of
water; * they contribute to terrestrial evaporation and reduce soil
moisture via transpiration; * their litter and other organic residue
change soil properties that affect the capacity of soil to store water.
As a result, the presence or absence of trees can change the quantity of
water on the surface, in the soil or groundwater, or in the atmosphere.
This in turn changes erosion rates and the availability of water for
either ecosystem functions or human services.
The forest may have little impact on flooding in the case of large
rainfall events, which overwhelm the storage capacity of forest soil if
the soils are at or close to saturation.
Soil erosion
Undisturbed forest has very low rates of soil loss, approximately 0.02
metric tons or 40 lbs per hectare. [citation needed] Deforestation
generally increases rates of soil erosion, by increasing the amount of
runoff and reducing the protection of the soil from tree litter. This
can be an advantage in excessively leached tropical rain forest soils.
Forestry operations themselves also increase erosion through the
development of roads and the use of mechanized equipment.
China's Loess Plateau was cleared of forest millennia ago. Since then it
has been eroding, creating dramatic incised valleys, and providing the
sediment that gives the Yellow River its yellow color and that causes
the flooding of the river in the lower reaches (hence the river's
nickname 'China's sorrow').
Removal of trees does not always increase erosion rates. In certain
regions of southwest US, shrubs and trees have been encroaching on
grassland. The trees themselves enhance the loss of grass between tree
canopies. The bare inter-canopy areas become highly erodible. The US
Forest Service, in Bandelier National Monument for example, is studying
how to restore the former ecosystem, and reduce erosion, by removing the
trees.
Landslides
Tree roots bind soil together, and if the soil is sufficiently shallow
they act to keep the soil in place by also binding with underlying
bedrock. Tree removal on steep slopes with shallow soil thus increases
the risk of landslides, which can threaten people living nearby. However
most deforestation only affects the trunks of trees, allowing for the
roots to stay rooted, negating the landslide.
Controlling deforestation
Farming
New methods are being developed to farm more intensively, such as
high-yield hybrid crops, greenhouse, autonomous building gardens, and
hydroponics. These methods are often dependent on massive chemical
inputs to maintain necessary yields. In cyclic agriculture, cattle are
grazed on farm land that is resting and rejuvenating. Cyclic agriculture
actually increases the fertility of the soil. Intensive farming can also
decrease soil nutrients by consuming at an accelerated rate the trace
minerals needed for crop growth.
Forest management
Efforts to stop or slow deforestation have been attempted for many
centuries because it has long been known that deforestation can cause
environmental damage sufficient in some cases to cause societies to
collapse. In Tonga, paramount rulers developed policies designed to
prevent conflicts between short-term gains from converting forest to
farmland and long-term problems forest loss would cause, while during
the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in Tokugawa Japan the shoguns
developed a highly sophisticated system of long-term planning to stop
and even reverse deforestation of the preceding centuries through
substituting timber by other products and more efficient use of land
that had been farmed for many centuries. In sixteenth century Germany
landowners also developed silviculture to deal with the problem of
deforestation. However, these policies tend to be limited to
environments with good rainfall, no dry season and very young soils
(through volcanism or glaciation). This is because on older and less
fertile soils trees grow too slowly for silviculture to be economic,
whilst in areas with a strong dry season there is always a risk of
forest fires destroying a tree crop before it matures.
Reforestation
In the People's Republic of China, where large scale destruction of
forests has occurred, the government has in the past required that every
able-bodied citizen between the ages of 11 and 60 plant three to five
trees per year or do the equivalent amount of work in other forest
services. The government claims that at least 1 billion trees have been
planted in China every year since 1982. This is no longer required
today, but March 12 of every year in China is the Planting Holiday. In
western countries, increasing consumer demand for wood products that
have been produced and harvested in a sustainable manner are causing
forest landowners and forest industries to become increasingly
accountable for their forest management and timber harvesting practices.
The Arbor Day Foundation's Rain Forest Rescue program is a charity that
helps to prevent deforestation. The charity uses donated money to buy up
and preserve rainforest land before the lumber companies can buy it. The
Arbor Day Foundation then protects the land from deforestation. This
also locks in the way of life of the primitive tribes living on the
forest land. Organizations such as Community Forestry International, The
Nature Conservancy, World Wide Fund for Nature, Conservation
International, African Conservation Foundation and Greenpeace also focus
on preserving forest habitats.
Forest Plantations
To meet the worlds demand for wood it has been suggested by forestry
writers Botkins and Sedjo that high-yielding forest plantations are
suitable. It has been calculated that plantations yielding 10 cubic
meters per hectare annually could supply all the timber required for
international trade on 5 percent of the world's existing forestland. By
contrast natural forests produce about 1-2 cubic meters per hectare,
therefore 5 to 10 times more forest land would be required to meet
demand. Forester Chad Oliver has suggested a forest mosaic with
high-yield forest lands interspersed with conservation land.
The Jewish National Fund states that the only country to come out of the
Twentieth Century with more trees than it had at the start of the period
was Israel.
The self serving destructors of our world;
Industrialists, Politicians and Religious Bigots (Cartoon,
below)
The below video shows what the planet wants us
to do!
Eating Meat & Global Warming
Do you realize that by eating the flesh of other
living creatures and using crops to burn in your vehicles that you are
contributing to the very demise of our planet?
Why we should not Eat Meat!
Every year 55 billion animals are killed worldwide for human
consumption. For example, in Germany it is 442,100,000 roasting
chickens, 65,200,000 pigs, 34,000,000 soup chickens, 26,300,000 turkeys,
16,200,000 ducks, 5,100,000 cows, 1,700,000 geese, 1,100,000 sheep or
goats and 8,100 horses. And in the US the numbers are even greater. In
2006 the USA slaughtered several billion animals that were raised for
consumption. These included for instance, 51 million cattle and calves,
154 million pigs, 5.2 million sheep, 365 million turkeys, 28,6 million
ducks, as well as 2,933 million broilers and 504 million laying hens. In
addition to the raised animals, fish stocks are mostly depleted and even
sharks are on the verge of extinction. As many as 75 million sharks are
killed annually just for their fins. The demand for the fins are from
Asia, especially China, where shark fin soup is very popular. The sharks
are caught, their fins hacked off, and are then thrown back in the ocean
to slowly and painfully bleed to death. From whaling to the killing of
dolphins and to the murderous clubbing of baby seals...the world's
populace has lost all sense of morality, as well as just plain common
sense, and unfortunately, now has the
means to destroy all life on this planet...including human!
To change our lives...we
must 1st change our way of live!
*Articles are posted as a public service and
Travelers Digest expresses no rights or claims to the posting. Note*
Global Warming and the destruction of our planet is everyone's concern,
so get involved and do your part...now!!!
Fair Use Notice: This document may
contain copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically
authorized by the copyright owners. We believe
that this not-for-profit, educational use on the Web constitutes a fair
use of the copyrighted material (as provided for in section 107 of the
US Copyright Law). If you wish to use this copyrighted material for
purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission
from the copyright owner.
Please refrain from emailing us your hate
mail and/or distorted and biased views, especially if you live in a cave
and
eat your fellow creatures.
The rampant slashing and burning of tropical
forests is second only to the energy sector as a source of greenhouses
gases according to report published today by the Oxford-based Global
Canopy Programme, an alliance of leading rainforest scientists.
and stands outside the carbon markets that the report from the
International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) pointed to this month as
the best hope for halting catastrophic warming.
The
vast Amazon rainforest is on the brink of being turned into desert,
with catastrophic consequences for the world's climate, alarming
research suggests. And the process, which would be irreversible, could
begin as early as next year. (Pic. of stripped
river in Brazil)
Global warming may be the most serious global social problem
threatening life on Earth. We need to fight global warming on the
governmental and corporate levels, and we also need to fight global
warming on the everyday and personal levels. It is now the time to do
more than change our light bulbs...it is time we unite and stop the
maddening destruction of our planets with our dining choices. (Pic.
of global thermal heat)
rate of change of destruction of forests worldwide. Forests in Europe
are adversely affected by acid rain and very large areas of Siberia have
been harvested since the collapse of the Soviet Union. In the last two
decades, Afghanistan has lost over 70% of its forests throughout the
country. However, it is in the world's great tropical rainforests where
the destruction is most pronounced at the current time and where
wholesale felling is having an adverse effect on biodiversity and
contributing to the ongoing Holocene mass extinction. (Pic.
of a baby Polar bear)
Bangladesh,
China, Sri Lanka, Laos, Nigeria, Liberia, Guinea, Ghana and the Cote d'
lvoire have lost large areas of their rainforest. 90% of the forests of
the Philippine archipelago have been cut. In 1960 Central America still
had 4/5 of its original forest; now it is left with only 2/5 of it.
Madagascar has lost 95% of its rainforests. Atlantic coast of Brazil has
lost 90-95% of its Mata Atlântica rainforest. Half of the Brazilian
state of Rondonia's 24.3 million hectares have been destroyed or
severely degraded in recent years. As of 2007, less than 1% of Haiti's
forests remain, causing many to call Haiti a Caribbean desert. Between
1990 and 2005, Nigeria lost a staggering 79% of its old-growth forests.
Several countries, notably the Philippines, Thailand and India have
declared their deforestation a national emergency. (Above
Pic. burning of Malaysia's forests)
Historically
utilization of forest products, including timber and fuel wood, have
played a key role in human societies, comparable to the roles of water
and cultivable land. (Pic. of Amazon logging)
Madagascar
