Effects Of Deforestation :: essays research papers

Effects of Deforestation     The subject of disforestation and the effects that it has on theenvironment have been heavily debated for a long time particularly over thelast few years. Governments and large lumber companies see large profits in themass deforestation of forests and assign that their actions are having few, ifany, harmful effects on the environment. Most people disagree with this andthink that the environmental effects are devastating and will becomeirreversibly disastrous in the very near future. Whether or not the prosoutweigh the cons will be hotly debated for years to come but the fact is thatdeforestation is harmful to the environment and leads to declining wildlifepopulations, drastic changes in climate and loss of soil.     The loss of forests means the loss of habitats for many species. Currentstatistics show that as many as 100 species become extinct every day with alarge portion being attributed to deforestation (Delfg aauw, 1996). "Edgeeffects" are the destruction or degradation of natural habitat that occur on thefringes of fragmented forests. The effects for the animals include greaterexposure to the elements (wind, rain etc), other non-forest animals and humans(Dunbar, 1993). This unnatural extinction of species endangers the worlds foodsupply, threatens many human resources and has profound implications forbiological diversity.     Another negative environmental impact of deforestation is that it causesclimate changes all over the world. As we lettered in elementary school, plantlife is essential to life on earth as it produces much of the oxygen that isrequired for humans and other organisms to breathe. The gigantic destruction oftrees negatively effects the quantity and quality of the air we breathe whichhas direct repercussions on the quantity and quality of life among both humansand animals alike. With this lessen amount of vital plant life comes theincreas e of carbon dioxide levels in the earths atmosphere. With theseincreased levels of CO-2 come unnatural changes in weather patterns both locallyand globally. "The removal of forests would cause rainfall to decline more than26%. The average temperature of soil will rise and a decline of 30% in theamount of wet will evaporate into the atmosphere" (Delfgaauw, 1996). Thisleads to the global warming phenomenon which is in any case directly related to thedeclining amounts of forest areas on the earth.     Soil erosion caused by deforestation is also a major concern among eventhe most amateur environmentalists     "When rain falls, some may sink to the ground, some may run off the issue of the land, and flowing down towards the rivers and some may evaporate.