Deforestation Impact on the Climate Change

Deforestation is a highly controversial issue and occurs around the world at an unprecedented magnitude. It is a vast as well as a wide phenomenon. Climate change on the other hand, is an enormous crisis in today’s world, and deforestation plays a critical role in it. Freer-Smith et al (2007) defines deforestation as the practice of clearing the forest land mainly for agricultural purposes, commercial logging and livestock ranching without the intention of replanting. Climate change is the increase of the average temperature on earth, which as a result leads to natural disasters such as droughts, hurricanes, and floods. As can be seen in this case analysis, deforestation bears a massive impact on the climate change.

Deforestation and climate change can be perceived to be a vicious cycle. Trees absorb water from the land and release it into the atmosphere through leaves. When forests are cleared as a result of human activities, water from the ground is not released into the atmosphere therefore, making the climate much drier. This implies that deforestation reduces the content of ground water, soil water as well as the atmospheric moisture. Trees are the major sources of water and with their removal; the natural water cycle is disrupted, leading to far reaching effects such as drought.

Deforestation leads to global warming due to increased presence of greenhouse gases in the earth’s atmosphere. With the notion that deforestation is one source of carbon emission, it is only part of the story. Forests in reality soak up carbon dioxide gas and therefore, offsetting the levels of carbon dioxide gas in the atmosphere. The tropical forests also play a significant role in cooling the earth’s surface through evaporation and cloud cover. Destruction of these forests will thus, worsen the problem of climate change. According to Bosetti and Lubowski (2010) deforestation takes away part of the mitigations in finding solutions to climate change.

Agronne (2010) refers trees to as carbon sinks, which suggests that trees are like storehouses for carbon. When they are cleared, carbon dioxide accumulates in the atmosphere in large quantities, which consequently, leads to greenhouse gas effect. In addition, energy from the sun gets trapped causing the earth to become far warmer that it should. The increased temperatures then contribute to the overall climate change and disruption of the earth’s vicious cycle.

In conclusion, it should be understood that climate change is not only about temperature, but also about human beings. Climate change directly human beings because everything about life is tied the climate such as water supplies, health and well-being as well as food production. Massive destruction of the earth’s forest cover will lead to detrimental consequences if proper measures will not be improvised.

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Posted by December 3rd, 2014

 
 
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