Deforestation: Why is it bad?

Source: https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2023/03/31/gettyimages-1242896310_custom-51da54b30e0c9c0ac39504573f46b6c9909fee51.jpg?s=1100&c=85&f=jpeg

Deforestation, the action of clearing out forest land or a large area of trees is becoming a big issue in society. Despite cutting down forests in order to get bigger farms, get more buildings, and other human constructions, trees are essential for all organisms to continue living on Earth. Aside from the physical items that trees allow for like paper and furniture, trees are very important for the environment. Most notably they improve air quality and produce a lot of oxygen for humans to breathe. Trees have many other positive benefits on day-to-day life but due to the rapid decline in trees due to humans within the past years, the environment is being affected.

One reason why trees are so important as mentioned previously is due to the oxygen and air quality it brings. Unlike humans who need to breathe air and exhale carbon dioxide, trees do exactly the opposite, they take in carbon dioxide and produce air. In other words, they are able to produce what us humans need to breathe and humans produce what trees need to take in. Trees have the ability to remove pollutants in the air and also remove greenhouse gasses that cause global warming. It is estimated that urban trees remove about 711,000 metric tons of air pollution yearly. Having clean air in the world is very important as a poor air quality can lead to health problems like lung cancer or disease, stroke, breathing issues, and create chronic respiratory issues like asthma. Greenhouse gasses also cause global warming, another very pressing issue in society currently and with decreasing the amount of trees which increase more greenhouse gasses, it will only get worse. As seen, trees are very important for the Earth's atmosphere and can prevent issues within the air all organisms need.

The loss of forests and areas with large amounts of trees also results in many organisms that live in these habitats to die and sometimes become endangered. In fact, about 70% of the Earth's animal are all located in forests and slowly but surely, more and more are getting the homes chopped down. Additionally, due to deforestation, about 50,000 species that live in forests become extinct every year. The continuous loss of species can be a negative effect toward the food chain since all species in a ecosystem and interconnected with each other someway through the food chain, if one part of the food chain falls, in this case a species, then another one will become endangered. Many animals also have positive effects on the environment and losing them would effect humans as well.

Lastly, trees have a very important impact on the water cycle. The water cycle is known to be the movement of the Earth's water between on land and in the atmosphere. There are 4 stages of the water cycle that are commonly known as, evaporation, condensation, precipitation, and collection. The water cycle allows all organisms to receive fresh water that is usable for drinking, agriculture etc. Trees take out water that is in the ground using their roots and release that water into the air in the form of vapor. This results in greater cloud formation, allowing for rain and the water cycle to continue more efficiently. Since so many trees are getting cut down, the moisture in the air is dried up and the balance of the water cycle is disrupted.

In conclusion, trees are very important for all living organisms and it is important to not forget about their importance and positive impacts.

Works Cited:

Weeden, Meaghan. 2021. “How Trees Clean the Air.” One Tree Planted. November 5, 2021. https://onetreeplanted.org/blogs/stories/how-trees-clean-air.

WWF. 2015. “The Importance of Forests.” Panda.org. 2015. https://wwf.panda.org/discover/our_focus/forests_practice/importance_forests/.

‌Dhaliwal, Bani. 2023. “How Deforestation Affects the Water Cycle.” Earth Day. February 8, 2023. https://www.earthday.org/how-deforestation-affects-the-water-cycle/.

‌“Deforestation: Clearing the Path for Wildlife Extinctions.” n.d. Www.earthandanimals.com. https://www.earthandanimals.com/advocate/wild-earth/params/post/1278141/deforestation-clearing-the-path-for-wildlife-extinctions#:~:text=Seventy%20percent%20of%20the%20Earth.

‌“Air.” n.d. Www.tn.gov. https://www.tn.gov/health/cedep/environmental/healthy-places/healthy-places/environmental-quality/eq/air.html#:~:text=Breathing%20clean%20air%20can%20lessen.

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