With rapid population growth and development of third world countries, we face ever-increasing demands on our world's forests. This is leading to mass destruction and deforestation of these areas in all parts of the world. Such wide spread abuse of our natural resource is of concern to all residents of the earth. The countries with the most tropical forests tend to be developing and overpopulated nations in the southern hemisphere. Due to poor economies, people resort to clearing the forest and planting crops in order to survive.
Deforestation is connected to extinction.
Many of the rain forest plants and animals can only be found in small areas, because they require a special habitat to live. This makes them very vulnerable to deforestation. If their habitat is cut down, they may go extinct. Every day, species are disappearing from the tropical rain forests as they are cut down.
Deforestation is connected to soil degradation.
In a tropical rain forest, almost all of the life and nutrients, are found in the plants and trees. When the plants and trees are cut down to plant crops, small farmers usually burn the tree trunks to release the nutrients necessary for growing plants into the soil. When the rains come, it washes away most of the nutrients and leaves the soil much poorer. After a few years, the ground can no longer support crops, and farmers have much poorer crops.
Deforestation is connected to global warming.
Deforestation is linked to global warming in that trees take in carbon dioxide while they are growing. Carbon dioxide levels are increasing in the air, because of pollution and emissions from cars, factories, and power plants. These emissions contribute to the destruction of the atmosphere and global warming. The intake of carbon dioxide by trees reduces the amount of carbon dioxide that reaches the atmosphere, helping to off-set global warming.
Deforestation is connected to soil erosion.
When deforestation takes place the soil is left with nothing to protect it. The rain doesn't often reach the soil at full impact when trees are in the area, so the soil is very loose and can be easily washed away without them. The removal of trees and shrubs exposes the soil which leads to erosion. Erosion leads to the removal of the thin upper soil layers. This, in turn reduces organic matter content and vegetation growth. Soils that lose organic matter can no longer retain moisture between rainy seasons; when precipitation increases, the soil remains unproductive.
