Deforestation: The Impact on Environment & Society - Essay Sample

Introduction

Trees have many uses in all over the world. That explains the massive deforestation that has been going on throughout the world for the need for timber and other materials. However, the process of deforestation has its negative implications on the environment and society as a whole. The main concern is with the point of view of people where many people feel like the need for trees surpasses the importance of keeping them. Indiscriminate cutting of trees is what affects the process. I seek to present three main fronts to show that the indiscriminate cutting of trees is harmful. They include the fact that deforestation affects rain patterns of the world and, by extension, the climate; it destroys the natural habitat of living organisms. Finally, it leads to an increase in deserts.

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Deforestation is the indiscriminate cutting of trees without replacing them to their original place. The use and importance of timber and firewood cannot be overlooked in the world. One of the uses of trees includes being used to make paper, which is used to make books and other reading materials and, by extension, bettering and enabling the learning process. However, the negative effects of deforestation are screaming day in day out in the faces of all the sane environmentalists. Forests act as water catchment areas in the form of a source of rivers and also help in the formation of rain in the sky through the formation of clouds. The rivers which derive their sources from these forests end up drying up because of deforestation.

Logging also provides timber, which is used in the building and construction industry. The timber is used to provide timber that helps in the erecting of roofs and making of furniture stored in these buildings. Through the logging process and the end product of the process, there is also a creation of employment in the form of carpenters who build these structures and buildings. Nevertheless, indiscriminate cutting of trees, especially forest, deny wild animals of a place where they call home. Wild animals live in forests as that is where the ecological niche placed them to survive in nature. Clearing the forests robs them of a place they call home, and some of them have died in the process as they have nowhere to stay.

Trees also provide a quickly accessible source of fuel that is cheap. Some people depend on firewood for their sources of fuel, and thus they use the easily accessible firewood going in their way, clearing the trees on their way. It is also used to make charcoal, which is used by many communities. The negative effect of these is that it sets precedence for growing desert-like conditions as more trees are cleared to find firewood and material for charcoal (Bala, et al., p. 6555). The size of deserts increases to otherwise previously fertile arable land. I seek to make people understand that the indiscriminate cutting of trees is terrible and that there are other solutions to the reasons for cutting trees.

Outline

Deforestation is the indiscriminate cutting of trees without replacing them for the interests of processing timber used in various industries. The main uses of the harvested timber include used in building and construction, used in the making of paper, which is used to make books and other reading materials, and also used as a source of fuel. Alongside those uses, it also creates employment for people who work in those industries and factories and the ones who work as carpenters. The paper seeks to show people that we can minimize the use of trees while maximizing on its importance to the world generally and the way it helps everyone. Firstly, I would enumerate the negative effects of deforestation before offering alternative solutions.

Deforestation denies wild animals their natural habitat that they are supposed to live in and stay safe in. The continuous and indiscriminate cutting down of trees exposes the animals to the threat of losing their homes and thus exposed to danger (Schwitzer, et al., p.31) Clearing trees in the search for timber is good as the paper processed ha a lot of uses, but then the wild animals are left without the place where they call home. Being that the wild animals cannot survive in other habitats, some of them end up dying from the process. Some of them stray into human residences causing destruction to land and property and even human death.

The cutting of trees to provide timber for the building and construction industry is a positive effect as it also provides employment to the unemployed. However, there are negative effects that have negative implications on the climate of the world. The negative repercussions include the loss of rain and the slow encroachment of desert conditions. Trees act as catchment places and form sources of rivers that flow over the plain where the water is used for irrigation and other uses (Coe, et al., p 119). The trees also help in the formation of rain through the process of condensation. Therefore, cutting down these trees results in the drying of the river sources and the scarcity of rain resulting in no formation of rain.

There is a need to come up with alternative means to reduce the cutting of trees and save our environment and climate. However, questions arise about whether it is easy to reduce the rate of deforestation. The answer to these questions is yes, it is possible to reduce the rate of deforestation and still enjoy some of the benefits of trees. The first thing I recommend is the shift from the use of charcoal and firewood as sources of firewood to using other fossil fuels such as natural gas. The use of bio-waste will also help in shifting from wood fuel (Nwaokocha, et al., p. 548). They are effective in small amounts are renewable. That would greatly reduce the pressure and stress on trees as a source of fuel. Many countries have shifted from the use of trees as fuel, and they are greatly advocating for others to follow.

The other solution to the deforestation problem is to reduce the use of paper and use electronic sources in reading. Through that, we will reduce the need for timber to process for paper used in writing hardcopies. Another suggestion is the continuous recycling and reusing of already used papers to ensure no such material goes to waste. The solution has worked in countries where there is the recycling of already used paper to make journals and magazines which are stored for a longer time. The effective response is that the need for the paper will reduce and the consequent reduction of pressure on our forests for timber to produce more papers used in books production.

Lastly is that the use of trees cannot be done away with completely as the use of tree products is here to stay with us. It will, therefore, be a great initiative if we came up with policies to replace the trees cut through logging. The different jurisdictions should come up with policies that ensure one plants and replaces the trees they cut and make sure they take care of the trees until they are mature (Meyfroidt, et al., p. 343). The process is called re-afforestation, where a timber harvesting company is first required to plant trees to replace those they are taking down. With all that said and done, it is essential to note that we cannot fully replace the trees we cut in their original form, and thus we should make sure we use the available resources we get from trees sparingly.

Annotated Bibliography

Bala, Govindasamy, et al. "Combined climate and carbon-cycle effects of large-scale deforestation." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 104.16 (2007): 6550-6555.

This article emphasizes the effects of deforestation through its effect on the climate by the emission of carbon gases into the atmosphere. It shades more light on the issue and can, therefore, be used to advance the agenda against deforestation and preach against it. I can make reference to this article to explain the deforestation effects on climate.

Coe, M. T., et al. "The effects of deforestation and climate variability on the streamflow of the Araguaia River, Brazil." Biogeochemistry 105.1-3 (2011): 119-131.

The article stresses the effect of deforestation, which includes the drying of rivers. The Araguaia River in Brazil has been used as an example to show the effects of deforestation on previously occurring masses of water like rivers. The article is thus suitable for advancing the topic of discussion, which is deforestation. I can make use of this article to explain the effect of rivers.

Meyfroidt, Patrick, and Eric F. Lambin. "Global forest transition: prospects for an end to deforestation." Annual review of environment and resources 36 (2011): 343-371.

The article emphasizes the need to come up with policies that reduce the effect of deforestation in Europe. The article stresses the need to implement re-afforestation and thus deal with the deforestation menace. The article thus is a great reference for the point on re-afforestation. I can use this to talk about the influence of re-afforestation on regaining the beauty of the land.

Nwaokocha, Collins N., and Solomon O. Giwa. "Investigation of bio-waste as an alternative fuel for cooking." (2016): 548-551.

The article talks about embracing bio-waste as an alternative way for the production of fuel and therefore reduce the pressure on wood fuel. The article is about wood fuel use in Africa, which has greatly affected the forest cover in Africa. I can use the article to explain the use of bio-waste and reduce deforestation.

Schwitzer, Christoph, et al. "Responses of animals to habitat alteration: an overview focussing on primates." Endangered Species Research 14.1 (2011): 31-38.

The article focusses on the way deforestation is destroying the natural habitat of wild animals continuously presenting the dangers of having the animals to live without a home. That has caused the increase of human and wildlife interactions, which has led to deaths of human beings and loss of property and other things. The article is thus suitable for this particular topic.