Paper #2
Hyun Young Park
Deforestation has been a serious and controversial issue recently. This act of clearing
land just for the sake of human benefits seems to engage many people with different views.
People more aware of environment worry about deforestation because of extinction of animals
and plants, climate change, soil, and global warming. Those who care about economical benefits
argue that this state of clearing the land will bring greater opportunities than not clearing the
land. They also state that there are always solutions to environmental issues raised by deforesting
the land. Aid regencies and governments, who are immediately involved in deforestation, try to
find consensus on how to balance the needs of ingenious people and “what should be the highest
priority of conservation efforts in tropical forests.”
Both sides corroborate that deforestation causes environmental problems such as climate
change, global warming, extinction of species, and dry of soil. According to National
Geographic, deforestation is a modern-day plague. By defining as an act of “clearing Earth’s
forests on a massive scale, often resulting in damage to the quality of the land,” it advocates that
deforestation is a dramatic problem because forests cover about 30 percent of the earth’s dry
land. National Geographic states that as more rain forests are getting cleared, more negative
effects are being brought to the environment. Furthermore, this article emphasizes the harshness
of deforestation by stating that “the world’s rain forests could completely vanish in a hundred
years at the current rate of deforestation.”
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National Geographic strongly argues that deforestation happens mainly for one reason. It
brings money. Farmers clear the forest to build “more room for planting crops or grazing
livestock” so that they can support their families. National Geographic further reminds that
many small farmers burn down the trees to precede “slash and burn” agriculture, clearing “a few
acres to feed their families by cutting down trees and burning them in process”, brings ash that
makes soil fertile. Logging operations, a process in which roads are built on top of the forests to
access “wood and paper products, and countless trees” more easily, brings further deforestation.
This article writes that growing urban sprawl is also one of the results of deforestation. As
humans are getting money off from the deforestation, however, it brings harmful effects on the
environment.
National Geographic asserts that deforestation brings climate change for mainly two
reasons. The fertile soils of forests dry out when trees are gone to protect them from sunlight and
wind. In that case, soil won’t be able to receive the nutrients and hydrogen needed to make soil
fertile without trees. It also reminds that trees play a large role in the water cycle by bringing
water back to the soil through the trunk. The author expresses that trees, that are critical in
preventing world from global warming, will speed up the global warming since there will be
more spaces for greenhouse gases to be present.
Rebecca Lindsey believes that as much as forests “of amazing diversity and productivity”
provide benefits, clearing the land also provides benefits such as roads and urban areas, and
farms and pastures. She says it comes a lot more beneficial when it comes to a large area, or 7%
of the Earth’s dry land. A wide space can provide the world’s most critical materials such as fuel
and timber. Rebecca, however, understands that global problems, such as extinction of animals
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and plants, futile soil, and social conflict, cannot be avoided since there are millions of species
living on the earth.
Because certain species live in certain regions, it brings extinction to “seventy percent of
Earth’s land animals and plants” when deforestation happens. Rebecca says “their specialization
makes them vulnerable to extinction.” In addition, hot winds caused by removal of trees not
only kill, but extinct plants and animals. She notes that “the edges of the fragments dry out and
are buffeted by hot winds; mature rainforest trees often die standing at the margins. Cascading
changes in the types of trees, plants, and insects that can survive in the fragments rapidly reduce
biodiversity in the forest that remains.”
Unlike Rebecca Lindsey and National Geographics, Nathalie Fiset believes that
deforestation brings benefits that outweigh the harmful effects. According to Nathalie, people
usually talk bad about deforestation due to “global warming, depletion of natural resources, and
the casual extinction of indigenous fauna and flora.” Author, however, believes that it brings
benefits that overcome harmful effects. Overall thematic of this article is positive. Author builds
her argument by stating three main benefits, economic wealth, job opportunities, and urban
renewal.
Believing that “lumbar products are one of the most staple constructive materials in
human society,” Nathalie states that it is difficult to making living without these materials and
the only way to consume these is by “growing more trees to replace the ones taken.” Nathalie
emphasizes that deforestation not only brings jobs to those who cut the trees, but also to those
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who “clean up,” which will be a solution to unemployment. She writes that “These job
opportunities are more than simply a humanitarian concept; society at large would suffer if all of
the people working in the wood industry were to suddenly find themselves jobless.” She also
thinks that the “new land area” is a good space to grow foods that supply human beings. Lastly,
Nathalie states that resources, such as iron ore, mineral, and oil deposits that were hidden in a
forest can be discovered through deforestation. Resources often remain “dormant and untapped,”
but deforestation can often find these.
As such, deforestation has been a wide controversial issue due to its pros and cons. Even
though the “state of being clear of trees” fulfills human needs such as constructive materials and
employment as Nathalie Fiset asserts, it brings negative effects such as climate change and
extinction of animal just as National Geographic and Rebecca Lindsey shown. Deforestation
appears helpful with numerous benefits, but closer inspection seems to show detrimental effects
to mankind and environment.
Sources
Fiset, Nathalie. Web. <http://ezinearticles.com/?Benefits-of-Deforestation&id=504455>
"Deforestation." National Geographic. Web. 06 Oct. 2012.
<http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/deforestationoverview/>
Lindsey, Rebecca "Tropical Deforestation.” Web. 18 Sept. 2012.
<http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/Deforestation/>.
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