Damon Anderson
5/31/12
8th hr
National Deforestation
Deforestation is a huge problem which many forests have to deal with. Many people can get
resources and or make money from destroying the forests for all of the different items they have.
Especially in tropical forests which are more deforested. It is a national problem that many regions and
countries deal with like Indo-Burma countries, Indian Ocean islands, and Coastal forests Eastern Africa
areas. According to the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention) subsistence farming is
responsible for forty-eight percent of deforestation; commercial agriculture is responsible for thirty
two percent of deforestation; wood logging causes for fourteen percent of deforestation and fuel wood
removals is only five percent. All of these factors add up and can really damage the environment and
animals natural habitats.
The U.S has always been a major country who contributes to deforestation since the pilgrims
arrived then to today’s world. In 2010 we led the world in deforestation but it seems like we understand
what we were doing and now we are performing forest reconstruction which is improving the problem.
Woodworking has been a huge part of the world surrounding us in today’s world. Homes that we live in
and many other useful things we use wood for make life really enjoyable for us but deforestation is one
major problem that really can be handled.
It ranges all over the world and a lot in tropical rain forests like the Amazon Rain Forest and it
happened in the United States when settlers first arrived. In the U.S nearly all of this deforestation started
before 1910 while the Europeans were making the northern American continent a place named the U.S.
Before the Europeans settled into the area there was more than four million square kilometers of forest.
Therefore now we have about three million square kilometers left. Back then the pilgrims cut many trees
and forests down which were becoming cut down for houses and essentials for life.
Damon Anderson
5/31/12
8th hr
Trees were being cut down when settlers first arrived so they could survive which was logical
back then. When people in South America cut down the Amazon Rain forest this seems unnecessary.
This seems not right but the facts show that because of the increasing population the people in the
Amazon area cut it down to survive. They need food and wood and other resources which are inside of
the forested area. While other people that deforest the area own corporations and do it for money to sell
the objects they acquire.
In 1950 about fifteen percent of the world was covered in rain forests. This was major resource to
us because about one fourths of the world’s medicines came from the rain forests. The tropical rain forest
also has more value to the economy when it is not being destroyed because all of the natural resources.
Most of the rain forests around the world not just the amazon are cut down by chainsaws, bulldozers and,
burned with fire. Most of the deforestation now is caused by subsistence farming which was earlier
mentioned.
There are also other causes of the lost of forests in the rain forest. Hydroelectric projects such as
the Balbina dam has flooded about nine hundred and twenty mile of rain forest. An expert on the Amazon
Philip Fearnside estimated that in the first three years of the Balbina Reservoir it emitted twenty three
seven hundred and fifty tons of carbon dioxide and one hundred forty tons of methane.
Deforestation is a terrible thing but not everyone is just doing something bad many other
organizations are replenishing the forests which is called reforestation. For example in the People’s
Republic of China where deforestation has been huge their government in the past has required every
citizen that is able-bodied between the age of eleven and sixty to plant three to five trees a year or do
forest community work equivalent to that. Also El Salvador expanded more than twenty percent between
nineteen ninety two and two thousand and one.
Deforestation is becoming a serious problem which is also becoming solved every day. Rain
forests around the world were suffering some still are but others are getting better and the recovery rate
for forests are increasing. Deforestation was the main idea and topic but now the world is focused on
something bigger and more important reforestation.
Damon Anderson
5/31/12
8th hr
“Deforestation.” World Book. Vol. 5 2011. Print.
Modern-Day Plague http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/globalwarming/deforestation-overview/
"Deforestation." Deforestation. 01 Apr. 2010. Web. 30 May 2012.
<http://www.globalchange.umich.edu/globalchange2/current/lectures/deforest/deforest.html>.
"Deforestation." National Geographic. Web. 30 May 2012.
<http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/deforestation-overview/>.
“Deforestation.” World Book. Vol. 5 2008. Print.