The Earth's environment is in great ecological turmoil due to mankind's ignorance towards the plight the forests. The overexploitation of forests at an alarming rate is spurred by humanity's need to accommodate its social, political and economic demands. Woodlands are continually being pulverized and shattered for logs, converted into agricultural pastures and plantations, urban areas and ultimately being transformed into barren lands. They are being stripped of their vegetation, sullied and severely degraded. Moreover, this clearing of trees, better known as the problem of deforestation, intensifies the greenhouse effect (which greatly contributes to global warming), significantly alters the water cycle, heightens the rate of soil erosion (which may eventually lead to soil runoff and floods), and assists in extreme loss of biodiversity (Hynes 179-180). If this treachery persists, life may cease to exist.
Although there may be several factors that abet the rate deforestation such as urbanization, logging, mining and damming, agricultural expansion is the most prevalent (World Book 352).
The Earth flag is not an official flag, since ther...
NASA photo of deforestation in Tierras Bajas proje...
The logo of World Book EncyclopediaThere are quite a number of reasons for why it is so. For instance, shifted cultivators establish small-scale farming areas (subsistence agriculture), companies station vast plantations, and the slash and burn method of deforestation is utilized by cattle ranchers, but all in all, it is to satisfy the economic, social and political needs of the people. In addition, according to Daniel Howden of The Independent, "Within in the next 24 hours, deforestation will release as much CO2 into the atmosphere as 8 million people flying from London
to New York and stopping the loggers is the fastest and cheapest solution to climate change." (Independent) That being said, reforestation and sustainable land management practices should be implemented by both the local and national government since it prevents natural calamities such as flashfloods or landslides from occurring, reduces greenhouse gases in the...