Essay topic: Deforestation
Deforestation has damaged the environment drastically for years, and it definitely needs to be put to an end. According to ran.org three-six billion trees are chopped down every single year on the planet which is almost a full tree for each person on earth a year.. This causes many issues with the environment such as more greenhouse emissions and loss of habitat for many animals and even more issues that are killing the planet at an incredible rate. There are alternatives that would preserve our earth. If we act now it is possible to help fix this issue but it must be quickly and efficiently. Deforestation has made the ecosystem worse in many places and continues to do so, so it must be stopped.
To begin, deforestation has been around for many years but has never been this bad. Deforestation was first growing in the 1950s due to businesses on the rise that required wood products but still even existed before that. Now businesses like lumber and furniture businesses control the chopping down of trees; beforehand, early numbers of deforestation were very small and were nothing to worry about but the number quickly began to rise without many people aware of it. Nowadays, cutting down trees is harming the environment more than ever and is destroying it quicker than we can replace it. According to livescience.com only about 2-2.5 billion trees are planted every year: which is not even half a tree for every one tree chopped down per year. That number seems like a large number but isn’t compared to deforestation.
Deforestation is constantly growing at an average around 33,000,000 more trees cut down every year and that number is still growing, So, the deforestation is ruining the environment and it is only getting worse.It is estimated that within 100 years there will be no rain forests left on earth: that is a short enough time that even the next human generation will witness the final trees being cut down. Most people know that the humans are having a large jump in population and with that people are using more resources just like wood. With more people, deforestation is killing the earth more and more and humans can’t keep up with it.
The damage that cutting down trees done is devastating. Humans have made efforts to try and regrow the forests but at the rate the trees are being chopped down, it is nearly impossible to do anything about it. Trees take years and years to grow but only a few minutes to cut one down; consequently, that has shown because already half of the earth’s forests have been cleared out and that number keeps rising every day. conserve-energy-future.com says one very large statistic is that one and half acres of forest is cut down every single second: that is equal to 20 football fields in a minute.
Deforestation also releases many greenhouse gasses which is definitely not good for the environment.. The more trees that are cut down, the more gases are released; in addition to that, the Amazon contains 20% of the world's oxygen which is being chopped down. It harms our atmosphere and constantly keeps getting harmed because of these emissions. With these emissions constantly growing humans are feeling the effects because it is harming the ozone layer which also hurts humans when it is treated wrongly. Another issue is that 70% of earth’s land animals and plants live in a forest area. Since deforestation started, millions of animals and plants have been forced out of their habitat or even killed because of human selfishness. Many are dying and cannot survive in new conditions along with plants; consequently, 28,000 species are expected to go extinct within 25 years due to deforestation.
There are many possible solutions to stopping deforestation. One way is to just simply stop buying wood products. No demand means not having the need to cut trees down for products. If you can’t deal without products such as tables or firewood, then find a safe alternative. There are many replacements for wood products that are totally safe for the environment or at least don’t damage it as much. Find a product that uses alternatives to wood so that trees don’t need to be cut down like artificial wood tables or fire starters. There are even certain thriving plants that using wouldn’t destroy the population of the plant such as kenaf. There is also agri-pulp which is leftover agricultural waste after harvesting crops. We also need to keep replanting trees to make up for the lost ones. Every little bit of cutting down stops the cutting down of trees. If we stop the cutting down of trees and keep planting more eventually, we will go back to the amount of trees we need.
If everybody joins in the act to stop deforestation then we could thrive as a planet again. Many companies and charities already exist to help protect and preserve the environment but it is not enough. People can all help by just stopping themselves from buying wood based products and helping plant trees and other plants that are lost in deforestation. Every little thing that people can do to help is welcome no matter what it is. We need to do this to preserve the environment and make it better so it remains great and not let it die and lose it forever. It is simple and easy to help make the earth a better place so why not do it?
Clearly deforestation is a large issue because it is killing the earth and harming so many parts of the environment. It releases greenhouse emissions, forces millions of animals and plants out of their homes and is taking away the beauty of the planet with over half of the forests gone. We can change our ways and stop the deforestation that is harming the environment. We need to all join together and stop buying wood products and help replant all of the plants that were destroyed over the years. With 3-6 billion trees cut annually, deforestation is definitely a mass problem that needs to be stopped.
Work Cited Page
Bradford, Alina. "Deforestation: Facts, Causes & Effects." LiveScience. TechMedia Network, 04 Mar. 2015. Web. <http://www.livescience.com/27692-deforestation.html>.
"How Many Trees Are Cut down Every Year?" Rainforest Action Network. N.p., n.d. Web. <http://www.ran.org/how_many_trees_are_cut_down_every_year>.
"Paper Chase | Ecology Global Network." Ecology Global Network. N.p., 10 Sept. 2011. Web. <http://www.ecology.com/2011/09/10/paper-chase/>.
"51 Facts About Deforestation - Conserve Energy Future."ConserveEnergyFuture. N.p., 11 Sept. 2013. Web. <http://www.conserve-energy-future.com/various-deforestation-facts.php>.
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