Any kind of intresting facts about deforestation?

Question

any kind of fact. the kind that motivates people to do something is preferred.

THANK YOU

Answer 1

maybe you should look at the landscape of most states between 1900 and 1920......they cleared the land so factories(for the war) would have fuel (wood ) and most homes heated with wood.......chances are the land looked kind of barren......see if the library has books from the local historical societies and look at some of the pictures.....if you go driving down a road through a forest and see a bunch of old stone walls, think about how they got there....there were  farmers who had cleared the land(of rocks   and Trees)

just remember long before us... trees were around and they breathed in this carbon dioxide and gave off this waste gas called oxygen......as far as trees becoming sources of carbon dioxide.....the science is not there to support it, anyone suggesting that is misinformed

and for someone to suggest that the trees now in the united states are mostly monoculture tree plantations has not spent much time driving between  the states(observing and then using critical thinking)

Answer 2

The Bali initiative claimed that 20% of the world's carbon emmissions come from deforestation.  The most significant success of the conference was the agreemeent to give countries "carbon credits" for saving their forests.

Answer 3

A particularly important one is that deforestation, particularly in the tropics, is responsible for nearly one fifth of all global greenhouse gas emissions.  In addition to being important "sinks" for the carbon dioxide emitted by human activities, tropical forests store massive amounts of carbon in their wood, leaves and soils.  When an area of forest is cut down, this carbon is lost into the atmosphere--either slowly, as the wood decays, or very quickly, if the forest burns.  This is why Indonesia is the third largest emitter of carbon dioxide globally--because it's forests are disappearing, often in massive fires.  Brazil is now a major emitter of carbon dioxide for the same reason.  So, reducing climate change is yet another reason to protect the world's forests.

For the immense boreal forests that ring the northern Hemisphere--from Canada and the US, through Russia and into Scandanavia--the science regarding their carbon uptake is much less certain (as the world warms, they may stop being carbon sinks and become sources of carbon dioxide).  However, these forests still store tremendous amounts of carbon in their wood and soils, and just like in the tropics, deforestation in boreal forests releases huge amounts of carbon into the atmosphere and thus contributes to global climate change.

While it may be technically true that the continental US has more forest now than it did in the past, much of the "forest" in some regions, particularly the Southeast, is in monoculture tree plantations that bear almost no resemblance to natural forests.  These tree plantations are often heavily treated with fertilizers and pesticides, and the habitat they provide for wildlife is both less diverse and less useful to most native wildlife.

Answer 4

How about this one:  There are more trees in the United States now, than there were when the Pilgrims first landed.  

Think about it:  Everywhere that humans have built cities, they've also planted trees - especially across areas in the desert southwest and the central U.S.  It used to be that the great plains of the central U.S. were just that:  grasslands with very few trees...and the trees were mainly concentrated along waterways & river bottoms.  

Now?  You've got "urban forests" all over the central United States - because people plant trees.  

The desert southwest was just that:  A desert.  You had brush, cactus, and some Joshua trees.  

Now?  Again, you've got "urban forests".  In every city around the desert southwest, people have planted trees to provide shade and a little cooling.  

Sure, there are forests that were clear-cut in the past, but in most cases, they've got trees growing there again now.  And with the radical environmentalists forcing the near complete shutdown of logging in the United States, not as many trees are being cut down...