How does deforestation contribute to climate change?

Question

How does deforestation contribute to climate change?

Answer 1

deforestation means cutting down the tree and clearing of all the greenaries from the land. This reduces the effect of green plantations which release oxygen and consume carbondioxide. This action of trees create the climate which results in removal of anti oxidants from the atmosphere and also help in rainfall. when the percentage of greenary is reduced we would be having polluted atomosphere and lack of rainfall which would induce global warming and help the planet earth.

Answer 2

It erodes the topsoil

Answer 3

trees change c02 into oxygen so no trees=more c02 which is bad on the thingy that blocks the sun rays thats right the thingy

Answer 4

of course it does

Answer 5

Well, first of all, trees turn carbon dioxide to oxygen. second of all, The trees are either burnt or turned into paper which releases carbon dioxide. Last is that in place of the forest people build buildings(doesn't matter what) which produces extra greenhouse gases

Answer 6

Don't forget that as soon as the tree falls, it is immediately releasing CO2.

Realize that most of the worlds deforestation is happening because of development NOT for the lumber.

Answer 7

i don't know

Answer 8

Tropical deforestation releases around 1.5 billion tons of carbon each year into the atmosphere. Deforestation in the tropics accounts for nearly 20 % of carbon emissions due to human activities. Maintaining forests as carbon sinks will make a significant contribution to stabilizing atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations.

Dr Canadell with the Global Carbon Project and CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research says also that research shows there is considerable value in preserving tropical forests such as those in the Amazon and Indonesia as carbon sinks. “If by 2050 we slow deforestation by 50 per cent from current levels, with the aim of stopping deforestation when we have 50 per cent of the world’s tropical forests remaining, this would save the emission of 50 billion tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere. This 50/50/50 option would avoid the release of the equivalent of six years of global fossil fuel emissions.”

Planting trees won't solve the crisis, but preventing deforestation is an important tool in reigning it in.

Answer 9

Deforestation contributes to climate change several way.

while tree do convert CO2, in Oxygen,  Trees also absorb solar heat, and actually release moisture drawn from the ground back into the atmosphere.  

Answer 10

Yes.

Answer 11

Deforestation contributes to climate change in roughly three ways:

1)Forests sequestrate carbon, decreasing the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. When a forest is cut, this sequestration obviously stops.

20 The trees felled can be processed into wood products (paper, furniture, chopsticks) which have a limited lifespan, and will end up in a waste burner or rotting in a land fill either way releasing the CO sequestrated over decades and sometimes even centuries into the atmosphere. Sometimes forests are used as fuel or just burned for land clearance. in this way, CO2 is released even quicker.

3) Clearing a forest changes the ecosystem drastically, leading to changing dynamics in the soil.  Stored carbon and nitrogen might be released into the atmosphere, depending on the land use change. If the land is used for intensive agricultural production, for instance, more greenhouse gases such as NOx and NH4 and CO2 might be produced Also remnants of the forests might degrade,releasingg CO2 and NOx

Sometimes the land might loose most of its carbon sequestrating capacity too, in the case of decreased fertility due to erosion for instance.

Some people argue that since forests put watervaporr in the air, they also have a 'greenhouse' effect. Second, their albedo, is lower than plain sand, taking up more energy from the sun and transforming it into heat. Most agree however that trees have a net mitigating effect on global warming.

Answer 12

"During its lifetime, one large tree can absorb as much as 11 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2), a major contributor to global warming. Plant two trees, and you've got a couple of greenhouse-gas guzzlers that will together absorb nearly 21 tons — about as much CO2 as the average American emits in one year, according to research conducted by David Nowak, a forestry researcher with the U.S. Forest Service's Northeast Research Station in Syracuse, New York.

While all trees — large or small — take in CO2 during photosynthesis (the process of converting water, CO2 and sunlight into sugar for food), the larger species of trees hold in more carbon because of their sheer size".

Pollution has led to a huge increase in breathing problems such as asthma and with the 21,000 people predicted to die this year in Canada alone from pollution it would be a good idea to think seriously about preserving forests.  For the record its sea algae that produces the most oxygen.  

Answer 13

Deforistation contributes to climate chance because one of the reasons why trees are so important is because they take in Carbon dioxide and then release oxygen. By removing trees, to much carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere. This causes the ozone layer to become thiner which allows more sunlight/UV raise into the earth causing global warming.  

Answer 14

We're still learning about the way trees contribute to climate change, as the previous answers show. The main function is to absorb CO2 from the air and use that as a 'food source', but only growing trees do this, mature trees are carbon neutral. If the tree burns or dies and decomposes, all that CO2 is released again. They also emit methane which is a much more potent greenhouse gas than CO2, but overall their impact is a cooling one as you can tell just by going near one on a hot day. The respiration itself gives some cooling effect that you can feel. This is partly due to the water content in that respiration but it's illustrative. One argument against planting new forests to deal with global warming is the amount of water trees require. This is partly mitigated by the fact that higher CO2 levels mean all vegetation grows better and requires less water but an entire forest would obviously require a lot of water.

Deforestation then reverses all of these benefits and tends to cause additional warming from the albedo effect that Shortgilly describes so well. Trees have zero impact on the ozone layer, the 'ozone hole' was caused by CFC's, chloro-fluorocarbons, not CO2. They both contain carbon but CO2 is a necessary gas for life on Earth and CFC's are chiefly man-made pollutants.

As for pollution, by most measures the US and Canada have cleaner air than they did a generation ago and we're unsure what has caused an upswing in asthma and other respiratory illnesses.

Richard E makes a good point in that forests do keep the CO2 out of circulation during their lifespan. Which obviously means that cutting down the trees once they're mature and either storing them or using them for lumber (and planting new trees in their place) would solve that problem. Unfortunately, the same people who are most worried about climate change are strongly opposed to any lumber operations and seem opposed even to the idea of planting more trees.

In summary, deforestation means you lose the benefits of the trees as a carbon sink, you usually increase the albedo in the affected area, and the subsequent use of the land usually has a negative impact on climate change as well. In the case of the Amazon, once the trees and vegetation are burned out (releasing tons of CO2), no more than a single crop can generally be gained before the land gives out. It's not fertile land for agriculture. The land is then abandoned and as barren land it is more likely to absorb more sunlight thru the albedo 'effect'.

Answer 15

In addition to altering the CO2/O2 cycle, deforestation alters the earth's albedo (reflection of solar radiation). Large tracks of trees = higher albedo = cooler temperatures at the surface.  When trees are cut down that radiation reaches the surface and is absorbed by the earth.