Illegal Deforestation

Has your home ever been chopped down because some people want to get rich? Do you want that to happen? Well, this happens to millions of animals each day. This is known as deforestation. Deforestation is the act where people cut down trees illegally without boundaries and oftentimes without thought. These cruel actions take the lives and homes of many different types of animals such as orangutans, monkeys, and many more species. There are causes for deforestation, there are ways that it affects nature, and there are also solutions to this horrific and global problem.

Causation

One of the main factors that contribute to deforestation is illegal tree cutting. People that illegally cut down trees, also known as loggers, cut down thousands of trees each day for mainly one reason; money. They cut down trees to sell to businesses that will buy this illegally cut wood. Consequently, they make a large amount of money making them want to keep cutting down wood so they can make more money. Slowly, entire forests disappear from these illegal loggers. This can lead to habitat loss and even worse. These loggers also use wood to extract palm oil so they can make money off of the palm oil industry. Palm oil is used in everyday things like shampoo, bread, peanut butter, and countless other items. With so much demand for these products from buyers, companies need to buy palm oil in large amounts frequently and without illegal loggers, they would not be able to. According to the World Wildlife Foundation, another factor that contributes to deforestation are fires. As you probably already know, fire can burn wood at extremely fast paces. These fires can destroy large amounts of land in at a rapid speed. One reason why fires can start frequently is because of the agricultural method of slash and burn. This method is when you cut down lots of trees for space, and then burn that space to somehow make the soil more fertile. The Maya used this method of farming. Furthermore, one of the most surprising causes of deforestation is cutting wood for fuel and other housing purposes.

The Harmful Effects

With so many trees disappearing everyday, the loss of these trees do have a huge impact on life. For example, cutting down trees also means destroying the habitats of many animals that live in forests. These animals can include birds, monkeys, and other animals. To clarify, many animals’ habitats are in the trees and in forests and when they are destroyed, that means they will have nowhere else to live and they will die. One really good example of this is in the Amazon. The vast Amazon rainforest houses millions of animals and is one of the most incredible ecosystems on Earth. However, due to the extraordinary amount of trees that are in the Amazon rainforests, loggers have found it to be one of the best places to cut trees. If they would just think more, they would realize that they are killing millions of animals just for the money. Another harmful impact that deforestation has on the Earth is the fact that it increases the amounts of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere and actually increases pollution. You might ask yourself, “How does cutting down trees increase pollution?” Well according to www.wwf.org, trees actually act as a natural filter for carbon dioxide and absorb carbon dioxide that is produced from harmful gases made from cars and factories. By eliminating the amount of trees that intake this harmful pollution that can cause respiratory diseases and harmful effects on the environment, it will make it so the pollution has nowhere to go and stays in our air continuously negatively impacting the environment. Lastly, deforestation can actually cause erosion. Trees actually act as a natural anchor that support fertile soil so it can not go anywhere. However, when these trees are cut and ripped out of the ground, this soil suddenly has no support and can cause landslides.

Ways To Help

With all of these negative impacts that deforestation causes, there needs to be a way to stop this. According to www.natgeo.com, Paraguay has recently enforced deforestation laws in 2004. Consequently, deforestation has gone down over 85% since then. Furthermore, organizations such as the World Wildlife Foundation or WWF for short has, “Advocated for governments by creating protected areas, and by enforcing laws and regulations.” This basically means that they have made designated areas where deforestation is not allowed whatsoever. They have also helped enforce laws with governments protecting the trees. Another way to help stop deforestation is by looking for energy alternatives other than wood. This will make it so wood does not need to be burned for energy. Finally, avoiding all products with palm oil will have a huge impact. If everybody just simply looks at the ingredients on the products that they will buy and make sure that there is no palm oil, it will basically, “Boycott,” palm oil meaning that palm oil businesses will make no money. This will make businesses realize that palm oil isn’t selling which means that it does not need to be produced anymore. When this happens, trees will not need to be cut down making the world a better place.

Conclusion

To conclude, deforestation is a horrible world problem that needs to be stopped. It has causes, effects, and ways for it to be prevented. It happens because people want to make money off of selling wood. With this, it affects animals by creating habitat loss which leads to animals dying. Furthermore, preventing this can be simple if you look for energy alternatives and refuse to buy palm oil. Deforestation is a problem that will affect future generations to come, and we need to stop it now. If you truly care about our Earth’s health and want this to stop, than please use renewable resources and do not purchase or use products with palm oil. Doing this will make Earth a better place. For more information on Deforestation, please visit www.wwf.org or www.natgeo.com.

Credits:

www.wwf.org

www.natgeo.com

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