Over the years, humans have been striving towards modernization, coming up with ways to make our lives easier and more luxurious. We have become overpopulated and greedy, using up more resources than we can consume. This greed leads us to deforestation, which has become quite a problem around the world. What is deforestation you ask? Deforestation is the permanent removal of forest cover from an area. It is when humans cut down or even burn large amounts of trees to create more space for agriculture, factories, cities, you name it. It contributes to endangered and extinct species and even global warming! Deforestation destroys land and the living organisms in it, greatly affecting the ecosystem.
Even though forests don’t cover as much of the world, as say, the oceans, they probably harbor half of all the species. This is what makes forests vital to our world. The species that are lost by tearing down our forests all have a purpose in maintaining the balance of the ecosystem. They support the web of biodiversity that, if kept in tact, benefits every species in the world, including ourselves. If a specimen is taken away from that web, the web will break apart and the other species in the web will suffer. Take the dung beetles that live in Madagascar for example. These beetles feed off of the dung that other animals produce. One of the largest producers of dung in Madagascar is the lemur, which is sadly decreasing in numbers. The decease in lemurs means that the number of dung beetles will also decease. This tells us that the web of biodiversity is very fragile and that even a small alteration to this web is vital to the rest of the species that are a part of it.
Certain species also take part in medical discoveries. There are thousands of living organisms in forests. Who knows? There maybe thousands of different kinds of antidotes that can be made by these living organisms. Deforestation cuts off any chances of finding out. If we push more species into extinction, we may never find out the treatment to cancer, AIDS and other diseases!
Cutting down trees contributes to the ever growing predicament of global warming. Trees are obviously very important to the environment because not only do they provide habitats to living organisms, they also convert carbon dioxide into oxygen. If humans cut down large numbers of trees the less carbon dioxide is changed into oxygen. It’s as if we are suffocating ourselves! Wait, it gets worse! The people who cut down these trees sometimes burn them since it’s a quicker way to get rid of them. Burning the trees releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. So not only are we cutting down on our oxygen, we are worsening the state of global warming!
It is evident that the damage that we do to the environment will eventually be our downfall. We need to realize that the ecosystem is very fragile. We need to be careful of what we take away from the environment (ex. trees, animals) and what we put in it (ex. litter, carbon dioxide). If we don’t do something quick, not only will the fish, birds and insects be extinct, we will be too.
Even though forests don’t cover as much of the world, as say, the oceans, they probably harbor half of all the species. This is what makes forests vital to our world. The species that are lost by tearing down our forests all have a purpose in maintaining the balance of the ecosystem. They support the web of biodiversity that, if kept in tact, benefits every species in the world, including ourselves. If a specimen is taken away from that web, the web will break apart and the other species in the web will suffer. Take the dung beetles that live in Madagascar for example. These beetles feed off of the dung that other animals produce. One of the largest producers of dung in Madagascar is the lemur, which is sadly decreasing in numbers. The decease in lemurs means that the number of dung beetles will also decease. This tells us that the web of biodiversity is very fragile and that even a small alteration to this web is vital to the rest of the species that are a part of it.
Certain species also take part in medical discoveries. There are thousands of living organisms in forests. Who knows? There maybe thousands of different kinds of antidotes that can be made by these living organisms. Deforestation cuts off any chances of finding out. If we push more species into extinction, we may never find out the treatment to cancer, AIDS and other diseases!
Cutting down trees contributes to the ever growing predicament of global warming. Trees are obviously very important to the environment because not only do they provide habitats to living organisms, they also convert carbon dioxide into oxygen. If humans cut down large numbers of trees the less carbon dioxide is changed into oxygen. It’s as if we are suffocating ourselves! Wait, it gets worse! The people who cut down these trees sometimes burn them since it’s a quicker way to get rid of them. Burning the trees releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. So not only are we cutting down on our oxygen, we are worsening the state of global warming!
It is evident that the damage that we do to the environment will eventually be our downfall. We need to realize that the ecosystem is very fragile. We need to be careful of what we take away from the environment (ex. trees, animals) and what we put in it (ex. litter, carbon dioxide). If we don’t do something quick, not only will the fish, birds and insects be extinct, we will be too.
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