Deforestation
How deforestation impacts our lives
What is Deforestation?
Deforestation is the purposeful clearing of forested land. Throughout history and into modern times, forests have been razed to make space for agriculture and animal grazing and to obtain wood for fuel, manufacturing, and construction. About 2,000 years ago, 80 percent of Western Europe was forested; today the figure is 34 percent. In North America, about half of the forests in the eastern part of the continent were cut down from the 1600s to the 1870s for agriculture. The main drives for the loss of forest are the production of timber. Since 2016, 28 million hectares of forest have been cut down every year on average. Much of Earth’s farmland was once forests. In the Amazon, around 17% of the forest has been lost.
Why Do We Need to Stop Deforestation?
Preserving tropical forests helps protect the millions of plant and animal species many of which have been invaluable to human medicine that are indigenous to tropical forests and in danger of extinction, Keeping forests intact also helps prevent floods and drought by regulating regional rainfall.
What you can do to prevent deforestation?
Use less paper, recycle paper and cardboard, use recycled products, Buy only sustainable wood products, and Don’t burn firewood excessively. Avoiding single-use packaging.
RELATED STORIES
https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/deforestation/
https://www.worldwildlife.org/threats/deforestation-and-forest-degradation
https://www.livescience.com/27692-deforestation.html
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/deforestation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deforestation
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