Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Importance of Forests

Of the initial forest cover that was present, fifty percent has been cleared out. Now, only thirty percent of world’s landmass is covered by forest. 12-15 million hectaresof rain forests, which is equivalent to half the area of Nepal, are being deforested each year. At this rate of destruction—equal to the clearing of one and a half acre every second—the earth would lose all of its rain forests in less than a century. But why should we even care?

The rate and effects of deforestation has increased so severely that human race, along with hundreds of millions of other species, are heading towards inevitable extinction. Forests are vital for almost all the living organisms. Not only did forests contribute significantly in making earth a habitable place for complex organisms in the past but are also a chief factor that helps sustain life in this unique planet. Forests, which we are slashing and burning so brutally and nonchalantly, have been providing resources and sustaining favorable conditions for a vast multitude of living organisms. Destroying them at this rapid pace will be catastrophic to us living organisms who have been inhabiting this planet from millions and millions of years. The seemingly insignificant consequences that we observe now are mere premonition of an approaching cataclysm that will wipe out most if not all organisms off this planet.

Millions of years ago, before forests existed, earth’s atmosphere only contained oxides of compounds like carbon, sulfur and nitrogen as gases but no free oxygen. Only simpler organism could exist in such conditions but with time, these organisms evolved into trees. These trees, like present species of trees, consumed carbon dioxide and released oxygen during photosynthesis. As the trees flourished, forests were formed and the production of free oxygen gained rapidity. Also, as these trees started storing carbon dioxide inside them, the amount of free carbon and its compounds decreased considerably. After a long time, earth finally amassed enough oxygen to facilitate the evolution of complex organisms like us and we came into existence.

Since then, trees in the forests have been working incessantly not only to produce oxygen which unquestionably is vital to life but also to maintain the delicate balance between the amounts of gases present in the atmosphere. Currently, the world’s forests also store 283 billion tons of carbon in their biomass. So their destruction has also helped to release carbon in the environment. As more and more trees are being cleared, and more and more carbon dioxide is being produced, this balance has shifted and the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has increased. This change, though small, accounts for a number of occurrences which are challenging the existence of life.

According to World Resource Institute, forest loss contributes to around fifteen percent of global greenhouse gas emission. Carbon dioxide is one of the greenhouse gases and a main contributing factor in global warming. It’s increased presence in the atmosphere enhances greenhouse effects—process by which the solar radiation get trapped inside earth—which is slowly increasing the average temperature of the earth. Over a long period of time, the earth’s mean temperature may rise by several degrees and this may have devastating effects on organisms that are sensitive to even a small temperature change. This change in temperature is also responsible for melting polar ice which is in turn responsible for habitat loss in the poles and increase in average sea levels, both of which results into loss of large number of species.

Deforestation also changes weather patterns. Trees play a major role to regulate the water cycle; they return water to the atmosphere by perspiration which occurs from their leaves. With the decrease in number of trees, the amount of precipitation would fall and uniformity in the distribution of this decreased precipitation would also be disrupted. Some places may have massive outpours while some may not get any rain and this would interfere with the ecosystem of all these regions. Also, forests help retain water inside themselves by providing shade against the sun‘s radiation. Loss of this cover would enhance the rate of evaporation from the earth’s surface which would cause irregularity in the distribution of water further worsening the effects of deforestation.

Seventy percent of all the animals and plants in the world live in forests. With the destruction of forests, these plants and animals would lose their home. Habitat destruction is the most dramatic and dreaded effect of deforestation. Each year, millions of living beings are being rendered homeless. This will deprive animals from food and shelter and will erase any chances of their survival. Due to the loss of their natural habitats, more and more wild animals are ending up in human inhabited places which further increases their exploitation. Habitat destruction is the primary cause in extinction of species of living organisms. The diversity in the types of organisms we have today is a result of countless years of painstakingly slow process of evolution. Our cruel actions are reverting what nature created and leading towards a lifeless earth. Each year, we permanently lose many valuable species from the earth because we humans disregard the importance of these species in the ecosystem and the need of these forests to these animals and plants.

This diversity we have today does not only fill the showcase in a museum but is imperative to maintain a balance in the ecosystem. If there are far too many primary consumers in an ecosystem, for example, then they would consume producers in a huge rate and decrease their numbers. Similarly if there are more secondary consumers than what an ecosystem can support, they would reduce the numbers of primary consumers in the ecosystem again disrupting the balance. However, in an ecosystem, the number of producers and consumers of different levels are fairly but delicately balanced. As the habitat destruction alters the number of these animals, this tenuous balance will break bringing forth devastation in this world. Decrease in number of an organism from any level in a food chain would start a chain reaction which will eventually lead to scarcity of food for all the organisms in that food chain. As this chain of turbulence spreads it would lead the world into a mass extinction.



Humans are not ignorant of the consequences of this destruction; they are indifferent.



By Riwaz Poudyal
Associate Editor
YJAW-Nepal

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