AdamsDon'tWorryPost

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The sustainability problem of deforestation is immense and absolutely critical to the future of our planet. Just how important is this issue? Well, the WWF has asked for 27 Billion Euros in funding for every year by 2020 to keep forests standing. This concern comes from the observed effects deforestation has upon biological systems associated with forests. Biodiversity loss is the obvious concern and thus affects the critical biological systems that provide us with food and resources. Most people can connect the relationship between the losses of a forest’s biomass with the loss of species diversity. But, most stop there and do not realize the importance of the various services forest provides for mankind. Some of these include water filtration, flood prevention, soil retention, aquifer and groundwater recharge, and food and pollination services. It takes some imagination to understand what happens to water supply when a forest disappears. Regional rainfall is controlled by a balancing act between evapotranspiring plants and uptake by roots, thus controlling evaporative loss of water. Hence, when you remove a forest you also remove the hydrological processes that continue to provide rivers like the Amazon with cleaner flowing water. Watershed protection is synonymous with forest preservation. Another large service that forests provide is climate control. Forests consist of massive concentrations of carbon stored in the cellulose walls of plant cells. These carbon atoms are tied up in biology, and when a forest grows it also stores carbon (via CO2) from the atmosphere. Now, most people do not understand that the global transportation emissions add to less than the equivalent emissions from deforestation, which causes “around fifth of greenhouse gas emissions every year, more than all the forms of air and surface transport combined. This is because trees suck up carbon dioxide as they grow, so every time forests are chopped down it reduces the Earth’s ability to absorb the greenhouse gas.” Therefore if the world wants to reduce emissions, it must stop deforestation. The primary cause of deforestation is caused by the LDC’s (less developed countries) in rainforest nations like Brazil, Indonesia and the Congo where poor people are chopping down trees to feed their families. Providing energy needs to the LDC’s is the challenge, as well as preventing large agriculture and industry from expending the reserves. Some politicians and policymakers have suggested creating a global carbon market and including forests into the discussion. “This would mean industries could pay to protect forests to offset some of their pollution. People could even buy ‘forest bonds’ that grow in value over time as polluting becomes more expensive.” I hope that when considering the sustainability issue of deforestation we do not forget the importance of biodiversity and the de-stability of complex systems that regulate things like fish stocks, nutrient cycling, pollination services, and the many ways in which forests affect humans other than climate change effects. A sustainable management strategy is needed to comprehensibly regulate production of goods and fuel, without destroying the resources forever. One thing is always true, a tree may take 50-100 years to reach maturity but a forest takes thousands of years to regrow. It is for these reasons that I believe our biggest obstacle to global sustainability is preserving our forests.

Blake Adams