How did deforestation originate?

Question

thanx

Answer 1

Deforestation caused by man may be due to the desire to obtain more land to grow crops or to graze animals.

Answer 2

in the days of the dinasaurs this planet was under an aquiferus manta ,a mist that covered the entire earth ,and there were no desserts .

Count how many there are today,and all of them are as a result of mans actions.
the sahara used to be forrests
arabia ,irak ,iran used to be fertile lands in biblical times
Ghengas Kahn burned all the forrests here and filled the wells with water and so turning vast lands into dessert.
Spain was deforrested by the building of the spanish Armada
Lebanons desserts were caused by the building of the Phoenician trading fleet
expanding populations that need space deforrest huge territories ,
Modern agriculture today is doing the same as ghengas kahn but in much bigger territories.
and the farming needed to support a world population that has doubled in the last 50 years ,consumes even more forrests

so plant a tree every week,and help us save the world

http://spaces.msn.com/byderule

read a planet under stress ,plan B --by Lester E Brown.
it is in an Adobe print out as well on the net.

so one can safely say that with the ascent of man
was the beginning of the war on trees

Answer 3

Deforestation began when people (hunter gatherers) learned that they can cultivate wild plants. For space they began cutting trees to plant crops(start of agriculture). Soon, they realized that grasslands and lands with trees contained more nutrients in the soil (this means more crop growth). The began cutting down trees more quickly. AS the food supply rose, the population increased which increased the need of more deforestation for land (both homes and land for crops). Also, when they planted crops on lands that were high in nutrients, these lands soon became depleted of nutrients and they had to get new land by cutting trees.

Answer 4

Deforestation is as old as the ax. Humans have been cutting down trees to make farm land before recorded history.

I think the bigger problem has to do with expanding urban populations. Before urban sprawl became a problem, the forest at least had a chance to grow back, but now it seems to get cut down and turned into subdivisions.

Definition of a suburb: "A place where they cut down trees, then name streets after them."

Suggested reading:

http://www.amazon.com/County-Almanac-Outdoor-Essays-Reflections/dp/0345345053

Answer 5

People needed to move trees for towns/villages to expand.