Deforestation?

Question

We all know that deforestation is a HUGE issue around the world. We've become dependant on resources that trees provide (after they're cut down). Have we forgotten the wonderful benefits that trees provide while they're still living? Or have we just decided that the importance of the trees' afterlife outweighs all others? What are some alternative resources that could be used to prevent the destruction of trees? Are there any?

Answer 1

we need serious population control and reduction down to 100 million humans for the whole planet, kill the source of the deforestation.

Answer 2

I don't know the answer to your question but I do agree with the first part. Trees are beautiful and provide homes for many kinds of life. I live in Buffalo and on Oct 11 of last year we had a freak winter storm that left a couple of feet of super wet snow on everything. Trees, branches and wires down all over the place. Power out for a good week. Almost all streets were impassable. Almost every mature tree in the city alone had some type of damage (except the oldest tree in the city, which amazingly lost a few twigs only). The outlying areas also lost lots of trees.

Now, instead of hiring an arborist (okay maybe too costly) or someone else to inspect a lot of the mature trees that had major limb damage, this spring they just chopped the marked trees down, leaving the stumps. The city could have put out a plea for landscapers who would be willing to help out with this for little or no cost. It is their city too. People really worked together during that storm so I'm sure some of them would have helped out. It was amazing. They say they will plant new ones for free. If they didn't take the stumps out where are they planting the new ones? Planting new trees is wonderful but how long will it take these little trees to mature? I felt they should examine each tree, no matter how long it took and only chopped down the ones that were a danger. I guess I should be thankful they are at least planting new ones - and seeing is believing in regards to that.

Enicollis 25 - Trees help create and sustain the oxygen we breath. So after selfish people like you kiill off the trees, what are your 5 million people you are so worried about going to breath then? Why not take care of the situation now?

Answer 3

What I find is amazing is this.. I was born in Oregon, the heart of the Lumber Industry. My father was a Lumberjack, my Uncles, all Lumberjacks. My Grandfather etc. Back in the late 70's all of the Lumberjacks used to say that there would be a Lumber shortage some day, while the logs just kept being loaded onto the ships, bound for Japan. Now we have a Lumber shortage, because the resources ar all gone. Meantime, when there's a disaster like Greensburg and Katrina- The people just push the lumber into piles and burn it up! Why can't the materials be reused? The answer is recycling anything that can be reused, many of which can be made into reusable building materials. Even plastics! We just need to start using our heads and remembering that we are fast running out of resources.

Answer 4

The easiest thing for most people to do is to cut back on how much paper they use and recycle as much as possible. First find ways to reduce: you can go online and opt out of junk mail, you can choose NOT to get a receipt when you pay at the pump, you can proofread a paper before you print it out, you can ask yourself if you REALLY need a hardcopy before you hit the print key. After that, you can and should recycle everything in your life that is made out of paper: cereal boxes, greeting cards, newspapers, etc. Did you know that the richest woman in the world became a billionaire by recycling paper garbage in China?
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006/10/worlds_richest.php

Lot's of recycled plastic finds a new life as a kind of lumber that is now commonly used in decks, park benches, railway tracks/trusses, etc. Houses are even being built with the stuff. It lasts longer then wood, is more structurally consistent, and doesn't need to be treated with harsh chemicals.

An alternative to hardwood floors and fences is bamboo. Bamboo is actually a grass, and it grows much faster then trees. On a floor it looks great, like a light blond hardwood.

If you must buy wood, make sure it comes from a sustainably managed forest. At lumber yards, wood carrying an FSC label (Forest Stewardship Council) comes from forests that have been certified as being sustainably managed.

Above all, we should support the economic development of the world's poorest nations. Poor nations tend to be where deforestation is the worst, since their families rely on wood for heating and cooking and also because poor nations tend to have economies centered around natural resource extraction, making forests vulnerable to over-harvesting. As nations become better off they realize that they can't afford to deforest everything, China discovered that the hard way when deforested hillsides failed to absorb rains and thousands died in flooding a few years back. In developed nations, satellite photos actually show forest cover INCREASING as abandoned industrial areas return to nature.

Answer 5

Timber is re-newable. Plastic bags is an alternative?, vegetation with water based glue (paper) breaks down faster and cleaner. In construction altenatives can be Iron, Aluminium etc. Which has to be mined, usually open cast so as to have to clearfell forest and damage topography, not to mention pollution from extraction methods and machinery. Deforestation with a replacment system is by for the best solution when it comes to ecological welfare.
Trees are pretty but they are renewable. Every thing ends up back in the soil in the end, better to be vegetation than plastic and other synthetic alternatives to timber. We should be incouraging the use of timber, not questioning it.

Answer 6

scaling down timber in wooded area is named deforestation. in recent times deforestation is extra through fact the fee of becoming human beings is at once.extremely some the international locations have been given deforestation. day after day all of us is increasing.

Answer 7

Environmental issues effect every life on this planet from the smallest parasite to the human race. The reason for this is simple. A single disruption in the Earth�s delicate balance can mean certain destruction of the very place that cradles the lives of many species. What is not so simple is finding alternatives to the now dangerous and confronting acts of planet degradation that have been afflicted on the planet over recent years. One such issue that requires consideration is deforestation. Trees have been or are being cut down at increasingly high rates. If this is not stopped many unfavorable side effects could result.

Why Trees Matter

To understand why deforestation is such a pressing and urgent issue, forests must first be given credit for what they bring to global ecosystems and the quality of life that all species maintain. Tropical Rainforests presently give a place to call home for 50% - 90% of all organisms, 90% of our relatives, the primates, and 50 million creatures that can live no place but the rich rainforests (World Rainforest Movement 16). Not only are other species at risk, but the human race also benefits from what the trees give. From something as minor as the spices that indulge food to life giving medicines, the rainforests amplify and save lives. According to the World Rainforest Movement, 25% of medicines come from the forests (28). This is a number that does not do justice to all the cures that have yet to be discovered or that have been destroyed. The forests give life, not only to other species, but they help to prolong the human race.
The forests have global implications not just on life but on the quality of it. Trees improve the quality of the air that species breath by trapping carbon and other particles produced by pollution. Trees determine rainfall and replenish the atmosphere. As more water gets put back in the atmosphere, clouds form and provide another way to block out the sun�s heat. Trees are what cool and regulates the earth�s climate in conjunction with other such valuable services as preventing erosion, landslides, and making the most infertile soil rich with life. Mother earth has given much responsibility to trees. Go here and read complete, very long but very informative ! Plant a Tree Program
DEFORESTATION - A Global Problem with Individual Consequences

Deforestation is a problem of growing significance all over the world. It is especially acute in tropical countries. All of us are affected by this problem, but no one more than the rural poor who make their living in and around the forest.

There are nearly a half-a-billion subsistence farmers worldwide. Constantly fighting starvation and utterly dependent on their environment for survival, they are often trapped in a vicious cycle of poverty and deforestation.

Threatened by land which no longer produces, rains that no longer come, and springs which are dry, they clear the forest for agriculture or sell charcoal to survive, further degrading their land.

This cycle can be broken! And you can help Floresta break the cycle by assisting us in planting trees.

Floresta has several options for planting trees.

You may donate money designated specifically for planting trees. Floresta can plant a tree and see it to maturity in one of its programs for only $1.00!

Make a donation designated for trees.

You may also plant trees as a gift, a memorial or to honor a friend. We have attractive cards commemorating your gift and any number of trees can be planted. Not only will these trees be a lasting tribute and restore the environment, they will help a poor family out of poverty.

Gift Cards

Gift Card Sets

Offset your personal Carbon Dioxide

Carbon Dioxide is one of the leading greenhouse gasses, contributing to global warming. Each of us emits CO2 in countless ways: when we breathe, when we use electricity, when we fly and, most notably, when we drive.

Trees, on the other hand, absorb CO2. You can offset much of your personal environmental impact by planting trees. We’ll have a CO2 calculator coming soon, so you can tell both what your CO2 impact is, and how many trees you need to plant to offset it.

If you drive an average size car 15,000 miles a year, planting 25 trees will go a long way towards neutralizing your carbon and limiting your negative impact on the environment.

Similarly planting 2 trees will help to offset a coast to coast airline flight.

Answer 8

DEFORESTATION 2 LEAVE GAIA GASPING

trees are coming down all the time ,
in My town trucks loaded with huge logs of exotic timber leave the mountains with permits bought from corupt oficials almost nightly

we can only guess at the exatct amount but from my house we can see many bare patches on the mountains and the river is constantly muddy in the last 3 years ,because topsols with out theprotection of the forrests is washed into the rivers ,
this is just one place and this is happening all over mexico ,the Market for the wood being the USA.
here is a general note on deforestation

CAN DEFORESTATION BE STOPPED
Almost impossible

the Indians or local people would cut everything down and burn the forrest to replace it with harmfull short term farming killing the soil in no time

expanding populations and expanding farming ,that has to keep pace with the expanding populations are very strong forces that encroach upon the rainforest's
clearing them for farming and settlement areas .

that and the giant networks of roads that have exchanged forests for asphalt all over the planet

In Mexico is a famous jungle that the Media has been trying to save for years
the Naturists ,and the government ,keep watch .laws are made for protection the wild and to forbid logging.
TV put out a series of documentaries
there are campaigns in the News papers
and all of this has not made the slightest difference

Rainforest's always are in third world countries and always in third world countries corruption and the need for money s highest

the jungle gets smaller by the day
more and more farmers move in .and burn the trees
it is an impossible situation
as long as there is poverty and an increasing birth rate in these regions the destruction will continue

they are too easily tempted to sell of exotic animals to the unscroupelous people who buy them.for the market that exists in the USA.

we must look for ways to improve economic situations on the edges of Nature .

the only way to preserve the forrest is to devellop eco tourism under strict control that has limited acces ,and use the local people in the concept as guides ,hotel staff and get them to start home industries of artifacts .

eco tourism is the only concept that profits by a healthy back ground with out harming it

IN THE PAST
in the days of the dinosaurs this planet was under an aquiferus manta ,a mist that covered the entire earth ,and there were very few desserts .

Count how many there are today,and most 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 well with water and so turning vast lands into dessert.
the Spanish Armada deforested Spain
.the Phoenician fleet deforested Lebanon

some more places are everywhere where there are or where forrests and wild life

Madagascar a botanic paradise is now destroyed
the exotic animals sold or killed ,the forest slash and burned for agriculture ,the coastal water poluted by topsoils washed fronm the denuded moutains by the rains.

many many countries in Africa (because of poverty and war as well as greedy farming )
Borneo because of the expensive timber
india ,China ,Mexico ,South Americas Amazonia,
Europe because of civilization,USA,Japan because of overpopulation,

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

REFORRESTATION

so to counter act these fatal processes we must reforrest and at the same time reduce our carbon emissions.
most governments are aware of these and many first world countries now include programs to reduce their carbon emissions.

the world bank pays large subsidies for farmers to plant trees especially a tree called Paulownia elongate carolinia,because it is one of the better ones that capture carbon.

HOWEVER
1000 trees that are replanted do not come anywhere near as producing the same effect or fullfilling the same function ,as far as carbon absorbtion ,production of humidity,climatic effects as the absorbtion or release of heat ,as ONE SINGLE FULLY GROWN TREE.

people keep saying we are good we cut down a thousand trees and replanted 20 thousand more

This means nothing in terms of environmental effects.

it takes at least 10 to 20 years before one of these replanted trees makes the same impact as the ones that are removed

AND NOW.................

Answer 9

Dforestation is a hugeissue in the "developed" countries. In the Third World people are too worried about starving tommor to worry about what global warming will do the the rich people. The poor "slash and burn" millions of acres or are paid by big corporations to do it. Many of these people don't even sell the felled trees- they pour diesel on them and burn them so they can plant soybeans or raise cattle. In So. America- Brasil to Argentina - at the end of season the
whole region is obscured by smoke. michael

Answer 10

You're absolutely right.There is a huge deforestation problem.

I don't know if you've heard, but not all paper is recycleable...They could equip recycling companies properly to be able to recycle all paper. They could make magazines illegal to distribute...Do online catalogs only.I recycle so many in a single week...it's rediculous. There are several things that can happen to save trees...They just don't want to spend the money to do so.
I do believe people are taking tree for granted...They are the earth's filters. We need as many as we can get.
Look at all the trees being cut down for all the new "suburbias" for everyone who is trying to live like "The Jones' ". There are so many homes out there that are vacant, old, and could use some fixin' up, but already there.... People have just gotten too lazy...They would rather buy a new house, rather than fix up an old one. It's sad. I hope I'm dead & gone before the last tree is cut down....

Answer 11

yea it is a huge problem. i think we need to solve this problem, quick. the best i could think of in terms of saving trees and still produce paper is use other sources such as bamboo sticks, flax, kenaf, or even better HEMP. hemp grows very quick compared to trees, uses less resources to grow, and the fibers are very strong. if hemp was never banned then we wouldnt be having any problems with deforestation.