what's going to happen when we chop down all our forests ?

Question

China unsatiable demand for wood products is causing deforestation of the Indonesian/Africa/South American rainforests, the size of West Virginia a day, Don't you think we are heading for disaster if we continue this path ? Can you say World Wide Depression with 1000% Inflation

Answer 1

Hate to tell you, but as a printer and a daughter of a forester, that will never happen. No paper or lumber company ever wants to put itself out of business. Next time you pass a forest ask yourself - "is that a natural forest or a tree farm?" Yes, there is such a thing. For every tree cut down by such a company, at least five more are planted. Really.

Answer 2

"WE" are not China.

We are planting trees. Moving to grassland will change weather patterns, humidities, temperatures, and maybe the oxygen level slightly, but man is very adaptable, and the earth really is fairly tolerant.

World-wide depression and inflation...do not think so. We have plenty of substitutes for wood to work with. We can even harvest the grasses to help. Might learn some nearly-forgotten skills in grass-working!

No trees would, of course, change the fireplace industry, and building trades. But that is also adaptable.

It would hurt the charcoal users, and so there would need to be a change there, but again, do-able.

I would miss the nice smell of pines polluting the atmosphere naturally, and the pretty leaves, and the mountains would look bare with no trees covering.

And the poem, "I think that I shall never see..." would take on a new piquancy and be part of nostalgia, until Nature through mutations would raise other forms of trees.

Answer 3

China is deforesting other nations because they mostly deforested their homeland LONG ago with negative effects.
Planting new forests is a solution but China has never been known to act responsibly regarding ANY subject.
I rather doubt disaster resulting from deforestation will occur in our lifetimes, but we MUST monitor the population boom to be sure it doesn't occur.
It would alter our environment adding to pollution problems - A HUGE problem in China right NOW.

Answer 4

Although there are unsustainable forestry practices going on especially in the thrid world where ownership rights and free markets are not applicable so responsible management practices don't exist there. There is no danger of the earth losing its forests. At the most, we might reduce forest by 10 per cent in the next few decades and it will tend to level off (according to the UN) which tends to favor gloom and doom. Lumber is a renewable resource. Those countries that choose irresponsible oversight of their natural resources for immediate cash will suffer long term and everyone will lose the valuable forests but things are not as bad as you claim in my opinion. Shortage of forestry products will not result in 1000 per cent inflation. I think your sources of information have exaggerated the problem.

Answer 5

we will all die long before all of the forests are gone ,we need them for Air ,Water ,and to regulate temperatures as well as the absorbsion on harmfull gasses.

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

Answer 6

This is all leading to December 21st 2012. The end of times

Answer 7

Actually...can you say DEATH? If all the world's forests were cut down, the ability of the planet to regenerate oxygen would be gravely damaged and all living things that require oxygen to live would die.

Answer 8

Well there are more trees in America than there were 100 years ago, so eventually I'm guessing people will just start planting more trees.

Answer 9

Whoever made that point about how lumber and paper companies don't want to go out of business so they replant like mad has the best point! Vote her! That's good.

Answer 10

The oxygen in the atmosphere would dwindle to a point that would not be life supportive as we know it now.