It’s the second largest contributor to global warming after power generation. Each year there’s about 13 million acres of mature forests that are lost and about 2 million acres that are planted. Of the forest that is lost almost half is primary (virgin) rainforest. Reasons for deforestation include: clear felling for farming and agricultural […]
Written on Thursday, July 10th, 2008 by simonburris :: 0 comments to this post
It’s the second largest contributor to global warming after power generation. Each year there’s about 13 million acres of mature forests that are lost and about 2 million acres that are planted. Of the forest that is lost almost half is primary (virgin) rainforest.
Reasons for deforestation include: clear felling for farming and agricultural land of which ranching plays a large part, building land especially in the tropical regions, quarrying and mining particularly open cast mining (site stripping etc), selective felling of timber for construction, furniture etc (often illegal logging), felling for the contruction of roads, railways, power lines, reservoirs etc.
When the timber is felled it no longer photosynthesises and stops removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. If the timber degrades through rotting or burning (as much of it does) then the carbon trapped in the tree is released back into the atmosphere. Rotting timber can also release methane - another greenhouse gas.
Deforestation contributes 18% of global warming, reforestation and aforestation reduces the contribution by 2%. The net result is that 16% of global warming is the consequence of deforestation, a little bit more than all forms of transport contribute.
Here’s some websites that may help…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deforestation
http://www.fao.org/forestry/site/fra2005/en/
http://www.eoearth.org/article/Deforestation_in_Amazonia
http://rainforests.mongabay.com/defor_index.htm
http://rainforests.mongabay.com/primary_alpha.html
http://news.mongabay.com/2005/1115-forests.html
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