Deforestation

1. Deforestation By Sid Steinberg and Ben Heller

2. What is Deforestation? • The destruction of forests and trees • Has many harmful effects on the environment • Happening too quickly to recover

3. Causes of Deforestation • Agriculture • Logging • Mining • Dams • Roads

4. Agriculture • Leading cause of deforestation • Farmers need land to grow crops and raise animals • They remove forest land to make room for farms • They use slash and burn to perform deforestation • Slash and burn is cutting away and burning the forest

5. Logging • Loggers cut down trees for their wood • Logging is illegal in many areas, like National Parks • The wood is used for many purposes, including paper production and as a building material

6. Mining • Miners search for materials like gold, copper, and aluminum • This clears the land, including the forest that occupies it • Contaminates the ecosystem with runoff

7. Dams • Generate hydroelectric energy • Flood forests that are upstream • Trees decay slowly when dams are built in tropical waters, depriving the water of oxygen

8. Roads • Building the roads themselves destroys trees in the way • Provides access to a larger area of the forest for loggers, miners, and farmers

9. Effects of Deforestation • Disrupts water cycle and carbon cycle • Loss of biodiversity • Soil Erosion • Poor water quality

10. Water Cycle • If the trees are gone, there will be less transpiration and less water released into the hydrologic cycle

11. Carbon Cycle CO2 CO2 CO2 CO2 CO2 02 • If trees aren’t there, carbon dioxide will accumulate and contribute to the greenhouse effect

12. Loss of Biodiversity • Rainforests contain over half of the world’s species • Loss of trees -> loss of primary consumers -> loss of secondary consumers -> … • When trees are removed, all rainforest life is affected

13. Soil Erosion • Soil erosion is when soil is removed by natural causes • When trees are gone, their roots cannot hold the soil in place • Reduces soil’s capacity to hold water • Makes agriculture difficult

14. Poor Water Quality • Soil erosion lets dirt enter runoff, lowering water quality • Makes for bad living conditions for fish • A reduced amount of fish can cause ramifications all the way up the food chain

15. Examples of Deforested Areas • The Amazon • Africa • Southeast Asia

16. The Amazon • World’s largest tropical rainforest • Located in South America • 1/5 of the world’s plants and 1/10 of animals are found here

17. Rainforests in Africa • World’s second largest rainforest • Almost all of the forest on Madagascar is gone • Madagascar too contains a large amount of biodiversity that has been compromised

18. Rainforests in Southeast Asia • Indonesia is covered in rainforest • Has been deforested just like the Amazon and in Africa • It is hot and humid the whole year

19. Deforestation in Brunei

20. How You Can Help • Buying sustainably grown foods • Buying environmentally friendly paper • Donating to an organization that stands up for forests

21. Sustainably Grown Food • This is food that was grown without negative effects like deforestation • Only buying this type of food pressures businesses into producing it, as they will produce what you buy

22. Environmentally Friendly Paper • This could be recycled paper or paper made from bamboo • Again, this pressures paper making companies into using recycled paper and bamboo paper

23. Donating to Organizations • Organizations like Greenpeace fight damage to the environment like deforestation • Since they receive money, these organizations can influence corporations and politicians to make environmentally friendly policies

24. Thank you for preserving our forests!