Deforestation
Causes, Consequences and Solutions
Humans have been falling, utilizing, and burning trees for
approximately half a million years, and the woods have receded as
human populations have risen and spread. The clearance of woodlands
for agriculture has been the principal cause of deforestation, but
the collecting of lumber as a raw material and fuel has also played
a large role. The word deforestation (Deforestation, n.d.-b) is a
wide-ranging term that involves the cutting, use, and destruction of
trees. Subsumed under it are additional operations like fire,
household heating and cooking, smelting metals, producing pottery,
construction of shelter and equipment, and the formation of fresh
ground for cultivation and grazing. Deforestation is so basic that
it is woven into the very fabric of human existence, and therefore
of world history. Ever since the advent of Homo erectus roughly
500,000 years ago the necessity to provide shelter, food, and warmth
has resulted in the use and abuse of the Earth’s mantle of forests.
Now when you cut a forest, an ancient forest in particular, you are
not just removing a lot of big trees and a few birds fluttering
around in the canopy. You are drastically imperiling a vast array of
species within a few square miles of you. The number of these
species may go to tens of thousands. Many of them are still unknown
to science, and science has not yet discovered the key role
undoubtedly played in the maintenance of that ecosystem, as in the
case of fungi, microorganisms, and many of the insects. (E. O.
Wilson Quote, n.d.-b)