Green House Effect as a Result of Deforesting - Essay Example

Green house effect as a result of deforesting The purpose of this study will be to examine the topic on deforestation and the greenhouse effect. In more specific terms, the study will try to answer the question,” How does deforestation results in green house effect? The study will firstly examine what is deforestation and its causes and will proceed to look at how deforestation result into green house effects. Deforestation is defined to as the loss of forest-cover, usually as a result of trees being cleared, in order to provide for other land use such as farming or ranching. This definition is, however, restricted to the permanent conversion of natural forest and other habitat. The factors that drive people to deforestation activities vary in characteristic and intensity across the globe. This difference is related to such factors such access to forests, cultural and religious relations towards forest and forestlands, urbanization patterns, the demand for agricultural products and the existing type of forest among other factors. (Gorte and Pervaze, 2010, p 17) I will take the case of deforestation in Amazon forest in Latin America and Congo forest in Africa as examples to examine some of the causes of deforestation. In Latin America, the Amazon forest accounts for two thirds of tropical rain forest in Latin America. In the year 2006, Amazon basin forest trees were estimated to hold one and a half of all terrestrial carbon vegetation in the world, however, reports showed that by year 2006 only 40% of the forest was remaining. In the period covering the years 1988-2008, it was estimated that approximately 1.8 million hectares of Brazilian forest was lost annually which is comparable to a third of the world global tropical deforestation rate. In Latin America, the cause of deforestation is mainly agricultural expansion for both large-scale and small-scale agriculture with cattle ranching is the main cause of deforestation. Cattle ranches have been estimated to be associated with four fifths of Amazon deforestation. The high beef prices experienced in the 1990s led to an 11% increase in ranching activities between 1997-2003 and resulted into an increase in deforestation activities between year 2002-2004. Also, Soya beans production and recently sugarcane and biofuel crops have been the driving force towards deforestation as it displaces existing cattle ranches and pushing them further into the forest. (Gorte and Pervaze, 2010, P 19) The Congo forest in Africa covers an area of 369 hectares. It is the second largest tropical rain forest after Amazon basin with a population of more than 24 million people living in or around the forest. The population depends on the forest for agriculture, food, medicine, fuel and even construction materials. Although the deforestation rate in Africa is not similar to that in Latin America, the causes of deforestation are almost similar. Deforestation in Congo basin is driven by small scale agriculture which is practiced on a permanent basis or through shift cultivation of crops such as cassava yams millet and plantains. However with time conversion of forest to large-scale agricultural land is emerging as the greatest threat to Congo forest and it accounts for approximate a third of deforestation in tropical Africa. Other factors such as high population growth rate coupled with high demand for agricultural land and wood fuel are a major cause of deforestation and are expected to double in the next two decades. Deforestation and Green house effect Casper (2009, p15) notes that the world’s forests play a great role in influencing climate particularly through regulating the carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. This is because the trees in the forest act as a reservoir for huge volumes of carbon and thus removing it from the atmosphere and problems emerge when trees are cut down and burned. The natural green house effect on earth is very crucial for life to exist as it helps to regulate temperatures within the atmosphere. The natural green house effect is a phenomenon that involves the emission of the infrared radiation in to the atmosphere warms the planet surface. The atmosphere naturally has acted as an insulating blanket cover where it is able to trap adequate solar energy from the sun and maintain global average temperature within favorable range that supports life. The insulating blanket process of the atmosphere involves various atmospheric gases. Some of the gases exists in small amounts and are referred to as trace gases. The manner in which the systems work has been referred to as the green house effect because this system of heat insulation operates globally in the same process as that which occurs in greenhouse nursery for growing plants. The green house gases allow sun radiation to reach the earth but inhibit escape of energy radiate from the earth surface back to the space. The natural green house effect helps to reduce the scorching effect of the sun during the day and low temperatures during the night, therefore, keeping temperature ranges within comfortable range and this makes life possible on the earth surface. The problem starts to build up with such human activities such as forest destruction begins to add CO2 gases in the atmosphere at a rapid rate. CO2 gas constitutes green house gases that do cause temperatures to rise by retaining heat in lower parts of the earth instead of letting it into the space. The alteration of natural green house effect has resulted into destabilizations of CO2 levels and energy balance with the earth surface causing a phenomenon referred to as enhanced green house effect or “anthropogenic green house warming”. The enhanced green house effect or “anthropogenic green house warming” is a phenomenon where the green house gases such as carbon dioxide, Sulphur dioxide and methane exists in large amounts thus trapping too much heat on the lower surface of the atmosphere and this causes the general increase in atmospheric temperature. This results into global warming; which if not checked will continue to have negative effects such as the disappearance of ecosystem, leading to extinction of many plant and animal species, increase in level of infectious diseases, frequent droughts, melting of ice caps and un predictable agricultural trends among other effects. (Casper, 2009, p18) The process of deforestation and burning trees removes carbon from vegetation and releases great amounts of carbon dioxide gases into the atmosphere and this increases greenhouse effect. In the world, huge forest covers are being destroyed at an alarming rate which is not only releasing carbon dioxide gas into the atmosphere, but it is also resulting into changes in global temperatures. The level of CO2 is being added in large volume in the atmosphere due to human activities like as deforestation, agricultural activities, burning of fuels by automobiles and air pollution by industrial activities. With the uncontrollable escaping of green house gases into the atmosphere, plants and trees assist in removing CO2 from the atmosphere through the photosynthesis process. The oceans also absorb high amount of CO2 and phytoplankton also take in CO2 through photosynthesis. Trees play vital role in controlling enhanced green house effect by capturing carbon dioxide and utilizing it in their cells through photosynthesis process. Plants have the ability to store carbon in their tissues thus trees are usually comprised of 50% carbon. Some of the carbon finds its way back to the atmosphere through respiration but in low quantities. It is estimated that Amazon forest in America absorbs nearly between 1-3 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide each year thus cutting the countries green house emissions by a 20-46%. Thus, when trees are burned, harvested or otherwise die, they release carbon back to the atmosphere. (Johnson, 2011) The 1997 Kyoto Protocols offset mechanism, has allowed the giving of credits to replanting of trees and the establishment of new forests, which helps to capture CO2 through photosynthesis. (United Nations, 1998, P 3) Nabuurs, Gert Jan and et al points out that the use of reforestation, aforestation and agro-forestry as a sustainable tool to control changes in climate should increase forest carbon sink while at the same time sustaining timber yields. This means reducing the rate of deforestation while providing adequate timber and agricultural land to sustain the worlds growing population. (2007, pp565, 566) Reducing deforestation rates by 50 percent in would result into about 12 % reduction of global emissions. This, reduction will be required to keep carbon dioxide concentrations to 450 parts per million. This will help IPCC to prevent significant increases in global temperatures which is one of its set goals. This will ultimately help to deal with the greenhouse effect and thus control global warming and reduces its negative effects thought out the world. In conclusion, CO2 gas needs to be stored in reservoirs or sink so as to keep excess CO2 off the atmosphere so that it does not contribute to the continued increase in atmospheric temperatures. Most of the forest cover around the world serves as CO2 reservoirs or sink. During the process of photosynthesis, trees convert CO2 from the atmosphere into carbohydrates and release oxygen during the process. Forest vegetation stores 600 billion tons of carbon each year. (Casper, 2009, P15) In fact, the current re-aforestation programs through out the world and (especially re-growth in the northern hemisphere) have restored CO2 atmospheric sinks. Work Cited: Casper, Julie Kerr. Greenhouse Gases: Worldwide Impacts Global Warming. Edition illustrated. Infobase Publishing. (2009). pp 15, 18. Gorte, Ross .W and Pervaze A. Sheikh .Deforestation and Climate Change. DIANE Publishing. (2010) pp17, 19. Johnson, Toni. Deforestation and Greenhouse-Gas Emissions. (2011). Retrieved 25th October 2011 http://www.cfr.org/natural-resources-management/deforestation-greenhouse-gas-emissions/p14919 Nabuurs, Gert Jan and et al .Forestry In Climate Change 2007: Mitigation. Contribution Of Working Group III To The Fourth Assessment Report Of The Intergovernmental Panel On Climate Change [B. Metz, O.R. Davidson, P.R. Bosch, R. Dave, L.A. Meyer (Eds)], Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA. , 2007, pp 565,566. United Nations .Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. (1998). Retrieved 25th October 2011 http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/convkp/kpeng.pdf Read More