global warming deforestation essay

November 13, 2012

Deforestation and Its Extreme Effect on Global Warming

From logging, agricultural production and other economic activities, deforestation adds more atmospheric CO2 than the sum total of cars and trucks on the world's roads

Land cleared of forest by timber industry.

Nazar Abbas Getty Images

Dear EarthTalk : Is it true that cutting and burning trees adds more global warming pollution to the atmosphere than all the cars and trucks in the world combined? — Mitchell Vale, Houston

By most accounts, deforestation in tropical rainforests adds more carbon dioxide to the atmosphere than the sum total of cars and trucks on the world’s roads. According to the World Carfree Network (WCN), cars and trucks account for about 14 percent of global carbon emissions, while most analysts attribute upwards of 15 percent to deforestation.

The reason that logging is so bad for the climate is that when trees are felled they release the carbon they are storing into the atmosphere, where it mingles with greenhouse gases from other sources and contributes to global warming accordingly. The upshot is that we should be doing as much to prevent deforestation as we are to increase fuel efficiency and reduce automobile usage.

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According to the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), a leading green group, 32 million acres of tropical rainforest were cut down each year between 2000 and 2009—and the pace of deforestation is only increasing. “Unless we change the present system that rewards forest destruction, forest clearing will put another 200 billion tons of carbon into the atmosphere in coming decades…,” says EDF.

“Any realistic plan to reduce global warming pollution sufficiently—and in time—to avoid dangerous consequences must rely in part on preserving tropical forests,” reports EDF. But it’s hard to convince the poor residents of the Amazon basin and other tropical regions of the world to stop cutting down trees when the forests are still worth more dead than alive. “Conservation costs money, while profits from timber, charcoal, pasture and cropland drive people to cut down forests,” adds EDF. Exacerbating global warming isn’t the only negative impact of tropical deforestation. It also wipes out biodiversity: More than half of the world’s plant and animal species live in tropical rainforests.

One way some tropical countries are reducing deforestation is through participation in the United Nations’ Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) program. REDD essentially works to establish incentives for the people who care for the forest to manage it sustainably while still being able to benefit economically. Examples include using less land (and therefore cutting fewer trees) for activities such as coffee growing and meat and milk production. Participating nations can then accrue and sell carbon pollution credits when they can prove they have lowered deforestation below a baseline. The REDD program has channeled over $117 million in direct financial aid and educational support into national deforestation reduction efforts in 44 developing countries across Africa, Asia and Latin America since its 2008 inception.

Brazil is among the countries embracing REDD among other efforts to reduce carbon emissions. Thanks to the program, Brazil has slowed deforestation within its borders by 40 percent since 2008 and is on track to achieve an 80 percent reduction by 2020. Environmentalists are optimistic that the initial success of REDD in Brazil bodes well for reducing deforestation in other parts of the tropics as well.

CONTACTS : WCN, www.worldcarfree.net; EDF, www.edf.org; REDD, www.un-redd.org .

EarthTalk® is written and edited by Roddy Scheer and Doug Moss and is a registered trademark of E - The Environmental Magazine (www.emagazine.com). Send questions to: [email protected] . Subscribe : www.emagazine.com/subscribe . Free Trial Issue : www.emagazine.com/trial .

Deforestation and Global Warming

This essay will examine the relationship between deforestation and global warming. It will discuss how deforestation contributes to climate change through carbon emissions and disruption of the carbon cycle. The piece will also explore solutions and strategies to mitigate deforestation’s impact on the environment. Additionally, PapersOwl presents more free essays samples linked to Deforestation.

How it works

Over the years industrial plants have filled up Earth’s vast atmosphere with dark, blackened smoke for the pleasure and benefits of the human race at the extent of nature. Over the years vehicles have accumulated, along with population growth on the Earth’s ground and in turn so have the poisons stemming from those vehicles. Over the years humans have carelessly dumped trash on the sides of streets or near river banks, and to this day it is now seen that the crumbled plastics bombarding natures’ home have overtaken the world and its odds of survival.

Something so prominent has been a focus for media, politicians, and common men. The collection of greenhouse gasses have negatively affected Earth’s atmosphere and gradually created inadequate environments. Hotter temperatures slowly diminished a multitude of ecosystem and together result in an unlivable planet.

The universe is gradually losing viability and humans are causing it, but with a dramatic change in the environmental regulations such as implementing clean energy use and proactive preventions humans can hope to save the Earth and all life that it contains. Global warming is caused by greenhouse gasses, but the gasses are not what effects the Earth until there is an increase in certain ones. There has not been many movements to end Global warming and that may be because of a lack of education on the topic. In order to make a change, there has to be an understanding of what exactly the greenhouse effect is, whether it is bad or good, or how it works. Scientists have studied that “greenhouse gasses are reflected to the Earth’s atmosphere as heat radiation, the higher amount of gasses the more heat energy is being reflected back to Earth” (“Causes and Effects for Global Warming”).

Global warming is a problem with endless causes, trying to investigate every cause is tremendously difficult, but scientist have come to educate the community with the most important causes. Humans are the ultimate source to this disastrous end. Human activity has led to a build up of “fossil fuels burned for energy, coal, and oil that have created an overload of carbon dioxide in the greenhouse elements, in turn the atmosphere traps the heat from the molecules and raises average temperatures” (“Science”). America and the world’s will to expand and create metropolitan areas with malls, restaurants, and excess houses, results in deforestation. People take on the heavy task to chop down thousand year old trees that have formed the Earth, while also chopping down the future of survival.

The shortage of trees on the Earth’s ground causes a depletion of oxygen while increasing greenhouse gasses. Statistics have shown that “deforestation accumulates more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere than the vehicles on the Earth” (Scheer and Moss “Deforestation and its Extreme”). Clearly people can visually see global warming from it’s true causes, but how people view global warming varies in opinions. Media and politics are a big role in what side opinions fall on. While politicians take sides, media contributes in exploiting politicians opinion to stir society’s beliefs. It was recorded by BBC News that “while viewing the Republicans opinion, it is seen that there is little to no trust in scientist studies of climates and future trajectory. On another hand Democrats are considerably more trustful in the scientist works” (Funk and Kennedy “The Politics of Climate”).

There are increasing numbers of people who do not believe in global warming and its effects, but luckily some still do. It is not good to have a decline in people willing to prevent global warming, especially in politics. Politicians start the chain of implementing new rules and regulations if they think it is important to. If there is an increase of politicians that believe global warming is a true problem for the world it will allow more opportunities to implement change. As greenhouse gasses numbers expand, “Trump removed America from the Paris Climate Change Agreement which committed 187 other countries to keeping rising temperatures below two degrees celsius” (“Trump on Climate Change”). Being removed from a worldwide organization that mainly focuses on preventing increasing temperatures seems unlawfully wrong. Trump’s presidency should not push the world further away from preventing global warming. With some Americans concerned with Trump’s diplomatic decisions, Trump clears that he actually does consider global warming a true problem.

News BBC disclosed that “Trump’s plans after removing the U.S. from the Paris Climate Change Agreement are to begin a new more fair deal to help prevent increases in temperatures that would also be fair to American businesses and workers” (“Trump on Climate Change”). Politics and media create a social stream for everyone to be connected and with that media gives an easier and accessible way to spread the word of prevention for global warming. Global warming has become noticeable by the seasons. Each summer becomes hotter than the previous one. Winters are becoming suddenly warmer than usual. It has been studied that “higher temperatures are more prevalent and increasing while lower temperature are not” (Callery “Global Climate Change”). Having the season’s average temperatures increasing is dangerous because plants, animals, and all of nature have come to evolve and depend on certain seasons to grow and thrive.

As the seasons change so does seventy-one percent of the Earth’s surface. Oceans bring life to this world containing millions of animals and thousands of different species and without them life could not survive. Trees have decreased as “industrial factories have taken over every square inch of this world since the eighteenth century and in turn the oceans acidity has expanded by thirty percent. Since industrial factories give off high carbon dioxide in the atmosphere it is further studied that oceans are more likely to absorb the carbon dioxide becoming more acidic” (Callery “Global Climate Change”). The results of global warming are harsh and have continued to turn the world out of place. Global warming has consequences for the Earth, but it also causes health risk for people. Changing temperatures and excess gasses pushing into the atmosphere can cause humans to experience some health problems. The health problems humans are at risk for stem from the “change in distribution, migration, and behavior of mosquitoes, ticks, and rodents. The rodents and insects carry diseases such as west nile virus or lyme disease that is easily passed onto humans” (Balbus “Climate Change and Human Health”).

With climate change comes environmental change, creating chaos and possibly new diseases. While fighting off new diseases humans also fight for equal rights, equal pay, discrimination, and more, they strive and defeat the odds against them. It has been claimed by “the Fourth National Climate Assessment that global warming could be counteracted if society works to reduce greenhouse gasses” (“Trump on Climate Change”). Overall it can be concluded that there is hope for a future if humans would put more energy into defeating global warming. To create a change it does not take much. If a hundred people help in one way then there has already been one hundred contributions to ending global warming. If society “simply uses less hot water, washes clothes in cold water, moves thermostat down just two degrees in winter and up two degrees in summer, replaces one regular light bulb with one fluorescent light bulb, recycles just half a household of waste, walk, or bike, will all together save about three thousand pounds of carbon dioxide” (“10 ways to stop”).

There’s a multitude of ways to make a change that are very accessible. There are also more obvious interventions such as, industrial factories coming out of use, ending deforestation or slowing it down, and preventing the development of vehicles that emit poisons out. As mentioned before deforestation should be prevented to stop accumulating carbon dioxide, but with the prevention of deforestation society could also plant trees. It has been recorded that “a single tree absorbs over a ton of carbon dioxide over its lifetime” (“10 ways to stop”).

Simple or major changes in society are possible and there are numerous options to start with. Global warming is the collection of greenhouse gasses that gradually fill environments with toxins and destroy nature, but with big strides humans can hope to reclaim Earth. There are a mass number of causes, effects, and preventions because global warming is an issue that can’t be fixed by one person or one law passed, it is only fixed if millions upon billions of people are involved in changing it. Global warming is only fixed if there is an increase in rules and regulations on deforestation, industrial factories, and if pollution dramatically decreases.

The planet Earth is the only planet in the universe that can contain life and society should not let our mistakes degrade what is left of it. The future is not misleading, society will know exactly how Earth will purvey in years to come because of the actions they take now. Let not the world go down by human’s own hand, rather gather the hands of million upon billions of people of today and assemble a world without poisons amongst them.

Works Cited

• Balbus John. “Climate Change and Human Health.” Globalchange.gov, health 2016. www.globalchange.gov/explore/human-health. Accessed 14 January 2019.
• “Causes and Effect for Global Warming.” Time for Change, 14 January 2007, www.timeforchange.org/cause-and-effect-for-global-warming. Accessed 14 January 2019.
• “Definition for Global Warming-What is Global Warming?” Time for Change, www.timeforchange/definition-for-global-warming-what-is-global-warming. Accessed 11 December 2018.
• Funk, Cary and Brian, Kennedy. “The Politics of Climate.” Pew Research Center, 4 October 2016, www.pewinternet.org/2016/10/04/the-politics-of-climate/. Accessed 14 January 2019.
• “Trump on Climate Change: ‘I don’t believe it’.” BBC News, 26 November 2018, www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-46351940. Accessed 14 January 2019.
• “Science.” Union of Concerned Scientists, www.usa.org/global-warming#.xbapvwhki03. Accessed 11 December 2018.
• Strickland, Jonathan and Ed, Grabianowski. “How Global Warming Works.” How Stuff Works. 21 April 2005, science.howstuffwork.com/enviorment/greenscience/global-warming.htm. Accessed 14 January 2019.
• Susan Callery. “Global Climate Change.” NASA, 13 December 2018, climate.nasa.gov/evidence/. Accessed 13 December 2018.
• “10 ways to stop Global Warming.” Northwestern facilities, northwestern.edu/fm/fm-staff/10-ways-to-stop-global-warming.html. Accessed 17 December 2018.
• “What’s at Stake.” Union of Concerned Scientist, www.ucsusa.org/global-warming#.xbapvwhki03. Accessed 11 December 2018.

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Home / Insights / What is the Relationship Between Deforestation And Climate Change?

What is the Relationship Between Deforestation And Climate Change?

Filed Under: Insights   |  Tagged: Deforestation , Climate Last updated August 12, 2018

What, exactly, is the relationship between deforestation and climate change? The Rainforest Alliance breaks down the numbers for you—and explains our innovative approach to keeping forests standing.

Among the many gifts forests give us is one we desperately need: help with slowing climate change. Trees capture greenhouse gases (GHGs) like carbon dioxide, preventing them from accumulating in the atmosphere and warming our planet.

When we clear forests, we’re not only knocking out our best ally in capturing the staggering amount of GHGs we humans create (which we do primarily by burning fossil fuels at energy facilities, and of course, in cars, planes, and trains). We’re also creating emissions by cutting down trees: when trees are felled, they release into the atmosphere all the carbon they’ve been storing. What the deforesters do with the felled trees—either leaving them to rot on the forest floor or burning them—creates further emissions. All told, deforestation on its own causes about 10 percent of worldwide emissions.

Healthy forests and vibrant communities are an essential part of the global climate solution. Sign up to learn more about our growing alliance.

Knowing that deforestation robs us of a crucial weapon in the battle against climate change—and creates further emissions—why on Earth would anyone clear a forest? The main reason is agriculture. The world’s exploding population has made it profitable for big business to raze forests so it can plant mega crops like soy and oil palm; meanwhile, on a much, much smaller scale, subsistence farmers often clear trees so they can plant crops to feed their families and bring in small amounts of cash.

But there’s a tragic irony to clearing rainforests for agriculture: their underlying soils are extremely poor. All the nutrient-richness is locked up in the forests themselves, so once they are burned and the nutrients from their ashes are used up, farmers are left with utterly useless soil. So on they go to the next patch of forest: raze, plant, deplete, repeat. All told, agriculture is responsible for at least 80 percent of tropical deforestation .

Not surprisingly, agriculture causes emissions, too—in fact, farm emissions are second only to those of the energy sector in the dubious contest for the emissions title. In 2011, farms were responsible for about 13 percent of total global emissions. Most farm-related emissions come in the form of methane (cattle belching) and nitrous oxide (from fertilizers and the like).

All told, deforestation causes a triple-whammy of global warming:

• We lose a crucial ally in keeping excess carbon out of the atmosphere (and in slowing global warming),
• Even more emissions are created when felled trees release the carbon they’d been storing, and rot or burn on the forest floor, and
• What most often replaces the now-vanished forest, livestock and crops, generate massive amounts of even more greenhouse gases. Taken together, these emissions account for a quarter of all emissions worldwide.

Our accounting of the ugly impacts of deforestation only considers emissions and doesn’t even touched on how the lives and traditions of forest communities are ruined when forests are razed, or how many species of plants and animals are lost, upsetting the delicate balance of ecosystems. The uptick in mosquito-borne diseases, for example, or the rapid spread of roya, an insidious plant disease that threatens our supply of coffee are all indirect consequences of deforestation and global warming.

There’s no doubt about it: the best thing we can do to fight climate change is keep forests standing. Yet the need to feed a rapidly growing global population—projected to reach 9 billion by 2050—is urgent. That’s why the Rainforest Alliance works with farmers to advance a variety of strategies , such as crop intensification (growing more food on less land), and with traditional forest-dwellers to develop livelihoods that don’t hurt forests or ecosystems . We stand more of a chance in this fight with forests standing strong.

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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

The unseen effects of deforestation: biophysical effects on climate.

• 1 Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, United States
• 2 The Woodwell Climate Research Center, Falmouth, MA, United States
• 3 The Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture, Cali, Colombia

Climate policy has thus far focused solely on carbon stocks and sequestration to evaluate the potential of forests to mitigate global warming. These factors are used to assess the impacts of different drivers of deforestation and forest degradation as well as alternative forest management. However, when forest cover, structure and composition change, shifts in biophysical processes (the water and energy balances) may enhance or diminish the climate effects of carbon released from forest aboveground biomass. The net climate impact of carbon effects and biophysical effects determines outcomes for forest and agricultural species as well as the humans who depend on them. Evaluating the net impact is complicated by the disparate spatio-temporal scales at which they operate. Here we review the biophysical mechanisms by which forests influence climate and synthesize recent work on the biophysical climate forcing of forests across latitudes. We then combine published data on the biophysical effects of deforestation on climate by latitude with a new analysis of the climate impact of the CO 2 in forest aboveground biomass by latitude to quantitatively assess how these processes combine to shape local and global climate. We find that tropical deforestation leads to strong net global warming as a result of both CO 2 and biophysical effects. From the tropics to a point between 30°N and 40°N, biophysical cooling by standing forests is both local and global, adding to the global cooling effect of CO 2 sequestered by forests. In the mid-latitudes up to 50°N, deforestation leads to modest net global warming as warming from released forest carbon outweighs a small opposing biophysical cooling. Beyond 50°N large scale deforestation leads to a net global cooling due to the dominance of biophysical processes (particularly increased albedo) over warming from CO 2 released. Locally at all latitudes, forest biophysical impacts far outweigh CO 2 effects, promoting local climate stability by reducing extreme temperatures in all seasons and times of day. The importance of forests for both global climate change mitigation and local adaptation by human and non-human species is not adequately captured by current carbon-centric metrics, particularly in the context of future climate warming.

Introduction

Failure to stabilize climate is in itself a large threat to biodiversity already at risk from deforestation. Protection, expansion, and improved management of the world’s forests represent some of the most promising natural solutions to the problem of keeping global warming below 1.5–2 degrees ( Griscom et al., 2017 ; Roe et al., 2019 ). Forests sequester large quantities of carbon; of the 450–650 Pg of carbon stored in vegetation ( IPCC, 2013 ), over 360 Pg is in forest vegetation ( Pan et al., 2013 ). Adding the carbon in soils, forests contain over 800 PgC, almost as much as is currently stored in the atmosphere ( Pan et al., 2013 ). In addition, forests are responsible for much of the carbon removal by terrestrial ecosystems which together remove 29% of annual CO 2 emissions (∼11.5 PgC; Friedlingstein et al., 2019 ). Globally, forest loss not only releases a large amount of carbon to the atmosphere, but it also significantly diminishes a major pathway for carbon removal long into the future ( Houghton and Nassikas, 2018 ). Tropical forests, which hold the greatest amount of aboveground biomass and have one of the fastest carbon sequestration rates per unit land area ( Harris et al., 2021 ), face the greatest deforestation pressure ( FAO, 2020 ). Given the long half-life and homogenous nature of atmospheric CO 2 , current forest management decisions will have an enduring impact on global climate through effects on CO 2 alone. However, forests also impact climate directly through controls on three main biophysical mechanisms: albedo, evapotranspiration (ET) and canopy roughness.

The direct biophysical effects of forests moderate local climate conditions. As a result of relatively low albedo, forests absorb a larger fraction of incoming sunlight than brighter surfaces such as bare soil, agricultural fields, or snow. Changes in albedo can impact the radiation balance at the top of the atmosphere and thus global temperature. The local climate, however, is not only impacted by albedo changes but also by how forests partition incoming solar radiation between latent and sensible heat. Deep roots and high leaf area make forests very efficient at moving water from the land surface to the atmosphere via ET, producing latent heat. Thus, beneath the forest canopy, the sensible heat flux and associated surface temperature are relatively low, especially during the growing season when ET is high ( Davin and de Noblet-Ducoudré, 2010 ; Mildrexler et al., 2011 ; Alkama and Cescatti, 2016 ). This cooling is enhanced by the relatively high roughness of the canopy, which strengthens vertical mixing and draws heat and water vapor away from the surface. Higher in the atmosphere, as water vapor condenses, the latent heat is converted to sensible heat. As a result, warming that began with sunlight striking the canopy is felt higher in the atmosphere rather than in the air near the land surface. These non-radiative processes stabilize local climate by reducing both the diurnal temperature range and seasonal temperature extremes ( Lee et al., 2011 ; Zhang et al., 2014 ; Alkama and Cescatti, 2016 ; Findell et al., 2017 ; Forzieri et al., 2017 ; Hirsch et al., 2018 ; Lejeune et al., 2018 ). Their impact on global climate, however, is less clear.

Despite high spatial variability, forest biophysical impacts do follow predictable latitudinal patterns. In the tropics, higher incoming solar radiation and moisture availability provide more energy to drive ET and convection, which in combination with roughness overcome the warming effect of low albedo, and result in year round cooling by forests. At higher latitudes, where incoming solar radiation is highly seasonal, the impacts of ET and surface roughness are diminished ( Anderson et al., 2011 ; Li et al., 2015 ) and albedo is the dominant biophysical determinant of the climate response. In boreal forests, relatively low albedo and low ET cause strong winter and spring warming. In the summer, higher incoming radiation and somewhat higher ET result in mild cooling by boreal forests ( Alkama and Cescatti, 2016 ). In the mid-latitudes, forest cover results in mild biophysical evaporative cooling in the summer months and mild albedo warming in the winter months ( Davin and de Noblet-Ducoudré, 2010 ; Li et al., 2015 ; Schultz et al., 2017 ). The latitude of zero net biophysical effect, the point at which the annual effect of the forest shifts from local cooling to local warming, ranges from 30 to 56°N in the literature ( Figure 1 ). These generalized latitudinal trends can be modified by aridity, elevation, species composition, and other characteristics, which vary across a range of spatial scales ( Anderson-Teixeira et al., 2012 ; Williams et al., 2021 ).

Figure 1. Latitude of net zero biophysical effect of forests on local temperature varies from 30 to 56°N. Above the line, forest cover causes local warming; below the line, forest cover causes local cooling. The thickness of the line indicates the number of studies that show forest cooling up to that threshold. Data sources as indicated.

Various mechanisms can amplify or dampen a forest’s direct effects on the energy and water balance, with climate impacts in the immediate vicinity, in remote locations, or both ( Bonan, 2008 ). Indirect biophysical effects are particularly important in the boreal region where snow-forest albedo interactions are prevalent. Low albedo forests typically mask high albedo snow, resulting in local radiative warming ( Jiao et al., 2017 ). At the larger scale this forest-induced warming is transferred to the oceans and further amplified by interactions with sea ice ( Brovkin et al., 2004 ; Bala et al., 2007 ; Davin and de Noblet-Ducoudré, 2010 ; Laguë and Swann, 2016 ). In fact, indirect biophysical feedbacks appear to dominate the global temperature response to deforestation in the boreal region ( Devaraju et al., 2018 ). Future climate warming may alter the strength of such feedbacks, depending on the rate at which forests expand northward and the extent and persistence of spring snow cover in a warmer world.

In the tropics, where ET and roughness are the dominant biophysical drivers, forests cool the lower atmosphere, but also provide the water vapor to support cloud formation ( Teuling et al., 2017 ). Clouds whiten the atmosphere over forests and thus increase albedo, at least partially offsetting the inherently low albedo of the forest below ( Heald and Spracklen, 2015 ; Fisher et al., 2017 ). However, the water vapor in clouds also absorbs and re-radiates heat, counteracting some of the cloud albedo-induced cooling ( Swann et al., 2012 ). In the Amazon basin, evidence suggests that deep clouds may occur more frequently over forested areas as a result of greater humidity and consequently greater convective available potential energy ( Wang et al., 2009 ). The impact of tropical deforestation on cloud formation is modified by biomass burning aerosols ( Liu et al., 2020 ) and the net impact on global climate is unclear. Quantifying these indirect biophysical feedback effects is an ongoing challenge for the modeling community particularly in the context of constraining future climate scenarios.

Forest production of biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOC), which affect both biogeochemical and biophysical processes, further complicate quantification of the net climate impact of forests. BVOC and their oxidation products regulate secondary organic aerosols (SOA), which are highly reflective and result in biophysical cooling. SOA also act as cloud condensation nuclei, enhancing droplet concentrations and thereby increasing cloud albedo, which leads to additional biophysical cooling ( Topping et al., 2013 ). On the other hand, SOA can also cause latent heat release in deep convective cloud systems resulting in strong radiative warming of the atmosphere ( Fan et al., 2012 , 2013 ). Furthermore, through impacts on the oxidative capacity of the atmosphere, BVOC increase the lifetime of methane and lead to the formation of tropospheric ozone in the presence of nitrogen oxides ( Arneth et al., 2011 ; McFiggans et al., 2019 ). The persistence of ozone and methane (both greenhouse gases) results in a biogeochemical warming effect. The net effect of forest BVOC at both local and global scales remains uncertain. Current evidence, from modeling forest loss since 1850, suggests that BVOC result in a small net cooling, if indirect cloud effects are included ( Scott et al., 2018 ). The strongest effect is in the tropics, where BVOC production is highest ( Messina et al., 2016 ).

An improved understanding of the combined effects of forest carbon and biophysical controls on both local and global climate is necessary to guide policy decisions that support global climate mitigation, local adaptation and biodiversity conservation. The relative importance of forest carbon storage and biophysical effects on climate depend in large part on the spatial and temporal scale of interest. Local surface or air temperature may not be sensitive to the incremental impact of atmospheric CO 2 removed by forests growing in a particular landscape or watershed. In contrast, local temperature is sensitive to biophysical changes in albedo, ET and roughness. At regional and global scales, where the cumulative effects of forests on atmospheric CO 2 become apparent in the temperature response, we can usefully compare these impacts. Estimates of the relative impact of biophysical and biogeochemical (e.g., carbon cycle) processes on global or zonal climate have been provided primarily by model simulations of large-scale deforestation or afforestation ( Table 1 ). These studies generally show that CO 2 effects on global temperature are many times greater than the biophysical effects of forest cover or forest loss. In models depicting global or zonal deforestation outside the tropics, however, global warming from CO 2 release offsets only 10–90% of the global biophysical cooling. The global CO 2 effects of total deforestation in the tropics greatly outweigh the global biophysical effects ( Table 1 ). With the exception of Davin and de Noblet-Ducoudré (2010) , these studies have estimated the net contribution of biophysical processes, without isolating the individual biophysical components. Here, we provide a new analysis of CO 2 -induced warming from deforestation by 10° latitudinal increments ( Supplementary Information 1 ). We then compare the CO 2 effect with the only published determination of biophysical effects by latitude ( Davin and de Noblet-Ducoudré, 2010) to clarify the potential net impact of forest loss in a particular region on local and global climate.

Table 1. Forest effects on global temperature in modeling experiments from biogeochemical (CO 2 ) versus biophysical impacts (albedo, evapotranspiration and roughness as well as changes in atmospheric and ocean circulation, snow and ice, and clouds).

Materials and Methods

In the scientific literature, biophysical impacts have been quantified using a number of different methods. In situ observational data, including weather station and eddy flux measurements, have shaped our understanding of the direct biophysical impacts of forests on the surface energy balance. With the advantage of high temporal resolution, they allow for process level investigation of forest biophysical impacts and attribution of temperature changes to particular biophysical forcings, both radiative (albedo) and non-radiative (ET and roughness) ( Lee et al., 2011 ; Luyssaert et al., 2014 ; Vanden Broucke et al., 2015 ; Bright et al., 2017 ; Liao et al., 2018 ). Remote sensing techniques have recently been used to extrapolate to larger scales, providing a global map of forest cover effects on local climate ( Li et al., 2015 ; Alkama and Cescatti, 2016 ; Bright et al., 2017 ; Duveiller et al., 2018 ; Prevedello et al., 2019 ). However, in contrast to in situ approaches which generally measure near surface air temperature (generally but not always at 2 m), remote sensing studies have investigated the response of land surface temperature (i.e., skin temperature) which is 0.5–3 times more sensitive to forest cover change ( Alkama and Cescatti, 2016 ; Novick and Katul, 2020 ).

Generally, both in situ and remote sensing analyses have adopted a space-for-time approach where differences in surface climate of neighboring forest and non-forest sites are used as proxies for the climate signal from deforestation/afforestation over time. This approach assumes that neighboring sites share a common background climate and that any temperature differences between them can be attributed solely to differences in forest cover. Consequently, large-scale biophysical feedback effects are ignored. New observation-based methodologies have been devised to investigate impacts from ongoing land use change rather than estimating climate sensitivities to idealized forest change ( Alkama and Cescatti, 2016 ; Bright et al., 2017 ; Prevedello et al., 2019 ), however, they too measure only local biophysical impacts.

Numerical modeling of paired climate simulations with contrasting forest cover is necessary to investigate the net climate response to forest cover change, including both local and non-local impacts. Model simulations have focused on idealized scenarios of large-scale deforestation/afforestation which are more likely to trigger large-scale climate feedbacks than more realistic incremental forest cover change. Discrepancies between observed and modeled results may be due in part to the influence of indirect climate feedbacks that are not captured by observations ( Winckler et al., 2017a , 2019a ; Chen and Dirmeyer, 2020 ). Unfortunately, model resolution is currently too coarse to guide local policy decisions. Modeling results are also plagued by a number of uncertainties associated with the partitioning of energy between latent or sensible heat ( de Noblet-Ducoudré et al., 2012 ). The predicted impacts of similar land cover changes are model specific and can vary in sign, magnitude, and geographical distribution ( Devaraju et al., 2015 ; Lawrence and Vandecar, 2015 ; Garcia et al., 2016 ; Laguë and Swann, 2016 ; Stark et al., 2016 ; Quesada et al., 2017 ; Boysen et al., 2020 ) and therefore must be viewed with caution. In this paper, we synthesize all types of observational data from the literature to illustrate the biophysical impacts of forests on local climate. However, given that local impacts have been extensively explored and summarized in the past ( Anderson et al., 2011 ; Perugini et al., 2017 ), and because we wish to include indirect effects and feedbacks, we rely predominantly on modeling studies and our own calculations to elucidate the role of forests at different latitudes in shaping climate.

Effects on Global Temperature From Deforestation by 10° Latitude Band

We combined published data on biophysical effects of deforestation by latitude with our own analysis of CO 2 effects from deforestation by latitude to compare the relative strength of biophysical factors and CO 2 (the dominant biogeochemical factor) affecting global climate. Most modeling experiments available in the literature involve total deforestation at all latitudes, and the ocean feedbacks prove very strong ( Davin and de Noblet-Ducoudré, 2010) . Here, we consider land-only effects within a given 10° latitudinal band as this scale of impact is more indicative of the effects of regional or more incremental change on global temperature than the combined land/ocean effects. Finer scale, more realistic forest loss scenarios would not trigger massive cooling through albedo effects on the oceans. Area-scaled, land-only biophysical effects from deforestation provide the most realistic comparison with the effects of carbon stored by forests, and released through deforestation, at a given latitude. The biophysical response was derived from the results of Davin and de Noblet-Ducoudré (2010) who simulated total deforestation and decomposed the temperature response, by 10° latitude bands, into the fraction due to albedo, evapotranspiration, roughness and a non-linear response (see Supplementary Table 1 ).

The biogeochemical response was estimated by accounting for the CO 2 effect of deforestation, using existing biomass data and known equilibrium temperature sensitivity to doubled CO 2 . The principal input to our analysis is a 2016 global extension of the 500-m resolution aboveground carbon density (ACD) change (2003–2016) product applied by Walker et al. (2020) to the Amazon basin. It is based on an approach to pantropical ACD change estimation developed by Baccini et al. (2017) . The pantropical product combined field measurements with colocated NASA ICESat GLAS spaceborne light detection and ranging (LiDAR) data to calibrate a machine-learning algorithm that produced estimates of ACD using MODIS satellite imagery. This approach was modified for application to the extratropics, principally the temperate and boreal zones but also extratropical South America, Africa and Australia, using 47 allometric equations compiled from 27 unique literature sources for relating field-based measurements of aboveground biomass to airborne LiDAR metrics ( Chapman et al., 2020 ). These equations were used to predict ACD within the footprints of GLAS LiDAR acquisitions in each region with the result being a pseudo-inventory of LiDAR-based estimates of ACD spanning the extratropics. This dataset was then combined with the pantropical dataset first generated by Baccini et al. (2012) to produce a global database of millions of spatially explicit ACD predictions. This database was used to calibrate six ecoregional MODIS-based models for the purposes of generating a global 500-m resolution map of ACD for the year 2016. Additional details on these methods can be found in Chapman et al. (2020) .

The total aboveground carbon (GtC) was summed for each 10° latitude band and converted to CO 2 (GtC*44/12 = GtCO 2 , Supplementary Information 1 ). The mass of CO 2 was converted to ppm CO 2 in the atmosphere (2.12 Gt/ppm). The derived CO 2 concentration was reduced by 23% to account for ocean uptake ( Global Carbon Project, 2019 ). We assumed that no uptake occurred on land, as the carbon stock in vegetation was completely removed in our experiment to match what occurred in Davin and de Noblet-Ducoudré (2010) . Next, we calculated the global temperature response to the increase in atmospheric CO 2 due to the CO 2 released by completely deforesting each 10° latitudinal band using the equilibrium temperature sensitivity derived from general circulation models. Given the accepted value of 3°C (±1.5°C) for a doubling of atmospheric CO 2 (an increase of 280 ppm) (IPCC, 2013), we determined that temperature sensitivity is equivalent to 0.107°C (±0.054°C) for every 10 ppm increase in atmospheric CO 2 content.

To determine the global temperature response to deforestation of a given band, we calculated the area-weighted values for each biophysical response within each latitude band. The area encompassed by 10° of latitude increases toward the equator. Thus, to determine the contribution of a given band to a global temperature response, scaling by the surface area within the band was essential. We used average temperature responses over the land only to avoid the strong bias associated with ocean feedbacks from global scale implementation of deforestation.

For the global analysis, we also determined the contribution of BVOC to global temperature change for deforestation of each 10° of latitude. Scott et al. (2018) described the warming from deforestation due to BVOC in relation to the amount of cooling due to changes in albedo. For the tropics, the BVOC effect on global temperature was 17% of the albedo effect. For the temperate zone, it was 18% and for the boreal, it was 2% of the albedo effect. We applied these scalars (with an opposite sign) to the albedo figures for each 10° latitude band.

Effects on Regional (Local) Temperature From Deforestation by 10° Latitude Band

To analyze the effect of deforesting 10° of latitude on the temperature within that latitude zone (‘local’ effect), we did not scale by area within the band. Rather we assessed the average temperature change across the band, locally felt, as reported in the original study. The CO 2 effect was calculated as above and then scaled to reflect the sensitivity of a given latitudinal band to a global forcing. Only the CO 2 emitted by the latitudinal band itself was considered when determining the locally felt effects of CO 2 in a given band. Our experimental design involved global deforestation and all emitted CO 2 would have had an effect in a given band, but the point of the analysis was to isolate the temperature change caused by forests in a given latitude. We determined the latitudinal sensitivity to warming in response to added CO 2 from a re-analysis of global 2 m temperature data (CERA-20C) obtained from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather https://www.ecmwf.int/en/forecasts/datasets/reanalysis-datasets/cera-20c . We compared average temperatures from 1901 to 1910 and 2001–2010, by latitude on land only (inadequate land only data for 50–60S and 80–90N; for those, we do not report a locally felt CO 2 effect). Then we divided the temperature change for each latitude band by the change in global temperature over the same period. We scaled the effect of CO 2 emitted by a given 10° latitude band by this sensitivity to represent the influence of non-linear responses such as polar amplification (see Supplementary Information 1 and Supplementary Table 2 ).

Biophysical Effects of Deforestation on Local Climate: A Broader Context

Our analysis is the first to compare regional scale biophysical and CO 2 impacts from regional scale deforestation but the literature is replete with data on local biophysical impacts. The results for local biophysical effects (100s of m to 100s of km) agree with our results at the regional scale (below). Figures 2 , 3 synthesize local biophysically-driven temperature responses to deforestation, as indicated by forest/no-forest comparisons or forest change over time, from the scientific literature. Satellite and flux tower data indicate that surface temperatures in tropical forests are significantly lower than in cleared areas nearby. On an annual basis, local surface cooling of 0.2–2.4°C has been observed (mean 0.96°C, Figure 2 and Supplementary Information 2 ). In the temperate zone, satellite studies of land surface temperature (which is more sensitive than the temperature of the air at 2 m) have shown biophysical cooling from forest cover, or biophysical warming from deforestation (0.02–1.0°C, mean of 0.4°C; see Figure 2 and Supplementary Information 2 ). Both in situ and satellite data generally indicate an average annual cooling of under 1°C from boreal deforestation ( Figure 2 ). Across latitudinal zones, warming from deforestation is generally greater during the day, and during the dry (hot) season ( Figure 3 ).

Figure 2. Local average annual temperature change in response to deforestation (black symbols) or afforestation (green symbols) as determined by comparing neighboring forested and open land (space for time approach) or measuring forest change over time in the tropics, temperate and boreal zones, by (A) in situ or (B) satellite based land surface temperature measurements (0 m, triangles) or air temperature measurements (2 m, circles). See Supplementary Information 2 for data sources.

Figure 3. Local temperature change in response to deforestation by season and time of day in the various climate zones as determined by comparing neighboring forested and open land (space for time approach) or measuring forest change over time. Warm/dry season response, averaged over the entire diurnal cycle, in red shading and cold/wet season response in blue shading. Daytime response, averaged over the entire annual cycle, in yellow shading and nighttime response in gray shading. See Supplementary Information 3 for data sources.

CO 2 -Induced Warming Versus Biophysical Effects on Regional (Local) Temperature From Deforestation by 10° Latitude Band

As expected, the regionally felt effect of regionally (10° band) produced CO 2 is very small compared to any individual biophysical effect or the sum of all non-CO 2 effects ( Figure 4 ). These results indicate that the net impact of all non-CO 2 effects is negligible between 20 and 30N. Beyond 30N the local biophysical response to deforestation is cooling. In the broader literature, this latitude of net zero biophysical effect on local temperature is generally between 30 and 40N ( Figure 1 ).

Figure 4. Effect of complete deforestation on local annual temperature by climate factor, averaged across the land surface within a 10° latitudinal band. Complete deforestation was implemented globally and analyzed by 10° latitudinal bands ( Davin and de Noblet-Ducoudré, 2010) . The CO 2 effect was determined from total aboveground biomass in each 10° band after Walker et al. (2020) and scaled by CERA-derived sensitivity by latitude. Inset distinguishes the sum of all local biophysical effects from local CO 2 effects.

Biophysical Effects on Global Temperature From Deforestation by 10° Latitude Band

For most latitudinal bands, the strongest biophysical effect of deforestation is cooling from albedo changes. In the tropics, however, the warming effect of lost roughness is comparable to or greater than the albedo effect ( Figure 5A ). Adding the warming from lost evapotranspiration, the net biophysical effect from tropical deforestation is global warming, as much as 0.1°C contributed each by latitudes 0°–10°S and 0°–10°N. The net biophysical effect of intact tropical forest, therefore, is global cooling; slightly more cooling if BVOCs are also considered (see Figure 5B ). Roughness effects are generally greater than evapotranspiration effects across latitudes providing a strong counterbalance to albedo effects ( Davin and de Noblet-Ducoudré, 2010 ; Burakowski et al., 2018 ; Winckler et al., 2019b ; Figure 5A ). Albedo almost balances the combined effect of roughness, evapotranspiration, BVOC and non-linear effects between 20 and 30°N resulting in close to zero net biophysical effect on global temperature ( Figure 5B ). From 30–40°N and northward, albedo dominates, and the net biophysical effect of deforestation is cooling.

Figure 5. Effect of complete deforestation on global temperature by 10° band of latitude. (A) Contribution to global temperature change by climate forcing factor. Biophysical factors are from Davin and de Noblet-Ducoudré, 2010 , area-weighted. BVOC effects are estimated relative to albedo effects based on Scott et al., 2018 . CO 2 effect is based on aboveground live biomass for each 10° latitudinal band following Baccini et al., 2017 and Walker et al., 2020 . (B) Net biophysical and BVOC effect versus CO 2 effect. (C) Cooling or warming effects of deforestation by 10° latitudinal band (BVOC included). “Forests as mountains” map of aboveground biomass carbon in woody vegetation ca. 2016 courtesy of Woodwell Climate Research Center and shaded to indicate where deforestation results in net global warming. See Supplementary Information 1 for details.

CO 2 -Induced Warming Versus Biophysical Effects on Global Temperature From Deforestation by 10° Latitude Band

From 30°S to 30°N, the biophysical effect of deforesting a given 10° latitudinal band is about half as great and in the same direction as the CO 2 effect: global warming. Biophysical warming is around 60% as great as warming from released CO 2 in the outer tropics (20°S–10°S and 10°N–20°N) and about 35% as great in the heart of the tropics (10°S–10°N). Biophysical cooling due to deforestation from 30°N to 40°N offsets about 40% of the warming associated with carbon loss from deforestation; from 40°N to 50°N biophysical effects offset 85% of CO 2 effects ( Figure 5B ). Above 50°N, biophysical global cooling is 3–6 times as great as CO 2 induced global warming. The net impact of deforestation (effects of CO 2 , biophysical processes and BVOC combined) is warming at all latitudes up to 50N ( Figure 5C ). Thus, from 50S to 50N, an area that encompasses approximately 65% of global forests ( FAO, 2020 ), deforestation results in global warming ( Figure 5C ).

All Forests Provide Local Climate Benefits Through Biophysical Effects

Ignoring biophysical effects on local climate means casting aside a powerful inducement to promote global climate goals and advance forest conservation: local self-interest. The biogeochemical effect of forests tends to dominate the biophysical effect at the global scale because physical effects in one region can cancel out effects in another. Nevertheless, biophysical effects are very important, and can be very large, at the local scale (e.g., Anderson-Teixeira et al., 2012 ; Bright et al., 2015 ; Jiao et al., 2017 ; Figures 2 – 4 ). The role of forests in maintaining critical habitat for biodiversity is well known, but new research on extinction confirms the role of forests in maintaining critical climates to support biodiversity. Changes in maximum temperature are driving extinction, not changes in average temperature ( Román-Palacios and Wiens, 2020 ). Deforestation is associated with an increase in the maximum daily temperature throughout the year in the tropics and during the summer in higher latitudes ( Lee et al., 2011 ; Zhang et al., 2014 ). Of course deforestation also increases average daytime temperatures in boreal, mid-latitude and tropical forests ( Figure 3 ). The biophysical effects of forests also moderate local and regional temperature extremes such that extremely hot days are significantly more common following deforestation even in the mid- and high latitudes ( Vogel et al., 2017 ; Stoy, 2018 ). Historical deforestation explains ∼1/3 of the present day increase in the intensity of the hottest days of the year at a given location ( Lejeune et al., 2018 ). It has also increased the frequency and intensity of hot dry summers two to four fold ( Findell et al., 2017 ). Local increases in extreme temperatures due to forest loss are of comparable magnitude to changes caused by 0.5°C of global warming ( Seneviratne et al., 2018 ). Forests provide local cooling during the hottest times of the year anywhere on the planet, improving the resilience of cities, agriculture, and conservation areas. Forests are critical for adapting to a warmer world.

Forests also minimize risks due to drought associated with heat extremes. Deep roots, high water use efficiency, and high surface roughness allow trees to continue transpiring during drought conditions and thus to dissipate heat and convey moisture to the atmosphere. In addition to this direct cooling, forest ET can influence cloud formation ( Stoy, 2018 ), enhancing albedo and potentially promoting rainfall. The production of BVOCs and organic aerosols by forests accelerates with increasing temperatures, enhancing direct or indirect (cloud formation) albedo effects. This negative feedback on temperature has been observed to counter anomalous heat events in the mid-latitudes ( Paasonen et al., 2013 ).

Some Forests Provide Global Climate Benefits Through Biophysical Effects

Disregarding the biophysical effects of specific forests on global climate means under-selling some forest actions and over-selling others. The response to local forest change is not equivalent for similar sized areas in different latitudes. According to Arora and Montenegro (2011) warming reductions per unit reforested area are three times greater in the tropics than in the boreal and northern temperate zone due to a faster carbon sequestration rate magnified by year-round biophysical cooling. Thus, considering biophysical effects significantly enhances both the local and global climate benefits of land-based mitigation projects in the tropics (see Figures 4 , 5 ).

Constraints on Forest Climate Benefits in the Future

Climate change is likely to alter the biophysical effect of forests in a variety of ways. Deforestation in a future (warmer) climate could warm the tropical surface 25% more than deforestation in a present-day climate due to stronger decreases in turbulent heat fluxes ( Winckler et al., 2017b ). In a warmer climate, reduced snow cover in the temperate and boreal regions will lead to a smaller albedo effect and thus less biophysical cooling with high latitude deforestation. In addition to snow cover change, future rainfall regimes will affect the response of climate to changes in forest cover ( Pitman et al., 2011 ) as rainfall limits the supply of moisture available for evaporative cooling. Increases in water use efficiency due to increasing atmospheric CO 2 may reduce evapotranspiration ( Keenan et al., 2013 ), potentially reducing the local cooling effect of forests and altering atmospheric moisture content and dynamics at local to global scales. Future BVOC production may increase due to warming and simultaneously decline due to CO 2 suppression ( Lathière et al., 2010 ; Unger, 2014 ; Hantson et al., 2017 ). The physiological and ecological responses of forests to warming, rising atmospheric CO 2 and changing precipitation contribute to uncertainty in the biophysical effect of future forests on climate.

Forest persistence is essential for maintaining the global benefits of carbon removals from the atmosphere and the local and global benefits of the physical processes described above. Changing disturbance regimes may limit forest growth and regrowth in many parts of the world. Dynamic global vegetation models currently show an increasing terrestrial carbon sink in the future. This sink is thought to be due to the effects of fertilization by rising atmospheric CO 2 and N deposition on plant growth as well as the effects of climate change lengthening the growing season in northern temperate and boreal areas ( Le Quéré et al., 2018 ). Free-air carbon dioxide enrichment (FACE) experiments often show increases in biomass accumulation under high CO 2 but results are highly variable due to nutrient limitations and climatic factors ( Feng et al., 2015 ; Paschalis et al., 2017 ; Terrer et al., 2018 ). Climate change effects on the frequency and intensity of pest outbreaks are poorly studied, but are likely to be significant, particularly at the margins of host ranges. Warmer springs and winters are already increasing insect-related tree mortality in boreal forests through increased stress on the tree hosts and direct effects on insect populations ( Volney and Fleming, 2000 ; Price et al., 2013 ).

Climate also affects fire regimes. In the tropics, fire regimes often follow El Niño cycles ( van der Werf et al., 2017 ). As temperatures increase, however, fire and rainfall are decoupled as the flammability of forests increases even in normal rainfall years ( Fernandes et al., 2017 ; Brando et al., 2019 ). Fire frequency is also increasing in some temperate and boreal forests, with a discernable climate change signal ( Abatzoglou and Williams, 2016 ). Modeling exercises indicate that this trend is expected to continue with increasing damage to forests as temperatures rise and fire intensity increases ( De Groot et al., 2013 ).

In addition to changes induced by warming, continued deforestation could severely stress remaining forests by warming and drying local and regional climates ( Lawrence and Vandecar, 2015 ; Costa et al., 2019 ; Gatti et al., 2021 ). In the tropics, a tipping point may occur, potentially resulting in a shift to shorter, more savannah-like vegetation and altering the impact of vast, previously forested areas on global climate ( Nobre et al., 2016 ; Brando et al., 2019 ). Some of these processes are included in climate models and some are not. The gaps leave considerable uncertainty. Nevertheless, a combination of observations, models, and theory gives us a solid understanding of the biophysical effects of forests on climate at local, regional and global scales. We can use that knowledge to plan forest-based climate mitigation and adaptation.

Mitigation Potential of Forests: Byond the Carbon/Biophysical Divide

If instead of focusing on the contrast between biophysical and biochemical impacts of forests and forest loss, we focus on the potential of forests to cool the planet through both pathways, another picture emerges. By our conservative estimate, through the combined effects on CO 2 , BVOC, roughness and evapotranspiration, forests up to 50°N provide a net global cooling that is enough to offset warming associated with their low albedo. Given the most realistic pathways of forest change in the future (not complete deforestation of a 10° latitudinal band, or an entire biome), global climate stabilization benefits likely extend beyond 50°N. For the 29% of the global land surface that lies beyond 50°N, forests may warm the planet, but only as inferred from assessing the effects of complete zonal deforestation with all the associated, and powerful, land-ocean feedbacks spawned by largescale forest change in the boreal zone. Forests above 50°N, like forests everywhere, provide essential local climate stabilization benefits by reducing surface temperatures during the warm season as well as periods of extreme heat or drought. Indeed, they also reduce extreme cold.

Creating a fair and effective global arena for market-based solutions to climate change requires attention to all the ways that forests affect climate, including the biophysical effects. Future metrics of forest climate impacts should consider the effects of deforestation beyond CO 2 . Only recently have modelers begun to include BVOC. Doing so means that the albedo of intact forests (or the atmosphere above them) is higher due to the creation of SOA and subsequent cloud formation. Modeled deforestation thus results in less of a change in albedo, reducing the biophysical cooling effect. Similarly, accounting for the ozone and methane effects of BVOC reduces the biogeochemical warming from deforestation ( Scott et al., 2018 ). In addition, especially in the tropics, deforestation reduces the strength of the soil CH 4 sink ( Dutaur and Verchot, 2007 ). While a small change relative to the atmospheric pool of CH 4 (the second most important greenhouse gas), the loss of this sink is equivalent to approximately 13% of the current rate of increase in atmospheric CH 4 ( Saunois et al., 2016 ). We already have the data ( Figure 5 ) to begin conceptualizing measures to coarsely scale CO 2 impacts of forest change by latitude. Finer resolution of latitude, background climate (current and future) and forest type would improve any such new, qualifying metric for the climate mitigation value of forests.

The role of forests in addressing climate change extends beyond the traditional concept of CO 2 mitigation which neglects the local climate regulation services they provide. The biophysical effects of forest cover can contribute significantly to solving local adaptation challenges, such as extreme heat and flooding, at any latitude. The carbon benefits of forests at any latitude contribute meaningfully to global climate mitigation. In the tropics, however, where forest carbon stocks and sequestration rates are highest, the biophysical effects of forests amplify the carbon benefits, thus underscoring the critical importance of protecting, expanding, and improving the management of tropical forests. Perhaps it is time to think more broadly about what constitutes global climate mitigation. If climate mitigation means limiting global warming, then clearly the biophysical effects of deforestation must be considered in addition to its effects on atmospheric CO 2 . We may further consider whether mitigation is too narrow a scope for considering the climate benefits provided by forests. Climate policy often separates mitigation from adaptation, but the benefits of forests clearly extend into both realms.

Data Availability Statement

The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/ Supplementary Material , further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author.

Author Contributions

DL conceived the presented idea. All authors helped perform the computations, discussed the results, and contributed to the final manuscript.

Financial support from the University of Virginia and the Climate and Land Use Alliance grant #G-1810-55876.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher’s Note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Acknowledgments

Thanks to Frances Seymour, Michael Wolosin, Billie L. Turner, Ruth DeFries, and the reviewers for feedback on this manuscript and to the University of Virginia and the Climate and Land Use Alliance grant #G-1810-55876 for financial support.

Supplementary Material

The Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/ffgc.2022.756115/full#supplementary-material

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Keywords : forest, biophysical effects, temperature, climate policy, deforestation/afforestation

Citation: Lawrence D, Coe M, Walker W, Verchot L and Vandecar K (2022) The Unseen Effects of Deforestation: Biophysical Effects on Climate. Front. For. Glob. Change 5:756115. doi: 10.3389/ffgc.2022.756115

Received: 10 August 2021; Accepted: 02 March 2022; Published: 24 March 2022.

Reviewed by:

Copyright © 2022 Lawrence, Coe, Walker, Verchot and Vandecar. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Deborah Lawrence, [email protected]

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

• ENVIRONMENT

Why deforestation matters—and what we can do to stop it

Large scale destruction of trees—deforestation—affects ecosystems, climate, and even increases risk for zoonotic diseases spreading to humans.

As the world seeks to slow the pace of climate change , preserve wildlife, and support more than eight billion people , trees inevitably hold a major part of the answer. Yet the mass destruction of trees—deforestation—continues, sacrificing the long-term benefits of standing trees for short-term gain of fuel, and materials for manufacturing and construction.

We need trees for a variety of reasons, not least of which is that they absorb the carbon dioxide we exhale and the heat-trapping greenhouse gases that human activities emit. As those gases enter the atmosphere, global warming increases, a trend scientists now prefer to call climate change.

There is also the imminent danger of disease caused by deforestation. An estimated 60 percent of emerging infectious diseases come from animals, and a major cause of viruses’ jump from wildlife to humans is habitat loss, often through deforestation.

But we can still save our forests. Aggressive efforts to rewild and reforest are already showing success. Tropical tree cover alone can provide 23 percent of the climate mitigation needed to meet goals set in the Paris Agreement in 2015, according to one estimate .

Causes of deforestation

Forests still cover about 30 percent of the world’s land area, but they are disappearing at an alarming rate. Since 1990, the world has lost more than 420 million hectares or about a billion acres of forest, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations —mainly in Africa and South America. About 17 percent of the Amazonian rainforest has been destroyed over the past 50 years, and losses recently have been on the rise . The organization Amazon Conservation reports that destruction rose by 21 percent in 2020 , a loss the size of Israel.

Farming, grazing of livestock, mining, and drilling combined account for more than half of all deforestation . Forestry practices, wildfires and, in small part, urbanization account for the rest. In Malaysia and Indonesia, forests are cut down to make way for producing palm oil , which can be found in everything from shampoo to saltine crackers. In the Amazon, cattle ranching and farms—particularly soy plantations—are key culprits .

Logging operations, which provide the world’s wood and paper products, also fell countless trees each year. Loggers, some of them acting illegally , also build roads to access more and more remote forests—which leads to further deforestation. Forests are also cut as a result of growing urban sprawl as land is developed for homes.

Not all deforestation is intentional. Some is caused by a combination of human and natural factors like wildfires and overgrazing, which may prevent the growth of young trees.

Why it matters

There are some 250 million people who live in forest and savannah areas and depend on them for subsistence and income—many of them among the world’s rural poor.

Eighty percent of Earth’s land animals and plants live in forests , and deforestation threatens species including the orangutan , Sumatran tiger , and many species of birds. Removing trees deprives the forest of portions of its canopy, which blocks the sun’s rays during the day and retains heat at night. That disruption leads to more extreme temperature swings that can be harmful to plants and animals.

With wild habitats destroyed and human life ever expanding, the line between animal and human areas blurs, opening the door to zoonotic diseases . In 2014, for example, the Ebola virus killed over 11,000 people in West Africa after fruit bats transmitted the disease to a toddler who was playing near trees where bats were roosting.

( How deforestation is leading to more infectious diseases in humans .)

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Some scientists believe there could be as many as 1.7 million currently “undiscovered” viruses in mammals and birds, of which up to 827,000 could have the ability to infect people, according to a 2018 study .

Deforestation’s effects reach far beyond the people and animals where trees are cut. The South American rainforest, for example, influences regional and perhaps even global water cycles, and it's key to the water supply in Brazilian cities and neighboring countries. The Amazon actually helps furnish water to some of the soy farmers and beef ranchers who are clearing the forest. The loss of clean water and biodiversity from all forests could have many other effects we can’t foresee, touching even your morning cup of coffee .

In terms of climate change, cutting trees both adds carbon dioxide to the air and removes the ability to absorb existing carbon dioxide. If tropical deforestation were a country, according to the World Resources Institute , it would rank third in carbon dioxide-equivalent emissions, behind China and the U.S.

What can be done

The numbers are grim, but many conservationists see reasons for hope . A movement is under way to preserve existing forest ecosystems and restore lost tree cover by first reforesting (replanting trees) and ultimately rewilding (a more comprehensive mission to restore entire ecosystems).

( Which nation could be the first to be rewilded ?)

Organizations and activists are working to fight illegal mining and logging—National Geographic Explorer Topher White, for example, has come up with a way to use recycled cell phones to monitor for chainsaws . In Tanzania, the residents of Kokota have planted more than 2 million trees on their small island over a decade, aiming to repair previous damage. And in Brazil, conservationists are rallying in the face of ominous signals that the government may roll back forest protections.

( Which tree planting projects should you support ?)

Stopping deforestation before it reaches a critical point will play a key role in avoiding the next zoonotic pandemic. A November 2022 study showed that when bats struggle to find suitable habitat, they travel closer to human communities where diseases are more likely to spillover. Inversely, when bats’ native habitats were left intact, they stayed away from humans. This research is the first to show how we can predict and avoid spillovers through monitoring and maintaining wildlife habitats.

For consumers, it makes sense to examine the products and meats you buy, looking for sustainably produced sources when you can. Nonprofit groups such as the Forest Stewardship Council and the Rainforest Alliance certify products they consider sustainable, while the World Wildlife Fund has a palm oil scorecard for consumer brands.

Related Topics

• DEFORESTATION
• ENVIRONMENT AND CONSERVATION
• RAINFORESTS

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New to Climate Change?

Forests and climate change.

Forests cover about 30% of the Earth’s land surface. As forests grow, their trees take in carbon from the air and store it in wood, plant matter, and under the soil . If not for forests, much of this carbon would remain in the atmosphere in the form of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), the most important greenhouse gas driving climate change.

Each year since 2000, forests are estimated to have removed an average of 2 billion metric tons of carbon from the atmosphere. 1 This “carbon sink function” of forests is slowing climate change by reducing the rate at which CO 2 , mainly from fossil fuel burning, builds up in the atmosphere. Careful forest management can therefore be an important strategy to help address climate change in the future. Healthy forests also provide a host of other benefits, from clean water to habitat for plants and animals that can live nowhere else.

Deforestation, and our options to reverse it

Over the past 8,000 years, humans have cleared up to half of the forests on our planet, mostly to make room for agriculture . 2 Cutting down or burning forests releases the carbon stored in their trees and soil, and prevents them from absorbing more CO 2 in the future. Since 1850, about 30% of all CO 2 emissions have come from deforestation. 3 Deforestation can also have more local climate impacts. Because trees release moisture that cools the air around them, scientists have found that deforestation has led to more intense heat waves in North America and Eurasia. 4

There are three ways to reverse these losses: afforestation, reforestation, and the natural regeneration of forest ecosystems. Afforestation refers to planting forests where there were none before, or where forests have been missing for a long time—50 years or more. Reforestation is planting trees where forests have been recently cleared. Natural regeneration, on the other hand, does not involve tree-planting. 5 Instead, forest managers help damaged forests regrow by letting trees naturally re-seed, and through techniques like coppicing, in which trees are cut down to stumps so new shoots can grow.

Forests as a climate solution

There is no doubt that these strategies can help remove CO 2 from the atmosphere, but their impact is hard to measure. Even for China, which has done more afforestation and reforestation than the rest of the world combined, there are still large uncertainties about how much carbon these projects are storing. 6

Looking at China also shows some of the unintended consequences of large-scale tree-planting projects. In the dry northern part of the country, people have planted trees to fight desert expansion. But because the tree species that were planted were ill-suited to a dry climate, this effort has depleted water supplies and degraded soils. In the south of China, reforestation with monocultures—that is, just one species of tree—has led to loss of biodiversity. 7

Natural regeneration of forests, on the other hand, has few unintended consequences and large potential to store carbon over the coming decades. If done worldwide, natural regeneration of forests could capture up to 70 billion tons of carbon in plants and soils between now and 2050 8 —an amount equal to around seven years of current industrial emissions. Combining natural regeneration with thoughtful afforestation and reforestation is an important option for combating climate change.

Updated October 7, 2021.

1 Harris, N.L., D.A. Gibbs, A. Baccini, R.A. Birdsey, S. de Bruin, et al. (2021). " Global maps of twenty-first century forest carbon fluxes ." Nature Climate Change 11, 234–240. doi:10.1038/s41558-020-00976-6 2 Ahrends, Q. P.M. Hollingworth, P. Beckschafer, H. Chen, R.J. Zomer, L. Zhang, M. Wang, J. Xu. 2017. " China's fight to halt tree cover loss ." Proceedings of the Royal Society Biological Sciences 284, May 2017. doi:10.1098/rspb.2016.2559 3 Le Quéré, Corrine, et al. “ Global Carbon Budget 2016 .” Earth Systems Science Data, vol. 8, no. 2, 2018. doi:10.5194/essd-8-605-2016 4 Lejeune, Q., Davin, E.L., Gudmundsson, L. et al. (2018). " Historical deforestation locally increased the intensity of hot days in northern mid-latitudes ." Nature Climate Change 8, April 2018. doi:10.1038/s41558-018-0131-z 5 IPCC, 2019: Summary for Policymakers . In: "Climate Change and Land: an IPCC special report on climate change, desertification, land degradation, sustainable land management, food security, and greenhouse gas fluxes in terrestrial ecosystems." [P.R. Shukla, J. Skea, E. Calvo Buendia, V. Masson-Delmotte, H.- O. Pörtner, D. C. Roberts, P. Zhai, R. Slade, S. Connors, R. van Diemen, M. Ferrat, E. Haughey, S. Luz, S. Neogi, M. Pathak, J. Petzold, J. Portugal Pereira, P. Vyas, E. Huntley, K. Kissick, M. Belkacemi, J. Malley, (eds.)]. 6 Wang, J., L. Feng, P.I. Palmer, Y. Liu, S. Fang, H. Bosch, C. W. O’Dell, X. Tang, D. Yang, L. Liu, C. Xia. " Large Chinese land carbon sink estimated from atmospheric carbon dioxide data ." Nature 586, October 2020. doi:10.1038/s41586-020-2849-9 7 Hua, F., X. Wang, X. Zheng, B. Fisher, L. Wang, J. Zhu, et al. " Opportunities for biodiversity gains under the world’s largest reforestation programme ." Nature Communications, 7(1), Sept 2016. doi: 10.1038/ncomms12717 8 Cook-Patton S.C., S.M. Leavitt, D. Gibbs, N.L. Harris, et al. " Mapping carbon accumulation potential from global natural forest regrowth ." Nature 585: 545-550, Sept 2020. doi:10.1038/s41586-020-2686-x

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ENCYCLOPEDIC ENTRY

Deforestation.

Deforestation is the intentional clearing of forested land.

Biology, Ecology, Conservation

Trees are cut down for timber, waiting to be transported and sold.

Photograph by Esemelwe

Deforestation is the purposeful clearing of forested land. Throughout history and into modern times, forests have been razed to make space for agriculture and animal grazing, and to obtain wood for fuel, manufacturing, and construction.

Deforestation has greatly altered landscapes around the world. About 2,000 years ago, 80 percent of Western Europe was forested; today the figure is 34 percent. In North America, about half of the forests in the eastern part of the continent were cut down from the 1600s to the 1870s for timber and agriculture. China has lost great expanses of its forests over the past 4,000 years and now just over 20 percent of it is forested. Much of Earth’s farmland was once forests.

Today, the greatest amount of deforestation is occurring in tropical rainforests, aided by extensive road construction into regions that were once almost inaccessible. Building or upgrading roads into forests makes them more accessible for exploitation. Slash-and-burn agriculture is a big contributor to deforestation in the tropics. With this agricultural method, farmers burn large swaths of forest, allowing the ash to fertilize the land for crops. The land is only fertile for a few years, however, after which the farmers move on to repeat the process elsewhere. Tropical forests are also cleared to make way for logging, cattle ranching, and oil palm and rubber tree plantations.

Deforestation can result in more carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere. That is because trees take in carbon dioxide from the air for photosynthesis , and carbon is locked chemically in their wood. When trees are burned, this carbon returns to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide . With fewer trees around to take in the carbon dioxide , this greenhouse gas accumulates in the atmosphere and accelerates global warming.

Deforestation also threatens the world’s biodiversity . Tropical forests are home to great numbers of animal and plant species. When forests are logged or burned, it can drive many of those species into extinction. Some scientists say we are already in the midst of a mass-extinction episode.

More immediately, the loss of trees from a forest can leave soil more prone to erosion . This causes the remaining plants to become more vulnerable to fire as the forest shifts from being a closed, moist environment to an open, dry one.

While deforestation can be permanent, this is not always the case. In North America, for example, forests in many areas are returning thanks to conservation efforts.

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Global Warming and Deforestation Essay IELTS: Latest Writing Task 2 Samples

• Last Updated On July 29, 2024
• Published In IELTS Preparation 💻

It is commonly observed that IELTS speaking and writing sections often consist of questions related to general topics of discussion such as environmental issues like climate change, greenhouse effect, global warming, and deforestation. In the blog, we specifically talk about Global Warming And Deforestation Essay IELTS.

Table of Content

IELTS topics are largely talked about in a number of social circles and, thus, form the basis of IELTS exam questions. These questions can be of various types: Problems and possible solutions to global warming and deforestation, harmful effects and causes of global warming, causes and effects of deforestation and the like. There can also be topics that ask you to discuss two sides of an argument and then give your opinion. This type is mainly seen in the IELTS exam writing task 2.

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Format for Global Warming and Deforestation Essay IELTS Task 2

The format that you can follow for almost all questions on the topic of global warming and deforestation can be as follows:

• Introduction

The introduction should be of about 2-3 lines and should talk about the subject at hand. This paragraph should also clearly tell the examiner about your opinion on the topic (if asked in the question).

The body one paragraph should talk about the first side of the argument or the problems of greenhouse gas emissions or global warming causes, depending on the type of question you have been asked. You should also provide any examples that may be relevant over here.

The body two paragraphs should talk only about the second side of the argument or the possible solutions for a problem or the effects of a problem. Just like in the previous paragraph, you should try to give a good example here as well that is in coherence with the whole argument.

The conclusion part should summarise both sides briefly while also emphasising your opinion of the topic. All the while, you should ensure that you are using excellent vocabulary and perfect grammar in every paragraph because it is sure to leave a great impression on the examiner.

Sample Answers on Global Warming and Deforestation Essay IELTS Writing Task

Common Question for Model Answers 1 and 2 – Some people believe that global warming is today’s most pressing environmental problem. At the same time, some consider deforestation to have the most devastating impact on the world. Discuss both views and give your opinion on the same. You should write at least 250 words for this task.

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Global Warming and Deforestation Essay IELTS Model Answer 1:

Here, the writer thinks of deforestation as the more severe problem.

Of late, the question of which poses a greater danger to our survival from global warming and deforestation forms the backbone of many conflicts in a number of circles. While some people believe that the effects of global warming, such as extreme weather conditions, are more far-reaching and, therefore, more concerning, some others are of the opinion that the rapid depletion of our forest cover caused by deforestation leads to more serious consequences like soil erosion, air pollution, and loss of habitat.

In my opinion, the impact of deforestation is more immediate and is, therefore, to be taken relatively more seriously. Global warming gives birth to extreme weather conditions like scorching hot summers, impossibly heavy rainfalls, and brutally cold winters. On average, the Earth’s temperature is rising by 1.5 and falling by 2.2 degrees Celsius in summers and winters, respectively. In this regard, while deforestation only impacts the local areas where the forest cover is reduced, global warming also impacts regions like Antarctica, where the problem of deforestation is not as grave. So, many people consider global warming to be the paramount concern when it comes to the survival of human life.

In contrast to the former viewpoint, some people strongly believe that deforestation is the more immediate cause of concern because of the shorter gestation period. We can see its repercussions like soil erosion, loss of wildlife, increase in cO2 , and droughts, among other problems. Recently news showed that after the state government of a metropolitan area ordered to cut down trees to procure more land to build complexes on, wild animals were seen roaming the streets. As if this wasn’t enough, the amount of carbon dioxide rose, and the area was flooded by the monsoon soon after.

To recapitulate, I believe that deforestation is more concerning than global warming because of its immediate impact on the local environment, and the people and government need to work in tandem to curb this practice in their district.

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Global warming and deforestation essay ielts model answer 2:, here, the writer considers both problems to be equally concerning.

With the dawn of industrialisation and urbanisation, our environment has changed drastically, and mostly for the worse. After witnessing the utter chaos on a global scale brought to life by alarming consequences of climate change, like ozone layer depletion, forest fires, and global warming, people have narrowed down the causes to two very serious environmental problems: global warming and deforestation. The question of which one has a more severe impact on our world has been the topic of discussion in recent decades.

Global warming has given rise to a myriad of issues, like rising temperatures and worsening air and water quality, which have long-lasting ramifications for this planet’s inhabitants. For instance, surging sea levels in cities situated on river banks have been a piece of alarming news that has prompted various governments to act on it. Additionally, the state of coral reefs in parts of Australia and other countries has also gained global attention.

Overall, the consequences of global warming are threatening the wide gamut of species existing on our planet. Deforestation has also caused a multitude of environmental issues, like frequent flooding due to the soil going loose owing to a depleting forest cover, loss of indigenous species, droughts, and more. A good example of this is the rising levels of pollution in overly industrialised countries which is a direct implication of fewer forests.

Conclusively, it is impossible to pick one out of the two – deforestation and global warming – and to claim it as the more serious problem because both have worked in tandem to increase environmental concerns. Therefore, we have to direct our efforts in the direction that curbs the effect of both issues equally and significantly if we don’t want to find ourselves on the brink of extinction in the near future.

This blog post has all the material you need to prepare for global warming and deforestation essays for IELTS writing task 2 . If you’re looking for more resources and mentoring, head on to Leap scholar!

Frequently Asked Questions

1. what causes to include in the global warming ielts essay.

Ans: The IELTS essay on global warming can talk about causes like burning fossil fuels, increasing the use of plastic and other non-biodegradable products, etc.

2. How is global warming related to deforestation?

Ans: Deforestation becomes a cause of global warming because it leads to an increase in the amount of carbon dioxide in the environment.

3. How do you describe a forest in writing?

Ans: Describing a forest in writing for IELTS can focus on its main elements, like wildlife and flora and how they help us maintain balance in the ecosystem.

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Essay on Deforestation: 100 Words, 300 Words

• Updated on  
• Apr 1, 2024

Deforestation means the widespread clearing of forests which has become a topic of global concern due to its severe environmental concerns. Deforestation as a topic is discussed and given as assignments to students for their better understanding. In this blog, we will learn the various facets of deforestation, its causes, consequences, and solutions. Also, there are some sample essay on deforestation to help students with their assignments.

Table of Contents

• 1 What is Deforestation?
• 2 Causes of Deforestation
• 3 Consequences of Deforestation
• 4 Solutions to Deforestation
• 5 Sample Essay on Deforestation in 100 words
• 6 Sample Essay on Deforestation in 300 words
• 7 FAQs 

What is Deforestation?

Cutting down of trees on a large scale thus clearing forests which is then converted to land for human use is known as deforestation. The human use of land includes agriculture, making houses, commercial uses, etc. Almost 71.22 million hectare area of the total land of India is covered by forest. In the tropical and subtropical forests, deforestation is much more extreme. These areas are then converted into land for economical uses.

Causes of Deforestation

• Logging – Trees are cut down to make furniture, paper, and other products.
• Agriculture – Forests are cleared to make space for farming.
• Urbanization –  Cities expand, leading to the destruction of forests.
• Mining – Trees are removed to extract minerals and resources.

Also Read – Essay on Environment: Examples & Tips

Consequences of Deforestation

• Loss of Biodiversity –  Animals lose their homes, and many become endangered or extinct.
• Climate Change – Trees absorb carbon dioxide, so fewer trees mean more pollution and global warming .
• Soil Erosion – Without trees, soil washes away, making it hard to grow crops.
• Disruption of the Water Cycle -Trees help to control water, and without them, floods and droughts become more common.

Solutions to Deforestation

• Planting Trees – People can plant new trees to replace the ones that were cut down.
• Using Less Paper – If we use less paper, fewer trees will be cut for making paper.
• Protecting Forest s – Governments can make rules to stop cutting down too many trees.
• Supporting Sustainable Products – Buying things that don’t harm forests can help.

Sample Essay on Deforestation in 100 words

Deforestation is when trees are cut down and forests disappear. Trees give us clean air to breathe. Imagine if someone took away your home – that’s what happens to animals when forests are destroyed. It is a major environmental problem that has many negative consequences, such as climate change, soil erosion, and loss of biodiversity.

When we cut too many trees, it’s bad for nature. Animals lose their homes, and the air becomes dirty. When there are no trees, floods and droughts happen more often. We can help by planting new trees and taking care of the ones we have. Let’s protect the forests and the Earth!

Also Read- Essay on Waste Management

Sample Essay on Deforestation in 300 words

Deforestation is when people cut down a lot of trees from forests. Trees are important because they make the air fresh and give animals a place to live. When we cut down too many trees, it’s not good for the Earth. Animals lose their homes, and the air gets polluted. 

There are many causes of deforestation and one of the causes is Agriculture. Forests are cleared to make way for cropland and livestock grazing. Another reason is timber harvesting. Trees are cut down for timber, paper, and other wood products. Mining is also another cause and forests are cleared to access minerals and other resources. Even due to urbanization, trees are cut down to make way for roads, cities, and other developments.

Deforestation is the permanent removal of forests to make way for other land uses, such as agriculture, mining, and urban development. It is a major environmental problem that has many negative consequences. One of them is climate change. Trees absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, so deforestation contributes to climate change. Another consequence is soil erosion, when trees are removed, the soil is more easily eroded by wind and rain which can lead to flooding and landslides. Loss of biodiversity: Forests are home to a wide variety of plants and animals. Deforestation can lead to the loss of these species.

There are many things that can be done to reduce deforestation. Such as we must plant trees, they can help to offset the effects of deforestation by absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Secondly, reduce our consumption of wood products by using less paper, buying furniture made from recycled materials, and avoiding disposable products. Thirdly, by supporting sustainable agricultural practices that do not require the clearing of forests. Lastly, by conserving forests, we can create protected areas and support sustainable forest management practices.

Deforestation is a serious issue that affects the whole planet. But there’s hope! By planting trees, using less paper, and taking care of nature, we can make the Earth a better place for everyone. Remember, even though we are small, our actions can make a big difference.

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Deforestation is cutting down trees and wiping out wide areas of forest. The major reasons behind these cutting down is because of human activities that are increasing the space for human usage like agricultural expansion, logging, agriculture,  expansion of infrastructure, etc.

Deforestation means the large-scale cutting down of trees or forests causing great concern and environmental hazards. It is predicted that if humans continue wiping the forest areas, we will no longer be able to breathe in a greener world. So, plant trees and make people aware of the concerns of deforestation.

There are many ways through which we can try to stop deforestation some of which are – planting trees, less use of paper, judicious buying, selling, and use of products, incorporating various recycling methods, aware and educating people, etc 

Hence, we hope that this blog has assisted you in comprehending what an essay on deforestation must include. If you are struggling with your career choices and need expert guidance, our Leverage Edu mentors are here to guide you at any point of your academic and professional journey thus ensuring that you take informed steps towards your dream career.

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Global Warming Solutions: Stop Deforestation

Published Jul 18, 2014

Tropical Deforestation and Global Warming

Tropical deforestation accounts for about  10 percent of the world’s heat-trapping emissions  — equivalent to the annual tailpipe emissions of 600 million average U.S. cars.

Reducing tropical deforestation can significantly lower global warming emissions and—together with efforts to  reduce emissions from fossil fuels —plays an integral role in a comprehensive long-term solution to global warming.

To accomplish this, we need to understand the driving forces behind deforestation today and the  many reasons  why reducing deforestation must be a priority.

What's Driving Deforestation?

What's driving deforestation.

It turns out that the bulk of tropical deforestation is currently driven by just four commodities:  beef cattle ,  soybeans ,  palm oil , and  wood products . Other commodities and activities play a relatively minor role.

Deforestation Success Stories

Despite rapid expansion of the drivers of deforestation, there have been notable successes in channeling their growth in ways that no longer cause deforestation. Businesses can move to become deforestation-free, and consumers can make sure businesses know this is a priority. This strategy has produced encouraging progress on deforestation-free palm oil.

Strong policies can also play an important role. REDD+, which offers rewards to developing countries for reducing their deforestation rates, is one of the best, most affordable strategies for reducing tropical deforestation. On the demand side, the U.S. has used the Lacey Act to close the market for illegally sourced wood. However, these policies require effective implementation and enforcement in order to work.

Finally, voluntary agreements between businesses, policymakers and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), such as the Soy Moratorium in Brazil, have proved to be a promising approach.

Halfway There?

The way we use our planet's forested ecosystems and agricultural land can have a big impact on climate change. Currently, inefficiencies in food and farming systems threaten tropical forests by increasing the demand for the drivers of deforestation. To help stop deforestation—and to reduce the heat-trapping emissions that cause global warming—we need to make smart decisions that shift consumption and land use patterns in less wasteful directions.

Biofuels can also contribute to deforestation. When land used for food or feed production is turned over to growing biofuel crops, agriculture has to expand elsewhere. The resulting emissions from clearing new land can outweigh any emissions savings from the use of biofuels. Effective biofuel policies must fully address this issue.

Related resources

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• U.S. Department of Transportation - Global Warming: A Science Overview
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Human activity affects global surface temperatures by changing Earth ’s radiative balance—the “give and take” between what comes in during the day and what Earth emits at night. Increases in greenhouse gases —i.e., trace gases such as carbon dioxide and methane that absorb heat energy emitted from Earth’s surface and reradiate it back—generated by industry and transportation cause the atmosphere to retain more heat, which increases temperatures and alters precipitation patterns.

Global warming, the phenomenon of increasing average air temperatures near Earth’s surface over the past one to two centuries, happens mostly in the troposphere , the lowest level of the atmosphere, which extends from Earth’s surface up to a height of 6–11 miles. This layer contains most of Earth’s clouds and is where living things and their habitats and weather primarily occur.

Continued global warming is expected to impact everything from energy use to water availability to crop productivity throughout the world. Poor countries and communities with limited abilities to adapt to these changes are expected to suffer disproportionately. Global warming is already being associated with increases in the incidence of severe and extreme weather, heavy flooding , and wildfires —phenomena that threaten homes, dams, transportation networks, and other facets of human infrastructure. Learn more about how the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report, released in 2021, describes the social impacts of global warming.

Polar bears live in the Arctic , where they use the region’s ice floes as they hunt seals and other marine mammals . Temperature increases related to global warming have been the most pronounced at the poles, where they often make the difference between frozen and melted ice. Polar bears rely on small gaps in the ice to hunt their prey. As these gaps widen because of continued melting, prey capture has become more challenging for these animals.

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global warming , the phenomenon of increasing average air temperatures near the surface of Earth over the past one to two centuries. Climate scientists have since the mid-20th century gathered detailed observations of various weather phenomena (such as temperatures, precipitation , and storms) and of related influences on climate (such as ocean currents and the atmosphere’s chemical composition). These data indicate that Earth’s climate has changed over almost every conceivable timescale since the beginning of geologic time and that human activities since at least the beginning of the Industrial Revolution have a growing influence over the pace and extent of present-day climate change .

Giving voice to a growing conviction of most of the scientific community , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was formed in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). The IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report (AR6), published in 2021, noted that the best estimate of the increase in global average surface temperature between 1850 and 2019 was 1.07 °C (1.9 °F). An IPCC special report produced in 2018 noted that human beings and their activities have been responsible for a worldwide average temperature increase between 0.8 and 1.2 °C (1.4 and 2.2 °F) since preindustrial times, and most of the warming over the second half of the 20th century could be attributed to human activities.

AR6 produced a series of global climate predictions based on modeling five greenhouse gas emission scenarios that accounted for future emissions, mitigation (severity reduction) measures, and uncertainties in the model projections. Some of the main uncertainties include the precise role of feedback processes and the impacts of industrial pollutants known as aerosols , which may offset some warming. The lowest-emissions scenario, which assumed steep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions beginning in 2015, predicted that the global mean surface temperature would increase between 1.0 and 1.8 °C (1.8 and 3.2 °F) by 2100 relative to the 1850–1900 average. This range stood in stark contrast to the highest-emissions scenario, which predicted that the mean surface temperature would rise between 3.3 and 5.7 °C (5.9 and 10.2 °F) by 2100 based on the assumption that greenhouse gas emissions would continue to increase throughout the 21st century. The intermediate-emissions scenario, which assumed that emissions would stabilize by 2050 before declining gradually, projected an increase of between 2.1 and 3.5 °C (3.8 and 6.3 °F) by 2100.

Many climate scientists agree that significant societal, economic, and ecological damage would result if the global average temperature rose by more than 2 °C (3.6 °F) in such a short time. Such damage would include increased extinction of many plant and animal species, shifts in patterns of agriculture , and rising sea levels. By 2015 all but a few national governments had begun the process of instituting carbon reduction plans as part of the Paris Agreement , a treaty designed to help countries keep global warming to 1.5 °C (2.7 °F) above preindustrial levels in order to avoid the worst of the predicted effects. Whereas authors of the 2018 special report noted that should carbon emissions continue at their present rate, the increase in average near-surface air temperature would reach 1.5 °C sometime between 2030 and 2052, authors of the AR6 report suggested that this threshold would be reached by 2041 at the latest.

The AR6 report also noted that the global average sea level had risen by some 20 cm (7.9 inches) between 1901 and 2018 and that sea level rose faster in the second half of the 20th century than in the first half. It also predicted, again depending on a wide range of scenarios, that the global average sea level would rise by different amounts by 2100 relative to the 1995–2014 average. Under the report’s lowest-emission scenario, sea level would rise by 28–55 cm (11–21.7 inches), whereas, under the intermediate emissions scenario, sea level would rise by 44–76 cm (17.3–29.9 inches). The highest-emissions scenario suggested that sea level would rise by 63–101 cm (24.8–39.8 inches) by 2100.

The scenarios referred to above depend mainly on future concentrations of certain trace gases, called greenhouse gases , that have been injected into the lower atmosphere in increasing amounts through the burning of fossil fuels for industry, transportation , and residential uses. Modern global warming is the result of an increase in magnitude of the so-called greenhouse effect , a warming of Earth’s surface and lower atmosphere caused by the presence of water vapour , carbon dioxide , methane , nitrous oxides , and other greenhouse gases. In 2014 the IPCC first reported that concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxides in the atmosphere surpassed those found in ice cores dating back 800,000 years.

Of all these gases, carbon dioxide is the most important, both for its role in the greenhouse effect and for its role in the human economy. It has been estimated that, at the beginning of the industrial age in the mid-18th century, carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere were roughly 280 parts per million (ppm). By the end of 2022 they had risen to 419 ppm, and, if fossil fuels continue to be burned at current rates, they are projected to reach 550 ppm by the mid-21st century—essentially, a doubling of carbon dioxide concentrations in 300 years.

A vigorous debate is in progress over the extent and seriousness of rising surface temperatures, the effects of past and future warming on human life, and the need for action to reduce future warming and deal with its consequences. This article provides an overview of the scientific background related to the subject of global warming. It considers the causes of rising near-surface air temperatures, the influencing factors, the process of climate research and forecasting, and the possible ecological and social impacts of rising temperatures. For an overview of the public policy developments related to global warming occurring since the mid-20th century, see global warming policy . For a detailed description of Earth’s climate, its processes, and the responses of living things to its changing nature, see climate . For additional background on how Earth’s climate has changed throughout geologic time , see climatic variation and change . For a full description of Earth’s gaseous envelope, within which climate change and global warming occur, see atmosphere .

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Essay on Deforestation

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Introduction:

Deforestation is the process of clearing trees and forest for other uses. Deforestation usually occurs due to city expansion. As habitats increase in cities, there is a need to create more space the for homes, organizations, and factories. This, however, has a damning effect on our environment.

Effect of Deforestation on the Environment:

Deforestation means fewer trees and more land. This has a serious adverse effect on our environment. On one hand, deforestation makes some animals homeless. Animals that survive in the forest might go extinct with less forest. On the other hand, deforestation is also the biggest cause of climate change around the world.

Preventing Deforestation:

Reducing or preventing deforestation is easier said than done. This is because trees are cut down because there is a pressing need to do so. Thus, to prevent deforestation we must try to reduce that need by making smarter choices in paper usage, city planning, migration, etc.

Conclusion:

The essence of plant life in the forest is unquestionable. To ensure a greener environment we must all join the efforts in reducing deforestation.

Deforestation is definitely one of the most troubling of all problems which has plagued our environment. It is important more than ever to take care of the green cover or else it can jeopardize the existence of life on Earth. It is owing to the presence of green trees that we get the oxygen needed to breathe in.

However, because of excessive exploitation by humans, it has been seen that the trees are being cut down mercilessly. This act of cleaning the green cover is known as deforestation.

Educate people:

The best way to handle the problem of deforestation is by making sure that we educate the masses regarding the importance of green cover. When people understand as to how deforestation is leading to grave consequences, they will get the incentive to plant trees rather than uproot them.

Protect the Environment:

As we have continued to exploit the environment in a way that it is hard to get things back to normal, it is now important to immediately start protecting the environment. A lot of natural calamities are occurring these days because the ecosystem balance has been disturbed. Deforestation alone is responsible for a major amount of problems.

So, you need to understand as to how you can come up with ways to excite people about planting more trees and doing their bit for the sake of the environment. Think of your children and grand children. If we continue with our aggressive deforestation campaigns, they are not likely to have a healthy environment for survival. Is that what we really want?

Deforestation can be defined as the removal of trees and clearing of forests for the personal and commercial benefits of human beings. Deforestation has emerged as one of the biggest man-made disasters recently. Every year, more and more trees and vegetation are being erased just to fulfill the various needs of the human race.

Deforestation happens for many reasons. The growing population is one of them. Rising human population needs more area for residential purpose. For this, forests are either burned down or cut to make space for constructing homes and apartments.

Deforestation is also done for commercial purposes. This includes setting up of factories, industries, and towers, etc. The enormous requirements of feeding the human race also create a burden on the land. As a result, clearing land for agricultural purposes leads to deforestation.

Deforestation impacts our earth in several ways. Trees are natural air purifiers. They absorb the carbon dioxide from the air and release oxygen into the atmosphere. Deforestation results in uncontrolled air pollution. When there are fewer trees, there is lesser absorption of carbon dioxide and other pollutants.

Deforestation also disturbs the water cycle. Forests absorb the groundwater and release the water vapors to form clouds, which in turn cause rains. Roots of trees hold the soil intact and prevent floods. But when there are no trees, different kinds of natural calamities are bound to happen.

With deforestation, chances of floods, drought, global warming, and disturbed weather cycle all come into the play. Not only that, the disappearance of forests means the extinction of wild animals and plants, which are highly important parts of our ecosystem.

In order to curb these disasters, we must plant more trees. Restoration of existing vegetation is equally essential. Population control is another indirect method to save trees and forest areas.

Deforestation is the process of cutting down of trees and forests completely or partially for different reasons like manufacturing different products with various parts of the tree as raw material, to build structures and other buildings, etc. Deforestation in recent days has become the curse of our world that resulted in the destruction of nature and the environment.

Cause and Drawbacks:

Deforestation is mainly done for making better living assets for humans and this one side thought is the biggest drawback of this issue. Instead of doing only the cutting part humans should practice forestation along with deforestation. Whenever a tree or a forest is cut, another one should be planted at the same place or on other lands to promote the forestation.

Deforestation is the main cause for many natural deficiencies and the destruction of many animal, plant and bird species. If the practice of cutting down trees continues, then eventually even the world may get destructed along with the extinction of the human race.

It’s not like trees shouldn’t be used for any kind of production and urbanization or industrialization shouldn’t be done for the development, but the main factor is to compensate for every minus done. Through this, there will be a balancing between the reduction and plantation which will help, to an extent, in the rectification of problems faced by the world due to deforestation.

Deforestation has also affected the atmospheric air combination. The carbon content in the atmosphere has considerably increased over years due to many human activities like uncontrolled fuel combustion.

Forest has played a massive function of inhaling the carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and exhaling oxygen during the daytime while they prepare food for themselves. This process is the reason for maintaining a balanced oxygen and carbon level in the atmosphere and that makes the life of us humans to breathe free.

Population growth is undeniably the major factor behind the increased deforestation level. The increased demand for more assets for better living has increased the need for deforestation as well. In such cases forestation should also be made as a follow-up process.

Controlling the overuse of assets can also help in reducing the deforestation rate. If humans start to use products that use a tree as raw material reasonably then it will help in avoiding deforestation as well. Deforestation not only is a life-threatening scenario for many animals and birds, but also the whole human species.

Deforestation refers to the elimination of plants and trees from a region. Deforestation also includes the clearing of jungles and plants from the region due to the numerous commercial motives.

Different Causes of Deforestation:

The below are the different causes of deforestation:

1. Overgrazing:

Overgrazing in jungles finishes recently renewed development. It makes the soil additional compact and invulnerable. The fertility of the soil also reduces owing to the devastation of organic substance. Overgrazing also results in the desertification and the soil erosion. Deforestation results in decreasing the overall soil’s productivity.

2. Shifting Cultivation:

Numerous agriculturalists destroy the jungle for farming and commercial motives and once productiveness of soil is shattered owing to recurrent harvesting, a fresh forest region is devastated. Hence, farmers must be recommended to utilize a similar area for agriculture and use some upgraded farming techniques and stop the deforestation.

3. Fuel Wood:

The maximum amount of forest is destroyed for the fuel wood. Around 86% of the fuel wood is utilized in rural regions in comparison to the 14% in urban parts and hence lead to more deforestation.

4. Forest Fires:

Recurrent fires in the forest regions are one of the major reasons of deforestation. Few incidents of fires are minor whereas the maximum of them are huge.

The industries related to the plywood and timber is mostly accountable for the deforestation. In fact, the huge demand for wooden things has resulted in the quick reduction of the forest.

6. Industry Establishment:

At times the industrial unit is constructed after deforestation. It means for a small achievement of few people, all other people have to bear a permanent loss. In this procedure, wild animals, valuable plant, and unusual birds get devastated. In fact, it adversely affects the quality of the environment.

7. Violation of Forest:

One more reason of deforestation is a violation by tribal on the land of forest for cultivation and other motives. Even though such type of land has a virtuous support for agriculture creation but still it creates environmental threats.

8. Forest Diseases:

Numerous diseases are instigated by rusts, parasitic fungi, nematodes and viruses that result in demise and deterioration of jungle. Fresh saplings are devastated owing to the occurrence of nematodes. Numerous diseases like blister rust, heart rot, and phloem necrosis, oak will, and Dutch elm, etc. destroy the jungle in large quantities.

9. Landslide:

The landslide lead to the deforestation in the mountains is a question of worry. It happened largely in the regions where growing actions are proceeding for the previous few years. The building of highways and railways mainly in hilly lands as well as the structure of large irrigation plans have resulted in enough deforestation and speeded the natural procedure of denudation.

Worldwide Solution for the Deforestation:

The jungle is an essential natural reserve for any nation and deforestation slow down a nation’s growth. To encounter the necessities of the growing population, simple resources might be attained only with the help of afforestation. It is actually the arrangement of implanting plants for food and food growth. Moreover, the nurseries have a significant part in increasing the coverage of the forest area.

Deforestation is the cutting down of trees. It is basically changing the use of land to a different purpose other than the planting of trees.

There are many reasons which have led to large levels of deforestation all over the world. One of the major causes is ever growing population of the world. With the growth in population, the need for more land to live has been rising. This has further led to cutting down of trees. Also, with modernisation, there has been a substantial increase in the requirement of land for setting up of industries. This has again contributed to deforestation.

Mining is another activity of humans which has led to large-scale deforestation in many areas. The need to build road and rail network in order to increase connectivity to the mines has led to cutting down of trees. This has altered the climatic conditions in these areas.

Deforestation has had a huge impact on the environment. Lack of trees has led to less release of water vapour in the air. This has, in turn, led to the alteration of rainfall patterns in different regions. India is a country which is dependent on monsoon rains for agriculture. Frequent droughts and floods caused due to deforestation have affected the lives of many in different parts of the country.

Moreover, trees absorb the carbon-dioxide from the air and help to purify it. Without trees around us, the presence of harmful gases in the air has been rising. This has also led to global warming which is again a major environmental concern. Also, the ever-rising pollution level, especially in many cities in India is due to vast deforestation only.

Additionally, trees bind the soil around them and prevent soil erosion. Deforestation has led to the soil being washed away with winds and rain, making the land unfit for agriculture. Also, trees and forests are the homes to different species of wildlife. With shrinking forests, several of the wildlife has become extinct as they were not able to cope with the changing conditions. Also, there have been increased man and wildlife conflicts in recent times as the animals are forced to venture in the cities in search of food. All these are severe effects of deforestation and need urgent attention by all.

The Perfect Example:

New Delhi is the capital of India. There was once a time when Delhi was a beautiful city. But with modernisation, increase in population, deforestation and mining in the nearby Aravalli hills, Delhi has been reduced to a gas chamber. Such is the impact the Delhi has become one of the most polluted cities in the world. What better example can be there to understand what deforestation has led us to?

There are many ways in which we can reduce deforestation. We must protect our forests. Moreover, we must mark adequate land for our farming needs. There are some laws already in place which prohibit people from unnecessary felling of trees. What needs to be done is the proper execution of the rules so that everyone abides by it. Also, stricter punishments need to be in place for violators so as to deter other people from disobeying the laws. Alternatively, people need to ensure that for every tree felled, equal numbers of trees are planted so that the balance of nature can be maintained. Summarily, it has to be a collective duty of all and just the governments alone, if we really need to reduce deforestation.

It is true that we all need space to live. With the ever-growing population and urbanisation, there has been more than ever need to cut trees and make space. However, we must realise that it is not possible for us to live without having trees around us. Trees bring so many benefits such as giving us oxygen, utilising the harmful carbon dioxide and so many products we need in our daily lives. Without trees around us, there would be no life on the earth. We should all do the needful to protect trees and reduce deforestation.

Deforestation is also known as clearing or clearance of trees. It can be said to mean removal of strands of trees or forests and the conversion of such area of land to a use that is totally non-forest in nature. Some deforestation examples are the converting of areas of forest to urban, ranches or farms use. The area of land that undergoes the most deforestation is the tropical rainforests. It is important to note that forests cover more than 31 percent in total land area of the surface of the earth.

There are a lot of different reasons why deforestation occurs: some tree are being cut down for building or as fuel (timber or coal), while areas of land are to be used as plantation and also as pasture to feed livestock. When trees are removed with properly replacing them, there can as a result be aridity, loss of biodiversity and even habitat damage. We have also had cases of deforestation used in times of war to starve the enemy.

Causes of Deforestation:

It has been discovered that the major and primary deforestation cause is agriculture. Studies have shown that about 48 percent of all deforestation is as a result of subsistence farming and 32 percent of deforestation is as a result of commercial agriculture. Also, it was discovered that logging accounts for about 14% of the total deforestation and 5% is from the removal for fuel wood.

There has been no form of agreement from experts on if industrial form of logging is a very important contributing factor to deforestation globally. Some experts have argued that the clearing of forests is something poor people do more as a result of them not having other alternatives. Other experts are of the belief that the poor seldom clear forests because they do not have the resources needed to do that. A study has also revealed that increase in population as a result of fertility rates that are very high are not a major driver of deforestation and they only influenced less than 8% of the cases of deforestation.

The Environmental Effects of Deforestation:

Deforestation has a lot of negative effects on our planet and environment.

A few of the areas where it negatively affects our environment are discussed below:

i. Atmospheric Effect:

Global warming has deforestation as one of its major contributing factors and deforestation is also a key cause of greenhouse effect. About 20% of all the emission of greenhouse gases is as a result of tropical deforestation. The land in an area that is deforested heats up quicker and it gets to a temperature that is higher than normal, causing a change in solar energy absorption, flow of water vapours and even wind flows and all of these affects the local climate of the area and also the global climate.

Also, the burning of plants in the forest in order to carry out clearing of land, incineration cause a huge amount of carbon dioxide release which is a major and important contributor to the global warming.

ii. Hydrological Effect:

Various researches have shown that deforestation greatly affects water cycle. Groundwater is extracted by trees through the help of their roots; the water extracted is then released into the surrounding atmosphere. If we remove a part of the forest, there will not be transpiration of water like it should be and this result in the climate being a lot drier. The water content of the soil is heavily reduced by deforestation and also atmospheric moisture as well as groundwater. There is a reduced level of water intake that the trees can extract as a result of the dry soil. Soil cohesion is also reduced by deforestation and this can result in landslides, flooding and erosion.

iii. Effect on Soil:

As a direct result of the plant litter on the surface, there is a minimal and reduced erosion rate in forests largely undisturbed. Deforestation increases the erosion rate as a result of the subsequent decrease in the quantity of cover of litter available. The litter cover actually serves as a protection for the soil from all varieties of surface runoff. When mechanized equipments and machineries are used in forestry operations, there can be a resulting erosion increase as a result of the development of roads in the forests.

iv. Effect on Biodiversity:

There is a biodiversity decline due to deforestation. Deforestation can lead to the death and extinction of a lot of species of animals and plants. The habitat of various animals are taken away as a result of deforestation.

The total coverage of forests on the earth’s landmass is 30 percent and the fact the people are destroying them is worrying. Research reveals that majority of the tropical forests on earth are being destroyed. We are almost at half the forest landmass in destruction. How would earth look life without forests? It will be a total disaster if deforestation is encouraged. Deforestation is a human act in which forests are permanently destroyed in order to create settlement area and use the trees for industries like paper manufacture, wood and construction. A lot of forests have been destroyed and the impact has been felt through climate change and extinction of animals due to destruction of the ecosystem. The impacts of deforestation are adverse and there is need to prevent and control it before it can get any worse.

Deforestation is mainly a human activity affected by many factors. Overpopulation contributed to deforestation because there is need to create a settlement area for the increasing number of people on earth and the need for urbanization for economic reasons. Recently, population has greatly risen in the world and people require shelter as a basic need. Forests are destroyed in order for people to find land to build a shelter and then trees are further cut to build those houses. Overpopulation is a major threat to the forest landmass and if not controlled, people will continue to occupy the forests until there is no more forest coverage on earth.

Another factor influencing deforestation is industrialization. Industries that use trees to manufacture their product e.g. paper and wood industries have caused major destruction of forests. The problem with industries is the large-scale need for trees which causes extensive deforestation. The use of timber in industries is a treat to forests all over the world. In as much as we need furniture, paper and homes, it is not worth the massive destruction of our forests.

Fires are also a cause of deforestation. During episodes of drought, fire spreads widely and burns down trees. The fire incidences could result from human activities like smoking or charcoal burning in the forests. Drought due to adverse weather changes in global warming is a natural disaster that claim the lives of people and living things.

Agricultural activities such as farming and livestock keeping also cause deforestation because of the land demand in those activities. Deforestation for farming purpose involves clearing all the vegetation on the required land and using it for and then burring the vegetation hence the name ‘slash and burn agriculture’. The ranches required for cattle keeping among other livestock require a large area that is clear from trees.

Impacts of Deforestation:

Deforestation has a great impact on the ecosystem in different ways. Climate change is influenced by deforestation because trees influence weather directly. Trees usually act to protect against strong winds and erosion but in its absence, natural disasters like floods and storms could be experienced. Also, tree are important in replenishing the air in the atmosphere. Trees have the ability to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and release oxygen. Without trees, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will be increased. Because carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, it causes global warming.

Global warming is a serious environmental issue that causes adverse climatic changes and affects life on earth. Extreme weather conditions like storms, drought and floods. These weather conditions are not conducive for humans and other living things on earth. Natural disasters as a result of global warming are very destructive both to animate and inanimate objects in the environment.

Loss of species due to deforestation has negatively affected biodiversity. Biodiversity is a highly valued aspect of life on earth and its interruption is a loss. There is a loss of habitat for species to exist in as a result of deforestation and therefore species face extinction. Extinction of some rare species is a threat we are currently facing. Animals that live and depend on forest vegetation for food will also suffer and eventually die of hunger. Survival has been forced on animals of the jungle due to deforestation and that is why human wildlife conflict is being experienced.

The water cycle on earth is negatively affected by deforestation. The existence of water vapor in the atmosphere is maintained by trees. Absence of trees cause a reduced vapor retention in the atmosphere which result in adverse climate changes. Trees and other forest vegetation are important in preventing water pollution because they prevent the contaminated runoff into water sources like rivers, lakes and oceans. Without trees, pollution of water is more frequent and therefore the water will be unsafe for consumption by human and animals.

Solutions to Deforestation:

Based on the serious impact of deforestation, it is only safe if solutions are sought to end this problem. The ultimate solution is definitely restoration of the forest landmass on earth. The restoration can be done by encouraging the planting of trees, a process called reforestation. Although reforestation will not completely solve the impacts of deforestation, it will restore a habitat for the wild animals and slowly restore the ecosystem. Major impacts like concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere require another approach. Human activities that contribute to carbon dioxide gas emission to the atmosphere have to be reduced through strict policies for industries and finding alternative energy sources that do not produce greenhouse gases.

Another solution is public awareness. People have to be made aware that deforestation has negative effects so that they can reduce the act. Through awareness, people can also be taught on ways of reducing the population e.g., family planning. On World Environment Day, people are encouraged to participate in activities like tree planting in order to conserve environment and that is how the awareness takes place.

In conclusion, deforestation is a human activity that is destructive and should be discouraged. Environmental conservation is our responsibility because we have only one earth to live in.

Deforestation , Environment , Forests

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Home — Essay Samples — Environment — Deforestation — The Issue of Deforestration: Consequences and Prevention

The Issue of Deforestration: Consequences and Prevention

• Categories: Deforestation Environmental Issues

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Words: 668 |

Published: Aug 10, 2018

Words: 668 | Pages: 2 | 4 min read

Table of contents

Consequences of deforestation, preventing deforestation, deforestation essay: hook examples.

• The Vanishing Forests: Our planet’s lush green forests are disappearing at an alarming rate. Join us on a journey to uncover the reasons behind deforestation, its devastating impact on ecosystems, and the urgent need for conservation.
• The Amazon Rainforest: Lungs of the Earth: The Amazon rainforest is often referred to as the “lungs of the Earth.” In this essay, we’ll delve into the vital role rainforests play in maintaining the global climate and why their destruction is a global concern.
• The Cost of Progress: Deforestation is often driven by economic interests. Explore the trade-offs between economic development and environmental preservation, and the potential consequences for future generations.
• Endangered Species: The Silent Victims: Deforestation poses a grave threat to biodiversity. This essay examines the impact on endangered species, their habitats, and the delicate balance of life disrupted by forest loss.
• From Trees to Timber: Sustainable Solutions: While deforestation is a pressing issue, there are sustainable alternatives. Join us in exploring responsible forestry practices, reforestation efforts, and ways we can protect our forests for future generations.

Works Cited

• BBC News. (n.d.). Deforestation: The hidden cause of global warming.
• Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. (2015). Global Forest Resources Assessment 2015: How are the world’s forests changing?
• Greenpeace. (n.d.). Deforestation and climate change.
• Hosonuma, N., Herold, M., De Sy, V., De Fries, R. S., Brockhaus, M., Verchot, L., … & Romijn, E. (2012). An assessment of deforestation and forest degradation drivers in developing countries. Environmental Research Letters, 7(4), 044009.
• Malhi, Y., Roberts, J. T., Betts, R. A., Killeen, T. J., Li, W., & Nobre, C. A. (2008). Climate change, deforestation, and the fate of the Amazon. Science, 319(5860), 169-172.
• Nepstad, D., McGrath, D., Stickler, C., Alencar, A., Azevedo, A., Swette, B., … & Brooks, V. (2014). Slowing Amazon deforestation through public policy and interventions in beef and soy supply chains. Science, 344(6188), 1118-1123.
• Perz, S. G., Walker, R. T., & Caldas, M. M. (2006). Beyond population and environment: Household demographic life cycles and land use allocation among small farms in the Amazon. Human Ecology, 34(6), 829-849.
• Rudel, T. K., Defries, R., Asner, G. P., & Laurance, W. F. (2009). Changing drivers of deforestation and new opportunities for conservation. Conservation Biology, 23(6), 1396-1405.
• United Nations. (2021). The State of the World’s Forests 2020.
• World Wildlife Fund. (n.d.). Deforestation and forest degradation.

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Essay on Global Warming – Causes and Solutions

500+ words essay on global warming.

Global Warming is a term almost everyone is familiar with. But, its meaning is still not clear to most of us. So, Global warming refers to the gradual rise in the overall temperature of the atmosphere of the Earth. There are various activities taking place which have been increasing the temperature gradually. Global warming is melting our ice glaciers rapidly. This is extremely harmful to the earth as well as humans. It is quite challenging to control global warming; however, it is not unmanageable. The first step in solving any problem is identifying the cause of the problem. Therefore, we need to first understand the causes of global warming that will help us proceed further in solving it. In this essay on Global Warming, we will see the causes and solutions of Global Warming.

Causes of Global Warming

Global warming has become a grave problem which needs undivided attention. It is not happening because of a single cause but several causes. These causes are both natural as well as manmade. The natural causes include the release of greenhouses gases which are not able to escape from earth, causing the temperature to increase.

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Further, volcanic eruptions are also responsible for global warming. That is to say, these eruptions release tons of carbon dioxide which contributes to global warming. Similarly, methane is also one big issue responsible for global warming.

So, when one of the biggest sources of absorption of carbon dioxide will only disappear, there will be nothing left to regulate the gas. Thus, it will result in global warming. Steps must be taken immediately to stop global warming and make the earth better again.

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Global Warming Solutions

As stated earlier, it might be challenging but it is not entirely impossible. Global warming can be stopped when combined efforts are put in. For that, individuals and governments, both have to take steps towards achieving it. We must begin with the reduction of greenhouse gas.

Furthermore, they need to monitor the consumption of gasoline. Switch to a hybrid car and reduce the release of carbon dioxide. Moreover, citizens can choose public transport or carpool together. Subsequently, recycling must also be encouraged.

Read Global Warming Speech here

For instance, when you go shopping, carry your own cloth bag. Another step you can take is to limit the use of electricity which will prevent the release of carbon dioxide. On the government’s part, they must regulate industrial waste and ban them from emitting harmful gases in the air. Deforestation must be stopped immediately and planting of trees must be encouraged.

In short, all of us must realize the fact that our earth is not well. It needs to treatment and we can help it heal. The present generation must take up the responsibility of stopping global warming in order to prevent the suffering of future generations. Therefore, every little step, no matter how small carries a lot of weight and is quite significant in stopping global warming.

हिंदी में ग्लोबल वार्मिंग पर निबंध यहाँ पढ़ें

FAQs on Global Warming

Q.1 List the causes of Global Warming.

A.1 There are various causes of global warming both natural and manmade. The natural one includes a greenhouse gas, volcanic eruption, methane gas and more. Next up, manmade causes are deforestation, mining, cattle rearing, fossil fuel burning and more.

Q.2 How can one stop Global Warming?

A.2 Global warming can be stopped by a joint effort by the individuals and the government. Deforestation must be banned and trees should be planted more. The use of automobiles must be limited and recycling must be encouraged.

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• Published: 26 August 2024

Decreased cloud cover partially offsets the cooling effects of surface albedo change due to deforestation

• Hao Luo   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-6648-4234 1 , 2 ,
• Johannes Quaas   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-7057-194X 2 , 3 &
• Yong Han   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-3297-2782 1 , 4  

Nature Communications volume  15 , Article number:  7345 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

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• Atmospheric science
• Climate change

Biophysical processes of forests affect climate through the regulation of surface water and heat fluxes, which leads to further effects through the adjustment of clouds and water cycles. These indirect biophysical effects of forests on clouds and their radiative forcing are poorly understood but highly relevant in the context of large-scale deforestation or afforestation, respectively. Here, we provide evidence for local decreases in global low-level clouds and tropical high-level clouds from deforestation through both idealized deforestation simulations with climate models and from observations-driven reanalysis using space-for-time substitution. The decreased cloud cover can be explained by alterations in surface turbulent heat flux, which diminishes uplift and moisture to varying extents. Deforestation-induced reduction in cloud cover warms the climate, partially counteracting the cooling effects of increased surface albedo. The findings from idealized deforestation experiments and space-for-time substitution exhibit disparities, with global average offsets of, respectively, approximately 44% and 26%, suggesting the necessity for further constraints.

Introduction

Forests have the capacity to buffer global warming by storing large amounts of carbon from the atmosphere via photosynthesis 1 , 2 , 3 . Alongside the biochemical effects, forests can influence the local and regional climate through biophysical processes, including alterations in land surface water and energy balance 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 . On the local scale, the higher albedo and lower evapotranspiration (ET) following deforestation cause either surface cooling or warming, depending on which process holds dominance 8 , 9 , 10 . These cooling or warming impacts have the potential to offset or intensify, respectively, the warming effects connected to the released carbon caused by deforestation 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 . Extensive studies on the direct biophysical effects of deforestation on surface temperature have unveiled a latitudinal shift from tropical warming to boreal cooling 8 , 9 , 17 , 18 , 19 . Nevertheless, globally, alterations in surface albedo are more prevalent in the direct biophysical temperature response than ET because of its wider-scale impact 17 . This suggests that the global warming attributed to the biochemical effects of deforestation could potentially be mitigated by the cooling effects resulting from increased surface albedo and consequently altered radiative balance 12 , 14 , 16 . Yet, the impact of forest indirect biophysical processes on clouds and their associated radiative balance has not been well addressed, and the assessment of how changes in cloud radiative effects interact with the surface albedo effects remains unquantified. Understanding the response of clouds and their radiative effects to deforestation, however, is crucial due to the overwhelming effect clouds play on the Earth's energy budget. It stands as a major challenge in evaluating land-use-change-driven climate change 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 .

Observational studies allow for the conclusion that deforestation may predominantly reduce global cloud cover 22 , 23 , 25 , but with contrasting impacts across various regions 21 . These studies mostly compare clouds above forests and open land in adjacent geographical units (i.e., space-for-time substitution) and find larger cloudiness over forests. This commonly adopted method assumes that forests and neighboring land units share the same climate background, thereby deducing local effects through distinctions in land surface conditions. Apart from observations-based studies, general circulation models (GCMs) have been widely employed to quantify the impacts of deforestation 26 , 27 , 28 . GCMs show a global average enhancement in cloud cover with deforestation 29 . Unlike the observational studies that concentrate solely on local effects, GCMs probably possess the ability to encompass both local and non-local effects of deforestation. Hence, separating local and non-local effects could facilitate comparisons between these two distinct methods and enhance comprehension of the biophysical mechanisms of deforestation on clouds 24 .

Given the essential roles of cloud vertical structures in influencing radiative processes 30 , 31 , a sole concentration on overall cloud cover may be insufficient for a comprehensive analysis of the changes in cloud radiative effects from deforestation. Typically, low, highly reflective clouds have a cooling effect as they reflect solar radiation. In contrast, high, semi-transparent clouds contribute to warming by allowing shortwave radiation to pass through while impeding longwave radiation 32 , 33 . The alterations in cloud vertical profiles following deforestation have not received adequate attention, and addressing this gap is essential for gaining a deeper understanding of the consequent changes in cloud radiative effects.

In this study, we approach the evaluations of cloud profiles and associated radiative response to deforestation from two distinct viewpoints: the space-for-time substitution method from observations-driven reanalysis and the idealized deforestation experiments available from GCM simulations. Given that the outcomes from GCMs contain both local and non-local signals, we then isolate the local signals using a chessboard-like method 24 , 34 , enabling a comparative analysis between the two distinct ways. Using both methods, this work consistently indicates a global reduction in low-level clouds and a decline in high-level clouds over tropical regions in response to deforestation. In addition, we explore the potential physical mechanisms through which deforestation induces alterations in cloud profiles, suggesting that changes in turbulent heat flux could be a crucial factor. Finally, we quantify the impact of deforestation on cloud radiative forcing within the Earth-atmosphere system, with findings indicating that the warming effects of clouds, to a substantial extent, counterbalance the cooling effects of surface albedo at a global scale.

Cloud profile changes

Two distinct approaches (see Methods) are employed in this study to assess the potential impact of deforestation on cloud fraction profiles. The first method draws upon five available GCMs (Table  S1 ) participating in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) 35 . It entails analyzing the idealized global deforestation simulations (deforest-glob) conducted in the Land Use Model Intercomparison Project (LUMIP) 36 , and comparing them against the pre-industrial control simulations (piControl). The second method uses the space-for-time substitution to contrast the multi-year average cloud fraction profiles between the neighboring unaltered forested and unaltered open land grids. In this approach, the potential effects of deforestation on cloud profiles are measured by land cover data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and cloud profiles from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) fifth reanalysis (ERA5). It should be noted that MODIS only provides data for specific times within the diurnal cycle (morning and noon), which may introduce a low bias on the estimate of forest-cloud impacts in the data 23 , compared to the model analysis. One significant drawback of the cloud profile data from active satellites is that they have relatively small footprints and sample sizes. As a result, data from numerous satellite passes must be averaged or combined to create a product with sufficient coverage. Given the finer spatial resolution of ERA5 cloud profiles, and their much larger coverage, in comparison to the available gridded data derived from active satellite observations, along with the strong correlation exhibited between ERA5 and the observations (Supplementary Fig.  1 ), we employ long-term ERA5 data instead. The moderate correlations between ERA5 and satellite-retrieved cloud profiles in the boundary layer are caused by two aspects: one is the data quality of ERA5 itself, and another is the limitation of active satellite sensors on the detection of low-level clouds, especially under conditions of thick upper clouds or strong surface returns 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 . However, the integration of denser and higher-quality observations over land enhances the accuracy of ERA5 boundary layer cloud data compared to over oceans (Supplementary Fig.  1 ), thereby better suiting this land-focused study. As GCMs contain both local and no-local effects, we extract the local effects from the total signals (see Methods). Isolating local effects can aid in understanding the biophysical mechanisms of deforestation on clouds. Despite the differing principles behind the two methods, it is noted that the space-for-time substitution also solely considers local effects, allowing for a comparison between these two approaches.

While ref. 28 outlined diverse spatial patterns in how cloud cover responds to deforestation across GCMs in LUMIP, once the local effects are isolated, they reveal consistent spatial patterns (Fig.  1a ). This implies that the inconsistencies across models documented by ref. 28 primarily arise from discrepancies in non-local effects. For a quantitative comparison between the GCMs and ERA5, we quantify the sensitivity of the cloud fraction profile to deforestation by calculating the changes in cloud fraction per deforestation fraction. Even with distinct principles, both methods show consistency in this specific change across the spatial distribution regarding cloud vertical profile responses to deforestation (Fig.  1 ). Globally, cloud cover below 700 hPa decreases in response to deforestation, showing consistency with satellite observations 21 , 22 , 23 . The decrease in tropical cloud cover is restricted to relatively low altitudes according to the ERA5 space-for-time substitution method. The response to deforestation is most pronounced in low-level clouds, with additional reductions found for tropical high-level clouds (higher than 500 hPa). Low-level clouds, which are closely coupled with land surface, form and evolve in response to surface heating, moisture fluxes, and other boundary layer processes 41 , 42 , 43 . Therefore, on a global scale, the impacts of deforestation are expected to be more noticeable on low-level clouds than on high-level clouds. While deep-convection clouds are generally not well-coupled with the surface, surface conditions can influence their initiation 44 , 45 . Therefore, deforestation is not limited to affecting shallow clouds that are fully coupled to the surface but can also impact deep convective clouds to a certain extent. As a result, the height of deep convective cloud tops can roughly indicate the maximum altitude at which deforestation affects clouds. Since the cloud top height of deep convective clouds varies across regions, with those in tropical regions reaching higher altitudes than those in boreal zones (Supplementary Fig.  2 ), deforestation is more likely to affect high-level clouds in the tropics.

a Zonal mean of the cloud fraction profile difference between the deforest-glob and piControl simulations (deforest-glob minus piControl) per deforestation fraction. The data were the ensemble mean of the local effect extracted from CMIP6 model simulations (see Methods). The stippling represents four or more of the five models showing the same sign. b Zonal mean ERA5 cloud fraction profile variations per deforestation fraction using the space-for-time substitution (open land minus forest; see Methods). Only latitudes possessing more than ten available samples are considered to ensure representativeness.

Discussion of physical mechanisms of forest-cloud impacts

Various biophysical processes are engaged in the interactions between forests and clouds, yet identifying the factors that dictate where cloud enhancement or reduction occurs across global deforested areas has remained unclear 21 , 22 , 29 . In terms of the thermodynamics and moisture factors involved in cloud formation, cloud cover in certain areas might be restricted by the heating needed for uplift 46 , 47 . In others, it might be restricted by the availability of moisture 48 . In the following, we explore these two fundamental factors.

In comparison to forests, open land typically exhibits higher surface albedo (Supplementary Fig.  3 ) and lower ET (Supplementary Fig.  4 ). Increased surface albedo from deforestation causes cooling by reflecting more shortwave radiation. This cooling effect is counterbalanced by lower ET 8 . Both the cooling caused by the surface albedo difference and the warming due to ET difference vary across latitudes, indicating that the magnitude and even the sign of local surface air temperature (SAT) changes resulting from alterations in forests differ across climate regions. When examining SAT changes in deforested areas, shifting from forests to open land induces surface warming in tropical regions (Supplementary Fig.  5 ). This is primarily due to the prevailing impact of ET on the temperature signal, although alterations in surface albedo partially counteract this surface warming. In contrast, the overall biophysical effect of deforestation leads to surface cooling in the boreal zone from GCMs (Supplementary Fig.  5 ), which agrees with previous studies from both observations 8 , 49 and simulations 24 , 50 . Notably, the impact of surface albedo becomes more pronounced as latitude increases, while the influence of ET tends to diminish with higher latitudes. Hence, in boreal regions, increased surface albedo emerges as the predominant factor of surface cooling. However, surface cooling is not as evident from the space-for-time substitution approach, since SAT is nonlinearly influenced by both radiative and non-radiative processes. Previous observation-based studies also suggest small changes in SAT due to deforestation in boreal regions 51 , 52 .

Moreover, the reduction in incoming solar radiation and the drop in SAT caused by the higher surface albedo results in a substantial decrease in sensible heat flux (SH) within the boreal zone; however, in the tropics, the decline in the surface turbulent heat flux primarily stems from the reduction in latent heat flux (LH) due to the dominant role of ET (Fig.  2 ). Deforestation increases near-surface wind speed due to a decrease in surface roughness (Supplementary Fig.  6 ), enhancing the heat and water vapor exchange rate between the surface and the air, thereby increasing turbulent fluxes. Apart from being influenced by the near-surface wind speed, SH and LH, respectively, however, are also related to the temperature and humidity gradients between the surface and the air. The fluxes are proportional to the product of the wind speed and the gradient 53 , 54 . We find that the decreased temperature gradient between the surface and the air in the boreal zones resulting from deforestation outweighs the role of near-surface wind speed (Supplementary Fig.  7 ), leading to a reduction in SH. Since there is no proxy for the humidity gradient between the surface and the air, we infer changes in humidity gradient from changes in ET. An increase in wind speed is accompanied by a decrease in ET (Supplementary Fig.  4 ), suggesting that the decreased humidity gradient between the surface and the air caused by deforestation primarily drives the reduction in LH. Thus, when combining the alterations in LH and SH, the decrease in surface turbulent heat flux depicted in Fig.  2 is evident globally. In conclusion, the response of cloud cover to the reduction in turbulent heat flux is illustrated through the decrease in water vapor supply due to decreased LH in the tropics and the weakening in the uplifting process caused by decreased SH in the boreal regions.

a Global pattern of the surface turbulent heat flux (latent heat (LH) + sensible heat (SH)) difference between the deforest-glob and piControl simulations (deforest-glob minus piControl). Diagonal hashing indicates four or more of the five models showing the same sign of change. b Box plots of the CMIP6 surface turbulent heat flux (LH + SH, LH and SH) differences between the deforest-glob and piControl simulations over both tropical and boreal areas. c ERA5 surface turbulent heat flux (LH + SH) variations due to deforestation using the space-for-time substitution (see Methods). d Box plots of the ERA5 surface turbulent heat flux (LH + SH, LH and SH) variations due to deforestation. The data in ( a , b ) is the ensemble mean of the local effect extracted from CMIP6 model simulations (see Methods). Boxes in ( b , d ) show the 25th to 75th percentiles of the data, whiskers display the 5th to 95th percentiles, horizontal yellow lines in the boxes represent the median values, and red dots are the mean values. ( e , f ) Same as ( a ) but for LH and SH, respectively. ( g , h ) Same as ( c ) but for LH and SH, respectively.

The local effects derived from ERA5 contain both the mean-state difference and the secondary mesoscale circulation (See Methods). While the mean-state difference mechanism has been discussed above, the secondary circulation processes can enhance or inhibit the cloud responses to deforestation 21 , 23 , 55 . This secondary circulation-induced cloud change is mainly driven by SH 21 , indicating that cloud enhancement occurs over open land with higher SH compared to adjacent forests in the tropics, whereas cloud inhibition occurs over open land with lower SH than surrounding forests in boreal areas. Additionally, the magnitude of secondary circulations and their impact on clouds may change diurnally, driven by differential heating contrast in the diurnally varying land surface heat fluxes between adjacent patches with different land covers 55 .

The type of land cover notably influences cloud formation processes by affecting surface heating, moisture availability, and atmospheric stability 56 , 57 , 58 . Forests generally promote cloud formation due to high moisture levels and low albedo 22 , while over deserts, typically fewer clouds form, due to low moisture availability and high albedo 59 . Grasslands have a moderate effect on cloud formation that is intermediate between forests and deserts 23 . Urban areas, with their unique heat island effect and pollution, potentially influence cloud properties and formation 60 . The varying impacts of various land covers on cloud formation also explain why the results of the two methods differ. The CMIP6 models only consider deforestation into grassland, whereas the diverse land covers between adjacent ERA5 grids disrupt the signals.

Implications for radiation and climate

Previous studies have concentrated on alterations in surface albedo following deforestation, yet there is a lack of quantitative analysis on changes in cloud albedo subsequent to deforestation 22 . Clouds, on average, exert a cooling effect on climate 61 . The decrease in cloud cover with deforestation, therefore, implies a warming effect on climate. The increase in surface albedo resulting from deforestation, in turn, contributes to a cooler climate 17 . Hence, clarifying the competitive relationship between these two elements is essential to the area of forest biophysical effects.

For a complete analysis, we also examine the disturbance of the outgoing radiation at the top of the atmosphere (TOA). The perturbation of outgoing radiation under all-sky conditions reflects the combined impacts of alterations in both surface and cloud properties from deforestation. Under clear-sky conditions, the radiation perturbations solely arise from alterations in surface properties. Thus, the alterations in TOA outgoing radiation due to cloud cover changes can be obtained through the difference between all-sky and clear-sky conditions (all-sky minus clear-sky, also known as cloud radiative effect). As denoted in Fig.  3 , a universal pattern prevails worldwide: alterations in surface properties largely govern the overall outgoing radiation changes, with changes in cloud cover acting as a buffer. On average, from the CMIP6 idealized deforestation experiments, reduced cloud cover offsets approximately 44% of the surface albedo cooling effect; while from the space-for-time substitution method based on ERA5, the relative offset is about 26% (Fig.  3g ). The disparities in numerical outcomes primarily result from methodological differences. Nonetheless, both methods lead to consistent conclusions. Given the saturation of CMIP6 latitudinal data, we proceed to examine the zonal disparities (Fig.  3h ). The discernible result reveals that the compensatory impact of cloud cover compared to the surface albedo change is stable across latitudes, at roughly 50%.

a , c , e Global pattern of the TOA outgoing radiation (shortwave + longwave) difference between the deforest-glob and piControl simulations (deforest-glob minus piControl), respectively, under all-sky, clear-sky, and all-sky minus clear-sky circumstances. Diagonal hashing indicates four or more of the five models showing the same sign of change. b , d , f ERA5 TOA outgoing radiation (shortwave + longwave) variations due to deforestation using the space-for-time substitution (see Methods). Global mean values and standard errors for ( a – f ) are shown in ( g ). The offset ratio is the proportion of all-sky minus clear-sky to the all-sky value. h CMIP6 zonal mean of the TOA outgoing radiation (shortwave + longwave) difference between the deforest-glob and piControl simulations under both clear-sky and all-sky minus clear-sky circumstances. The black line indicates the zonal mean offset ratio and the dashed yellow line is the ratio equal to −0.5. The CMIP6 data were the ensemble mean of the local effect extracted from multi-model simulations (see Methods).

When comparing the shortwave and longwave components (Supplementary Figs.  8 , 9 ), however, it becomes evident that the perturbations to the climate come mainly from shortwave, further indicating that changes in surface and cloud albedo are the most main causes. From a global average standpoint, the quantitative competition between clouds and surface albedo becomes apparent, showing that deforestation-induced reduction in cloudy-sky albedo partially counteracts the increased surface albedo by nearly half (Supplementary Fig.  10 ). Considering that alterations in cloud cover following deforestation approximately counterbalance half of the cooling effect caused by changes in surface albedo, neglecting the shifts in cloud-climate interactions introduces a large bias when investigating the biophysical effects of forests in the future.

CMIP6 simulations

Cloud fraction profile, tree cover fraction, surface LH, surface SH, surface temperature, surface radiation fluxes, surface ET, near-surface wind speed, near-surface air temperature, as well as radiation fluxes at the TOA from five GCMs (Table  S1 ) participating in the CMIP6 are adopted in this study 35 . The idealized global deforestation simulations (deforest-glob) from the LUMIP 36 are analyzed in comparison to the pre-industrial control simulations (piControl). The deforest-glob setup assumes that a total forest area of 20 million km 2 is linearly removed from the top 30% forested area with a fixed rate of 400,000 km 2  yr −1 over a period of 50 years across the globe. This is then followed by at least a 30-year simulation with a constant land cover to achieve stable conditions. The last 30 years of the deforest-glob and piControl simulations are compared (deforest-glob minus piControl) to derive the mean response to deforestation 28 . Due to differences in resolution among GCMs, the ensemble mean statistics are calculated by bilinear remapping of diagnostics from individual GCMs to a 2° × 2° grid, and vertically to 27 pressure levels from 1000 to 100 hPa.

Reanalysis datasets

From the ECMWF ERA5 62 , we utilize the cloud fraction profiles data alongside elevation, surface LH, surface SH, surface temperature, surface radiation fluxes, surface ET, 10-m wind speed, 2-m air temperature, and TOA radiation fluxes to examine the impacts of deforestation. Datasets spanning from 2001 to 2021, featuring a spatial resolution of 0.25° × 0.25° and encompassing 28 vertical pressure levels from 1000 to 100 hPa, are employed for the analysis.

Observed land cover

For delineating forested and open land areas, we use land cover data from the MODIS dataset (MCD12C1, version 6.1) 63 , relying on the International Geosphere-Biosphere Program (IGBP) classification layer to define the land cover types. Annual data for the years 2001−2021 with a spatial resolution of 0.05°×0.05° are adopted. Here, five forest types (evergreen needleleaf forest, evergreen broadleaf forest, deciduous needleleaf forest, deciduous broadleaf forest, and mixed forest) are merged into a single forest classification. The forest fraction is bilinearly gridded spatially into 0.25° × 0.25° to align with the ERA5 data.

Observed cloud profile and cloud top pressure

In assessing the accuracy of ERA5 cloud profiles, we analyse active satellite-observed cloud profiles. The cloud profile retrievals from Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations (CALIPSO) and CloudSat between 2007 and 2010, are aggregated to a spatial resolution of 2° × 2° and a vertical resolution of 480 m 64 . The fusion of data from both sensors facilitates an extensive depiction of the vertical cloud structure. This comprehensive view is achieved by leveraging the distinct wavelengths each sensor employs (CloudSat: ~2 mm, CALIPSO: 532 and 1064 nm), catering to various cloud and precipitation particles in both liquid and solid phases.

The International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP)-HGM 65 monthly average data with a spatial resolution of 1° × 1° from 2001 to 2016 is employed to obtain the observed cloud top pressure for iced convective clouds. The zonal average ISCCP cloud top pressure is interpolated to GCMs or ERA5 pressure levels.

Climate zones

In this study, climate zones are defined according to the global maps of the Köppen–Geiger climate classification (Version 1) 66 . The Köppen–Geiger historical map contains 30 climate zones at a resolution of 1 km. Tropical and boreal regions are each merged from corresponding subdivided climate zones.

Extracting local effect from GCMs

Deforestation exerts a local impact on the climate within deforested areas (local effect) by modifying land surface characteristics such as albedo, roughness, and ET. Additionally, it affects both deforested and open land grids by altering the advection of heat and moisture, as well as influencing atmospheric circulation (non-local effect) 67 . Distinguishing between local and non-local effects within GCMs is crucial as coupled models encompass the complete climate response to deforestation, incorporating both local and non-local impacts. Moreover, it allows to develop a more profound insight into the mechanisms influencing the local effects in comparison to those governing the non-local effects. Mesoscale processes typically have spatial scales between 10 and 1000 km. In the CMIP6 models, mesoscale circulations within the analysis resolution (10–200 km) are partly local, while the larger ones (200–1000 km) are considered non-local. Therefore, we assume that the term “non-local effect” in the GCMs refers to both the large-scale circulations (>1000 km) and the mesoscale circulations beyond the analysis resolution (200–1000 km).

Here, we use a chessboard method as outlined by ref. 34 to assess the local effect. This method assumes that the unaltered and adjacent deforested grids share the same non-local effect 21 , 67 . The unaltered grids indicate that the forest cover within these grids remains unchanged in the deforest-glob simulation. Since the cloud cover changes within unaltered forest cover grids are entirely due to non-local effects, to generate a global map of the non-local effect, we determine the non-local effects within the deforestation grid by interpolating the signals from the surrounding unaltered forest cover grids. As spatial interpolation might alter existing values, we maintain the non-local signals within the unchanged forest cover grids as they are and only derive the non-local signals for the deforested grids. The local effect over the deforested grids thus can be derived by subtracting the interpolated non-local effect from the total effect. Notably, employing a chessboard-like method introduces horizontal interpolation errors, given that the local effect relies solely on interpolation from neighboring, unaltered grids. However, our study is centered on idealized deforestation scenarios, and prior study 24 , has demonstrated the possibility of isolating local effects using similar methodologies and datasets. Winckler, et al. 34 conducted comparisons between simulations involving both sparse and extensive idealized deforestation, finding small differences in derived local effects from spatial interpolation. The difference between the two local effects of sparse and extensive deforestation simulations is of secondary importance as compared to the local effect itself. Additionally, by comparing the local and non-local effects of SAT as an example (Supplementary Fig.  11 ), we find that both effects are non-negligible relative to the total effect. Therefore, the calculated local effect is unlikely to introduce large uncertainties due to discrepancies in magnitudes with the non-local effect.

To mitigate uncertainties, we use ensemble mean results from five available GCMs. Grid points where four or more of the five models exhibited the same sign are highlighted to demonstrate where there is a high consistency among the models. However, it should be noted that since the model results are derived from idealized deforestation experiments, they may appear overly simplistic compared to observations.

Space-for-time substitution

In addition to idealized deforestation simulations, this study employs a space-for-time substitution method to assess the impacts of deforestation, combining MODIS land cover and ERA5 reanalysis datasets. Such an approach has previously been applied in various studies to evaluate the effect of alterations in land cover on temperature 8 , 26 , the surface energy budget 5 , 68 , or cloud cover 21 , 22 . The fundamental premise of this method is that neighboring land patches share the same climatic background, and variations in their characteristics can act as a proxy for temporal changes. This method exclusively includes the local effects, comprising two components: one is the mean-state difference—variations in land cover conditions that result in spatial disparities; another is the secondary mesoscale circulation within the moving window pixels —differential heating of adjacent land cover patches can create sea-breeze-like secondary mesoscale circulations 21 , 23 , 55 . However, it should be acknowledged that the space-for-time substitution approach also carries uncertainties as it is an indirect method to calculate local biophysical effects.

Areas designated as unaltered forested (or unaltered open land) are identified as pixels where the initial (in 2001) tree cover fraction exceeds 60% (or is below 40%) and with a net change in forest cover <10% from 2001 to 2021. Pixels with water coverage >10% are excluded. We use a moving window approach to search for comparison samples between unaltered forested and unaltered open land pixels. We choose for each moving window a size of 7 × 7 pixels (1.75° × 1.75°). To reduce the influence of topography 69 , 70 , we calculate the standard deviation (s.d.) of elevation within specific moving windows and omit samples where this s.d. exceeds 100 m following ref. 21 . Finally, the potential effect of deforestation on a specific variable ( \(\Delta {{{\rm{Var}}}}\) ) is quantified as:

where Eqs. ( 1 ) and ( 2 ) are applicable to the case where the central pixel of the moving window is unaltered open land and unaltered forest, respectively. \({{{{\rm{Var}}}}}_{{{{\rm{open}}}} \, {{{\rm{land}}}}}\) and \({{{{\rm{Var}}}}}_{{{{\rm{forest}}}}}\) are multi-year mean variables over unaltered open land and unaltered forest pixels, respectively. \(\overline{{{{{\rm{Var}}}}}_{{{{\rm{surrounding}}}} \, {{{\rm{forests}}}}}}\) and \(\overline{{{{{\rm{Var}}}}}_{{{{\rm{surrounding}}}} \, {{{\rm{open}}}} \, {{{\rm{lands}}}}}}\) are the average values of the surrounding \({{{{\rm{Var}}}}}_{{{{\rm{forest}}}}}\) and \({{{{\rm{Var}}}}}_{{{{\rm{open}}}} \, {{{\rm{land}}}}}\) within a moving window when the central pixel is unaltered open land and unaltered forest, respectively.

Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are publicly available. The CMIP6 data were taken from https://esgf-data.dkrz.de/search/cmip6-dkrz/ . The ERA5 cloud fraction profile data were obtained from https://cds.climate.copernicus.eu/cdsapp#!/dataset/reanalysis-era5-pressure-levels-monthly-means?tab=overview . Other ERA5 datasets are available from https://cds.climate.copernicus.eu/cdsapp#!/dataset/reanalysis-era5-single-levels-monthly-means?tab=overview . MODIS land cover data were obtained from https://lpdaac.usgs.gov/products/mcd12c1v061/ . CALIPSO-CloudSat cloud profile data were taken from https://www.cen.uni-hamburg.de/en/icdc/data/atmosphere/calipso-cloudsat-cloudcover.html . ISCCP cloud top pressure data were available from https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/data/international-satellite-cloud-climate-project-isccp-h-series-data/access/isccp/hgm/ . The Köppen–Geiger historical map is available from https://figshare.com/articles/dataset/Present_and_future_K_ppen-Geiger_climate_classification_maps_at_1-km_resolution/6396959/2 .

Code availability

The codes associated with the main figures in this study are available at https://codeocean.com/capsule/6295592/tree/v1 . More information about the codes is available upon request.

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This research has been supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant nos. 42027804, 41775026, and 41075012) received by Y.H.

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Luo, H., Quaas, J. & Han, Y. Decreased cloud cover partially offsets the cooling effects of surface albedo change due to deforestation. Nat Commun 15 , 7345 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-51783-y

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Global warming is the long-term warming of the planet’s overall temperature. Though this warming trend has been going on for a long time, its pace has significantly increased in the last hundred years due to the burning of fossil fuels . As the human population has increased, so has the volume of fossil fuels burned. Fossil fuels include coal, oil, and natural gas, and burning them causes what is known as the “greenhouse effect” in Earth’s atmosphere.

The greenhouse effect is when the sun’s rays penetrate the atmosphere, but when that heat is reflected off the surface cannot escape back into space. Gases produced by the burning of fossil fuels prevent the heat from leaving the atmosphere. These greenhouse gasses are carbon dioxide , chlorofluorocarbons, water vapor , methane , and nitrous oxide . The excess heat in the atmosphere has caused the average global temperature to rise overtime, otherwise known as global warming.

Global warming has presented another issue called climate change. Sometimes these phrases are used interchangeably, however, they are different. Climate change refers to changes in weather patterns and growing seasons around the world. It also refers to sea level rise caused by the expansion of warmer seas and melting ice sheets and glaciers . Global warming causes climate change, which poses a serious threat to life on Earth in the forms of widespread flooding and extreme weather. Scientists continue to study global warming and its impact on Earth.

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Essay on Deforestation

Deforestation is cutting down a large number of trees and clearing out forest areas. The various reasons behind these human activities are increasing the space for human usage like logging or wood extraction, agricultural expansion, infrastructure expansion etc. Deforestation is harmful to the environment because it causes a lot of carbon emissions and alters the natural ecosystem. It also contributes to global warming and climate change because plants release the stored carbon into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide when they are cutting down. The deforestation essay urges us to learn the causes, effects and preventive measures of deforestation.

Deforestation is a severe problem, and we must stop cutting down precious trees. Trees are destroyed to make way for urban development and the cultivation of crops. To expand the land area and construct buildings, production houses and manufacturing plants, we are cutting down trees, and the government is trying its best to avoid deforestation. The process of deforestation also increases the atmospheric level of carbon dioxide that contributes to climate change on the planet. Once the kids have understood the causes and effects of this issue, you can engage them in writing an essay on deforestation by referring to BYJU’S deforestation essay pdf.

Table of Contents

Causes of deforestation, effects of deforestation, preventive measures to avoid deforestation.

Deforestation is a global phenomenon, and one of the leading causes of deforestation is the expansion of cities. People want to live in cities, but they often don’t realise how dangerous this can be to the environment and contributes to environmental pollution . Let us learn the causes that have led to deforestation and destroying the planet by reading the deforestation essay in English.

Other causes of deforestation are urbanisation, farming and a massive population explosion at a global level. As the population increases at a tremendous rate, the space for people to live is shrinking. Hence, people destroy forests to create living space, roads and excellent infrastructure.

As our wants and greed have increased, it has destroyed the environment. Mining is one of the main causes of deforestation and is destroying mother Earth . Another cause of deforestation is wood harvesting or logging for domestic fuel (charcoal).

As we have learned about the causes of deforestation, let us move on to the next segment – the effects of deforestation by reading the deforestation effects essay.

Deforestation has had many adverse effects on the planet. Significant effects of deforestation are climate change, soil erosion, global warming , wildlife extinction and underground water depletion. Besides, there are other consequences such as flooding, shrinking wildlife habitats, and reduced water quality. The essay on deforestation explains the negative effects of deforestation on the Earth.

The decrease in trees and vegetation can lead to an increase in the emission of greenhouse gases and other forms of pollution . Moreover, trees are essential and provide habitats for countless species, and they lose their habitats because of these human activities. They also store large amounts of carbon that can be used as a renewable energy source. When forests are destroyed, carbon is released into the atmosphere, contributing to climate change and global warming.

After learning about the adverse effects of deforestation by reading BYJU’S deforestation effects essay , let us move on to learn how to prevent deforestation.

To maintain the ecological balance, we need to take preventative measures to avoid deforestation. Deforestation can be eradicated by taking the necessary steps to save Earth . The government has to take strict action against deforestation and encourage people to plant more trees. This certainly helps in resolving the after-effects of the loss of trees. In addition, we can start growing plants at home and help our environment heal from the loss of trees and forests .

To conclude, deforestation is a major concern. Hence, we all must join hands in eradicating this issue and help our planet retain its ability to thrive. Provide the little ones with a deforestation essay pdf, and for more kids learning activities, visit BYJU’S website.

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From Tonga, Guterres appeals for ‘a surge in funds to deal with surging seas’

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UN Secretary-General António Guterres issued a “global SOS” from Tonga in the Pacific on Tuesday, urging governments to step up climate action to “Save Our Seas” as two new reports revealed how rising sea levels are threatening the vulnerable region and beyond.  

Speaking during a press conference in the capital, Nuku’alofa, Mr. Guterres called for world leaders to drastically slash global emissions, quickly phase out fossil fuels, and massively boost climate adaptation investments to protect people from current and future risks. 

“This is a crazy situation: rising seas are a crisis entirely of humanity’s making. A crisis that will soon swell to an almost unimaginable scale, with no lifeboat to take us back to safety ,” he warned .

“But if we save the Pacific, we also save ourselves . The world must act and answer the SOS before it is too late.”

Unprecedented sea level rise

The UN chief said global average sea levels are rising at rates unprecedented in the past 3,000 years.

“The reason is clear: greenhouse gases – overwhelmingly generated by burning fossil fuels – are cooking our planet. And the sea is taking the heat – literally,” he continued.

Seas have absorbed more than 90 per cent of global heating in the past five decades.  Water expands when it gets hotter, and melting glaciers and ice sheets have added to the sea’s volume, thus causing the ocean to overflow.

Ocean changes accelerating

Meanwhile, two UN papers published that day “throw the situation into sharp relief”, he said.

The study by the World Meteorological Organization ( WMO ) on the State of the Climate in the South West Pacific , alongside a report by the UN Climate Action Team on Surging seas in a warming world , “show that changes to the ocean are accelerating, with devastating impacts .” 

Together, they outline how monthly sea temperatures continue to shatter records. At the same time, marine heatwaves have become more intense and longer lasting, doubling in frequency since 1980, while rising seas are amplifying the frequency and severity of storm surges and coastal flooding.

Pacific islands ‘uniquely exposed’

“Today’s reports confirm that relative sea levels in the Southwestern Pacific have risen even more than the global average – in some locations, by more than double the global increase in the past 30 years,” the Secretary-General said.

He explained that “Pacific islands are uniquely exposed” as average elevation is just one to two meters above sea level, around 90 per cent of people live within five kilometres of the coast, and half of all infrastructure is within 500 metres of the sea.

“ Without drastic cuts to emissions, the Pacific Islands can expect at least 15 centimetres of additional sea level rise by mid-century , and more than 30 days per year of coastal flooding in some places,” he said.

The reports revealed that the average rate of sea level rise has more than doubled since the 1990s, indicating that “the phenomenon is accelerating in an unusual and uncontrolled way.” 

While global-mean sea level has risen over 10 centimetres since 1993, the situation is even worse in the Pacific, where some locations exceed 15 centimetres.

He pointed to emerging science, which suggests that a rise in global temperature by two degrees Celsius over pre-industrial levels could potentially lead to the collapse of both the Greenland and West Antarctica ice sheets, essentially “ condemning future generations to unstoppable sea level rise of up to 20 metres - over a period of millennia .”

‘Surging seas are coming for us all’

The world is currently on a trajectory towards a three-degree temperature rise above pre-industrial levels, meaning that sea level rise would happen much more quickly, spelling disaster for Tonga and beyond.

“Surging seas are coming for us all – together with the devastation of fishing, tourism, and the Blue Economy,” the Secretary-General said.

He recalled that roughly a billion people worldwide live in coastal areas, which includes “coastal megacities” such as the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka; Los Angeles in the United States; Mumbai, India; Lagos, Nigeria, and Shanghai, China. 

Rising seas will increase the frequency of coastal floods and other extreme events, he said, and a 2.5-degree temperature rise could increase the rate from once in 100 years to once in five years by the end of the century.

Without new adaptation and protection measures, the economic damage could amount to trillions of dollars, he added, urging world leaders to step up now.

Reduce global emissions

Mr. Guterres stressed the need to limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C, which means “cutting global emissions 43 percent compared to 2019 levels by 2030, and 60 percent by 2035.”

He called for governments to deliver new national climate action plans, known as Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), by 2025, as promised at the UN COP28 climate conference in Dubai last year.

Leaders must also put the world on track to phase out fossil fuels fast and fairly, including ending new coal projects as well as new oil and gas expansion, he continued.  This is in addition to their commitment to triple renewables capacity, double energy efficiency and end deforestation by 2030. 

Support vulnerable countries

The Secretary-General again repeated his long-standing appeal for G20 nations, “the biggest emitters”, to take a leading role in these efforts.

“And the world must massively increase finance and support for vulnerable countries. We need a surge in funds to deal with surging seas,” he said.

Looking ahead to this year’s UN climate conference, he urged countries to “boost innovative financing”.  Richer nations must also deliver on their commitments, which include doubling adaptation finance to at least $40 billion annually by 2025.

Addressing climate justice, he also highlighted the need for “significant contributions” to be made to the new Loss and Damage Fund so as to support the Pacific islands and other vulnerable countries.

The same also applies to initiatives announced during the latest Pacific Islands Forum, which opened in Tonga on Monday.

“Finally, we need to protect every person on Earth with an early warning system by 2027,” he said.  “That means building up countries’ data capacities to improve decision-making on adaptation and coastal planning.” 

Mr. Guterres first announced the Early Warnings for All initiative in March 2022, which calls for ensuring that these lifesaving systems are in place across the planet by the end of 2027.

• global warming
• rising sea levels

Band 5+: Writing task 2: Global warming is a primary environmental concern around the world. What are the causes of global warming? What solutions can you suggest solving this universal problem?

Global warming is one of the biggest enviromental problem of the whole world. Global warming is a result of unregulated deforestation, urbanisation and fossil fuel usage.

Trees are the primary resource of oxygen. Oxygen is a molecule which is neccesary for humans and all creatures around the world. Our world is surrounded by a globe-shaped layer, which is made of oxygen. That layer avoids the unwanted lasers from sun, which causes global warming. In case we do not want that layer to be teared, we must protect it. So to protect this layer, we need to protect trees. Due to this reason, deforestation or cutting trees are on of the most important cause of global warming. This could easily be solved by planting new trees. Besides, this layer could also be hurted with unnecessary deodorant and perfume usage. So that means we can help fighting global warming with little lifestyle changes like lowering our perfume usage.

One of the other important reason of global warming is irregular and unregulated urbanisation. This is directly related to first reason too. If governments do not control the urbanisation, people can easily cut trees to build and that will cause global warming.

Increasing fossil fuel usage is leading to global warming as well. The smoke which appears after using this kind of fuels are tearing the layer that I mentioned in the second paragraph too. Governments and the biggest companies (Tesla, as an example) are trying to reduce the usage of fossil fuel and motivate people for using enviroment-friendly fuels like electricity. Using electric cars instead of traditional ones could be an easy solution to decrease our fossil fuel usage, which can be stated as carbon footprint too.

In conclusion, decreasing numbers of trees, uncontrolled urbanisation and fossil fuel are the most important reasons of global warming. Preventing global warming is mostly a responsibilty of governments. However, this does not means that there is not any individual solutions. We can lower our perfume and fossil fuel usage and government can do more regulations on deforestation and urbanisation. If people and government work together to solve the global warming problem, it can be solved with ease.

Check Your Own Essay On This Topic?

Generate a band-9 sample with your idea, overall band score, task response, coherence & cohesion, lexical resource, grammatical range & accuracy, essays on the same topic:, writing task 2: global warming is a primary environmental concern around the world. what are the causes of global warming what solutions can you suggest solving this universal problem.

Main ecological problem of our planet is global warming. Such activities like deforestation and abnormal usage of fossil fuel are the reasons for this threat. Nevertheless, mankind has some options like planting trees and using bicycles over cars to tackle that issue. Firstly, lack of natural trees has led society to the situation, where we […]

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