Menu Close

What will happen if large areas of tropical rain forest are removed?

What will happen if large areas of tropical rain forest are removed?

Tropical forests move more water than any other ecosystem on land. They are central to the earth’s process of generating and regenerating moisture, so clearing ever-larger swathes of forest eventually leads to a drying and warming effect.

What is the consequence of losing tropical rain forest?

Forest loss also reduces the availability of renewable resources like timber, medicinal plants, nuts and fruit, and game. Over the longer term, deforestation of tropical rainforests can have a broader impact, affecting global climate and biodiversity.

What effects does the destruction of rainforests having on the environment?

Trees absorb and store carbon dioxide. If forests are cleared, or even disturbed, they release carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. Forest loss and damage is the cause of around 10% of global warming. There’s simply no way we can fight the climate crisis if we don’t stop deforestation.

How serious is tropical deforestation?

Although deforestation meets some human needs, it also has profound, sometimes devastating, consequences, including social conflict, extinction of plants and animals, and climate change—challenges that aren’t just local, but global.

What causes loss in tropical rainforests?

The immediate causes of rainforest destruction are clear. The main causes of total clearance are agriculture and in drier areas, fuelwood collection. The main cause of forest degradation is logging. Mining, industrial development and large dams also have a serious impact.

What is loss of tropical rainforests?

But rainforests are perhaps the most endangered habitat on earth and most vulnerable to deforestation. Each year, some 140,000 sq km of rainforests are destroyed. Rainforests are being felled for timber by logging companies and cleared by people for farming.