Panama’s land mass is equal to 29,157 square miles, or 75,517 square kilometers. Why is this fact important? The answer is that every year, the earth loses enough forest to cover the Republic of Panama. This is a disaster on a grand scale; one that affects soil composition, kills birds and animals directly and via loss of habitat, and even affects the quality of the air that we rely on for life-giving breath. Not only is the life of the land affected, so is the life of the world’s oceans.
Facts about Deforestation
Forests once covered nearly fifty percent of the world’s land masses; today, they cover only about thirty percent – almost half the area they once sustained. While many nations have made great strides in stopping deforestation by using sustainable forest management techniques including select cutting and replanting, some of the world’s most important forests are still being clear cut, slashed, and burned. Scientists estimate that if the current rate of rain forest consumption continues unabated, the rain forests will all be gone within just one hundred years.
The reasons for this consumption are many: some farmers clear small plots of land to feed their families, larger agricultural operations remove forests to clear space for crops or to create pastureland for livestock – mainly cattle, and logging corporations cut trees worldwide every year in order to feed the world’s need for wood and paper products. Not all logging operations are responsible; some of the worst access land illegally, building roads into remote forest areas and clear cutting indiscriminately. In addition, forests and stands of trees are removed to allow cities to grow; where once there were natural spaces, urban sprawl has tightened its grip.
Some deforestation happens by accident – and that is not all bad. For instance, forest fires which occur naturally are a part of nature’s cycle – some seeds need the heat of fires in order to open and unlock their potential for sprouting new life. Some forest fires are caused by humans and happen in areas where natural forest fires are a rarity; these have a worse impact. In some places, soil degradation caused by overgrazing prevents undergrowth and young trees from taking root, effectively beginning what is a slow death for forests. Insect infestation, disease, and drought caused by global warming is slowly killing massive stands of aspen trees in the Rocky Mountains of the United States; each stand of aspens, which can cover as much as 100 acres or more, is in fact a single organism so when even a few trees are affected by an initial problem, the rest suffer as well.
The impacts of deforestation are many, and the most obvious of these is the loss of habitat for millions of avians, mammalians, and other species, some of which have not yet been discovered. One of the worst effects, and one we have difficulty understanding because we cannot yet see it, is climate change that happens when tree coverage is lost. This happens because trees shade forest soil, keeping it moist, and when those trees are removed, they no longer shelter the soil from the sun. It dries quickly, and soon, parched land replaces lush forest. In addition, trees keep forest temperatures stable, holding heat in at night – this keeps animals and birds at the right temperature. Without trees, nights are colder, and animals perish as a result of temperature swings. Trees provide vital moisture exchange, as their respiration returns water vapors to the atmosphere, where it accumulates; transforming invisible water molecules into clouds that bear rain, which starts the life cycle all over again. In addition, trees absorb the greenhouse gases that speed the global warming cycle, and with fewer trees to do the job, global warming happens faster and the effects are more intense, affecting everything from the polar ice caps to tiny corals.
How Forests and Oceans are Related
Not only do forests provide moisture exchange when they release water from their leaves during the process of photosynthesis, they prevent erosion by holding soil in place. These two actions might seem insignificant on the surface, but when you probe a little deeper you’ll see that both are absolutely vital to the health of the oceans as well as the health of the planet as an entire organism.
In the Amazon, for instance, which is one of the areas most affected by deforestation, between fifty and eighty percent of the moisture exchanged remains in that ecosystem, falling as rain which is filtered by soil, and which ends up in streams and rivers that eventually make their way into the mighty Amazon River, which rises in the Andes mountains at the west of the Amazon basin. This river, which is the second longest in the world, covers a distance of approximately 6,400 kilometers before eventually draining into the Atlantic Ocean. Besides being the only form of transport for indigenous peoples living in remote areas, and in addition to sustaining countless life forms, this river affects all of us. It and its tributaries account for an incredible twenty percent of the total water that enters the world’s oceans via rivers.
Following the water cycle, the Atlantic is the world’s second largest ocean, covering twenty percent of the earth and approximately twenty-six percent of the world’s water surface. Stretching nearly from pole to pole, and touching the African, European, and American continents, it is a vital part of the interconnected global ocean. So vast is it, that the ancient Greeks believed it to be a massive river that flowed around the world. And, in a way, it is. It is connected to the Pacific Ocean in the southwest, and to the Southern Ocean in the South. To the north, it meets the Arctic Ocean, and to the southeast, it melds with the Indian Ocean.
Now, consider the fact that there are an estimated 1.6 million marine species inhabiting the world’s oceans, each of them relying on clean water, interacting with one another in ways we barely understand, and interacting with us humans in ways that are equally incomprehensible. Deforestation threatens all of our lives by contributing heavily to marine pollution which is caused by hazardous chemicals and particles that enter the rivers that carry runoff from agriculture and other industry. Chemical fertilizers, used on massive swaths of land that were once healthy, life-giving forest, now enter the oceans at an unprecedented rate. Livestock and human waste enters these waters as well, depleting the water’s oxygen supply and causing dead zones that are spreading. Marine debris, carried into the oceans by these same rivers, floats on and beneath the surface, eventually accumulating in ocean gyres, which are like garbage dumps on the ocean’s surface; it also ends up on coastlines and inside the animals which consume it.
Each of us can make a difference via the seemingly insignificant decisions we make. Do we buy our coffee in a paper cup with a cardboard wrap and a plastic lid that ends up being discarded twenty minutes later, or do we carry a reusable cup with us? Do our offices waste paper? Do we buy recycled products and recycle the paper, plastic, glass, and metal items that we use? Where does our food come from, and what goes into producing it? Do we take steps to spend our money in support of corporations that practice sustainability? Pause for a moment to look at the way you live each minute of each day. What decisions do you make? Which could be changed for the better?
Everything is connected. Deforestation contributes to an incredible twenty percent of greenhouse gases worldwide. That is more than all automobiles, aircraft, and other fossil fuel burning machines combined. Non-profit organizations like Greenpeace, the Nature Conservancy, and others are working to stop deforestation in the Amazon, Borneo, and other locales worldwide. Deforestation doesn’t just affect plants and animals, it affects people – an estimated 1.6 billion of us rely on healthy forests for food and for our livelihoods. Ending deforestation will preserve biodiversity, slow out of control global warming, and restore ocean and planetary health. By doing what you can to work toward preserving forests, you can make a difference.