deforestation is the process of removing

trees and forests from a landscape this

may be done for many reasons including

making way for other land uses such as

agriculture and also to harvest for wood

resources although it might not be

something you see or hear about every

day deforestation is a problem that is

happening all over the world and has

been for many years you might be

wondering how does this affect me why

should I care well think about the desk

that you're sitting at and the pencil

and paper you're writing with along with

the majority of furniture looms at home

what do they all have in common

they're all made from trees we use trees

to make a lot of different products that

we use every single day which means we

have to cut down a lot of trees to make

them so now you may be thinking well why

should I care there are lots of trees

and forests on earth it's true there are

a lot of trees on earth in fact forest

covers a quarter of all land surfaces on

earth but the problem is the rate at

which you harvest

currently humans are cutting down

forests at a rate of 36 football

deforestation affects many ecosystem

functions but the question we're asking

in this video is how does this affect

the climate first off let's talk about

carbon cycling think about how you

breathe you breathe in oxygen any

breathe out carbon dioxide planes and

trains do the opposite they absorb

carbon dioxide and release oxygen

through a process called photosynthesis

when we cut down large amounts of trees

carbon dioxide is no longer absorbed and

it stays in the atmosphere this is a

problem because carbon dioxide acts as a

greenhouse gas

this means it acts like a greenhouse by

absorbing and readmitting radiation back

down to earth we further contribute to

this when we burn forest materials

because the carbon stored in them is

then released into the atmosphere

greenhouse gases have a warming effect

and because large amounts are being

released into the atmosphere all around

the world they are having a global

warming effect on the local scale

however deforestation is having a

different effect first let's talk about

albedo the albedo is the amount of light

that is reflected off a surface

main control of albedo is a surfaces

color picture a black car in the Sun

dark colors absorb most of the light

which is why black cars get so hot on a

sunny day

white reflects light which is why white

cards don't heat up as much the same is

true with land a dark surface

such as forest couplet will absorb light

while a bare surface such as brass will

reflect world this causes a local

cooling effect precipitation patterns

are also affected by deforestation when

it rains plants and trees absorb water

through transpiration plants lose water

which is evaporated into the atmosphere

clouds form from the evaporated water

and when enough is collected it begins

to rain the cycle then repeats itself

however the cycle is disrupted when

deforestation occurs when it rains there

are no trees left to uptake the water so

most of the following rain collects and

moves off the surface as runoff this

means that little water is left to be

evaporated which means there's a smaller

contribution towards the formation of

clouds and grain eventually this

degrades the environment because

flagging the water that it needs

deforestation has many negative impacts

on the environment but it can't be

completely stopped because humans rely

on it so heavily so what can we do one

way to fix this problem is to change how

we harvest trees instead of cutting down

every single tree we can selectively

choose trees to cut and let others try

and help maintain some of the ecosystem

functions

protecting and conserving ecologically

sensitive areas is another way to

decrease the effects of deforestation by

selectively choosing regions we can

conserve old-growth forests and also

protect endangered species habitats you

can make a difference to just follow the

3 R's the first one is reduce this means

using less whether that be paper tissue

or even toothpicks just try to use less

the next one is reuse this one is easy

and can save you money for example use

reusable containers and cups instead of

disposable ones another example is to

reuse old furniture or pass it on to

someone else and lastly the third R is

recycled this means disposing of waste

properly make sure recyclable items go

into the correct bins so they can be

remade into something new try and reduce

your impact you can make a difference

you