{"id":518,"date":"2021-11-22T11:29:00","date_gmt":"2021-11-22T11:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/correspondent.theabbey.co.uk\/?p=518"},"modified":"2022-06-08T16:50:28","modified_gmt":"2022-06-08T15:50:28","slug":"on-the-edge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/correspondent.theabbey.co.uk\/on-the-edge\/","title":{"rendered":"On the Edge\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Deforestation has become a favourite activity of humankind, helping us extract assorted needs\u2013for example medicines, precious paper to waste, and fuel. Almost half of the world’s timber, and up to 70% of paper, is consumed by Europe, the United States, and Japan alone. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, an estimated 18 million acres of forest is lost each year, farming and agriculture being the leading causes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did you know that in 2019, the rate of deforestation equaled a loss of 30 football fields every minute?
Deforestation can be defined as the conversion of forested areas to non-forest land for use. Often, it is converted to arable land, pasture, urban use, logged area, or even wasteland. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization defined deforestation as \u201cthe conversion of forest to another land use or the long-term reduction of the tree canopy cover below the minimum 10 percent threshold.\u201d
Deforestation can also be seen as the removal of forests, which then leads to several imbalances, ecologically and environmentally; this then results in declines in habitat and biodiversity.
As well as damaging our fragile ecosystem, deforestation threatens species including the orangutan, sumatran tiger, and many species of birds.
In terms of increasing the rate of climate change, the process of deforestation itself involves a large emittance of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. When trees are cut, the carbon dioxide the tree has absorbed is released into the air. Also, the removal of trees removes with them the ability of absorbing existing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, as trees do. The most concentrated deforestation occurs in tropical rainforests, and scientists predict that within 100 years, rainforests could be completely wiped out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n