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Slow down deforestation - Referat
Slow down deforestation!
We have to slow down the deforestation!
Basically deforestation is the removal of a forest or a stand of trees. Deforestation occurs for fuel, building materials and to clear land for farming.
Just think, originally, almost half of the United States, three-quarters of Canada, almost all of Europe and much of the rest of the world were forested.
Today it's much less. Just about one quarter of the world's total land area is covered by forests, excluding polar regions. Over 50% are located in the tropics.
And still 13 Mio Hectare of forest are stubbed or burned down every year. That's an area with the size of England. That includes 8.5 Mio Hectares of tropical rainforests that are destroyed every year.
The results of deforestation are devastating. It's the cause of damaged habitats, a loss of biodiversity and drought. The burning down of the woods also produces a lot of carbon dioxide and methane, which are both greenhouse gases. The climate change endangers the forests, also. If the temperature rises, it can lead to more droughts, which can be the reason for an increasing number of forest fires. And you may not realise it, but deforestation also occurs by Carbon Emissions causing acid rain. So the next time you have to go somewhere, take your bike or walk!
Every Year 40 Mio tonnes of palm oil are produced. 90% of it was used for food, such as chocolate or margarine. It's also used as a replacement for crude oil in cleaning agents. For the palm oil were for example in Indonesia 3 Mio Hectare fields created, that are 3,5 Mio football fields. And therefore rainforest was cleared. Because of that Indonesia is now after China and the USA the biggest causer of CO2.
Unfortunately, every day, you make decisions that can either be good or harmful to your environment. Examples of some daily things you do to indirectly damage the environment are things such as buying wood from an unsustainable source or buying food containing palm oil. If you want to help, the least you could do is to take the bike to school.
Some possible solution for this disaster is paying attention to ingredients in food or replanting forest. The only problem is that a forest needs at least about 100 years to be as it was before a clearing.
To sum up, deforestation is extremely bad and effects the entire globe. So don't forget that next time you eat a bar of chocolate containing palm oil, you may have indirectly destroyed two species of plants, which could have contained a cure for cancer.
Sources:
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/eye/deforestation/effect.html
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/campaigns/climate-change/science/deforestation/
http://www.effects-of-deforestation.com/solutions-to-deforestation.php
http://www.hr-online.de/website/fernsehen/sendungen/index.jsp?rubrik=65343&key=standard_document_41095337&xtcr=3&xtmc=Palmöl
http://www.save-trees.org/tree-facts/
http://www.globalchange.umich.edu/globalchange2/current/lectures/deforest/deforest.html
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