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Deforestation: Vismaya Gopalan Deforestation is the clearing of a wide…
Deforestation: Vismaya Gopalan Deforestation is the clearing of a wide area of trees. It can also refer to the decrease of trees and wooded areas as these areas are converted into more human-beneficial activity centers like croplands, mining pits, logging sites, and urban living areas. 
Root Causes
Agriculture and Farming
- A root cause of deforestation is the need to convert land so it can be utilized for agricultural or grazing purposes. As forests are cleared so they can be converted to croplands and pasture, countless trees are cleared; accordingly, the necessity to meet national and global demands for food further spurs the clearing of forests (Simmon 2007). As globalization and population growth continue to intertwine themselves with the economy, suppliers have an increased need to substantially grow food supply, growing the need for more farmland. The social structures incentivized by monetary gains further fuel industrialists to ruthlessly destroy heavily wooded areas for economic gains.
Urbanization
- Urbanization significantly contributes to rising rates of deforestation. Urbanization refers to the growth of more populous cities and towns as the demographic shifts from more rural locations to ones that are more seen as hotspots for growth, innovation, industry, and opportunity (Ronca 2021). Overpopulation, which inversely correlates to urbanization, dictates a higher need for land to be converted into settlements and housing. Areas densely populated with trees continue to be cleared for road construction and highways, needs that continue growing in demand to higher levels of commute and settlement. Moreover, social class often dictates where people settle; as people of lower-income settle in the outskirts of the city due to problems like unaffordable housing, more land is cleared to expand the parameters, resulting in more deforestation.
Mining
- Mining, the process of obtaining minerals from a mine deposit, is one of the main causes of deforestation, with mining activities driving almost 7% of all deforestation in the United States today (Farmer 2021). For wide-scale mining operations, significant areas of trees have to be cleared to open up pits for doing so. Mining missions that operate large-scale, specifically those that utilize open-pit mining techniques, cause significant deforestation, as they clear forests and construct more roads to open secluded forests to access mining sites (WWF 2021). Correspondingly, monetary gains continue to be the primary motive in doing so.
Logging
- Logging, the more colloquial term that refers to the harvesting of trees and raw tree material for fuel, products, or wood, is a primary cause of deforestation (Maloney 2018). Several manufacturers who rely on wood for producing things such as paper and furniture rely on the widespread "harvesting" or chopping of trees for their products. Trees are also primarily cleared to be used as fuel or "fuelwood" as cooking and other common activities utilize such material.
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Effects
Effects on Biodiversity
- Deforestation substantially affects biodiversity, as it damages ecosystems and leads to habitat loss (Round Square 2021). Most specifically, deforestation leads to a loss of ecosystem diversity. Given that forests approximately hold around 80% of the world's terrestrial species, a degradation of their habitats lowers or, in some cases, virtually destroys types of vegetation, food, breeding grounds, and shelters available; this negatively impacts population growth for such species, and as they die off, the loss of the ecosystem services they provide is a direct result (Greentumble 2018).
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Ocean Acidification
- Deforestation increases the acidity of oceans, as it also inversely affects the carbon in the atmosphere. Trees both stand as sources of carbon in the carbon cycle and convertors of carbon, as they convert carbon dioxide along with water and sunlight into oxygen and glucose through photosynthesis (Turkisher 2021). As carbon dioxide emissions increase, the acidity of the oceans increases because the acidification of oceans is caused by atmospheric carbon dioxide dissolving into the ocean. As more trees are cleared and burned down, not only is more carbon dioxide added to the atmosphere, increasing global emissions and ocean acidity, but there is also a lack of trees to convert the carbon dioxide into oxygen, an essential gas for most living things.
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Potential Solutions
Climate Change Policies
One possible long-term solution to deforestation would be the induction of climate change policies for major companies and industrial monopolizers (Holland 2021). Doing so, companies can be forced to seek all new materials of sustainable origins. Moreover, as mentioned for one of the effects, because trees store carbon dioxide, deforestation would contribute negatively to greenhouse gas emissions; the induction of climate change policies would gradually slow deforestation as a method of obtaining raw material. The government has the power to implement such policies, working with the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the United States Department of Energy.
Reforestation Programs
A more hands-on solution, reforestation can be encouraged
and wholly fostered as a community eco-forestry mission. Reforestation, the planting of new trees, can be encouraged and used to educate people and children in schools about deforestation while providing a hands-on approach to implementing more trees into our ecosystem (Madaan 2021). Such reforestation programs can be as local as elementary school projects or a widespread national movement endorsed by the government. Eco-forestry advocates for the controlled use of resources, specifically trees, because although it recognizes that human usage of such resources is arguably inevitable, such consumption must be performed in a way that preserves ecosystems and advocates for the planting of new trees. Facts about Reforestation
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Connection to CSTs
Care for God's Creation
- The effects of deforestation tie in with the Catholic Social Teaching of Care for God's Creation. This Catholic Social Teaching advocates for the humane treatment of all of earth's creatures and all the blessings human beings have been given through their very own environments. As deforestation threatens ecosystems and promotes species and habitat loss, more creatures are threatened by human actions and less respect is given to the environment. The absence of this Catholic Social Teaching promotes unfair practices towards the environment and all the creatures it holds.
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Solidarity
- Solutions for deforestation tie in with the Catholic Social Teaching of solidarity. Fighting for both long term and short term solutions requires people to come together to advocate for such regulation in laws and accessible programs on a widespread scale. As communities work together to start reforestation programs, the members stand together in solidarity to take care of the environment and promote sustainable practices that benefit both human beings today and posterity.