Humans Kill Themselves by Deforestation

“Man is he who dies when all forests are gone”, an author once said. Deforestation is a

concern for us, global citizens. One may think that it would only destroy an animal’s home,

which is normal for us since we think we’ll benefit on it. Some 129 million hectares of forest –

an area almost equivalent in size to South Africa – have been lost since 1990, according to

FAO’s most comprehensive forest review to date. Today, I’m going to discuss its effects and

how it would affect us.

First of all, humans will starve. By 2050, it is expected that we will reach 10 million in

number. With this, more and more people will rely on forests as source of food and shelter since

our agricultural land could not provide food for all of us. (Lam, n.d.) Soil would also be

unprotected and vulnerable to reduction in soil quality and top soil nutrients. Because of this,

agriculture will drop and will lead humans to starvation.

Second, our survival rate would decrease since the air would be more unsuitable for

breathing (Naseem, 2011). Trees absorb and breakdown most of the major pollutants in the

atmosphere including ground-level ozone, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and carbon dioxide.

As we breathe more and more of these pollutants, we are more prone to respiratory illness which

could result to death.

Lastly, trees can change the behavior of our atmosphere. As we cut down trees, there

would be more greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. According to a study, tropical forests hold

over 210 gigatons of carbon dioxide. Due to deforestation, 15% of these greenhouse gases are

freed. This could result to extreme weather conditions, unexpected patterns of precipitation and
river flow. Also, because of this, the global temperature will increase causing global warming or

worst, climate change, which is something we would really not want to happen.

Deforestation has a lot of bad effects on humans. We are creating our own end. If we

cannot stop cutting trees, then, at least, we could lessen the usage of tree-products to lessen the

number of trees to be cut down. We can save the world in our own little ways. Our future

depends not on the trees but on ourselves. Let’s not wait for a change. Let’s be the change.
References

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) (2015, September 7).
World deforestation slows down as more forests are better managed. Retrieved
from https://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/326911/icode/

Help plant trees. (2016, September 1). How trees clean the air [Video file]. Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVUAgcSCP_U

Lam, P. (n.d.). 5 big causes of deforestation and how you can stop it. One Green Planet.
Retrieved from https://www.onegreenplanet.org/animalsandnature/5-big-causes-
of-deforestation-and-how-you-can-stop-it/

Naseem, S. (2011, April 12). No trees…no humans. [Web log post]. Retrieved from
https://www.nature.com/scitable/blog/our-science/no_trees_no_humans