Alwaysfornature

Quote: Do we heal the earth for ourselves?

When we heal the earth, we heal ourselves
David Orr

Are there doubts about this?

Did you not think that climate action and environmental sustainability would yield beneficial results for us as humans?

After all, we are the ones that also feel the negative effects of environmental degradation in form of global warming, climate change, natural disasters, heat waves, zoonotic diseases, poverty, hunger and all sorts of ills.

If you don’t do it for anyone else, do it for yourself, take a step towards climate action today, embrace sustainability and leave this world a better place than you met it.

You count, your actions count.

Monday Environmental Quote

I think the environment should be put in the category of our national security. Defense of our resources is just as important as defense abroad. Otherwise what is there to defend?
Robert Redford

We all know that continuing on a business as usual path is not an option. Despite the tragedy that is the covid-19 pandemic, it has afforded us the supreme opportunity to change the usual into a better sustainable usual.

With the current realities of global warming and climate change, biodiversity loss and species extinction, deforestation and desertification, this is not a bad idea.

Heat waves, wildfires, extreme disasters all kill every year, why wouldn’t we want to secure the lives of citizens by placing the environment in national security sector, maybe then we can finally see decisive action from most nations of the world.

Waste Facts: Australia

Here are some compelling waste facts you should know about Australia, one of the world’s leading wasteful nations.

1. Australia ranks among the topmost wasteful nations in the World. Every year, this nation produces waste twice the rate of its population.
The average Aussie generates over 1.5 tonnes of waste yearly. In 1999, Australia ranked second in the world most waste producing nations list.

2) Each year, the average Australian family brings forth waste that can fill a three bedroom house. That’s a production of about 2.25 kg of rubbish each day by every family.

3. Australia throws away 1.3 billion tons of food each year.
This amount of food can feed the entire population and reduce hunger on the street

4. Australians have generated 6.3 billion tonnes of plastic. 5 billion tonnes of this plastic is in landfill or in oceans which are choking marine life.

Only 9% of this plastic has been recycled, the other 91% sits in landfill, floats in our oceans or burned
5. Australians use more than 10 million plastic bags a day. They are washed down to the seas and lakes which later destroy the ecosystem

6. According to ABC’s War on Waste documentary, 1 billion disposable paper cups, used for take away coffee, are not recyclable and end up in landfill. Aussies are using over 50,000 cups every half hour

7. Plastic straws one of the major waste problem because of its inability for recycling.
Australians use 3.5 billion straws annually, that’s 10 million straws a day.

Source: EarthMarcos
PaulRubbish

Monday Environmental Quote

We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children
Native American Saying

Ever heard of the twin principles of intra-generational and inter-generational equity? These are principles of sustainability that basically seeks to ensure that development is not at the risk of destroying the earth for use by other within the same generation and the coming generation.

Therefore, it is important to use natural resources keeping in mind that others somewhere also have need of those resources. This thought breeds sustainability. Not taking any much more than you sustainably need. This applies to water waste, food waste, air pollution, deforestation and the likes. Intra-generational equity sets in to regulate these activities to ensure that everyone within a generation has access to the natural resources they need and are not deprived of their use due to the greed of others within that same generation.

Inter-generational equity seeks to ensure that we make use of the earth in a way that leaves it as much or more productive than we met it for the next generation. Our legacy to the next generation shouldn’t be air pollution, pandemics and biodiversity loss, it should be beautiful earth and abundant resources.

We must take care not to use the earth beyond its renewable capacity such that others have nothing to benefit from.

We must endeavor to live within the Earth’s carrying capacity and within our needs and not our greed.

We must live sustainably.

Monday Environmental Quote

It seems to me that the natural world is the greatest source of excitement; the greatest source of visual beauty; the greatest source of intellectual interest. It is the greatest source of so much in life that makes life worth living.
David Attenborough

Who else is thankful that Sir Attenborough exists? Yeah us too.

Have a great week.

Monday Environmental Quote

Remember our last Thursday post on some of the most influential environmentalists in history? Read here http://most-influential-environmentalists-in-history

One of them was Julia “Butterfly” Hill, a remarkable woman.

Here’s a quote from her:

We live in a disposable society. We throw so much away. But it doesn’t come from nowhere. It comes from the planet and it comes from future generations’ lives.
Julia Butterfly Hill

We’ll allow you to ruminate on this by yourselves.

International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in War and Armed Conflict

The International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in War and Armed Conflict was established on November 5, 2001 by the United Nations General Assembly, during Kofi Atta Annan’s tenure as Secretary-General. Of this observance Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has since written, “We must use all of the tools at our disposal, from dialogue and mediation to preventive diplomacy, to keep the unsustainable exploitation of natural resources from fueling and financing armed conflict and destabilizing the fragile foundations of peace.” Various calendars found on the World Wide Web reference November 6th in abbreviated fashion as ‘World Day to Protect the Environment in War‘

We must use all of the tools at our disposal, from dialogue and mediation to preventive diplomacy, to keep the unsustainable exploitation of natural resources from fueling and financing armed conflict and destabilizing the fragile foundations of peace
Ban Ki-moon

The United Nations’ (UN) International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in War and Armed Conflict is annually held on November 6. It aims to educate people about the damaging effects of war and armed conflict on the environment. Though humanity has always counted its war casualties in terms of dead and wounded soldiers and civilians, destroyed cities and livelihoods, the environment has often remained the unpublicized victim of war. Water wells have been polluted, crops torched, forests cut down, soils poisoned, and animals killed to gain military advantage.

Here are five (5) extreme instances of the effects of war on the environment

1. Chemical Harm in Vietnam:
During the Vietnam War, the US used an herbicide known as “Agent Orange” to kill off massive amounts of the forest growth to reveal the guerilla fighters. This method of warfare is one of the most direct ways to harm the environment during wartime. It not only had a direct impact to the ecological sphere of Vietnam, including plant life and biodiversity, it also had a lasting health impact on the Vietnamese people. Birth defects, tumors, rashes, and an increase in cancer were only a few of the long-lasting effects that Agent Orange delivered to the Vietnamese people.

2. World War II:
The atomic bombing of Hiroshima in Japan, the use of chlorine gas and mustard gas developed by German scientists, oil contamination of the Atlantic Ocean, among other incidents, are all relics of the 2nd World War. The impacts of conflict, chemical contaminations, and aerial warfare all contribute to reduction in the population of global flora and fauna, a reduction in species diversity, as well as a devastating impact on the health and well-being of people in the affected areas, even today.

3. 1938 Yellow River flood in China:
This was created by the Nationalist government in Central China during the early stages of the Second Sino-Japanese War in an attempt to halt the rapid advance of the Japanese forces. The dike of Huayuankou, on the Yellow River’s south bank, was destroyed via tunneling. The floods covered and destroyed thousands of square kilometers of farmland, and shifted the course of the Yellow River hundreds of kilometers to the south. It has been called the “largest act of environmental warfare in history”.

4. Gulf War and Iraq War:
During the 1991 Gulf War, the Kuwaiti oil fires were a result of the scorched earth policy of Iraqi forces retreating from Kuwait. The Gulf War oil spill, regarded as the worst oil spill in history, was caused when Iraqi forces opened valves at the Sea Island oil terminal and dumped oil from several tankers into the Persian Gulf. Oil was also dumped in the middle of the desert.
Apart from the devastating impact of this on the environment, this has also led to a disorder now known as the Gulf War syndrome.

5. The Nigerian Civil War:
From the contamination of land and the destruction of forests to the plunder of natural resources, extreme pollution of the environment and the collapse of management system, this war was an environmental nightmare, like most wars.

As stated in the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals, protection of the environment during war is essential to keeping the future open for all people, everywhere. It is therefore important to hold our government accountable for war crimes as it relates to the environment. The effects of pollution done in previous wars are still being felt by the current generation as seen above so it is a continuous act of war on the nation.

War strategies must include, not just how to protect civilians, but also the environment. Definitely however, the best option would be to embrace peace amongst our nations. Millions have died and continue to die in Syria and Palestine, we’ve all seen pictures of Syrian children having to drink muddy water as drinking water. In no world is that safe for them, this is without considering the chemicals that had seeped into the waterbodies from war weapons.

Let’s all band together to call for World Peace and hold genocidal nations accountable. Embrace Peace not War. Happy International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in War and Armed Conflict!

Sources:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Day_for_Preventing_the_Exploitation_of_the_Environment_in_War_and_Armed_Conflict

https://www.prayananimation.com/recent-updates/details-recent-update.php/6th-nov-international-day-preventing-exploitation-environment-war-armed-conflict

https://www.un.org/en/observances/environment-in-war-protection-day

Some of the Most Influential Environmentalists In History.

When it comes to history of environmental thought, any is incomplete without addressing the contributions of these great people.

1) John Muir (1838–1914) was born in Scotland and emigrated to Wisconsin as a young boy. His lifelong passion for hiking began as a young man when he hiked to the Gulf of Mexico. Muir spent much of his adult life wandering in and fighting to preserve the wilderness of the western United States, especially California. His tireless efforts led to the creation of Yosemite National Park, Sequoia National Park, and millions of other conservation areas. Muir was a strong influence on many leaders of his day, including Theodore Roosevelt. In 1892, Muir and others founded the Sierra Club “to make the mountains glad.”

2) Rachel Carson (1907–1964) is regarded by many as the founder of the modern environmental movement. Born in rural Pennsylvania, she went on to study biology at Johns Hopkins University and Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory. After working for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Carson published “The Sea Around Us” and other books. Her most famous work, however, was 1962’s controversial “Silent Spring,” in which she described the devastating effect that pesticides were having on the environment. Though pilloried by chemical companies and others, Carson’s observations were proven correct, and pesticides like DDT were eventually banned.

3) Edward Abbey (1927–1989) was one of America’s most dedicated—and most outrageous—environmentalists. Born in Pennsylvania, he is best known for his passionate defense of the deserts of America’s Southwest. After working for the National Park Service in what is now Arches National Park in Utah, Abbey wrote “Desert Solitaire,” one of the seminal works of the environmental movement. His later book, “The Monkey Wrench Gang,” gained notoriety as an inspiration for the radical environmental group Earth First!—a group that has been accused of eco-sabotage by some, including many mainstream environmentalists.

4) Julia “Butterfly” Hill (born 1974) is one of the most committed environmentalists alive today. After nearly dying in an auto accident in 1996, she dedicated her life to environmental causes. For almost two years, Hill lived in the branches of an ancient redwood tree (which she named Luna) in northern California to save it from being cut down. Her tree-sit became an international cause célèbre, and Hill remains involved in environmental and social causes.

5) Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) was one of America’s first philosopher-writer-activists, and he is still one of the most influential. In 1845, Thoreau—disillusioned with much of contemporary life—set out to live alone in a small house he built near the shore of Walden Pond in Massachusetts. The two years he spent living a life of utter simplicity was the inspiration for “Walden, or A Life in the Woods,” a meditation on life and nature that is considered a must-read for all environmentalists. Thoreau also wrote an influential political piece called “Resistance to Civil Government (Civil Disobedience)” that outlined the moral bankruptcy of overbearing governments.

Sources
[1] Muir, John, and Terry Gifford. John Muir: His Life and Letters and Other Writings. London: BaÌ‚ton Wicks, 1996. Print.
2) https://www.treehugger.com/environmentalists-you-should-know-1709040

New species of aquatic mice discovered, cousins of one of the world’s rarest mammals.

Scientists have discovered two new species of stilt mice, semi aquatic rodents with extra long feet that they stand up on like a kangaroo. The mice wades in the streams and dip their whiskers into the water surface to detect bugs to eat.

They are the species called Colomys which roughly translates to ” stilt mouse” . They are found in the Congo basin and into the western part of the African continent. They have unusually large brains in order to process this sensory information from their whiskers when they hunt like sonar. They also have snow white belly.

They prefer shallow streams so they can use their whiskers to help them hunt but they can also be found in swampy areas and even rivers that are 3 – 4 feet deep in places (they hang out by the shallow edges).

More analyses revealed that within the Colomys genus there were two new species that had not yet been described. They have been named Colomys lumumbai and Colomys wologizi after, respectively Congolese independence leader Patrice Lumumba and Liberia’s Wologizi mountains. The researchers also found that one subspecies actually constituted it’s own separate species and revised the range of another species.

The researchers also helped clarify these rodents family tree, which includes a genus that’s only ever been collected once 93 years ago in 1927 from a stream in Ethiopia.

The name of the species is Nilopegamys meaning “mouse from the source of the Nile”.

Of all the mice, rats and gerbils in Africa it stood out as the one most adapted for living in water, with water resistant fur and long broad feet. The specimen is housed at Chicago’s Field Museum and it is the only one of it’s genus ever collected (as earlier stated) and scientists think it may now be extinct.

Source: Science daily and Field Museum

Climate Change and Water

Only 3% of the planet’s water is freshwater, and of this, two-thirds is captured in glaciers and polar ice.

Water and weather, the delicate balance between evaporation and precipitation, is the primary cycle through which climate change is felt. As our climate changes, droughts, floods, melting glaciers, sea-level rise and storms intensify or alter, often with severe consequences.

Only 3% of the planet’s water is freshwater, and of this, two-thirds is captured in glaciers and polar ice. In the current climate predictions, safeguarding the water we have in the supplies we need for a global population set to reach 10 billion by 2050 will be a challenging task.

In fact, “most of the climate change impacts come down to water,” says Upmanu Lall, director of the Columbia Water Center. When people talk about climate change affecting agricultural output, sea level rise, wildfires and extreme weather — “they’re all essentially a water story,” says Lall.

Effects of Climate on water patterns

1. Extreme weather events and changes in water cycle patterns are making it more difficult to access safe drinking water, especially for the most vulnerable children.

2. Over the last 25 years, floods, droughts and other weather-related events have caused more than 90 per cent of major weather-related disasters. The frequency and intensity of such events are only expected to increase with climate change

3. Around 500 million children now live in areas at extremely high risk of flooding due to weather events such as cyclones, hurricanes and storms, as well as rising sea levels.

4. When disasters hit, they can destroy or contaminate entire water supplies, increasing the risk of diseases like cholera and typhoid to which children are particularly vulnerable.

5. Rising temperatures can lead to deadly pathogens in freshwater sources, making the water dangerous for people to drink.

6. Contaminated water poses a huge threat to children’s lives. Water and sanitation related diseases are one of the leading causes of death in children under 5 years old.

7. Every day, over 700 children under 5 die from diarrhoea linked to inadequate water, sanitation and hygiene.

8. Climate change exacerbates water stress – areas of extremely limited water resources – leading to increased competition for water, even conflict.

9. By 2040, almost 1 in 4 children will live in areas of extremely high water stress.

10. Rising sea levels are causing fresh water to become salty, compromising the water resources millions of people rely on.
Climate change is happening now. We must act, and water is part of the solution.

Source: Unicef

Monday Environmental Quote

Do your little bit of good where you are. It is those little bits of good put altogether that overwhelm the world
Desmond Tutu

In the quest to save our planet, all hands must be on deck. No man must be left behind and no act is too small to save the planet.

We must applaud and appreciate all our little acts of sustainability towards ensuring a cumulative result.

Saving energy, saving water, going vegan, eating less meat, avoiding single use plastics, walking and cycling instead of driving, turning off the switch, taking shorter showers, anything! Whatever it is that you are doing, please continue to do it, it matters! And we appreciate you.

Spreading this message is one of our small acts, we hope it has the intended effect.

Have a nice week.

Monday Environmental Quote

It is horrifying that we have to fight our own government to save the environment.
Ansel Adams

Right in the 21st Century, it is unbelievable that people have to fight their own public servants, their government, those meant to make life bearable for their citizenry, just for the right to live. Infact, many are dying for that right fight.

All across Africa, in Congo, in Chad, in Nigeria, many are losing their lives to their government.

In the USA, many environmental laws and policies have been rolled back by the present administration in favour of ‘economic’ policies, all at the risk of the lives of the common American people.

For how long do we want to fight our government to include sustainability into all their plans, to make and activate net zero commitments, to stop killing the people? How long?

This is a message to the government. Stop fighting and killing your people in favour of unsustainable economic policies.

Monday Environmental Quote

You cannot protect the environment unless you empower people, you inform them, and you help them understand that these resources are their own, that they must protect them.
Wangari Maathai

The first step to tackling the environmental crisis is talking about it. We need to talk about it so that people know that there is a problem.

Talking about it must however be done in strategic ways specific to differing populations.

As Katherine Hayhoe said in her Tedtalk, we need to talk to people using the experience they understand.

So while we advocate for environmental sustainability, we need to carry to local people along to show them the need for this sustainability, we need to show them how it affects them and how they will benefit from it.

Waste Management in Nigeria

Waste generation is widely attributed to man day to day activities and its effect on the environment, ecosystem and even human health can’t be overemphasized.

Let’s address the issue of waste in Nigeria.

Nigeria, with the population of 197,848,805 million people (population equivalent to 2.57% of the total world population)1 is one of the largest producers of solid waste in Africa.

The country is one of the largest waste producers in Africa and generates more than 32 million tons of waste annually while only 20-30% is collected and 70% are dumped in unsafe places. 10,000 tons of municipal wastes are generated in Lagos which makes an average of 3.65million tons per year.

Lagos is a highly industrialized and one of the fastest growing cities in Nigeria and Africa. The population of the state is estimated at around 22millions this year and still experiencing a high level of migration from all over the country and the West Africa suburbs.

Waste generated in Lagos alone within six months is up to 80,000 tons from 100 illegal dumping sites.
This statistics shows to an extent the average waste generation in Nigeria which is quite appalling.

When solid wastes are indiscriminately disposed it results to climate change, photochemical reactions, abiotic depletion and extreme weather events like global warming produced by the breakdown of greenhouse gases generated from chemical and radioactive wastes.

There is water contamination and water bodies’ blockage, soil and air pollution, communicable and non-communicable diseases in most areas of the country.

Here are some pieces of advice for Nigeria:

1. There should be stringent ban or law on illegal dumping of refuse mostly in industrial and municipal areas which has become a major issue of concern to human and its environment.

2. Government should push aside non-essential things and focus on implementing more initiatives to have a cleaner and healthier environment. There should be full financial support to help each state and local governments in waste disposal all over the households.

3. The use of incineration methodology. This can otherwise be called combustion. Waste are been subjected to heat as to convert them to gaseous products and ash. It is a more practicable and efficient ways of disposing municipal waste as volume of waste are been reduced by 85 – 90%.

4. Sanitary Landfill- is the collection and burying of waste in low-lying open area located far away from human settlements and sites that are not accessible to flooding in order to avoid environmental challenges. This is an economical and easier method to get rid of household wastes.

5. A possible methodology to redistribute population over the country to avoid over urbanization which has become major cause of waste generation and inappropriate disposal method especially in urban areas of Nigeria.

Source: Imedpub.com

Monday Environmental Quote

Water and air, the two essential fluids on which all life depends have become global garbage cans.
Jacques Yves Cousteau

How long will it go on?

With UN-Water, UNESCO reports that 80% of the world’s wastewater is released back into the environment, essentially polluting water bodies and having 1.8 billion people around the world drinking water contaminated by faeces, destroying marine biodiversity, interrupting the carbon sequestration function of the oceans and seas.

With 18 billion pounds of plastic waste that go into the world’s oceans every year as reported by the National Geographic killing 100,000 marine mammals and around one million seabirds.

How do you feel when you know that your actions are causing the death of many?

The UNEP has also reported that nine out of 10 people worldwide breathe polluted air, causing an estimated 7 million premature deaths every year.

When will it stop?

When will we start managing our waste properly?

When will we realise that the best production is the sustainable and minimal production?

So ask yourself these questions going into the week

1. Do I really really need that thing?

2. What kind of packaging is being used and are there alternatives?

3. Is the packaging sustainable in term s of the Rs?

4. Again, do I really need to buy/produce it?

Have a nice and sustainable week.

History Of Oil Spills In The Niger Delta Area of Nigeria

The Department of Petroleum Resources(DPR), Nigeria estimated 1.89 million barrels of petroleum were spilled into the Niger Delta between 1976 and 1996 out of a total of 2.4million barrels spilled in 4,835 incidents.

A United Nations Development Programme(UNDP) report stated that there have been a total of 6,817 oil spills between 1976 and 2001.

The largest individual spills include;
1. A blowout of a Texaco offshore station which in 1980 dumped an estimated 400,000 barrels (64,000m³) of crude oil into the Gulf of Guinea.

2. Royal Dutch Shell’s Forcados Terminal tank failure which produced a spillage estimated at 580,000 barrels (92,000m³).

50% of the spills are caused by pipeline and tanker accidents.

In 2010, Baird reported that between 9million and 13million barrels have been spilled in the Niger Delta since 1958.

A percentage break down of the causes of oil spills is as follows;

👉28% of the spills occur because of sabotage (performed primarily by oil bunkering).

👉21% of the spills occur because of production operations.

👉The remaining 1% of the spills are accounted for by inadequate or non-functional production equipment.

Corrosion of pipelines accounted for a high percentage of oil spills because of the small size of the oil fields in Niger Delta. There is an extensive network of pipelines between the fields, as well as numerous small networks of flow lines- the narrow diameter pipes that carry oil from well heads to flow stations allowing many opportunities for leaks. Pipelines which have an estimate life span of about 15 years are old and susceptible to corrosion.

Many of the pipelines are as old as 20 to 25 years.

Consequences of these spills

Oil spillage had an effect on the mangrove forests, the immense tracts of the mangrove forests which are susceptible to oil were destroyed. An estimated 5-10% of the Nigerian mangrove ecosystems had been wiped out by settlement or oil. The rainforest which previously occupied some 7,400km² of land disappeared as well.
People in affected areas complained about health issues including breathing problems and skin lesions.

On January 30, 2013 a Dutch court ruled that Shell was liable for the pollution of the Niger Delta. In January 2015, Shell agreed to pay $80 million to the Ogoniland community of Bodo for two spills in 2008 after a court case in London.

Cleanup of spills

In 2011, Nigeria commissioned a report from the UN on the impact of oil extraction on the Delta area of Ogoniland. The report found severe soil ground and tap water contamination, destruction of mangroves and that institutional control measures in place both in the oil industry and the Government were not implemented adequately.

The UN concluded that it would take over 30 years to reverse the damage and based on those recommendations in August 2017, Nigeria launched a $1billion cleanup and restoration program.

In January 2019, engines first arrived to begin the cleanup.

On September 30th,2020, the Nigerian Federal Environment Ministry announced that the first phase of the cleanup had been concluded and been handed over to the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency(NOSDRA) for scientific analysis.

Source:
Wikipedia (https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_issues_in_the_Niger_Delta&ved=2ahUKEwixnLfDlqPsAhUNUcAKHYOECvwQFjAUegQIHRAC&usg=AOvVaw0nttPuoSt7zd3uO95BVQ3U)

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2018/03/niger-delta-oil-spills-decoders/&ved=2ahUKEwilp4jyo6PsAhWTT8AKHbfwDzYQFjALegQIARAB&usg=AOvVaw2NAM8L2YBsSjad6XC25j0F

https://t.co/AJ7hbSg0BS?amp=1&s=08

The Importance Of Rainforests On Climate Change

The importance of rainforest on climate change and its effect are symbiotically synced.
Rainforest which are widely trees absorb carbon dioxide as they grow through the process of photosynthesis, converting it into the oxygen we all need to live. In fact, there is no greater carbon-capture technology than photosynthesis—which happens to be both highly efficient—and free.

It is said to be the home to nearly half of the plants and wildlife on Earth, tropical rainforests perform an essential function for the climate by absorbing carbon dioxide.
Trees naturally suck carbon dioxide out of the air, a function that helps counteract human emissions into it each year. In fact, by some estimates, the world’s forests absorb around one-third of human-caused CO2 emissions.
And in addition to contributing to emissions, tropical deforestation also actively contributes to the vicious cycle of climate change. Scientific modeling, according to WRI, “strongly agrees” that continental-scale deforestation of tropical forests would make those areas warmer and drier.

However in recent years, there have been declines on the importance of rainforest due to the high impact of deforestation, climate change and other factors.
Cutting down of forests is releasing carbon into the atmosphere and driving climate change — in fact, deforestation causes 15 percent of all human-induced carbon emissions.

In recent years, scientists and policymakers have worked to build public awareness of how deforestation drives global warming: When a tree is cut down, not only is its efficient carbon-storage potential lost, but all the carbon that was stored in the tree is released into the atmosphere—either quickly, as when forests are burned, or more slowly, as the debris from razed forests decomposes. Keeping forests intact is therefore a no-brainer in the fight against climate change.

A 2007 study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that deforestation in the tropics is far more devastating to the Earth’s climate than deforestation in higher latitudes. Which is just one of reason the Rainforest Alliance has been fighting deforestation in the tropics for more than 30 years, by innovating and promoting sustainable farming methods and responsible forest management
Deforestation in areas like the Amazon, Southeast Asia, and the Congo can also affect the water cycle, with local and global implications. Fewer trees make for fewer to draw water from the soil and release it as vapor into the air, where it goes to form clouds and then becomes rain.

What to do?

1. Reducing fossil fuel use therefore is vital to addressing tropical forest loss, because it can help stave off even worse impacts of increasing fire, drought, and severe heat.

2. Policies to curb the intense factor of deforestation by locals and industrial organizations

3. Large-scale
reforestation that would expand forests which would then actually provide significant cooling gains against our ticking climate clock

4. Sensitization of the public on the very importance of rainforest and how it contributes to the stance of living

5. Expanding international cooperation is another way forward, so long as leaders look not solely at environmental and economic issues, but also at social ones.

Sources: conservative.org
Yaleclimateconnections.org
Rainforest-alliance.org
Streetroots.org