How is cutting down trees bad for the environment

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Subscriber Exclusive Content. Why are people so dang obsessed with Mars? How viruses shape our world. The era of greyhound racing in the U. See how people have imagined life on Mars through history. REDD essentially works to establish incentives for the people who care for the forest to manage it sustainably while still being able to benefit economically.

Examples include using less land and therefore cutting fewer trees for activities such as coffee growing and meat and milk production. Participating nations can then accrue and sell carbon pollution credits when they can prove they have lowered deforestation below a baseline. Brazil is among the countries embracing REDD among other efforts to reduce carbon emissions. Thanks to the program, Brazil has slowed deforestation within its borders by 40 percent since and is on track to achieve an 80 percent reduction by Environmentalists are optimistic that the initial success of REDD in Brazil bodes well for reducing deforestation in other parts of the tropics as well.

Send questions to: earthtalk emagazine. When accounting for the albedo effect, it has been found that shortening rotation periods in harvesting and planting certain tree species in designated snow-filled areas can have a net-positive effect on the environment. Ultimately, this creates a system that incentivizes reforestation while likewise incentivizing efforts to curtail deforestation. When trees are in their growing stages, they absorb food and water and store them in the roots, leaves, branches, and trunks.

This makes forests important assets to nations across the globe. However, if trees get too crowded, they end up competing against each other for water and light. Physically distressed trees become especially prone to insect attacks, disease, and drought.

Removing some trees, particularly the ones that are physically distressed, can relax the competition among trees and allow the remaining trees to grow healthy and large in the process. Thinning can help this process enormously, but the key to carrying this out properly is early thinning, which must be completed before trees begin to fight over light and water.

Large scale tree cutting can lead to deforestation, a transformation of an area from forest to terrain with little vegetation. Plants create oxygen and absorb greenhouse gases. The destruction of trees may, therefore, encourage global warming. Changing temperatures can alter which organisms can survive in an ecosystem.

Cutting trees can result in the loss of habitat for animal species, which can harm ecosystems. Tropical forests like the Amazon rain forest promote a cycle of evaporation and rainfall.