The Effects of Forests on the Global Environment

Not only do forests provide a habitat for wildlife, they also provide tools that humans use to survive in 21st century society. Mushrooms, fruit, honey and wildlife from forests are used for food. Fungi that are prevalent in some forests are used for medicine. Most important, forests have an impact on the global environment.

Earth's Atmosphere

• Forests help to regulate the gases that accumulate in the earth's atmosphere. Trees and plants in forests take in carbon dioxide and use it to process food. They break down carbon dioxide and release oxygen that humans breathe. In the book "Tropical Forests" Peter Moore writes that in part of that global cycling carbon gets released back to the atmosphere whenever an insect eats leaves, when the trees drop leaves or when the tree completes the process of respiration.

Deforestation

• Carbon gases are greenhouse gases that accumulate in the atmosphere and trap heat. The National Geographic website advises that "Trees also play a critical role in absorbing the greenhouse gases that fuel global warming." If forests were to disappear, the amount of greenhouse gases available in the atmosphere will increase because there wouldn't be trees to absorb some of the carbon gases entering the atmosphere. The heat trapped in the atmosphere would increase and help to warm the earth faster.

Water Cycle

• Tall forest trees block out the sun from the soil below. If this soil were to get more exposure to the sun it could dry out and cause forests to die out. Wet forest soil gets returned to the atmosphere in the water cycle. University of New Hampshire professor John Aber writes in a report that, "Removing trees leads to more extreme temperatures swings that can be harmful to plants and animals."

Regulating Climate Change

• According to scientists, forests could be a key ingredient in fighting global warming or they could be a sign that global warming is getting worse. In the book "Encyclopedia of Life Science" Katherine Cullen writes, "Faster growing trees could offset some of the carbon emitted from cars, air conditioners and power plants." Slower growing forests mean slower uptake of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.