Blog post #2

What is the history of deforestation and desertification?

Deforestation began thousands of years ago when humans started starting fires. Since then, thousands of acres of forest and grasslands have been cleared. Due to the invention of saws. Areas were cleared more quickly which later became desertification or dry lands. With a simple tool, it was now easier than ever to cut down land efficiently. Forests have been exploited all over the world since the industrial revolution. According to Michael Williams in his 2001 article “history today” in central European Russia over 67,000 square kilometers of forests were destroyed! That's over 16,556,060 acres of forest destroyed! There was a long period of time when the land was cleared, harming the environment for thousands of years. Over ⅓ of the world's forests have been destroyed. Years started to pass by, decades, technology was starting to improve and new invents came to cut down trees more efficiently and to the current date cutting down trees is easy.

Why did people start cutting down trees?

Why did people start to clear lands? It was easy to build cities, farms, agriculture, animal grazing, manufacturing, and construction. It was easier to create life and a sustainable life so people started to clear land for their cities and whatnot. For example, in England, the people had cut down all the trees which they started taking from the British colonies in North America. That’s how bad it had gotten, people noticed after there were no trees left. Another example is that half of Europe's central and northern forests have disappeared, and again people had just noticed when there weren't many trees. Then it reached the Amazon Rainforest… it became a problem. Over 4 billion acres of rainforest existed but now 2.7 billion acres of rainforest. Hundreds of thousands of square miles of rainforest are lost. In conclusion, deforestation and desertification started thousands of years ago just for resources and a stable place to live without knowing the future consequences for the younger generations.

Page updated

Report abuse