Why is it an issue?

• Deforestation releases carbon into the atmosphere, creating a "Greenhouse" effect by trapping heat and causing climate changes - trees cool and regulate earth's climate while they're here
• It creates increased water runoff, which leads to the increased silting of rivers, lakes,and oceans
• Trees improve air quality for breathing, without them the air we breathe would eventually have the same effect as putting diesel into a car that doesn't run on diesel...we would die
• Trees also determine rainfall through transpiration
• Trees are also good for “…preventing erosion, landslides, and making the most infertile soil rich with life” (Stock & Rochen), which is hard for the tree to do when it is lying dead on the ground.
• Deforestation also contributes to the “…loss of biodiversity...the destruction of forest-based-societies...” (Stock and Rochen).
• Deforestation is also an issue because of the bad techniques used to perform the dirty deed. Slash-and-Burn is perhaps the worst technique for removing forests because it not only destroys the trees and allows for no productive use of them, but it also destroys the soil by robbing it of its nutrients so that the land is useless except for, perhaps, housing developments or factories.