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History
Since the Industrial Revolution in the 1800s, forests have been exploited worldwide. According to Michael Williams in his 2001 article in "History Today," 67,000 square kilometers (16,556,060 acres) of forests were cleared between the end of the 17th century to the start of the 20th century. -
Beginning of deforestation
Although deforestation first became a serious concern in the 1950s, it has been an issue since humans began making fires hundreds of thousands of years ago. The extinction of plants and animals due to deforestation has occurred for thousands of years. -
Invention of the rubber tire
deforestation has proceeded with a succession of different forces in different periods. The Amazon rubber boom lasted from the invention of the pneumatic tire in the 1800s to the beginning of the commercial rubber tire in 1914. -
Deforestation in the great depresstion
In 1929 many farmers left their farm land due to the hardship of the Great Depression. This gave the forests a chance to grow again -
Transamazon Highway
More recent clearing surges occurred with the opening of the Belém-Brasília Highway in the late 1950s, and especially the Transamazon Highway in 1970 (the event often taken as the beginning of the “modern” period of Amazonian clearing). The Transamazon Highway was settled by small farmers, many of whom were brought from other parts of Brazil by the federal government and settled in official colonization projects. -
Government
Although the government incentives programs of the 1970s and 1980s have been either discontinued or have diminished in importance, government infrastructure investment and agricultural credit continue to encourage clearing. Logging has a key role in serving as a source of funds for landholders to pay for deforestation -
Effects
Deforestation has many negative effects on the earth. Trees and plants remove and store greenhouse gases from the air, such as carbon dioxide, ozone, and methane. When trees are destroyed, greenhouse gases greatly increase global warming.
Cutting trees also destroys lifeforms. Rain forests contain over half of the world's known animal species and plants. Forested areas also help protect watersheds and prevent soil erosion, floods, and landslides. -
Wildlife destroyed
In the last 60 years, more than half of the tropical forests worldwide have been destroyed. While the phenomenon is not new, the current scale and pace of destruction are alarming. In 2017, more than one football pitch of forest was lost every second – the second-highest recorded since 2001. -
Impacts
Deforestation occurs most concentrated in tropical rainforests. Tropical forests are disappearing at a rate of about 13 million hectares per year (approximately the size of Greece). This magnitude of destruction has significant social, economic and environmental impacts, not only at local level, but also globally. -
Future Path
The future path of deforestation depends on human decisions. It is not foreordained that the Amazon forest will be destroyed, although this is obviously the endpoint if present trends continue unchanged. Various modeling efforts have projected clearing patterns in Amazonia and agree that vast areas would be cleared if trends continue and planned infrastructure projects are built.
