Deforestation independently causes extinction through exposure to new diseases and destroying natural carbon absorption systems.
Julian Cribb 23, Fellow of the UK Royal Society for the Arts, the Australian Academy of Technological Science and Engineering and the Australian National University Emeritus Faculty, scientific editor for The Australian newspaper, director of national awareness for CSIRO, member of numerous scientific boards and advisory panels, and president of national professional bodies for agricultural journalism and science communication, Co-founder at Council for the Human Future, How to Fix a Broken Planet: Advice for Surviving the 21st Century, “Resources for Living”, Cambridge University Press, 1/15/23, pg. 28-43
The world’s forests are dwindling at a rate of 6.6 million hectares a year, and deserts are spreading across 12 million hectares of fertile farmland, every year. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization says:
Deforestation and forest degradation continue to take place at alarming rates, which contributes significantly to the ongoing loss of biodiversity. Since 1990, it is estimated that 420 million hectares of forest have been lost through conversion to other land uses, although the rate of deforestation has decreased over the past three decades. Between 2015 and 2020, the rate of deforestation was estimated at 10 million hectares per year, down from 16 million hectares per year in the 1990s. The area of primary forest worldwide has decreased by over 80 million hectares since 1990.6
Forest loss is far more serious for humans that the mere absence of trees. The clearing and thinning of forests for wood and paper production is making global heating worse, as depleted forests change from being carbon absorbers to carbon emitters. It is exacerbating the loss of wild animals, the extinction of many species, and the collapse of the very ecosystems that support humanity. It is destroying rivers, lakes, and wetlands through soil erosion and turbid drinking water supplies. The clearance of large areas of tropical rainforest in the Amazon and Congo basins and south-east Asia is expected to cause significant local and global climatic disruption, including the spread of deserts (see Chapter 5). The drying of cleared landscapes can shatter local farming and food production. As forests dwindle, they also release new diseases into the human population, some of which become pandemic (see Chapter 7).