Catastrophic global effects of deforestation

Ecological Consequences of Deforestation The primary ecological consequences of deforestation are decline in biodiversity, invasion of exotic species, destruction of hydrological cycle, increase in water runoff and decrease in water quality, and acceleration of soil erosion. Tropical forests contain between 70% and 90% of all world species and because of deforestation the planet loses between 50 and 130 animal and plant species each day!

10% Of World's Wilderness Has Been Lost In Past 25 Years, Study Finds

The ecological consequences are critical   

“If this rate continues, we will have lost all wilderness within the next 50 years.” – James Watson

Dec. 21.– The world’s last great wildernesses are shrinking at an alarming rateThe Guardian reports.

In the past two decades, 10 percent of the earth’s wilderness has been lost due to human pressure, a mapping study by Australia’s University of Queensland (UQ) has found.

Over the course of human history, there has been a major degradation of 52 percent of the earth’s ecosystems, while the remaining 48 percent is being increasingly eroded. Since 1992, when the United Nations signed up to the Rio convention on biological diversity, 3 million square kilometers (1,158,000 square miles) of wilderness have been lost.

UQ professor and conservationist James Watson was the senior author on the study.

This wilderness degradation is endangering biodiversity, as well as the water cycle, the nitrogen cycle and pollination ...

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