What will happen to humanity if people cut down all available forest resources? Why are forests disappearing and how does this threaten humanity? What will happen if trees disappear.

Forests play a very important role in the life of our planet. Without them, life would be practically impossible. But what exactly are the functions of green areas? What happens if forests die?

Plot for Hollywood

A happy American family living in a small cozy house with a garden somewhere near the east coast of the United States suddenly discovers that it has become unusually hot during the day and unusually cold at night.

The garden is slowly being invaded by ever-increasing hordes of insects.

Finally, one morning, with clear skies and warm weather, a nearby river suddenly overflows its banks, and soon the entire area is flooded with water.

Fortunately, we are not threatened with a complete sudden disappearance of forests, but extremely unfavorable events, even catastrophic ones, will occur even if a small part of them dies. And the process has already started. To understand what is happening, we need to remember what the role of forests is in the Earth’s ecosystem.

Hungry years

Deforestation occurs both due to natural causes and as a result of human activities. For Russia, this problem is not yet very relevant - our forests have a greater restoration potential than, say, tropical ones, therefore, in place of the cleared tracts, if the bare areas are not built up and plowed up, new ones most often grow.

The plowing and development of forests in Russia is now also not the most widespread phenomenon, although the threat of clearing a significant amount of natural plantings for development purposes has become more noticeable in recent years “thanks to” new forest legislation.

What happened before? Historians are well aware of the fact that in 1891 an unprecedented famine broke out in Russia, literally shaking the empire. The reason was crop failure caused by severe drought, which primarily affected forest-steppe and steppe areas. And throughout the 19th century there were many such hungry years in our country. Nevertheless, it was the famine of 1891 that served as the impetus for events in a wide variety of spheres of public life.

The disaster of 1891 confronted the Russian government with the need to find out what the causes of these phenomena were. The answer given by the young talented geologist V.V. Dokuchaev, was revolutionary for those times: disastrous droughts occur as a result of environmental degradation of territories caused by deforestation and environmentally hazardous agricultural practices. The largest climatologist of that time, A.I., shared the same opinion. Voeikov.

As a result, a familiar to almost everyone appeared forest belt system in sparsely forested regions of Russia. Unfortunately, in some regions there are still not enough of them, and in the forest zone there are many open unused places where forests once grew. They would be worth replanting.

Regulation of temperature and hydrological conditions

Back in the 20s of the last century, L.S. Berg noted:

“A lot has been written on the issue of the influence of forests on climate... Undoubtedly, extensive forests should have a certain effect on the temperature of the surrounding areas... how the forest affects the precipitation that has already fallen. Inside the forest itself, the amount of rain reaching the soil is less than in the field, because a significant part of the precipitation remains on the leaves, branches and trunks, and also evaporates. According to observations in Austria, in a dense spruce forest only 61% of precipitation reaches the soil, in a beech forest 65%. Observations in the Buzuluksky pine forest of the Samara province showed that 77% of all precipitation reaches the soil... The importance of forests for the process of snow melting is enormous. Its effect is threefold: firstly, the forest prevents the blowing of snow and thus acts as a keeper of its reserves; then, by shading the soil, the trees prevent the snow from melting quickly. Secondly, by delaying air movement, the forest slows down the exchange of air above the snow. And the latest observations show that snow melts not so much due to the absorption of radiant energy from the sun, but due to contact with significant masses of warm air rushing over the snow. By maintaining snow cover for a long time, the forest regulates water flow in rivers in spring and early summer. Forests are of particular importance in countries with long and snowy winters, for example in Russia.”

Thus, already at the beginning of the twentieth century, the most important role of green space as a regulator of temperature and hydrological regimes was well known.

The forest significantly influences the distribution and accumulation of summer and especially winter precipitation. On the one hand, it maintains the groundwater level, reduces surface water runoff, on the other hand, it enhances the processes of plant transpiration, condenses more water vapor, which increases the frequency of summer precipitation.

That is, the role of forests in the water and soil regime of an area is diverse and depends on the species composition of woody plants, their biological characteristics, and geographic distribution.

Dust storms

The death of forests can cause severe erosion processes, which have also been known for a long time and can be talked about for quite a long time. The same Dokuchaev considered deforestation one of the reasons for the occurrence of dust storms. And this is how he described one of the cases of a dust storm in Ukraine in 1892:

“Not only was the thin snow cover completely torn off and carried away from the fields, but also the loose soil, bare of snow and dry as ash, was thrown up by whirlwinds at 18 degrees below zero. Clouds of dark earthen dust filled the frosty air, covering the roads, sweeping over gardens - in some places trees were carried to a height of 1.5 meters - lay in mounds and mounds on the streets of villages and greatly hampered movement on the railways: it was even necessary to tear railway stops away from the snowdrifts of black dust , mixed with snow."

During a dust storm in 1928 in the steppe and forest-steppe regions of Ukraine (where, by that time, a significant part of the forests had already been destroyed and the steppes were plowed), the wind lifted more than 15 million tons of black soil into the air. Black earth dust was carried by the wind to the west and settled over an area of ​​6 million km2 in the Carpathian region, Romania and Poland. The thickness of the chernozem layer in the steppe regions of Ukraine after this storm decreased by 10–15 cm.

Dust storm in southern Australia

History knows many such examples, and they occur in a variety of regions - in the USA, North Africa (where, as some believe, forests once grew in place of the Sahara), on the Arabian Peninsula, in Central Asia, etc.

Biodiversity

By the beginning of this century, the wording in describing the global importance of forests had changed slightly, although the essence remained the same, and new points were added. For example, the concept of “biodiversity” arose. “Biological diversity,” according to the international convention, “means the variability of living organisms from all sources, including, but not limited to, terrestrial, marine and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part; this concept includes diversity within species, between species, and ecosystem diversity.”

This convention was adopted by the international community in 1992 as a response to the catastrophic decline in biodiversity on the planet, and above all in tropical forests.

About 70% of all species of living organisms live in forests. Other estimates range from 50 to 90% in tropical rainforests, including 90% of the species of our closest primate relatives. 50 million species of living beings have no other place to live than the rainforest.

Why do we need to preserve biodiversity? There is a purely pragmatic answer to this question. A huge mass of biological species, including small ones (insects, mosses, worms) and especially in tropical forests, have been studied very little or have not yet been described at all by scientists. Genetically, each species is unique, and each species may be the carrier of some yet undiscovered beneficial properties for humanity, for example, food or medicinal properties. Thus, more than 25% of all currently known medicinal products were obtained from tropical plants, for example, a substance such as taxol. How many of them are not yet known to science and how many could be lost forever along with the species that carry them?

Thus, the extinction of any species could result in the irreplaceable loss of an important resource. In addition, each species is of interest to science - it may turn out to be an important link in the evolutionary chain, and its loss will complicate the understanding of evolutionary patterns. That is, any type of living organism is an information resource, perhaps not yet used.

Greenhouse effect

The Earth's forest cover is its main productive force, the energy base of the biosphere, the connecting link of all its components and the most important factor in its sustainability.

It is important to know

Forest is one of the planetary accumulators of living matter, retaining a number of chemical elements and water in the biosphere, actively interacting with the troposphere and determining the level of oxygen and carbon balance. About 90% of the total phytomass of land is concentrated in forests and only 10% in other ecosystems, mosses, grasses, and shrubs. The total leaf surface of the world's forests is almost 4 times greater than the surface of our entire planet.

Hence the high rates of absorption of solar radiation and carbon dioxide, oxygen release, transpiration, and other processes that influence the formation of the natural environment. When green areas are destroyed over a large area, the biological cycle of a number of chemical elements accelerates, including carbon, which passes into the atmosphere in the form of carbon dioxide. A greenhouse effect occurs.

Live filter

Forests are capable of actively transforming chemical and atmospheric pollution, especially gaseous ones, Moreover, coniferous plantations, as well as some types of deciduous trees (linden, willow, birch) have the greatest oxidizing ability. In addition, the forest has the ability to absorb individual components of industrial pollution.

The quality of drinking water stored in reservoirs largely depends on the forest cover and the condition of plantings in the catchment area. This is especially important if pesticides and fertilizers are used in large quantities on agricultural lands located near water supplies. Pollutants dissolved in water may be partially retained by forest soils.

There is a well-known example of the city of New York, in the vicinity of which in the mid-1990s, deforestation, development, intensification of agriculture and the development of the road network led to a sharp decline in the quality of drinking water. The city authorities were faced with a choice: build new wastewater treatment plants worth $2–6 billion and spend up to $300 million annually on their maintenance, or invest in improving the protective functions of forests and other ecosystems of water protection zones. The choice was made in favor of the second option, including for economic reasons. Significant funds were used to purchase land along rivers and streams to prevent further development, as well as to pay farmers and forest owners for their use of environmentally responsible management practices in water protection zones. This example demonstrates that proper management of forest ecosystems can be significantly more cost-effective than purely technical solutions.

Forests are dying

It would seem that we have more than enough reasons for the “whole world” to defend every piece of the forest. But the lessons of past centuries and this century have not yet been learned.

Every year the area of ​​green areas decreases by approximately 13 million hectares. Now natural plantings occupy only about 30% of the land area, despite the fact that in the past they were distributed over a much larger area. Before the advent of agriculture and industrial production, the forest area was more than 6 billion hectares. Since prehistoric times, the area under forests has been reduced by about half on average across all continents.

Most of the tracts were cut down to create agricultural land, while another smaller part was occupied by rapidly growing settlements, industrial complexes, roads and other infrastructure. Over the past 40 years, forest area per capita has decreased by more than 50%, from 1.2 hectares to 0.6 hectares per person. Currently, according to FAO (Food and Agronomy Organization of the United Nations), about 3.7 billion hectares are covered by forest.

European forests have suffered the most from intense human activity. In Europe, there are currently virtually no primary (primary) forests left. They have been replaced by fields, gardens and artificial forests.

In China, 3/4 of all arrays were destroyed.

The US has lost 1/3 of all its forests and 85% of its primary forest stands. In particular, in the eastern United States, only a tenth of the plantings that existed there in the 16th–17th centuries have survived.

Only in some places (Siberia, Canada) forests still predominate over treeless areas, and only here there are still large tracts of relatively untouched northern forests.

What to do?

We have already passed half the way to the complete destruction of forests. Will we turn it around? What to do? The most common answer is to plant forests. Many people have heard about the principle “as much as you cut down, plant as much.” This is not entirely true.

• It is necessary to plant forests primarily in those regions where deforestation processes are intense, and in those places where the forest can grow, but for some reason has disappeared and will not recover on its own in the foreseeable future.
• It is necessary not only to plant trees to replace those cut down, but also to cut them down so that the natural potential for forest restoration is preserved. Simply put, in almost every forest that is subject to industrial logging, there is quite viable undergrowth - young trees of the same species that make up the forest canopy. And it is necessary to cut in such a way as not to destroy them and preserve the conditions for their life. This is quite possible with modern technology. The best way to cut is to preserve the natural dynamics of the forest. In this case, the forest almost does not “notice” that it is being cut down, and a minimum of measures and costs for reforestation are required. Unfortunately, the experience of such logging both in Russia and in the world is small.

The answer to many questions is sustainable forest management, without crises, disasters and other shocks.

Sustainable development (as well as sustainable forest management) is development that achieves the satisfaction of the vital needs of the current generation of people without depriving future generations of this opportunity.

In its work, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) pays a lot of attention to the implementation of sustainable forest management both in Russia and in the world.

But this is a topic for a separate article. Let us only note that at present, sustainable forest management is best met by international systems of voluntary forest certification, which are already quite widespread in Russia.

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In conclusion, let’s try to answer the question: what can I personally do to prevent forests from disappearing? Here's what:

1. Save paper.

2. Under no circumstances allow arson in the forest: first of all, do not set fire to dry grass and do not allow others to do this; If you find grass burning, either try to eliminate it yourself, or, if this is not possible, call the fire department.

3. Buy products from responsibly managed forests. In Russia, these are, first of all, certified products.

4. And finally, just go to the forest more often to learn to understand and love it more.

It's better that we never know what will happen if the forests disappear!

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For reference:

Taxol – antitumor drug; previously it was obtained only from the bark of the Pacific yew tree, but now they have learned how to obtain it synthetically; in addition, it can be obtained by biotechnological methods.

Phytomass – the total mass of living matter of all plants.

See: Ponomarenko S.V., Ponomarenko E.V. How can we stop the environmental degradation of Russian landscapes? M.: SoES, 1994. 24 p.

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Tree names often have very interesting origin stories. They are often formed from the surname or first name of a famous person.

Not only the tree itself is symbolic, but also its parts - branches, trunk, roots, shoots. We invite you on a fascinating journey into the mythological past of the tree.

It will kill itself - the answer lies in the wording of your question. In general, humanity today is not so stupid as to cut down all the forests. But let's reason.

Firstly, you need to understand that any deforestation leads to the replacement of one natural community by another. Previously, there was a forest in a certain area, certain organisms lived in the forest: various groups of plants that were “suited” to the forest’s lighting, humidity and other factors, animals that could also exist in these environmental factors and which had something to eat here, as well as mushrooms and bacteria, and probably other groups of organisms. All these organisms in a given territory existed in interconnection with each other: they form food chains, networks, the vital activity of animals depends on the production of plants, etc. Now the forest has been cut down: herbaceous plants can no longer exist in such light, herbivores have nothing to eat, because the plants that served them as food have died out. Detritivores (animals and protozoans that eat litter) will decompose the remains of organisms, producing minerals in enormous quantities. The equilibrium in the community has been shifted, but no, it will not die, it will begin to CHANGE - in scientific terms, succession will occur, i.e. replacement of one community by another. Now other species will develop here, for which the resulting conditions are more suitable, the top layer of soil will change, processes will change, but the community will exist and develop further. If all the forests on Earth are cut down, then other natural communities will form in their place.

Secondly, forests produce huge amounts of oxygen and organic matter through the process of photosynthesis. Especially if we talk about tropical forests - these are the most productive terrestrial ecosystems, i.e. they form the largest amount of primary products necessary for the life of other organisms, in the process of photosynthesis. If you cut down all the forests, the amount of oxygen and organic matter produced will decrease significantly. But, on the other hand, the cost of breathing will decrease: do not forget that plants also breathe, inhaling oxygen and exhaling carbon dioxide, i.e. the amount of oxygen on Earth will drop greatly, but the need for it will drop accordingly. True, I think that due to industrial activity, our demands for oxygen as one of the components of inhaled air are still higher than what other forms of plants can give us.

Man, by his very nature, interferes too much in the affairs of nature - but we consider ourselves superior to everyone, forgetting who we really are. But nature is not as stupid as we think - even if all of humanity dies out, destroying forests or depleting fresh water supplies, it can still find a way to break out of chaos and establish balance within itself.

Well, returning to the question: humanity will be left without the opportunity to pick mushrooms, enjoy the beauty of nature, and will suffer due to the low percentage of oxygen and the fact that it cannot even get out to the dacha and go to the forest. All natural communities of the Earth will be changed and, probably, in order to restore them, worldwide succession will begin. It is difficult to predict how this will happen, but global deforestation is clearly not going to end well, and anyway, why do we need it?

Version for those who are too lazy to watch the video:

Recently, scientists from Yale University created a detailed map of the density of forests on Earth and calculated that there are about three trillion trees growing on our planet. They provide us with oxygen, moderate the climate and make the Earth a beautiful place to live.

Before the development of human civilization, there were about six trillion trees. People have already cut down half of the trees during their existence. About 10 billion more are cut down every year. At this rate, in 300 years we will have no forests left at all.

But what if you don’t wait and imagine that all the trees will disappear right now?

In the first seconds, you may not notice anything. But in a big city it will suddenly become louder. Because trees perfectly absorb noise , being acoustic filters. Sounds are well reflected from the hard surfaces of walls and roads, but porous soft leaves absorb them. A strip of trees 30 meters wide can reduce road noise by 5-10 decibels, that is, almost 10 times.

We won't suffocate right away. Firstly, trees produce only 30% of all oxygen. Most of it comes from marine organisms, algae and phytoplankton. Secondly, there is now about 21% oxygen in the Earth’s atmosphere, and a person needs at least 17% to breathe. It will take at least 200 years before we “exhale” the entire supply of oxygen.

As the trees disappear, we will begin to see more frequent flooding. Trees absorb huge amounts of moisture during heavy rains . Following this, rapid soil erosion will begin. The rapid entry of large amounts of earth into rivers and lakes will lead to algal blooms and the death of many aquatic animals and plants.

Find out more about this amazing tree. It grows 40 types of fruits and nuts!

Sources of clean water will become increasingly scarce. And, oddly enough, droughts will follow the floods. After all, the moisture that trees absorb during rains is given back in the form of evaporation from the surfaces of the leaves. There will be periods of floods and periods of drought.

And now we come to a harsh climate, a shortage of drinking water and a decrease in the planet’s biodiversity.

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We wake up one morning, go out into the street and see... In the city, it’s unlikely that anything will catch our eye the first time, but outside of it we’ll immediately notice - there are houses around, pillars, a road, and besides them, there’s not much to see what to catch. There are no trees or grass. Just bare earth and asphalt everywhere, animals roaming in search of food and birds darting across the sky...

And all this because all the plants have disappeared. That's it - since they are not found anywhere else on Earth. And what awaits us in the future? It would seem - well, no, and okay, we’ll get used to it and continue to live. But in reality, everything is not so simple.

Of course, vegetarians will be the first to experience the shock - plant foods will first jump in price and cost much more than gold. Very quickly she will be gone. We will have to switch to animal and synthetic food, but there simply won’t be enough industrial capacity to cover demand. Hunger is what awaits humanity in the first few days. A half-starved existence on animal and artificial food will not last long.

Plants are the most important link in the food chain. All forms of life on Earth depend on plants in one way or another. Herbivores eat only plants. A huge mass of the population of rivers, lakes and oceans eat various algae. It would seem - so what, there will be no cows - they will learn how to make artificial milk. Is it a big problem? Yes, it's great!

All species of animals that feed exclusively on plant foods will become extinct very quickly. Only the predators will remain. For some time they will have food - those same half-living herbivores, and then they will simply begin to destroy each other. As they say, hunger is not a problem. Moreover, starving humanity will begin to intensively exterminate first domestic animals, and then everyone in a row, and they are more dangerous than all predators combined. When they end, what awaits us? Maybe cannibalism?

The day will come when there will be not a single animal and not a single person left on Earth, except perhaps flies and some other insects, for which there will still be food left in the form of the corpses of the last dead. What will remain are bacteria and protozoa that feed on inorganic food. Perhaps, in millions of years, new forms of animal and plant life will emerge from them. Or maybe they will be something in between, taking into account this zigzag of evolution...

In light of total extinction from starvation, is it worth mentioning such an important role of plants as oxygen production? Hardly. Hunger will overtake us faster than the oxygen will run out, especially considering the rapidly decreasing number of living people. People will have much more serious concerns to go to work under the threat of complete extinction. It is unlikely that factories will continue to smoke the sky - soon there will simply be no one to work for them. Accordingly, all environmentally harmful transport will also stop.

But billions of dead animals and people dying on the streets will create another problem - the threat of global epidemics. They will greatly accelerate the process of destruction of the world as we know it. So you shouldn’t be so careless with “non-living” bushes and herbs. Without them we are nothing.