The Causes and Effects of Deforestation

In “deforestation Rates in Malaysia”(n.d.), it was shown that 63.6% or about 20,890,000 hectares of Malaysia is forested. Among this forested area, 18.3% or roughly 3,820,000 hectares are classified as primary forest. The coverage of the forest in Malaysia is still considering high as compare to other developed countries like Japan and Singapore. However, the rate of deforestation is getting higher and higher for these past few years. If this problem do not control very well, the effects by deforestation will become more significant.



There are many causes and effects of deforestation that everyone needs to know in order to protect the nature efficiently. Firstly, the main cause of deforestation in Malaysia is the increasing population. The Malaysia government’s population policy stated that Malaysia is aimed to achieve total population of 70 million people by year of 2100. This policy encourages more families to have more children. As the result, many forests need to be cleared to build more housing estates to satisfy the need of people. The increase in population also leads to the process of urbanization. More and more lands are cleared for this purpose.

Secondly, the deforestation problem is also caused by the forest conversion for plantation especially palm oil plantation. Ron Mahabir (2007) stated that agriculture is the main contributor to the economies growth of Malaysia in the past few decades.Recently, new invention of palm oil to new fuel source has benefited palm oil industry in Malaysia as this country is one of the main palm oil exported country in the world. As a consequence, the price of the palm oil is getting higher and higher for these past years and it is still strongly believe by everyone that the price will still keep increasing for next few years. More and more plantation companies like Sime Darby are prefer to develop the palm oil plantation rather than others form of plantation. For example, the palm oil plantation in Johor has increased very rapidly and most of the forests along the North-South Highway are cleared to become palm oil estates. There is also high demand of palm oil as cooking oil and ingredient in food. The consumption of palm oil is getting more and more popular because of it’ s low cost of production as compare to other vegetable oils and it’s low cholesterol.

One of the main effects caused by deforestation is soil erosion. When the forests have been cut down, most of the important nutrients are washed out from the land and they are exposed to erosion. The soil will lack of nutrients and the land is not suitable for the plants to survive. Morgen (2006) stated that many trees are cut down for the sake of money which caused Bangladesh suffers from severe floods that sacrifice many lifes every few years. The same case happened in Malaysia. The tragedy of Genting Highland land slide in June 1995 caused 21 deaths and 22 injuries ("East-West Highway," n.d. ). This is all because of the unbalanced development of the area and preserving the nature. Vijayan (2007) stated that a series of floods also hit the southern part of Malaysia like Johor, Pahang, Malacca and Negeri Sembilan in year 2006 and 2007 .This is because of the soil erosion as a result of deforestation. Everyone learns how important to preserve our nature from this tragedy.

In addition, global warming is the most common effect of deforestation. Henson (2006) stated that the canopy of the trees traps moisture so that the air can evaporate slowly and cool down the temperature of the land. Trees are very useful in cooling down the temperature of the Earth. They absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen which is needed by every human beings. If large areas of forest are being burning up, they will release huge amounts of carbon dioxide adding the load to the atmosphere. It might take many years for the nature to balance the content of the gases through the steady growth of secondary forests that pull carbon dioxide out of the air. The unwanted carbon dioxide trapped the hot air and acted as an insulator on the atmosphere, causing the greenhouse effect, global warming and climate change.

In a nutshell, the main causes of the deforestation are increasing of population and forest conversion while the main effects of it are soil erosion and global warming. There are still many existing problems that human society needs to overcome to preserve our mother nature. A long-term plan that involves the whole world should be established to prevent the nature being destroyed again. Solving this problem involves a long process, but it is worth to inculcate the spirit of saving our world! Everyone has the responsible to take care our badly sick Earth!


References:

Deforestation Rates in Malaysia (n.d.). Retrieve March 10,2008,from
http://rainforests.mongabay.com/stats/Malaysia.htm

East-West Highway.(n.d.). Retrieve March 16, 2008,from
http://www.malaysiasite.nl/cameronhighway.html

Henson R. (2006). Climate Change. New York : Rough Guides.

Mahabir R. (2007,August 14). 2006 Malaysia Palm Oil Market Summary. Retrieve March 11,2008 from
http://asiacleantech.wordpress.com/2007/08/14/2006-malaysian-palm-oil-marketsummary/

Morgen B. (2006). Planet Earth : A Journey from Pole to Pole. London : Sandcastle.

Vijayan M. (2007,December 12). Johor's 3rd flood fatality. The Star Online. Retrieved April 7,2008,from
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.aspfile=/2007/12/12/nation/20071212120559&sec=nation

Timed Paragraph Practice

1.Briefly compare and contrast any two waste disposal schemes ( e.g. zero waste and landfilling, landfilling and using incinerators or any other methods you know ) and decide which one might be more suitable for your country.

According to Bath councillor Roger Symmonds, "zero waste is a grassroots movement from local authorities and people". This waste disposal scheme is to increase the percentage of recycling from the waste produced. This process may take a very long time in Malaysia to pratice. It is because of the environmental consciousness of the Malaysian public still very low. The government needs a lot of of time to educate the public about the serious environmental problems we face now. This zero waste scheme is good for the long term as the amount of undisposable waste can be reduced. Reducing the use of paper by using the electronic products such as computer to replace the paper works is advisable. This can minimise the logging problem. Recycling is the most important aspect in zero waste scheme. Recycling can reduce the loss of energy as energy is needed to convert the nature source to a product. However, this scheme needs the coorperation of all people to show the result of zero waste scheme.

For the landfilling scheme, it is very effective in the short term. However, after some time, it will show many negative results. Firstly, the land might be polluted by the chemical waste and this can cause the land to become useless and not suitable for agriculture. Then, the health of the residents around the landfilling area might be affected. The unpleasent smell of the waste will cause many health problems of the residents. Ground water and rivers are also being polluted and there are no clean water sources for the people anymore. Although this scheme has shown negative impact to the people , the Malaysian government is more favoured to use this method than zero waste scheme. It is very hard to expect all Malaysians to recycle the waste. Maybe the government can develop a new policy : charge the waste that are thrown by taking the weight of the waste. Therefore, currently, the landfilling is still more practical for Malaysia to manage the waste. However, the Malaysian government should work harder to promote the zero waste scheme now to ensure the quality of life of all Malaysians in the future.

My opinion...

The article 'Saving Nature,But only for Man' has drawn my attention to the realistic of the world nowadays.The writer,Charles Krauthammer has revealed the negative side of the countries to reserve the nature.The opening of this article very interesting."Environment sensitivity is now as required an attitude in polite society as is,say,belief in democracy or avesion to polyester",the writer use 'polyester' to describe the environment problem and it do attract my attention to start to read the whole passage.

I strongly agree that the environmentalism does it not for nature's sake but for our own.Forests are cleared to satisfy the need of the human.No forest clearing,no development.There are no high coverage of the forest in a developed country although the goverment tried to preserve the area of the forest.For an example,in paragraph 11,"If the cost of preserving the spotted owl is the loss of livelihood for 30000 logging families,I choose family over owl",the writer has emphasised that the priority of human come before the nature.Same case in Malaysia also.It is impossible to preserve the golden triangle of the city of Kuala Lumpur--Bukit Bintang area.It is because of the high value of the area around that region.The developer rather build high class shopping mall than preserve the land as the natural reserve.This is true.

In conclusion,although there are many people have shown their care to preserve the nature,but the priority of the human is the most important aspect.