Overuse of resources is one of the most noticeable effects of deforestation. Somewhere around 15 billion trees are cut down each year, so hypothetically speaking, it would only take around 200 years for all of the forests on Earth to disappear completely. In order to survive, the human population needs to keep Earth’s resources at a sustainable level. But recently, it seems like humanity hasn’t been doing a great job with that issue. We have been using up many resources faster than we can replenish them, some can’t even be replenished at all, and soon the Earth’s forests may be among those resources we are running out of.
Overuse of resources will affect everything on the planet. Not only will it affect humans, because we will no longer have enough resources to survive, but it will also affect the organisms that once lived in the forests who have lost all of their resources as well. The forest is one of the most important resources on the Earth―there’s a reason people often use the figurative phrase “the tree of life”―and if we lost it, it would be detrimental to the health of the Earth. Because of deforestation, less than one-third of the land surface on Earth is now covered by forests and wooded areas, as opposed to the fifty percent of land covered eight thousand years ago. This affects not only animals and other organisms that live in the forest, but humans, too. Nearly 1.6 billion people on Earth depend on forests, especially tropical forests, to some extent for their lives. Even the general public depends on the forest without knowing it. For example, forests are home to almost 80% of the Earth’s land-based biodiversity, and billions of dollars worth of medicinal plants. Not to mention the fact that we would no longer be able to use wood from the trees as a valuable resource. We would have to wait years and years for any trees at all to grow back, and then they would just be cut down once more.
If deforestation continues at this rate, this problem will become severe. Trees help cut down pollution levels by acting like giant filters. If we overuse trees, then a suffocating smog could cover our Earth not long after all the trees have been destroyed. In 2012 alone, outdoor air pollution was estimated to have caused around 3.7 million premature deaths worldwide. Imagine what that number would be if we didn’t have our forests to act as purifier.
Luckily for everyone on the planet, the skeptics who say that this scenario would most likely not happen seem to be correct. This exact scenario that I have described is likely not to happen, although it certainly is still possible. Although, that does not change the fact of how intimidating this knowledge may be to some, and it does not mean that this problem isn’t serious. Even though every single tree on Earth most likely will not be suddenly destroyed, and people most likely will not be breathing clean air from a bottle The Lorax style, evidence is already showing that overuse of our forest could be a grave problem in the future. If we continue to use the world’s trees at the same pace as we are now, people may experience some threatening new consequences. Some examples are a lack of oxygen, choking blankets of smog, climate change, a decrease in rainfall, and substandard soil. But if deforestation continues like it is now, according to the data, these will not be the only consequences of deforestation and overuse of resources that people will face.
