Deforestation - A serious matter happening is the deforestation in the Amazon. A new study from the University of Virginia and published in the journal Nature Climate Change revealed shocking facts to take place in the future.
The biggest effect that deforestation in the Amazon would have is a drop in rainfall in different areas of the world. This is due to the fact that deforestation accelerates global warming, Reuters noted.
"When you deforest the tropics, those regions will experience significant warming and the biggest drying," said Deborah Lawrence, the study's lead author and a professor at the University of Virginia.
The particular tropical regions to which Lawrence is referring to are: South American Amazon, Southeast Asia and Central Africa.
IB Times compared the effects of deforestation to the "butterfly effect" in the chaos theory. Basically, the fluttering of the wings of a butterfly in Brazil could set off a storm in Texas.
The similarity that deforestation has is the fact that by reducing the forests in the tropical areas would have effects in every sense: drop in rainfall and less production of food as well.
Without rain the crop doesn't grow. Without crop, a lot of production is lost. And this would not only happen with crop, but with essentially everything that is planted and grown.
"Tropical forests are often talked about as the 'lungs of the earth,' but they're more like the sweat glands. They give off a lot of moisture, which helps keep the planet cool. That crucial function is lost - and even reversed - when forests are destroyed," Lawrence further commented.
She also specified that the impacts go beyond the tropics. While regions like US Midwest and Southern France would see a decline in rainfall, Hawaii and the United Kingdom would face an increase, The Independent reported.
In essence, by 2050, there would be a drop in rainfall of 15 percent in the tropical areas and that would progressively affect all the others in various ways.
