Historical continued...Forests have existed for about 450 million years. That being said, deforestation isn’t recent, unlike many people believe. Deforestation can be traced back to when men first began inhabiting this earth and began to use fire consciously, around half-a-million years ago. Since then, trees were used for shelter, food and fire.
Industry started to expand in 1700s Britain. Deforestation then extended to the rest of the world during this period of industrial growth and transitioned with new manufacturing processes. In order to make room for industrial companies, the rainforests had to be turned into factories. The machinery and factories made for more production that led to many environmental hazards, depletion of natural resources, and the permanent damage of the environment. However, deforestation didn’t gain momentum until the 1950’s, when it was particularly severe in tropical regions for decades to extract lumber and fuelwood and agriculture. Tropical deforestation was responsible for 30% of anthropogenic (human-caused) greenhouse-gas emissions, throughout the 1990’s.
In the early 2000’s, deforestation did decrease slightly. In 2010, Greenpeace, an organization that focuses on helping the environment and stopping its destruction, focused on the destruction of Indonesian forests. Indonesia is now the third largest carbon emitter in the world. If deforestation emissions were included, which is rare, since these emissions are almost never included when calculating carbon emissions. When carbon emissions are calculated, deforestation emissions are almost never included in these calculations.
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