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Plants are the most important things in our ecology. It plays an important role in maintenance of balance within the ecosystem. They provide oxygen in the earth’s environment and utilise carbon dioxide from the environment. After the industrial revolution, deforestation can be observed worldwide. All these are impacting the environment negatively resulting in global warming, melting of ice and so on. The best solution to fight with these adverse conditions is afforestation. The term deforestation refers to cutting down of trees for different purposes of human beings whereas afforestation refers to planting of trees to the places which were devoid of plants earlier.
Definition:
Afforestation mainly refers to planting of trees in a particular area where there was no existence of trees previously. Deforestation, on the other hand, refers to the cutting down of trees due to different reasons.
Differentiation between Afforestation and Deforestation:
| Afforestation | Deforestation |
| Afforestation refers to the plating of trees in bare places which were devoid of plants earlier. | Deforestation refers to the destruction of plants and forests for human needs. |
| Afforestation is essential and important for the sustainability of the environment. | Deforestation has a negative impact on the environment. |
| The main reason for afforestation is to control carbon footprint and to ensure the sustainability of the natural environment. | The main causes of deforestation are industrialisation, urbanization and globalization. |
| Afforestation reduces the negative impact of pollution and supports life to sustain in this environment. | Deforestation, on the other hand, results in global warming, melting of ice, rising sea levels and extinction of different valuable plant and animal species. |
Effects of Deforestation:
Climatic Change: Climate change is real in the environment. Due to deforestation, climate change is visible in the environment. Forests and climate have an interpersonal relationship which helps each other. Plants are the lungs of earth which take carbon dioxide and release oxygen for all living species. They also absorb the water vapour from the air and restore the humidity within the tropical forests. Due to the lack of trees on earth, the sun rays fall directly on different parts affecting the soil and changing the atmospheric temperature, drying the climate. All these aspects lead to climate change in the future.
Destruction of flora and fauna: Deforestation means cutting down of trees. A number of species describe their habitat as forests. When a forest gets obsolete, a huge number of plant as well as animal species also get extinct with that. Not only by direct cutting, has loss of flora and fauna also occurred due to sudden change of environment and climate surrounding them. A number of species got extinct during the forest fire of the Amazon.
Global Warming: Global warming refers to the condition when the temperature of the planet rises after a definite interval of time, abnormally due to some issues. Due to deforestation, the amount of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and so on, in the environment increases at a huge rate. This trapped more solar energy. This increases the temperature of the planet slowly at a steady rate. Global warming further leads to melting of ice and increase of sea level.
Soil erosion: Trees play an important role in holding the soil by their roots. They hold the uppermost fertile soil, the humus. Due to deforestation, this holding capacity of soil deteriorates which causes loss of fertile soil very easily during floods or storms. Without forests, the soil gets easily washed out by nearby rivers or streams. Also, due to deforestation the soil gets directly exposed to the harmful sunray which causes destruction of minerals within the soil.
Conclusion
To prevent all these negative impacts on the environment, afforestation is the only remedy. As plants play an important role in restoring the climate and maintenance of balance within the environment, afforestation is the only process that would help to restore all the things destroyed by deforestation. Planting trees , not only will create a better environment but also will provide a sense of mental peace to the individual planting them.
