Why is deforestation a major problem in terms of its effect on global warming?

Answer 1

Well, global warming happens because there is a layer that covers up the the earth and its atmosphere. The whole layer is made up of carbon dioxide. this carbon dioxide layer releases sunlight, but traps more of it in the atmosphere. As we produce more and more carbon dioxide, the layer gets thicker trapping more and more sunlight and letting less go. This is called the greenhouse effect. Getting rid of forests will make the amount of carbon dioxide that is added to the layer even larger since plants as we know it, take in carbon dioxide and release oxygen.

Answer 2

Deforestation contributes to global warming in a couple of ways:

1. Trees convert carbon dioxide into oxygen, thus decreasing the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere (and consequently reducing the absorption of solar energy by the atmosphere a bit). The more trees you remove, the less capacity you have to remove CO2 from the atmosphere.
2. Much of the deforestation occurs during slash-and-burn operations to clear land for short term farming. Burning off all that timber obviously adds heat to the atmosphere, but more importantly, large amounts of carbon in the trees is converted into CO2. In fact, the amount of carbon released back into the atmosphere by deforestation probably exceeds that dumped into the air by all the cars and trucks in the world! (See the link to a related Scientific American article).